Norwich — After 4½ hours of detailed technical testimony on a controversial 185-unit active-adult community condominium project on Scotland, Hansen and White Plains roads, the Inland Wetlands, Watercourses and Conservation Commission closed a public hearing on the project late Thursday.

The commission tabled a vote on the application after closing the hearing at 11:30 p.m. Thursday. The commission has 65 days to make a decision on the application.

At the end of the long hearing, attorney David Sherwood of Norwichtown Development LLC, which proposed the project on the 60-acre former Wilcox farm and sawmill, said the developer could not allow the commission an extension of time to review the project.

He said the developers were trying to get the application processed before city officials are successful in their attempts to derail the project at the state level.

Norwichtown Development received approval from a state legislative committee in July to change the state designation of the property from rural to neighborhood conservation. The change would allow sewers to be extended to the property. But in light of stiff opposition by neighbors surrounding the sawmill, the City Council voted Oct. 6 to ask the state to reverse that decision.

City officials today will ask state officials to schedule a public hearing on its application to designate the land as rural again.