Court documents show that Roan Development Ventures has withdrawn its lawsuit to overturn a decision from Westport's Planning and Zoning Commission rejecting plans for The Hamlet at Saugatuck.

The five-acre project would have brought apartments, shops, hotels and restaurants to the waterfront area near the train station. It was originally rejected over the summer.

This withdrawal means that the project has been scrapped.

"Putting that many businesses and apartments and a hotel would have been too much for the area," said Westport resident Dina Carlson.

"All of us were pretty excited about it," agreed Dara Lamb, one of the founders of the Westport Alliance for Saugatuck. "It was a long slog, there were many turns, many twists and turns."

The question now becomes what will happen instead to the area,

Lamba says people have been trying to build something in Saugatuck "for decades," but so far, nothing has gotten the green light.

"I do think it needs something," said Carlson. "What that's going to be is going to be a difficult thing."

Following the rejection of the original plans in August, Roan had told News 12 it would instead try to build affordable housing on the site.

However, they have not responded to any calls or e-mails from News 12 about it since.

"We've got some incredibly smart people. They looked at this and did not understand how an 8-30g (affordable housing development) was going to be feasible," said Lamb, mainly citing a lack of financial upside.

"I think it was more of a threat than anything," said Sue Lieberman, who works in Saugatuck.

The rumor now, according to multiple sources, is that another developer is buying at least some of the property and will be coming in with its own plans.

"We are in favor of development to a certain degree down here," said Lieberman. "There are a lot of buildings that are in very poor condition."

Carlson agreed with that idea, but said whatever comes in needs to be "not just more apartments and hotels and people living here, because we already feel there's so much traffic."

Westport First Selectman Kevin Chistie also said in a statement, "Any development there must be thoughtfully planned, appropriately scaled, and aligned with our infrastructure capacity, traffic realities, waterfront sensitivity, and long-term vision for the area."

Lamb says whatever comes next, the same people who fought against The Hamlet will be watching.

"We're certainly going to stay vigilant to make sure that whatever transpires is good for the community," she said. "If a community is behind a development, that development has a far greater chance of success."