By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members are reviewing site plans for a developer’s proposal to construct 93,750 square feet of industrial space in four buildings on an Edmond Road site.

The P&Z held a February 1 public hearing on 5-K Enterprises Inc’s proposal to develop the currently wooded 22.8-acre site for light industrial manufacturing, warehousing, and wholesale businesses. The property, which has a street address of 71 Church Hill Road, would have driveway access from Edmond Road, near a recently erected telecommunications tower.

The wet site lies on the west side of Edmond Road, south of the Rand-Whitney Container Newtown, LLC site.

The developer would provide 116 parking spaces for the four one-story utilitarian industrial buildings in the M-5 (Industrial) zone. Public water, public sewer, and natural gas service would be provided. Site development would require the removal of more than 12,000 cubic yards of earthen materials.

The site would hold two buildings enclosing 9,000 square feet of space each, as well as a 40,500 square-foot building, and a 35,250 square-foot building.

5-K Enterprises, Inc, is a Connecticut corporation whose shareholders are Warren Kimball and his five children.

Attorney Robert Hall, representing the developer, said current zoning regulations would allow a maximum of five tenants in each of the four proposed buildings. The first structure to be constructed on the site would be one of the two proposed 9,000-square-foot buildings, he said.

Engineer Larry Edwards, representing the developer, said that the site’s design and the local topography would result in the industrial complex being largely screened from view.

“I don’t think anybody knows what uses are going to be in here at this stage,” he said. Permitted uses would include those that are specified in the P&Z’s M-5 zoning regulations.

No outdoor storage is proposed for the site, Mr Edwards said.

The applicant wants to begin work on the project, after which it would return to the P&Z, as needed, to gain special permit approvals for specific uses on the site, Mr Edwards said.

Mr Hall urged that the P&Z resume the public hearing on 5-K’s application at an upcoming session. P&Z members plan to continue the hearing on March 1.

In January, following a brief review, the Police Commission endorsed the traffic-flow aspects of the 5-K project. The Police Commission serves as the local traffic authority, making recommendations to the P&Z on the traffic aspects of development proposals.

5-K’s proposal to industrially develop the wooded slope amid wetlands along Edmond Road cleared a major hurdle last June, when the Inland Wetland Commission (IWC) granted the project a wetlands permit.

In November 2005, the IWC, which was then known as the Conservation Commission, unanimously rejected 5-K’s request for a wetlands permit for a larger version of the industrial project. In its initial application, 5-K had sought to create almost 180,000 square feet of industrial space on the site.

The project went through many revisions before the IWC approved the 93,750-square-foot version of the complex.

In October 2005, the P&Z approved 5-K’s requested change of zone from Industrial M-2 to Industrial M-5 for the site. That zone change expanded the potential number of uses for the property, adding retail sales a permitted land use. Before that zone change, the site had had an M-2 zoning designation since 1958, when local zoning took effect.

The site has been the subject of several past development proposals, none of which had ever materialized.

The P&Z endorsed the zone change to encourage economic development that is consistent with a long-term plan for the realignment of Edmond Road and Commerce Road in a four-way intersection with Church Hill Road. That road realignment is intended to improve hazardous traffic conditions in the vicinity of the existing Edmond Road/Church Hill Road intersection.