The Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) is scheduled to conduct a public hearing on Wednesday, January 9, on a requested wetlands protection permit for a major industrial/commercial complex proposed for a sprawling site in Hawleyville, near Exit 9 of Interstate 84. The meeting is slated to start at 7:30 pm at Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street.

The proposed 583,500-square-foot complex would be the largest project of its kind ever developed locally.

A smaller version of the project, which gained IWC approval last July, was never built. The current version of the project significantly increases the scale of the complex and modifies its proposed mix of uses.

Developer Hawleyville Properties LLC proposes the construction of 583,500 square feet of enclosed space in four buildings at the approximately 140-acre site. The developer proposes the construction of four structures, including three warehouses and one medical office building, plus related parking facilities. The proposed buildings would enclose about 13.4 acres of space.

The development is for parcels at 10 Hawleyville Road, 90 Mount Pleasant Road, and 1 Sedor Lane. The steep, rugged terrain contains extensive wooded wetlands and areas with very dense to impenetrable brush.

As currently proposed, the project would contain a 336,000-square-foot warehouse that would include 20,000 square feet of office space; a 137,500-square-foot warehouse that would include 10,000 square feet of office space; a 20,000-square-foot warehouse; and a three-story medical office building containing a total of 90,000 square feet of enclosed space.

In July 2018, Hawleyville Properties received a wetlands protection permit from the IWC for a 490,000-square-foot version of the project. That version initially had been proposed as a 525,000 square foot project, but was reduced in size by the developer after IWC members said a project of that size would adversely affect wetlands on the site.

The 490,000 square foot project, which was approved by IWC in July, included one 250,000-square-foot warehouse and three medical offices buildings totaling 240,000 square feet in enclosed area.

Based on the mix of uses proposed in the current version of the project, there would be parking spaces provided for 826 vehicles. The previously approved project specified 1,357 parking spaces.

The land proposed for development lies within an M-2A (Industrial) zone, where warehousing and medical office space are permitted land uses.

According to information submitted by the applicant, 130,857 square feet, or about three acres, of wetlands on the site would be physically altered. The 140-acre site contains approximately 15 acres of wetlands and 31 acres of adjacent “upland review areas,” both of which are subject to IWC review.

The application states that the proposed buildings would be constructed and the associated land grading completed by “approximately 2020.”

The development proposal calls for creating large relatively flat areas on the sloped site where the four buildings and associated parking lots would be built.

Vehicular access to the site would be provided via a road extending onto the property from the east side of Hawleyville Road. That road would be situated across Hawleyville Road from Hawleyville Road’s intersection with Covered Bridge Road. Town officials have said they expect that such a four-way intersection would be controlled by a traffic signal.

If the current version of the industrial/commercial project gains a wetlands protection permit from IWC, it would also require approvals from the Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z).

The site has long been eyed by local officials as a suitable place for local economic development, when considering the property’s proximity to an interstate highway interchange. The town’s 2016 expansion of the Hawleyville sanitary sewer system was intended to spark economic development in that area.

The site is bordered on the north by eastbound I-84 and its Exit 9 on-ramp, on the northeast by agricultural open space land, on the southeast by the residential Whippoorwill Hill Road, on the south by Mount Pleasant Road, and on the west by Hawleyville Road. The site’s terrain and extensive wetlands are considered to be factors that have deterred its development until now.