The residents of the Starlight Motel will be allowed to stay put through the winter, announced Town Counsel Richard Bowen at the Tuesday night Board of Selectmen’s meeting.

On Nov. 24, Selectman Patrick Tropeano reported that Dakota Partners, the developers planning a 150-unit apartment complex on Cranberry Highway near the intersection with Red Brook Road, failed to follow through on a commitment they made to offer permanent housing to residents of a small nearby motel.

Tropeano said the developers planning the complex had agreed to provide the residents of Starlight Motel — which sits on the property Dakota Partners plan to develop — permanent housing within their new complex before they tore down the motel.

“Well the Dakota Partners apparently decided they didn’t like the deal, and they sent (motel residents) eviction notices,” Tropeano said at the meeting. “They all have to be out by December 1, if you can imagine that. In the middle of the freaking winter.”

On Dec. 8, Bowen said that the Dakota Partners did not yet have ownership of the motel, and that the prior owner had “jumped the gun.”

The Dakota Partners contacted the owner to make sure tenants would be well cared for, and were going to seek a modification of the timing to delay the demolition of the Starlight Motel which would help with any “seasonal difficulties,” Bowen said.

The developers also filed an application to restructure the timing of the project to put off the motel’s demolition for some time.