Several residents speaking at an October 17 Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) public hearing on a proposed gas station/convenience store at 13 Hawleyville Road (Route 25), near Exit 9 of Interstate 84, questioned the need for such a facility, noting that a similar complex is being built at 26 Hawleyville Road, about 2,000 feet north of the site. About 20 people attended the P&Z session.

The applicant for the project, a firm known as 13 Hawleyville Road LLC, is seeking a special zoning permit from the P&Z. The Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) has approved a modified wetlands/watercourses protection permit for the 3.7-acre site. In 2015, a developer had received P&Z and IWC approvals to build a diner at the site, but plans for that project fell through.

Civil engineer Dainius Virbickas of Artel Engineering Group of Brookfield, representing the applicant, presented plans for the project to the P&Z. The site is on the west side of Hawleyville Road, just south of eastbound Interstate 84’s Exit 9 off-ramp. The developer wants to physically alter 2.25 acres at the property.

The site would hold a 5,293-square-foot building containing a gas station and convenience store. An adjacent freestanding canopy would shelter eight gas-pump islands, where there would be a total of 16 gasoline fueling positions. There would be a total of 46 parking spaces at the property, including the 16 spaces at the 16 fueling positions.

The proposed gas station/convenience store would have driveways intersecting with Hawleyville Road and with Covered Bridge Road. The Hawleyville Road access point would have entering/exiting traffic. The Covered Bridge Road access would carry only entering traffic. Berms would be built alongside Hawleyville Road as a landscaping feature.

Architect Maura Newell Juan of seventy2architects of Danbury, who represents the applicant, noted that the site lies in the Hawleyville Center Design District (HCDD) zone. She said the building proposed for the site was designed with the barn architecture of the area in mind.

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. HCDD zoning is intended to encourage development with high quality design, which respects the environmental conditions and history of the area in seeking to achieve an integrated, cohesive New England village center, according to the P&Z.

Traffic engineer Michael O’Rourke of Frederick P. Clark Associates Inc of Fairfield, representing the applicant, told P&Z members that the two peak traffic flow hours in the area on weekdays are between 7:30 and 8:30 am, and between 4:30 and 5:30 pm. Most of the traffic that enters the proposed gas station would come from the vicinity of I-84, he said.

P&Z member Roy Meadows told Mr O’Rourke that “traffic is a very important consideration for this” proposed complex. Mr Meadows asked about the scope of the traffic statistics submitted in the application’s traffic report.

When Mr O’Rourke was unable to provide certain information about those traffic statistics, project developer Anthony Lucera said that traffic engineer Michael Galante of the traffic firm would attend the next P&Z meeting on November 7 to answer the P&Z’s questions. Thus, the P&Z’s public hearing on the application will resume on November 7.

Public Comment

Pat Napolitano of Whippoorwill Hill Road urged P&Z members to reject the development proposal, charging that the presence of such a facility would adversely affect the area. The construction is proposed for “a very dangerous location,” he claimed.

Another similar gas station/convenience store is being built at 26 Hawleyville Road, which is “a very appropriate location” for such development, he said.

If the project for 13 Hawleyville Road is approved, it would greatly worsen traffic congestion in the area, Mr Napolitano said. He predicted that the presence of the proposed facility would result in traffic congestion in the Covered Bridge Road area.

Mr Napolitano asked that if the project is approved, the developer be held responsible for any damage that its construction causes to area domestic water wells.

“We are appealing to you (P&Z members) to think of the several thousand Newtown residents that will be so adversely affected,” he said.

Vern Gaudet of Hillcrest Drive told P&Z members that when the HCDD zoning regulations were created in 1999, P&Z members said that those zoning rules would promote the creation of retail shops, but not gas stations. Mr Gaudet said it appears that the town is going back on its promise by having approved a gas station for 26 Hawleyville Road and now reviewing the proposal for a similar facility at 13 Hawleyville Road.

In September 2018, at the request of developer NEMCO LLC, in a 3-to-2 vote, P&Z members approved allowing a gas station as a new permitted land use in the HCDD zone, in connection with NEMCO’s then-proposed gas station for 26 Hawleyville Road. Because 13 Hawleyville Road is also in the HCDD zone, those modified zoning rules also apply to its project.

Notably, the P&Z members who approved the HCDD zoning regulation change on gas stations in 2018 were not members of the P&Z in 1999, when the P&Z created the HCDD rules.

Mike Giudice of Whippoorwill Hill Road said he strongly opposes the proposed gas station/convenience store. The proposal amounts to the “wrong use,” for the property, he charged. “We’re creating an ‘exotic zone’ on top of an ‘exotic zone’ for this application,” in terms of the zoning regulations that apply to the proposal, Mr Giudice said.

“Things should not work that way,” added said. He used a slide presentation to illustrate his opposition to the development proposal.

Mr Giudice, who said he moved to Newtown from Long Island, said he does not want to see Hawleyville get developmentally “screwed up” like certain sections of Long Island due to unwise development.

Bill Hickok of Whippoorwill Hill Road said existing traffic conditions in Hawleyville make for difficult driving. The proposed gas station/convenience store would make traffic conditions worse, he added.

Mr Lucera told P&Z members that he would respond to the issues that were raised at the October 17 hearing when the hearing resumes on November 7.

In late 2015, when the Covered Bridge Apartments rental housing complex at Covered Bridge Road gained P&Z approval, the adjacent 3.7-acre site at 13 Hawleyille Road gained approval for diner construction, under the terms of the Incentive Housing-10 (IH-10) zoning regulations. The IH-10 rules allow housing complexes that have an affordable housing component to also have a commercial component. But plans for the diner later fell through and the 3.7-acre site is now being proposed for a gas station/convenience store.

Initially approved for 180 units, the P&Z recently approved an expansion proposal, allowing 210 dwellings to be built at Covered Bridge Apartments. Of the 210 dwellings, 42 units would be designated as affordable housing. The 13 Hawleyville Road site is also near the recently constructed Grace Family Church.