Conservation Commission Rejects Wetlands Permit For Industrial Development

By Andrew Gorosko

The Conservation Commission, serving as the town’s wetlands protection agency, has rejected a developer’s request for a wetlands permit, which is required for proposed industrial development on a wet 27-acre parcel off Edmond Road.

On November 9, commission members unanimously rejected a wetlands permit sought for the site by 5-K Enterprises, Inc. The property has a street address of 71 Church Hill Road. The land is located on the west side of Edmond Road, behind the Newtown Shell gas service station that is at 67 Church Hill Road.

Attorney Robert Hall, representing 5-K Enterprises, said November 14 that he would be discussing the commission’s rejection of the wetlands permit with his client to determine how to proceed.

On October 6, the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) had approved a requested change of zone from Industrial M-2 to Industrial M-5 sought by 5-K Enterprises, Inc, for the 27-acre parcel. The developer wants to build a large industrial complex at the site that would have access from Edmond Road, which is a private road. Converting the zoning designation from M-2 to M-5 increases the number of uses that would be allowed on the property, adding retail sales a permitted use.

5-K initially had proposed constructing almost 180,000 square feet of industrial space in four buildings off Edmond Road for the possible storage of construction equipment, warehousing, office space, and retail uses. As the application progressed through the Conservation Commission’s review process, the applicant revised its proposal, slightly reducing the scope of the project.

As initially proposed, the four buildings would have held a combined 179,625 square feet of enclosed space. The sizes of the four initially proposed structures were 91,875 square feet, 37,500 square feet, 35,250 square feet, and 15,000 square feet. Such an Edmond Road warehouse/industrial complex would be constructed in two phases during a five-year period.

5-K Enterprises, Inc, is a Connecticut corporation whose shareholders are Warren Kimball and his five children. 5-K has a purchase option to buy the Edmond Road site from current owners Harriet B. Edwards, Trustee, and Reid S. and Nancy C. Barker Family Limited Partnership.

Wetlands Action

At the November 9 Conservation Commission session, member Donald Collier made a motion to reject the wetlands permit application. The application was rejected “without prejudice” in a 5-to-0 vote. When an application is rejected without prejudice, it allows an applicant to immediately return to the commission with another application for a project, if it chooses to do so.

Voting against the wetlands permit application were Mr Collier, Chairman Sally O’Neil, Wesley Gillingham, Dr Philip Kotch, and Jane Nickerson.

The commission denied the wetlands permit request for three reasons.

Commission members decided that the proposed construction would result in “irreversible and irretrievable loss of wetland or watercourse resources.”

Commission members decided that the proposed construction work would have too adverse an environmental impact on the wetlands and watercourses in the area. The proposed work would have required the filling in of 6,500 square feet of wetlands, and would have physically disturbed 3.6 acres of regulated areas. The wetlands on the site provide wildlife habitat, and flood control, plus plant nutrient and soil sediment retention and removal, according to the commission.

Commission members decided that the applicant’s stated alternatives to its initial and its revised development proposals did not result in a lesser or in no environmental impact on the wetlands and watercourses on the site. There are physical ways to reach the development site via an area of upland soils, but the site’s owner is apparently unwilling to allow the applicant such access to the development site, according to the commission.

On October 6, the P&Z approved a change of zone for the 27-acre parcel. P&Z members agreed that the site has been the subject of several past development proposals, none of which have ever materialized. “The commission is confident that the zone change is necessary to provide desired economic development of the…land,” P&Z members concurred.

Also, P&Z members decided that the change of zone will encourage economic development that is consistent with a long-term plan for the realignment of Edmond Road and Commerce Road intended to improve hazardous traffic conditions in the vicinity of the existing Edmond Road/Church Hill Road intersection.

Future plans call for the realignment of the southern end of Edmond Road, so that it forms a four-way intersection with Church Hill Road and Commerce Road. The town would need to accept Edmond Road as a public road before such an intersection realignment could occur.

At a September P&Z public hearing, 5-K Enterprises requested a change of zone for the site for a variety of industrial uses, such as construction equipment storage and/or sales, and possibly a plumbing supply business.

The largest usable area on the 27-acre site is directly east of the Housatonic Railroad’s train tracks. The site holds extensive wetlands and steep slopes, posing developmental constraints. Also, the site’s lack of suitable road frontage poses difficulties in creating an industrial subdivision within an M-5 zone.