P&Z Reviews South Main Street Retail Proposal

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members are considering a Bridgeport developer’s proposal to convert the vacant former Newtown Manufacturing Company factory at 255-259 South Main Street into a retail center containing several businesses.

At a July 7 public hearing, Worldwide Properties, LLC, presented its proposal for an industrial-to-retail conversion for the factory at the 10.2-acre site on the east side of South Main Street. The site lies across South Main Street from the southern end of Sand Hill Plaza.

The developer is seeking a special exception to the zoning regulations to redevelop the property as a shopping center. The building that formerly held a machine shop would contain two stores, a bank, and a restaurant. The site has M-6 (Industrial) zoning, which allows shopping centers.

The site is in the town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD), where environmental restrictions are in force. The Conservation Commission has determined that the project would have no significant impact on the underlying Pootatuck Aquifer.

The redevelopment proposal calls for adding a large porch and a covered walkway to the 12,360-square-foot factory building, thus increasing the structure’s overall roof area to 16,015 square feet.

Attorney Robert Hall, representing the developer, told P&Z members that a large, steep embankment of sand and gravel situated behind the former factory would be regraded to create a parking area for the complex. Because the APD environmental regulations prohibit such earthen material from being moved from the site, the material would be repositioned elsewhere on the property, he said.

Engineer Jay Keillor, representing the developer, said approximately 52,000 cubic yards of earthen material would be repositioned on the property.

The four existing “curb cuts” or access points on the site would be replaced with two curb cuts, he said. One curb cut would allow a single lane of traffic to enter the site. Another curb cut to the north would provide for three lanes of traffic, including one entry lane and two exit lanes.

In view of the site’s location in the APD, no hazardous materials would be kept there, Mr Keillor said.

Developer Joseph Voll said the redevelopment proposal probably represents the “highest and best use” of the former factory.

Mr Voll said he wants to spruce up the site by adding a decorative waterwheel to a small waterfall there, as well as adding some landscaping elements. The site includes a pond.

Current plans call for a bank, a delicatessen, an ice cream shop, and a restaurant on the property, he said.

P&Z Chairman William O’Neil recommended that the developer submit the proposal to the town’s Design Advisory Board for a review of architectural and landscaping design.

Mr Hall said that Worldwide Properties would seek that board’s guidance on the design aspects of the project.

P&Z member Richard Eigen expressed concerns about the project’s traffic impact on the congested South Main Street.

P&Z member Robert Mulholland said northbound vehicles entering the property could create traffic hazards. He also questioned the proposed location for handicapped parking on the site.

Community Development Director Elizabeth Stocker later pointed out that the applicant’s traffic study indicates that the proposed retail center, at times, would cause very congested traffic conditions.

Sansalvo Engineering, LLC, of Wethersfield performed a traffic study on the proposed shopping center for Worldwide Properties.

According to that report, “The proposed redevelopment…should not adversely affect the pattern, flow, intensity or character of traffic conditions in the vicinity of the site, or produce unsafe or inconvenient traffic congestion…Traffic should not be a significant issue in the redevelopment of the parcel.”

Mr O’Neil said the public hearing would continue at a future P&Z session at which the Design Advisory Board’s critique of the project would be addressed, as would the handicapped parking issue.

Newtown Manufacturing Company closed for business in the summer of 2000. The screw machine parts manufacturing firm was purchased by the Iseli Company and was then moved to other facilities in Terryville.

Other than some incidental uses, the South Main Street factory building has been vacant for the past five years. The World Help Foundation, a charitable organization, occupied a section of the building for a time.

The owners of the site are listed as Edwin Weber, Jr, Marion E. Weber, William A. Watts, and Evelyn W. Watts.

In April, P&Z members unanimously approved another shopping center near the Newtown Manufacturing Company site.

TP Properties, LLC, of Danbury plans to build the 68,000-square-foot Plaza South complex, including a 64,000-square-foot main building, containing several unspecified tenants, plus a 4,000-square-foot adjacent building containing a bank.

That construction is planned for 266-276 South Main Street, on the west side of that street, in the area lying between Sand Hill Plaza and Cold Spring Road. The 12.35-acre site has M-6 (Industrial) zoning. The wooded, sloped property is a former sand-and-gravel mine. The planned intersection of Plaza South’s driveway, South Main Street, and Button Shop Road would be controlled by a four-way traffic signal.

The Plaza South site lies diagonally across South Main Street from the Newtown Manufacturing Company site.

The nearby 160,000-square-foot Sand Hill Plaza, which has been in operation for about 15 years, has a Super Stop & Shop supermarket as its prime tenant.