We wonder if any champagne corks were popped?

A dedicated group of opponents in Old Lyme has obtained the surrender of developers who sought to give middle-class workers a place to live in town — people like teachers, police officers, health care workers, lower-level managers.

The HOPE Partnership and the Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development, which had put together the financing for the 37-unit housing development on Neck Road, realized that they confronted a long legal fight that would have drained resources and undermined the intent to make the housing affordable.

“It has become increasingly apparent a very vocal fraction of Old Lyme residents are not in support and will take whatever measures necessary to stop the project,” said HOPE Board President Tony Lyons in a prepared statement explaining the decision to withdraw the application this week.

To have been called River Oak Commons, the project would have priced 29 of the 37 units as affordable, built on a 6.6-acre tract just south of Interstate 95, off Exit 70 on Route 156. Planned were traditional New England-styled townhouses, designed to blend in with local architecture. Oh, the horror!

Implementing a well-worn chapter from the NIMBY playbook, the legal team hired by project opponents tossed every conceivable legal barrier that they could come up with to try to stop the housing project, which they have accomplished.

Providing the greatest potential to drag matters through the courts for a long time was the development’s location near a small shopping center. Opponents argued that would have presented a safety issue if residents ventured out and crossed a road not designed with pedestrian traffic in mind.

But keep in mind the developers had taken all reasonable steps to design a safe pedestrian setting on their property, which is where their legal obligation should end. And they were ready to cooperate with the state and the town to make the area more safely walkable.

Yet a legal foothold had been established and could have been exploited to prolong the fight.

Because Old Lyme has less than 10% of its housing stock dedicated as affordable — about 1.6% — it is subject to a state law that requires it to allow construction of affordable housing projects, regardless of local zoning. Only proof of an adverse impact on health and safety can trump the provision intended to encourage working-class housing development. So safety is what the opponents went after.

It’s possible that those against the development were genuinely concerned not with the project but only about the welfare of those who would have lived there. Anything’s possible, we suppose.

In that regard, the nonprofit groups behind the project issued an interesting challenge.

“We are appealing to town leaders and residents to follow through on the assertion we have heard over and over; ‘Old Lyme supports affordable housing, just not in that location ...’” Lyons wrote. “We ask the Zoning Commission, Board of Selectmen, and other town leaders to proactively identify site(s) that would be more acceptable for family housing. ... We would like to believe the support for the ‘idea’ of affordable housing in Old Lyme was sincere. We are now asking those who expressed that sentiment to join us and be part of the solution.”

It should be interesting if there are any takers.

First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder, who sits on the HOPE Partnership’s Advisory Council, deserves credit for her involvement in the affordable housing effort. The safer political play in town would have been to steer clear.

In the meantime, the Board of Selectmen should move forward with creation of an Affordable Housing Exploratory Committee, under discussion for nine months. The need for some reasonably priced housing is inarguable.

The Day editorial board meets with political, business and community leaders to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larraneta, Owen Poole, copy editor, and Lisa McGinley, retired deputy managing editor. The board operates independently from The Day newsroom.