Date: Fri 09-May-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Borough-ZBA-Savings-Bank

Full Text:

Borough ZBA Grants Variances For Bank Project

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The Borough Zoning Board of Appeals has granted five zoning variances to

Newtown Savings Bank, allowing it to continue planning work on its proposal to

expand the bank's Main Street office.

Appeals board members May 1 unanimously approved granting the zoning

variances. Voting in favor were Chairman John Madzula, Patrick Hill, Robert

Taylor, Janet Woycik and Walter Dzitko.

Faced with the need for more space and a desire to stay on Main Street, the

bank at 39 Main Street in 1996 offered to buy the Newtown Congregational

Church's next-door property at 41-A Main Street for $550,000. The 5.38-acre

church property includes a 13,980-square-foot church house, a deteriorated

parsonage, and a small house at the rear of the property. The church is a

co-applicant for the development project.

The bank still requires approvals for the project from the Borough Zoning

Commission and Borough Wetlands Commission.

In granting the variances, the appeals board:

Allows a bank use on the residentially-zoned land on the church property at

41-A Main Street;

Combines 39 and 41-A Main Street into one lot and allows there to be fewer

off-street parking spaces than normally required;

Allows the bank to build a drive-up teller window;

Allows the current combined non-conforming land use to convert into a

different non-conforming land use.

The appeals board granted the variances provided that 39 Main Street is

combined with 41-A Main Street into a single lot under single ownership, and

approximately three acres of wetlands at the rear of the combined lot be

transferred to the Borough of Newtown Land Trust, Inc, as open space.

The appeals board also specified the combined lot will be limited to bank use

only, except that for five years after this issuance of the first building

permit for the project, the church's use of the property also will be

permitted. The church would be able to request a five-year time extension

beyond that, but would have to receive a zoning variance to get such an

extension.

The appeals board also is requiring that the owner of the combined lot apply

to the Borough of Newtown Historic District to become a part of the district

before applying for any building or zoning permit concerning a bank use of

what is now the church-owned property.

Under the plan, the bank would acquire the church property, join the Main

Street Historic District, demolish the decaying parsonage and build a replica

of the parsonage that would house bank office space. The new office space

behind the parsonage facade would be linked to the bank by an addition.

At a March public hearing, most residents who spoke said the bank expansion

project will benefit the Main Street area.

The bank wants to lease the three-story church house on the site back to the

church for five years with an option for an additional five years, providing

time for the church to build a new church house on its property on West

Street. The old church house, which was built in 1948, then would be used for

bank operations, but it probably also will contain rental office space and a

community room. Currently, the building houses a nursery school and the

Newtown Youth Services offices.