Newtown Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) discussed an application for a self-storage facility with five buildings during its meeting at the Newtown Municipal Center on July 13.

The only public hearing on the agenda was for Application #21‐16 by 19 Commerce Road, LLC, for a property located at 19 Commerce Road, to construct a self-storage facility with five buildings and more than 37,000 square feet of regulated activity including grading, filling, and construction.

The application’s public hearing was being continued after its initial detailed presentation on June 22.

IWC Chair Sharon Salling noted that there appeared to be no members of the public present at the meeting, but if any were to arrive, they would stop the presentation to give an overview of the participation guidelines.

Engineer Larry Edwards, of J. Edwards & Associates LLC — whose most recent project in town includes the Holly Estates Subdivision on Berkshire Road — was representing the evening’s applicant.

“The last time we were here, a few weeks ago, there were a number of items that the commission wanted us to look at and address,” he said.

Edwards pointed out that there were concerns with the configuration of the buildings, but that the 50-foot-wide building footprints can only be made shorter, not narrower.

“What I did do is I moved the building forward about 10 to 15 feet, which gave us a much better separation to the back of the building. And what we also did is show 2:1 sloping around the driveway parking areas, which basically doubled the size of the separation from the wetlands to the edge of the construction,” he said.

He then pointed out a handful of planting areas to act as buffers.

Edwards said, “The third thing we did is the plan now shows all the existing trees between the construction and the wetlands that will remain.”

As for the entrance to the site, they will now be moving the driveway over to the left to put in a small stormwater basin in the area.

Steve Maguire, Senior Land Use Enforcement Officer asked, “So for the new basin, what is the retention time? Can you run me through the system? Basically, the larger basin will be capturing all the whole top piece?”

Edwards replied that the one big basin up to the top will provide water quality storage and retention, and it will handle half the upper portion of the two larger buildings.

“We have a secondary system which is basically handling roof runoff from the buildings, so that it will go directly in as a stormwater retention ... and overflows into the lower basin, down here. That will collect everything from the upper part of the site,” Edwards said.

He noted there is a third basin down at the bottom of the hill that will provide stormwater treatment.

Edwards later noted that there will be a double row of silt fences on the property during construction as a barrier to the brook.

When going over the plantings, it was confirmed that the mature trees will stay, and younger saplings would be removed.

After the commission brought up concerns for trash getting into the brook when the site is operational, Edwards said that would have to be part of the maintenance plan of the occupant of the facility.

He mentioned that for security purposes, the site is going to be fenced in when it is completed.

With no members of the public present for comment, the commission discussed if they should close the application’s public hearing or leave it open.

After some deliberation, the public hearing was closed and no vote was taken.

The next regularly scheduled IWC meeting will be on Wednesday, July 27, at 7:30 pm, in the Council Chambers at the Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street.

For more information, visit newtown-ct.gov/inland-wetlands-commission.

Reporter Alissa Silber can be reached at alissa@thebee.com.