A land development firm is proposing the construction of a gas station/convenience store on a vacant 3.7-acre site at 13 Hawleyville Road (Route 25) in Hawleyville, just south of eastbound Interstate 84’s Exit 9 off-ramp.

Applicant 13 Hawleyville Road LLC has submitted details on the project for land use review by the town. In March, Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) members unanimously endorsed locating a facility that sells gasoline at that site, which lies within the Hawleyville Center Design District (HCDD) zone. At a public hearing preceding the ZBA decision, several residents had opposed allowing gasoline to be sold there for safety reasons.

Besides the ZBA approval, the development firm also requires approvals from the town Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z), the state Department of Transportation (DOT), and possibly from the town Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC).

The gas station/convenience store proposal is scheduled for a P&Z public hearing on a requested special zoning permit at 7:30 pm on Thursday, October 3, at Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street.

Also, the town’s Design Advisory Board (DAB) is scheduled to review the architectural and landscaping aspects of the project when it meets at 7 pm on Tuesday, September 17, at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street. The DAB makes recommendations to the P&Z on the aesthetics of construction projects proposed for the town’s several design districts.

In late 2015, when the Covered Bridge Apartments rental housing complex gained P&Z approval, the adjacent 3.7-acre site gained approval for diner construction, under the terms of the Incentive Housing-10 (IH-10) zoning regulations, which allow housing complexes that have an affordable housing component to also have a commercial component. Plans for the diner, however, fell through, and the 3.7-acre site now is being proposed for a gas station/convenience store.

The proposed gas station would have eight gas-pump islands providing a total of 16 fueling positions. The site would hold 30 parking spaces. There would be access driveways linking the land to Hawleyville Road and to Covered Bridge Road. The convenience store’s facade would face the southern section of the property, where motorists would be entering the site from Covered Bridge Road. When completed, Covered Bridge Apartments there would have 210 dwellings.

The HCDD zone, in which the gas station/convenience store complex would be located, is a specialized land use zone unique to Hawleyville Center, which was created by the P&Z in 1999. The HCDD zone is intended to foster creation of a neighborhood business district that includes mixed-use activities, improvements, and the development typical of a village center. The zone is designed to promote business activities that will serve the surrounding neighborhoods and to a lesser degree, accommodate services compatible with the zone’s proximity to Exit 9 of Interstate 84.

The P&Z created HCDD zoning to encourage development with high quality design, which blends the pedestrian scale of a village center with the functions of Route 25, I-84, and the Housatonic Railroad line as regional transportation linkages. Such design should respect the environmental conditions and history of the area in seeking to achieve an integrated, cohesive New England village center, according to the P&Z.

Notably, in February, the ZBA issued a certificate of location to Nemco Limited Partnership to sell gasoline at a planned gas station/convenience store/cafe at a 0.7-acre site at 26 Hawleyville Road, which also is in the HCDD zone, about 2,000 feet north of 13 Hawleyville Road. The Nemco project also has gained P&Z site development plan approval.