Date: Fri 14-Jul-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

a2-Sandy-Hook-design-P&Z

Full Text:

HEARING SET ON ZONING CHANGES FOR SANDY HOOK

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members are slated to hold public

hearings on proposed zoning changes for Sandy Hook Center intended to foster

the area's economic revitalization and its future viability as a neighborhood

economic hub.

The public hearings are slated to start at 8 pm on July 20 at Town Hall South.

The proposed zoning regulations on lot area, building heights, and yard

requirements for Sandy Hook Center would offer added flexibility to P&Z

members in deciding on zoning proposals. The proposed regulations would put

more decision making power on such topics with the P&Z instead of with the

town's Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA).

New land uses for Sandy Hook Center specified in the proposed zoning rule

changes include bed and breakfast establishments and inns. As defined by the

proposals, a bed and breakfast establishment would be an owner-occupied

private home in which up to four bedrooms are used to provide overnight

accommodations, which may include breakfast, for transient guests for

compensation. An inn is defined as a building or buildings in which rooms

provide temporary lodgings to more than 5 but less than 16 transient guests

for compensation, and which may provide rooms for the serving of food and

alcoholic beverages for guests and/or the general public.

Also, P&Z members are proposing that walk-in banks be allowed in Sandy Hook

Center. Drive-through banks would be allowed as a special exception to the

zoning regulations.

P&Z members believe that an important element in the revitalization of Sandy

Hook Center would be the presence of full-service restaurants. The regulations

would allow full-service restaurants to serve alcoholic beverages within the

proposed Sandy Hook Design District (SHDD) land use zone. The zoning proposal

would allow full-service restaurants which include outdoor service but exclude

drive-through facilities and outdoor entertainment.

Unified Zoning

To make the zoning in Sandy Hook Center more coherent, the P&Z proposes

merging three existing land uses zones into one new land use zone.

Business/Residential-1 (BR-1); Business-1 (B-1); and Business-2 (B-2) would be

superseded by a new zone known as the Sandy Hook Design District (SHDD). The

unified land use zone would apply one set of land use rules to the area which

now operates under three separate sets of rules.

The SHDD zone would be centered on the intersection of Church Hill Road,

Riverside Road, Washington Avenue, and Glen Road. From that intersection, the

SHDD zone would extend outward on Church Hill Road to its intersection with

Dayton Street; outward on Riverside Road to the area of the Riverside Road

cemetery; outward on Washington Avenue to the area near Crestwood Drive; and

outward on Glen Road to the area just beyond its intersection with Dayton

Street.

A premise behind the Sandy Hook Center zoning proposals is maximizing the

usability of existing buildings there as well as legitimizing exisitng land

uses which violate the current zoning regulations. P&Z members are seeking to

improve the Sandy Hook Center environment for pedestrians through the creation

of public walkways, bike paths, shared off-street parking facilities, and

landscaped public spaces.

To foster their Sandy Hook Center planning concept, P&Z members specify a

number of proposed zoning rules. These include: all lots adjacent to a

residential zone shall maintain a 25-foot-wide planted buffer along the

property boundary; a public accessway may be located in the buffer area; and

the buffer requirement may be waived or modified by the P&Z under certain

conditions. The proposed regulations also provide that: parking be located to

the rear and side of buildings; parking be provided on another lot provided

that certain criteria are met; and vehicle access to parking lots should be

shared with other properties to minimize curb cuts and the traffic circulation

problems that such curb cuts pose.

The proposed zoning regulations are intended to encourage a diversity of

compatible land uses that will enforce the area as a historic, mixed-use

hamlet. The proposed zoning rules seek to foster future Sandy Hook Center

development emphasizing the pedestrian scale, historic quality and natural

resources of the area.

The zoning rule changes proposed for Sandy Hook Center stem from

recommendations made within the town plan of development approved by the P&Z

in August 1993.