Edmond Road Warehouse Complex Gains P&Z Approval

By Andrew Gorosko

Following lengthy review, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have approved a developer’s application to construct a total of 93,750 square feet of warehouse space in four buildings on an Edmond Road site.

P&Z members unanimously approved the application from 5-K Enterprises, Inc, at a March 15 session. 5-K Enterprises, Inc, is a Connecticut corporation whose shareholders are Warren Kimball and his five children.

The P&Z approval would allow ten percent of the space at the warehouse complex to be used as office space by the building’s tenants.

Although the street address for the wet 22.8-acre site is 71 Church Hill Road, access would be gained to the property via a driveway located near a recently constructed cellular telecommunications tower on Edmond Road. The site is in an M-5 (Industrial) zone.

Plans for the project call for two 9,000-square-foot buildings, one 35,250-square-foot building, and one 40,500-square-foot building. The structures would have utilitarian designs and be set well back from the northern section of Edmond Road.

In approving the project, the P&Z placed some conditions on the development.

Site lighting plans must be provided for P&Z approval before any building permits are issued for the project.

Also the developer must specify the location of fire hydrants on the site, as well as provide emergency key boxes on the buildings for firefighters’ use.

Any signs for the project must receive P&Z approval.

The P&Z stressed that the only land use permitted with the March 15 approval is warehousing, with accessory office space. Earlier versions of the project had proposed light industrial uses including manufacturing, and wholesale businesses.

The developer’s traffic report submitted for the project addressed only warehouse uses of the site, not the other uses.

The P&Z is requiring all waste dumpsters to be enclosed, screened from view, and kept closed upon their concrete pads.

Also, the P&Z is prohibiting any outdoor storage at the site.     

5-K’s proposal to industrially develop the wooded slope amid wetlands along Edmond Road cleared a major hurdle last June, when the Inland Wetland Commission (IWC) granted the project a wetlands permit.

In November 2005, the IWC, which was then known as the Conservation Commission, unanimously rejected 5-K’s request for a wetlands permit for a larger version of the industrial project. In its initial application, 5-K had sought to create almost 180,000 square feet of industrial space on the site.

The project went through many revisions before the IWC approved the 93,750-square-foot version of the complex.

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

The site has been the subject of several past development proposals, none of which had ever materialized.

The P&Z endorsed the zone change to encourage economic development that is consistent with a long-term plan for the realignment of Edmond Road and Commerce Road in a four-way intersection with Church Hill Road. That road realignment is intended to improve hazardous traffic conditions in the vicinity of the existing Edmond Road/Church Hill Road intersection.