Newtown Planning and Zoning Commission’s (P&Z) subcommittee had its third special meeting October 20 to continue discussing a possible text amendment to the regulations for warehouse and distribution centers.

P&Z members present included chair Dennis Bloom, Gregory Rich, and Brian Leonardi.

The previous meeting had Newtown residents Doreen Trimarchi, Jody Eldredge, and Michael Criscuolo, all of whom are part of a grassroots advocacy group called Newtown Neighbors Alliance, LLC, speak about their proposed changes to the regulations.

On October 20, Bloom started off by saying how this meeting would reflect on that presentation and see if there is any new information from commissioners.

He noted that the idea brought up last meeting about turning warehouses into a special exception could open the town up to lawsuits in his opinion.

Rich said, “I think that’s overstepping our mandate for this meeting. This meeting is to define warehouse. It’s not to change the zoning regs or consider other text amendments.”

Bloom shared that warehouses can be of any size, citing one on Route 34 that he considers small, and said, “A warehouse is a warehouse no matter what kind it may be.”

Rich transitioned the discussion, saying that he felt “confused,” because the P&Z voted how the “majority of the town people wanted us to” by denying the recent special exception application by Wharton Equity Partners, LLC, to build a 344,880 square foot warehouse.

“I think a lot of it is now they want to try to come up with what kind of warehouses we can put in and where we can put them in,” Bloom responded.

Rich said that he believes Trimarchi was not bringing up ideas for a definition but instead specific limitations to put into the zoning regulations.

However, Rich and Bloom both verbalized that they liked a lot of Trimarchi’s suggestions.

‘What Is A Warehouse?’

Leonardi said that he does not know how traffic can be factored into the definition of a warehouse.

The P&Z votes on construction plans and not who is going to occupy the building.

Rich said, “When the rubber meets the road, any applicant is going to build a building to be used to its maximum efficiency and its maximum capacity. The whole argument about ‘if you build it, they will come,’ is a bunch of nonsense. Wharton had to have somebody on the burner that wanted to move into that building, but we are not entitled to that information.”

Leonardi hoped that at the last meeting the speakers would have offered “model definitions from other communities that have placed reasonable restrictions on the types of uses that warehouses can ultimately be used for.”

He added, “I just don’t necessarily think that we had that in what was provided.”

Bloom mentioned that South Windsor is currently going through a lawsuit pertaining to warehouses and traffic.

The members veered into talking about local traffic but stopped since it was not pertinent to the definition of warehouse.

“Not to sound facetious,” Rich said, “but what is a warehouse other than a place to keep your stuff?”

Bloom said that after last week’s meeting, he went online to see what is considered a warehouse. He found that a retail store, such as Target, is considered one because they store items in the back of the building.

Rich explained, “Any business that’s making a product has to have some means of storage. Whether you are storing raw supplies that you are using to make something or you are storing a finished product to sell it.”

Bloom decided that the subcommittee needs to meet with Land Use Agency Director of Planning George Benson or Deputy Director of Planning Rob Sibley to see where to go from here.

“Then the next regular full meeting we have we can do with the public,” Bloom said.

To learn more about the P&Z, visit newtown-ct.gov/planning-zoning-commission.

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