P&Z Approves Mini-Mall Changes At Sand Hill Plaza

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have approved a proposal from the owners of Sand Hill Plaza to reconfigure existing enclosed space at the South Main Street shopping center to provide more leasable commercial area there.

The reconfiguration proposal from E&A/I&G Sand Hill Plaza, LP, gained P&Z approval at a May 4 session, following a public hearing on the application. An initial public hearing on the project was held March 30.

The approval modifies the plaza owners’ existing special permit, allowing them to alter the existing mini-mall wing at the plaza to provide additional retail uses there. Sand Hill Plaza is the largest local shopping center.

The approval allows the plaza owners to increase the leasable area of the shopping center by approximately 3,618 square feet to a new total of 163,554 square feet. The changes involve modifying existing enclosed space, not constructing additional space at the 228 South Main Street facility.

Among the planned changes at Sand Hill Plaza, the TJ Maxx store would expand in size. The Sleepy’s mattress shop would move to the mini-mall from another location at the plaza. Also, a Panera Bread shop would move to the area now occupied by the United Parcel Service store. A real estate firm and a day spa would remain in place at the plaza. The existing mini-mall area would become a corridor situated among various businesses.

Sand Hill Plaza has been in operation for more than 15 years, with a Super Stop & Shop supermarket as its prime tenant.

In making the approval, P&Z members specified some conditions.

The P&Z is requiring Sand Hill Plaza’s owners to have their new commercial signage conform to the plaza’s existing signage plan.

The P&Z also is requiring that Sand Hill Plaza participate in constructing a connecting private driveway that would allow traffic to flow between Sand Hill Plaza and a planned but as-yet unbuilt shopping plaza, known as Plaza South, lying directly south of Sand Hill Plaza.

P&Z Chairman William O’Neil said May 10 that the planned driveway connector between the two plazas would be constructed at some point in the future, not when the Sand Hill Plaza mini-mall redevelopment occurs.

In April 2005, the P&Z approved the construction of Plaza South, a 68,000-square-foot facility. At that time, the P&Z strongly recommended that Sand Hill Plaza and Plaza South create a driveway link between the two shopping centers to relieve some traffic pressure on the nearby congested South Main Street.

The developers of Plaza South now have new applications pending before the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) and the P&Z in seeking various changes to its past construction approvals.

TP Properties, LLC, of Danbury is seeking a modified wetlands permit for its project from the IWC, and also a reconfigured site plan approval from the P&Z.

The firm now wants to divide 68,000 square feet of approved enclosed space among four buildings, instead of between two buildings, requiring that it receive new construction approvals.

In approving Sand Hill Plaza’s mini-mall modifications, the P&Z found that the proposed redevelopment and commercial uses would have no significant adverse impact on the underlying Pootatuck Aquifer.

The P&Z also determined that the planned changes meet the standards and criteria required for a special permit. Also, the P&Z found that the Sand Hill Plaza redevelopment is consistent with the provisions of the provisions of M-6 (Industrial) zoning and with the requirements of development located within the Aquifer Protection District (APD).

In April 2005, following a six-month review of repeatedly revised development proposals, the P&Z approved construction of Plaza South, which would be the largest such facility to be built in Newtown in a decade.

TP Properties plans to build Plaza South at 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 new four-way traffic signal. Button Shop Road links South Main Street to Toddy Hill Road.