New Office Building Approved  For Commerce Road

By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has approved a local firm’s plan to construct an office building for itself on Commerce Road.

Following a March 16 public hearing, P&Z members unanimously approved The Harrison Group’s application for a special exception to the zoning regulations to build an approximately 18,000-square-foot, two-story office building on a two-acre lot at 9 Commerce Road. The site is on the east side of Commerce Road, on the sharp curve in the road lying between the post office and Charter Communications.

The Harrison Group is a market research and consulting firm, which identifies customers for new and existing products.

In a report to the P&Z, Conservation Official C. Stephen Driver wrote that from a wetlands conservation standpoint, the development plan proposed by Harrison is better than an earlier one for the wet site. Wetlands lie on either side of the area where the building will be constructed. Last October, the Conservation Commission granted Harrison a wetlands permit for the property.

Engineer Larry Edwards of Easton, representing Harrison, told P&Z members the site is the last development site in the industrial park on the east side of Commerce Road. The firm will lease out portions of the building to tenants, he said.

“The site will require some filling to make it usable,” he said, noting 3,200 cubic yards of fill will be brought to the property to make it suitable for construction. Two driveways will serve the property, one at either end of the frontage.

Until now, the site has not been developed due to poor soils, Mr Edwards said. The availability of sanitary sewers makes its development possible, he said. The office building will be constructed on a concrete slab. It is in an M-5 zone.

The site will contain 60 parking spaces. The building is expected to generate just over 200 vehicle trips on a weekday.

In a traffic report on the project, traffic engineer Irving Chann, representing Harrison, states that traffic generated by the office building will not adversely affect traffic flow on Commerce Road or the intersection of Commerce Road and Church Hill Road.

Architect Bill Achilles of Westport, representing Harrison, described the design of the structure to P&Z members. Mr Achilles said the building will contain an elevator. Harrison will occupy either all of the second story, or a majority of the second story, he said.

 Doug Harrison of 35 Taunton Hill Road, head of The Harrison Group, told P&Z members that first story space would be leased out to tenants.

“The first floor is speculative,” Mr Achilles said.

P&Z member James Boylan asked whether The Harrison Group had considered relocating from its current Glen Road quarters to some existing commercial space, rather than constructing a new building.

Mr Harrison replied the firm had researched the market for at least 6,000 square feet of office space, but found nothing available. He said the company checked the Danbury office space market, but added that he lives in Newtown and he prefers to keep the company here.

Mr Harrison said he initially planned to buy existing office space, but instead is now building new space.

In approving the project, P&Z members required that electric lines serving the building be buried.