Industrial Development—

Glass Factory Approved

For Curtis Corporate Park

By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has granted a special permit to a glass fabricator that plans to construct a factory/office complex at Curtis Corporate Park, off Toddy Hill Road in Sandy Hook.

In an unanimous vote on October 19, P&Z members approved a construction application from Glass Contractors, LLC, also known as Architectural Glass Industries, LLC.

The Norwalk firm plans to construct a 7,800-square-foot industrial building on a one-acre lot at 9 Turnberry Lane, at the turnaround circle of that dead-end street. The site is in a M-4 (Industrial) zone, where such development is a permitted land use.

The firm manufactures and distributes commercial glass products, such as shower doors. Its work involves manipulating glass to create various products. The company cuts and grinds glass, as needed, and uses electric ovens to make glass stronger through tempering. The firm uses water as a coolant in its industrial processes.

About 6,800 square feet of the proposed structure would be factory/storage space, with the remainder serving as an office. Seventeen people would work there.

The company presented its proposal to the P&Z at a September 21 public hearing. Issues raised at the hearing focused on the disposal of industrial waste, as well as industrial noise.

The site is located in the environmentally sensitive Aquifer Protection District (APD), an overlay zone above the Pootatuck Aquifer within which many zoning regulations are in force to protect the aquifer’s water quality. The aquifer is the source of two public water supplies, plus hundreds of individual domestic water supplies.

Curtis Corporate Park and the adjacent 20-lot residential subdivision known as Quarry Ridge Estates are located on a mined-out expanse of land that was formerly quarried by Newtown Sand & Gravel. The P&Z approved the industrial park in January 2001, and then approved the adjacent Quarry Ridge Estates in March 2002.

Conditions of Approval

The P&Z placed many conditions on the glass factory approval.

The agency is requiring that all site lighting, including signage, meet the “Dark Sky” lighting standards, which are designed to ensure that no electric illumination is projected from the site onto other properties. Except for a minimal level of security lighting, site lighting must be turned off after work at the factory concludes.

In view of the site’s presence within the APD, the P&Z is requiring that there be no permanent outdoor storage of commercial vehicles or construction equipment on the site. Also, the P&Z is prohibiting the maintenance of commercial vehicles and construction equipment on the site.

Before the glass firm receives its certificate of occupancy for the factory, it must formulate and submit to the P&Z for review a policy on the “best management practices” for the property. That policy, which concerns aquifer protection, would include interior operations at the factory, as well as grounds maintenance, specifying the steps that would be taken by the occupants of the building to prevent environmental damage caused by spills of hazardous substances. The detailed policy must be posted where all employees can view it.

The P&Z is requiring that the waste dumpster at the site be located in a permanent enclosure that screens it from view. The dumpster must be covered. A sign on the dumpster must note the site’s location in an environmentally sensitive area and also state the prohibition on placing hazardous materials in the dumpster.

P&Z members decided that that if the company complies with all the conditions of approval, the presence of the glass factory would have no significant adverse environmental effect on the underlying Pootatuck Aquifer.  

GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc, of Fairfield, an environmental consulting firm representing the glass company, performed an aquifer impact assessment of the project. In its review, GZA found that the activities to be conducted by the glass company would have no adverse effects on the quality or the quantity of water in the aquifer.

The planned factory will be 28 feet tall. It will have a mirror-glass façade. A 26-space parking lot will be constructed nearby. Commercial vehicles would be parked inside the building. The firm’s normal working hours would be 7:30 am to 5:30 pm on Mondays through Fridays, with some workers staying at the factory later, as needed. Vegetation would be planted near the factory as a landscaping feature of the project.

The glass firm has received an endorsement from the town’s Economic Development Commission in its bid to receive a property tax break from the town as part of the town’s Business Incentive Program, which encourages expansion of the municipal property tax base.