At the June 5 Planning & Zoning Commission meeting, the commissioners heard several applications including the proposed project at 63 South Main Street, or the old Taunton Press Building, the property at 120 Glen Road, the proposed self-storage facility at 176 Mt Pleasant Road, and more.

The application for the self-storage facility at 176 Mt Pleasant Road is two-pronged, one application is for a zone change from BPO, or business and professional office, to an M4 zone, a zone that permits moderate industrial use. The other application is for the special exception for the actual building. The proposed building is a two-story façade from the street, but due to the grading of the site, the back and left sides of the building will appear as one story.

Robert Sherwood, the applicant, said, “The technology that’s used in this building. One: there’s staff to monitor what people are bringing into the building. Two: there’ll be cameras on every corridor, no less than two, getting kind of every different angle. And the technology that’s in the handheld device to let you in the lock and unlock. There’s actually heat sensors for early detection if there’s any abnormalities of heat. And then finally the building will be fully sprinklered.”

He also mentioned trying to set up a town hall meeting at Liberty at Newtown, the senior living community that abuts the proposed facility, but noted that “there was no response.”

After a brief review of the project, David Rosen, the chair of the commission, asked the commissioners if there were any questions.

Commissioner Don Mitchell said, “I’m concerned about the route this is taking to accomplish what you want to accomplish, converting to an industrial M4 Zone. If that application is granted and you don’t build this, you’ve got a lot of allowed industrial uses here.”

Sherwood replied, saying he could work with the town attorney to create a clause that says if there is not a self-storage facility built there, it goes back to a BPO zone.

Mitchell also raised concerns about traffic, adding that this parcel of land is on a state road, “aren’t there better uses for it that could take advantage of the exposure to the road rather than….a passive use like self-storage?”

Sherwood did not respond to this question, but earlier in the meeting shared that he expected this development to generate about 20 trips a day, contributing to .001% of the 12,000 daily trips seen on Mt Pleasant Road.

Following the brief questions from commissioners, Rosen invited the public to speak.

Strong Opposition From Liberty At Newtown Residents

Linda Haskey, president of Liberty at Newtown Homeowners Association, began the public comment by stating, “Our community is very much opposed to this change in zoning next to our property.” She then asked the attorney Liberty at Newtown has retained to speak to the commission.

Jillian Judd, an attorney from Pelosi and Ryan in Watertown, shared that 85 out of the 96 homes at Liberty have signed a petition expressing their opposition to the zone change. The 85 homes produced 98 signatures from residents. Due to this strong opposition, the commission needs a two-thirds vote to approve the project.

Judd addressed the commission and said, “Any change in the zone needs to comply with the town’s plan of conservation development. Changing the zone from a BPO to an M4 is not going to do that…Basically, coverage in an M4 of a building can be twice as large as in a BPO zone. That’s already more of an impact to neighbors right off the bat. Secondly, in a BPO zone, you could have residential properties. You can’t have that in an M4. Why? Because an M4 does not fit anywhere near a residential. That should be the end of the discussion right there.”

After Judd spoke, several members of the Liberty at Newtown community spoke and vocalized their opposition to the application. Howard Geiger said that a M4 Zone could create significant changes along Mt Pleasant Road, raising concerns about decreased property value and increased homeowners’ insurance.

Dr Peter Licht added that the people in Newtown, especially the Liberty community, are “well served by access to this medical care as part of the ‘medical mile.’”

Beth Holland said, “Over 140,000 fires coming from self-storage units. The residents of Liberty at Newtown are very concerned that changing the zoning to allow for a self-storage facility puts us in terrible danger of proven potential fire outbreaks.”

Don Lewis expressed his opinion that the medical mile is a “benefit” to the senior citizens that live at Liberty, while a self-storage facility is “out of character.”

Tulio Lopez said, “Allowing industrial development next to the elderly community undermines the purpose, introducing concerns related to safety and other negative issues.”

After members of the public spoke, Sherwood responded. He heard the concerns of the neighbors about the zone change possibly opening up the area for more industrial use, but he said that he would “work with the town attorney to deed restrict it, to do whatever [he needs] to do so that it is only allowable to do a self-storage building.”

He added that he explored other options other than a text amendment but thought it would not work out.

Commissioner Greg Rich said to Sherwood, “I have to share Commissioner Mitchell’s problem with changing this to an M4. I just won’t entertain that because…once we change it to M4, all your plans aside, if things change, then somebody else can come and build something else there. And we can’t restrict a zone change to one specific application. So for me, this is just a non-starter.”

Rosen added, “When the zones were created, they were created for a reason.”

Rosen then closed the public hearing, and the commission put the application to a vote. The application for both a zone change, and the special exception application were both denied unanimously.

‘Interchange Design District’

The Planning & Zoning Commission then heard application 25.13 by Dominion Realty Group, LLC, for a “Text Amendment to the Zoning Regulations of the Town of Newtown, to modify Article II Section 3 from ‘Exit 10 Commercial Design District’ to ‘Interstate Commercial Design District’ which will include a portion of the land in the vicinity of Exit 11.”

The proposed development would be similar to Sunrise Plaza that currently hosts the ever popular, and busy, Starbucks, among other businesses. The plaza has seen success due to Starbucks and its drive-through, as one of the only drive-throughs in town. Matt Baldino and Luke Mauro, both from Solli Engineering, explained that they would like the anchor store in this proposed development to have a drive-through component.

The area of the proposed development is next door to Lenahan Land Clearing & Grinding Inc. It would have a driveway on Berkshire Road and Toddy Hill Road, which caused some concern for the commissioners regarding traffic. The commissioners also raised concerns about high school students walking to and from this development or driving to and from this development.

Baldino said “the application was approved before” for a strip retail development. He claimed a drive-through will “fulfill the center to its fullest capacity.”

Commissioner Roy Meadows said, “I’m very concerned about the traffic of people coming out there as people coming down Toddy Hill waiting to make a left-hand turn.” He added the development will cause people to back up and people will get “antsy” and “do things that are not appropriate, and it causes accidents.”

Commissioner Barbara Manville said, “The Exit 10 Commercial Design District is names that way for a reason because that zoning is specifically for the Exit 10 area, not Exit 11.”

Commissioner David Landau added, “It was [an] exception only for Exit 10. We’re a no drive-through town…so Exit 9’s gonna be next.”

Rosen then turned it over to public comment, but there was none. Mauro then responded to the commissioners saying that the prior application for this area was approved by the DOT. He added that without the driveway on Toddy Hill, the site would be “relatively undevelopable” because customers would not have a way to go back in the opposite direction toward the high school.

Rich agreed with his colleagues’ reservations of expanding the design district to Exit 11, adding that, “Newtown is historically a no drive-through zone.”

Rosen then closed the public hearing, and the application was put to a vote. It was denied unanimously.

Expansion For Fairfield Equine Hospital

Manville read application 25.15 into the record, which calls for an “Amendment to a Special Exception, for a property located at 32 Barnabas Road, so as to allow a proposed new 7,961.23 gross square foot building to house an equine hospital use with CT machine and surgery space. A single three-bedroom dwelling unit will temporarily house interns and doctors on rotations. A rear gravel lot will house additional parking, and additional parking will be added to existing paved areas.”

The request is from Dr Kim Harmon, part owner of Fairfield Equine Associates. Harmon informed the commission that Fairfield Equine has been in business for 35 years, first starting in a garage. Now, there is a staff of 17 doctors across two locations and four interns.

“We have onsite advanced imaging technology including an MRI system. We offer 24/7 ambulatory and in-house care for our patients and any cases that choose to refer to us,” Harmon said. “What we’re looking to do is continue to expand and continue to provide the level of care that we can for our community.”

Peter Paulos from PH Architects said, “There’s very few [facilities] in the country or world that have this [CT] machine. It’s a big technology jump for them and that’s what started this whole design of this new building.”

Jeff Bord, from Bohler Engineering, discussed the property specs, such as well water, septic tanks, storm water management, dark sky compliant LED lighting, grading, and adding a new gravel parking lot. He informed the commission that he will be adding a hydrodynamic separator to the catch basin to upgrade the storm water management in compliance with the 2024 storm water management manual.

Rosen wanted to know where the families/owners stay when horses are being cared for. Harmon said there is no client waiting space in the new building, but a conference room in the other building where clients can get coffee and wait.

Mitchell asked about other dwelling areas on the property, and Harmon explained there is a need for more dwelling space to accommodate all the interns and staff at Fairfield Equine Hospital.

Ryland Edwards, another part owner, said, “We have four interns…that work with us yearly and in the 20 years that Dr Harmon and I have been there, we’ve expanded our intern force from two to four…we host upwards of 40 veterinary students a year from all over the world that spend anywhere from one to four weeks gaining clinical experience…this will allow them to be on property to assist with treatments during the night and be there 24 hours.”

Rosen opened the floor for public comment, but no one commented.

Rob Sibley, director of Land Use, said that the health director Donna Culbert put in a revised department review letter on June 6 stating that the health department will need to get a Connecticut DPH sign-off that can be added as a condition of approval, or the Health Department would not be able to endorse the application at this time.

Rosen then put the application to a vote, which passed unanimously with the condition that the applicant receives an approval from the Connecticut State Department of Public Health and Newtown Health for the septic system.

Borough Seeks Endorsement From Town Commission

The final discussion for the Planning & Zoning commercial was a referral from Borough Zoning for 11 Church Hill Road. Borough Zoning is hoping to create a mixed-use building with residential and commercial uses on its second floor (at grade) and residential uses in its first floor (below grade) with a wraparound parking lot serving the building.

There was some discussion about the referral and the property itself, citing issues with both residential and commercial use in that spot. Following the discussion, Rosen put it to a vote. The motion carried 4-1, with Mitchell voting against.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.