South Main Street—

Design District Considered For Aesthetics, Traffic Control

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have begun discussions on creating a new commercial zone for sections of South Main Street (Route 25) intended to preserve the remaining residential appearance of certain areas along the thoroughfare, as well as prevent traffic conditions from worsening in the congested area.

P&Z Chairman William O’Neil, P&Z member Lilla Dean, and Elizabeth Stocker, who is the town’s community development director, have been meeting as a committee to formulate ideas for submission to the full P&Z on the creation of a South Main Street Design District (SMSDD) zone.

SMSDD zoning would include rules on the conversion of existing houses for commercial uses, as well as rules governing new commercial construction. Such regulations would focus on the architectural and landscaping aesthetics of commercial uses, as well as related traffic flow. Several dozen houses remain along the generally commercial South Main Street.

Commercial construction proposed for the SMSDD zone would be reviewed by the town’s recently created Design Advisory Board, a panel comprised of two architects and one landscape architect.

The town already has two design districts, one in Sandy Hook Center and the other in Hawleyville Center.

In 1995, the P&Z created Sandy Hook Design District (SHDD) zoning to better regulate the mixed land uses in that area which centers on the intersection on Church Hill Road, Washington Avenue, Riverside Road, and Glen Road. SHDD zoning seeks to enhance the appearance of the area, encourage pedestrian amenities, and foster improved parking, with the goal of enhancing that area’s economy.

In 1999, the P&Z created Hawleyville Center Design District-East (HCDD-E) zoning for the commercial section of Hawleyville Center lying east of Hawleyville Road, near the Housatonic Railroad grade crossing. HCDD-E zoning has similar purposes similar to that of SHDD zoning.

The Design Advisory Board reviews new construction proposed for areas with SHDD and HCDD-E zoning. Such design reviews seek to have commercial development conform with the P&Z’s aesthetic standards for new commercial construction.

Linear South Main

Unlike Sandy Hook Center and Hawleyville Center, which have clustered development, South Main Street is several miles long.

The possible extent of SMSDD zoning along South Main Street is yet unclear.

SMSDD zoning might cover all properties with residential, business, and industrial zoning, which have frontage along both sides of South Main Street, lying between Borough Lane on the north and the Monroe town line on the south.

Or SMSDD zoning might cover only the currently residentially zoned properties along the west side of the street lying between Borough Lane and the Monroe town line.

A third version of the plan would involve some middling amount of SMSDD zoning.

The nature and extent of SMSDD zoning is in its formative stages, according to Mr O’Neil.

“We’re at the preliminary stage,” Mr O’Neil said this week. The committee will be discussing its ideas for SMSDD zoning with the full P&Z, he said.

Committee members are considering “liberalizing” the zoning regulations that apply to existing houses along South Main Street, as a way to keep the exterior residential appearance of those houses intact, while allowing those structures to be put to certain commercial uses, he said. Those added uses might include doctors’ offices and bed-and-breakfast establishments, he said.

Mr O’Neil said SMSDD zoning could cover all frontage lots along both sides of South Main Street that now have residential, business, and industrial zoning designations.

Much of the west side of the street now has residential zoning, while much of the east side of street is now commercially zoned, including business and industrial designations, he noted.

If SMSDD zoning were to be that broadly applied to South Main Street, there would need to be separate architectural/landscaping design criteria applied to areas that now have residential, business, and industrial zoning, he said.

Mr O’Neil said committee members are considering whether a SMSDD zone should be an “overlay zone” or a conventional zone. Overlay zones, such as the P&Z’s Aquifer Protection District (APD) zone, are zoning designations that add development restrictions to the conventional zones over which the overlay zone is placed.

The P&Z expanded and strengthened the existing APD zone in 1999, to provide better environmental protection for the area lying above the Pootatuck Aquifer. The APD overlay zone adds a variety of development restrictions to the residential, business, and industrial zones over which it is placed for the sake of aquifer water quality protection.

Besides addressing the aesthetics of commercial uses, through SMSDD zoning, the P&Z would seek to minimize the traffic growth generated by new businesses along the west side of South Main Street, Mr O’Neil said.

SMSDD zoning would be used in tandem with the P&Z’s existing “curb cut management plan” to control the number of curb cuts, or vehicle entry/exit points, along the congested South Main Street, he said.

The acreage that would be covered by SMSDD zoning is yet unclear, Mr O’Neil said.

P&Z members plan to seek the opinions of South Main Street property owners on the SMSDD zoning concept, Mr O’Neil said.

Ms Dean said she believes that SMSDD zoning should not be applied to the residentially zoned areas along South Main Street that lie near the Monroe town line. Those areas contain viable residential neighborhoods, she noted.

Ms Dean said that people who own houses along sections of South Main Street farther to the north have told P&Z members of the difficulties that they have experienced in trying to sell those houses as residences, in view of the heavy traffic that travels through the area.

Proposed SMSDD zoning rules would expand the permitted uses allowed for such houses, with the intent of retaining those structures’ exterior residential appearance, she said.

Ms Dean said that implementing the SMSDD zoning concept raises regulatory questions about the appearance of new commercial construction along South Main Street.

Such construction might require a mandatory design review by the Design Advisory Board, she said. Much undeveloped land remains along the west side of South Main Street, Ms Dean noted.

West Side

Ms Stocker is focusing on the conversion of residentially zoned properties on the west side of South Main Street to SMSDD zoning. How far southward SMSDD zoning should extend is unclear, she said.

The residentially zoned properties tend to be the smaller properties along South Main Street, she said.

Converting those properties to SMSDD zoning would allow existing small houses to be converted to certain commercial uses, with the aim of limiting the commercial uses to those that generate little traffic, she said.

New permitted uses would allow the houses to be used for the various “home occupations” that are permitted by the zoning regulations, without requiring that the structures be occupied as residences, she said.

Ms Stocker suggested that any new commercial construction in areas with SMSDD zoning be restricted to a maximum size of 6,500 square feet, provide adequate building setback distances from the street, and provide suitable visual buffering. Such new commercial construction would have higher design standards than now in effect, she said.

The Borough Zoning Commission’s regulations specify a 6,500-square-foot size limit on new construction in commercially zoned areas of the borough in the borough’s Village District regulations.

Ms Stocker said that SMSDD zoning regulations would address “lot coverage” issues, specifying the fraction of the lot’s area which could be covered by development.

“Access management,” or traffic flow to and from commercial land uses, is a key aspect of the SMSDD zoning concept, Ms Stocker said.

Ms Stocker said that the application of SMSDD zoning to existing residentially zoned areas on the west side of South Main Street would be more effective as a “conventional zone,” rather than an overlay zone.