Date: Fri 07-Mar-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Newtown-Savings-Bank-expansion

Full Text:

Savings Bank Unveils Plan For Main Street Expansion

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Newtown Savings Bank and the Newtown Congregational Church have filed an

application with the Borough Zoning Board of Appeals for variances needed to

expand the bank's headquarters on Main Street. A hearing will be held by the

ZBA at 7:30 pm Wednesday, March 26, in the Lower Meeting Room of Edmond Town

Hall.

Faced with the need for more space and a desire to stay on Main Street, the

bank last spring offered to buy the church's property at 41 Main Street for

$550,000. The 5.38-acre property includes the old parsonage, the

13,980-square-foot church house, and a tiny house at the rear of the property.

The offer is contingent, however, on approval by the Borough ZBA of the

expansion plans.

"This has been a long time in coming," said bank president John Martocci. "The

bank has been on Main Street since 1855, and we want to keep that tradition

going. If we can do this expansion, it will allow us to stay here a very long

time."

Mr Martocci said many of the bank's operations and personnel have been moved

to Southbury, Woodbury and the branch office in the Sand Hill Plaza in the

years since 1985 because of lack of space as the bank's services continued to

grow.

"It's extremely inconvenient and expensive for us to be so spread apart," he

said. "This expansion will allow us to bring 16 employees back to Main Street

from Southbury, create three new jobs, and add to Newtown's tax base with all

the new people and computers - and because what was [exempt] church property

will be taxed as commercial property."

Since last May, architects, engineers, traffic consultants and other

specialists have been studying the properties and the surrounding

neighborhood. The biggest hurdle in the expansion has been the old parsonage,

a circa 1815, two-story frame house that the bank wanted to renovate.

"Structural engineers have told us that it can't be done safely," Mr Martocci

said. "The house is structurally not sound. The foundation is gravel - almost

powder."

So, instead of a renovation project, engineers recommended that the house be

torn down and an exact duplicate of the exterior of the house, as it

originally was built, be constructed on the site.

"We even plan to restore the second chimney [on the house], which we

discovered in a photo taken around 1955 but which has since been removed," Mr

Martocci said. "The exterior will be the same - to maintain its historical

Main Street appearance - but the interior will be offices."

Build An Addition

The existing parsonage garage will be removed and an addition will be built to

connect the parsonage with the bank.

"The addition will be set back and heavily landscaped," Mr Martocci said. "It

will appear to be one-story but actually is two stories because of the slope

of the property away from the street."

The 1,212-square-foot house located near the rear of the church property,

built about 1955, will be removed. Parking will be increased from the current

55 spaces to 70, with another 21 to be added later.

"When we get done, we will have two buildings on the combined lots, where

there currently are four structures," Mr Martocci said.

He said that if the plans are approved, and the bank buys the property, then

two- to three-acres at the rear of the church property will be placed into a

land trust and will not be available for future development. "This is for the

benefit of our neighbors," he explained.

The bank also will join the Newtown Historic District after the property is

purchased but before the expansion work begins, he added.

The bank intends to lease the three-story church house back to the church for

five years with an option for an additional five years, providing time for the

church to build a new church house on its property on West Street.

The old church house, which was built in 1948, then will be used for bank

operations, but it probably also will contain rental office space and a

community room for local organizations to use, Mr Martocci said. Currently,

the building houses a nursery school and the Newtown Youth Services offices.

Is is also used for church activities and for evening meetings of groups like

Alcoholics Anonymous.

Hardship Variance Needed

To implement its plans, the bank needs a hardship variance, which would allow

business-use on the residentially zone church property and multiple uses on

the combined church and bank property. A variance also will be needed because

the 91 parking spaces that will eventually be created still will be 35 less

than the borough regulations require.

"We expect the increase in parking spaces to help the traffic problem on Main

Street," Mr Martocci said. "But, we are limited by wetlands from creating a

much larger parking area at the rear of the property."

A variance also may be needed to permit a drive-up teller window at the rear

of the bank. A one-way driveway will be constructed between the former

parsonage and the church house to access the drive-up window.

An existing narrow driveway that extends from Main Street past the parsonage

and the church house to the rear of the lot will be widened to meet code but

will be a one-way entrance, Mr Martocci said. The cement steps that lead from

the property to the Edmond Town Hall parking lot will be replaced for the

convenience of residents who park in the bank's lot for movies and other

events during non-banking hours, he added.

The existing bank building, which was constructed in 1909, enlarged in 1935,

and renovated in 1963, 1975 and 1987, will be renovated again. An elevator

will be constructed to make the bank completely handicapped accessible for the

first time.

Mr Martocci estimated that it will cost "something between $1.3 million and

$1.5 million" to buy the church property, remove the two residences, rebuild

the parsonage and construct the addition, rebuild and pave the driveways,

expand the parking, rebuild the cement steps and remove a buried heating oil

tank.

Additional money will be spent later for the 21-space parking lot, which will

be created in what is now the nursery school's playground and for any eventual

renovations within the church house.

Renovations within the existing bank may be an additional $300,000 to

$400,000, Mr Martocci said.

The bank, which has 82 employees, has seven offices: two in Newtown, two in

Bethel, plus Monroe, Southbury and Woodbury. Twenty-six people work in the

Main Street location. The bank's accounting, operations, deposit services,

personnel and the president's office currently are housed in the Pomperaug

Office Park in Southbury. The bank's training center is at its Woodbury branch

location, and some of its central office personnel are located at the Sand

Hill Plaza in Newtown.

"We're planning to expand to include a business-lending division for

commercial and industrial customers," Mr Martocci said. "If I add a new

business, where do I put the staff?"

"The town wants to preserve Main Street as it looks now," he acknowledged. "I

think we're doing that - improving Main Street while keeping the historic

look."

He said the bank hired the architectural firm Business Environs of Rocky Hill

because it did a bank expansion in Massachusetts that involved many of the

same issues. The firm also did historic renovations in Hartford and Westport

and is a specialist in bank operations, he said.

Referring to a booklet produced in 1955 to celebrate the bank's 100th

anniversary, Mr Martocci read: "The Newtown Savings Bank was here on Main

Street in 1855 serving your forefathers; it is here on Main Street in 1955

serving you and it is safe to forecast that the bank will be here in 2055

serving your descendants."

"That says it exactly," Mr Martocci said.