P&Z Considers Allowing Auto Repair Garages In Industrial Zone

By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) is considering broadening its zoning regulations on where automobile repair garages may be located to allow such facilities in a M-5 (Industrial) zone.

Currently such garages are permitted in B-1 and B-2 (Business) zones.

Allowing automobile repair garages in a M-5 zone would permit those facilities in places such as 5-K Enterprises, Inc’s, industrial complex at 3 Edmond Road. The P&Z approved that complex in March 2007.

In October 2005, the P&Z approved 5-K’s requested change of zone for that site from M-2 to M-5. Before that zone change, the site had an M-2 zoning designation since 1958, when local zoning took effect.

Under the proposed zoning rule change, an automobile repairer’s garage would be permitted in a M-5 zone under the special permit provisions of the zoning regulations.

The applicant would need to apply for and receive a special exception to the zoning regulations from the P&Z to operate an automobile repairer’s garage.

Also, the applicant for a repair garage within a M-5 zone would need to obtain a certificate of approval of location from the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) under the terms of the state’s motor vehicle laws.

The proposed regulations would prohibit a repair garage in a M-5 zone if the site proposed for a repair garage is within the town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD). The APD is an overlay zone within which the P&Z enforces strict environmental regulations to safeguard the underlying Pootatuck Aquifer, an underground source of two public water supplies.

The zoning regulations would allow both “repairers” and “limited repairers” to operate garages.

At a February 19 P&Z session, Land Use Agency Director George Benson gave P&Z members copies of the proposed zoning regulations for review. P&Z members are expected to discuss the proposal at an upcoming session.

The P&Z has submitted the proposed zoning regulations for review by the town’s attorneys and by three regional planning agencies.

If P&Z members agree on the wording of a zoning rule proposal, they would submit it for public comment at a public hearing before acting on it.