Repam: Members of Waterbury’s growing Orthodox Jewish enclave hope to turn a little gray ranch-style home at the end of Roseland Avenue into a place of ritual purification, further cementing their community’s future in the city.First, they need permission of the Zoning Board of Appeals.The house lies in a Residential Low Density zoning district, where only single- and two-family homes would be allowed under city building rules. The group that bought the house hopes to use an exemption that allows houses of worship to establish virtually anywhere.

The house is slated to become a Mikvah, essentially a place of ritual purification that contains a pool in which visitors dip themselves. Orthodox Jewish women are required to visit a week after their menstrual cycles. Men often visit before important holy days.

Shalom Siegfried, vice president of the Orthodox Jewish school known as Yeshiva Gedolah, said the Mikvah is necessary for the relatively new Orthodox community.

“The community had one at B’nai Shalom (Synagogue), but with the growth of the community, it’s just inadequate to service the community,” Siegfried said. “Especially because the community expects to grow.”

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In 2001, a small Orthodox community was invited to lease the former University of Connecticut campus on Hillside Avenue to establish its religious school, Yeshiva Gedolah. The agreement between the Yeshiva and the city came with conditions, including that the Orthodox community bring in 100 families within seven years. Less than six years later, that goal has been exceeded.

Erica Lesser, a 24-year-old transplant from New Jersey, bought the little gray ranch for $143,900 in April. Six days later, it was transferred without payment to a limited liability corporation known as the Waterbury Community Mikvah LLC. Lesser said she isn’t supposed to talk about the property transfer, though she reiterated the need for a new Mikvah.

The current one, inside the synagogue, only has one room in which women can bathe, dress, pray and prepare for their immersion, Lesser said. Organizers plan to have five times as many in the new facility.

“There are a lot of women who have to go some times on the same night, and in the summer you can’t start sometimes until 8:30 or 9 (p.m.), and it takes an hour, so it can go very late,” Lesser said.

Even though the Mikvah is a religious use, it still is subject to certain building codes and on July 19, representatives for the Waterbury Community Mikvah LLC will ask the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals for a few waivers.

The 8,945-square-foot lot is only about one-fourth the size normally required for a property hosting a religious structure, and the house doesn’t meet setback requirements from the street or its neighbors.

These restrictions were put in place to mitigate noise issues associated with churches and other houses of worship that would host large crowds in short periods, City Planner James Sequin said. Here, the planned use would have far less impact on neighbors than was anticipated under zoning rules, he said.

“This is not going to be a synagogue with congregations of people coming,” Sequin said. “It’s not like a bathhouse. It’s not like a health spa. It’s like a purification ceremony done by appointment.”

The little gray ranch at 186 Roseland Ave. sits just behind a 7-Eleven convenience store, separated by high bushes. There is a doctor’s office and hair salon in a one-story brick building across the street. The B’nai Shalom Synagogue sits next to this small commercial strip.

Nearby residents give the proposal a mixed review. Two neighbors said they were worried it will increase competition for on-street parking. Several others, however, said the Orthodox families that have moved into the neighborhood in recent years have proven good property owners and neighbors.

“They have been very nice calling me and telling me what they are going to do,” said 80-year-old Allyne Kadish, who has lived next to the proposed Mikvah for 50 years. “I just got off the phone with them asking what I could do to help (at the ZBA hearing.)”

Kadish said she has noticed many of the large old homes in the neighborhood blossoming under the care of newly arrived Orthodox families.

“The neighborhood is full of them,” said Jose Figueroa, who bought a nearby house on Lexington Street last year. “I have no problem with them. They keep their houses nice. They keep to themselves. They’re great.”