Hearing Set On Proposed Hawleyville Zoning Changes

By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has scheduled a public hearing on its proposal to rezone sections of the largely undeveloped Hawleyville to conform with the town’s economic development plan for that area.

The public hearing is slated for 8 pm Thursday, February 17, at Newtown Middle School auditorium, 11 Queen Street. A P&Z business meeting starts at 7:30 pm.

The proposed revisions call for 11 changes of zone covering roughly 150 acres within an area bounded by Mt Pleasant Road on the south, Hawleyville Road on the west, Hawleyville Center and the Housatonic Railroad train tracks on the north, and Tunnel Road on the east.

The P&Z proposes creating a Hawleyville Center Design District-East (HCDD-E) zone of about 20 acres. That zone would extend along the east side of Hawleyville Road northward from Interstate-84 to the area north of the Hawleyville post office, and also would extend along Barnabas Road. Those areas currently have residential and industrial zoning.

Permitted uses in a HCDD-E zone include: retail, personal services, banks, offices, restaurants, museums, galleries, meeting halls, places of worship, parking, and transportation terminals. Certain industrial uses are allowed in the HCDD-E zone through a special exception to the zoning regulations.

In 1999, local developer Steve Nicolosi gained P&Z approval to convert the zoning designation of several acres that he owns along both sides of the western end of Barnabas Road from a residential designation to HCDD-E zoning.

M-2A Zoning

The P&Z also proposes creating M-2A zoning on approximately 80 acres, most of which lies to the north of Mt Pleasant Road, across Mt Pleasant Road from Tory Lane. That land currently has one-acre residential zoning.

M-2A zoning allows a variety of uses, including office buildings, hotel/conference centers, light industrial complexes, plus research and development facilities. Limited retail and service businesses would be allowed.

The P&Z also proposes converting the zoning designation for a strip of land along Hawleyville Road, which lies due north of the intersection of Mt Pleasant Road and Hawleyville Road, from its current residential and business designations to M-2A zoning.

Also, the P&Z  proposes decreasing the potential construction density of a tract of residentially zoned land. That land lies to the north of the turnarounds on Susan Lane and Whipporwill Hill Road, and to the south of Interstate-84. That acreage would be converted from its current minimum one-acre residential zoning to two-acre residential zoning.

A zoning map, plus related documents describing the proposed rezoning in detail, is available for public review at the town clerk’s office at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street.

The proposed rezoning would implement the Hawleyville economic development plan which the P&Z approved in April 1998.

Rezoning the 150 acres in Hawleyville is part of a broader rezoning of Hawleyville planned by the P&Z, said Elizabeth Stocker, the town’s community development director.

 “We’re taking it in pieces. It’s a project,” she said. Future rezoning is planned for the area along Mt Pleasant Road extending from Mt Pleasant Road’s intersection with Hawleyville Road to the Bethel town line.

In March 1998, the P&Z approved The Homesteads at Newtown, LLC’s, request to rezone 60 acres at 166 Mt Pleasant Road in Hawleyville from one-acre and two-acre residential zoning to EH-10 zoning for the construction of elderly housing. The Homesteads is now building a 298-unit elderly housing complex there.

In Newtown, market conditions now favor residential construction, Ms Stocker said. Unless the town designates some acreage for future economic development, such land will not be available in the future, she said.

Ms Stocker said she expects that the economic development of Hawleyville will occur during the coming decade and beyond. Such development will require improved roads in the area, she noted.

The economic development study, on which the Hawleyville rezoning project is based, describes developmental scenarios for Hawleyville extending toward the year 2017, creating a conceptual framework for growth. The study describes the types of growth which can be expected there due to market conditions, and the limitations on the land due to slopes, wetlands soils and floodplains. The 1997 study, which was sponsored by the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials, seeks to balance the interests of developers, the town, and the region. Private developers on privately owned land would create the envisioned Hawleyville growth.