Barnabas Road—

P&Z Approves Hawleyville Commercial Building

By Andrew Gorosko

Following extended review and some design revisions, the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has approved a local businessman’s proposal to build a 9,980-square-foot commercial building for storage and garage space, plus offices, on Barnabas Road in Hawleyville, behind the commuter parking lot for Exit 9 of Interstate 84.

P&Z members April 1 approved the application of Steve Nicolosi for the steel building, a parking lot, septic system, water well, and stormwater drainage structures at 64 Barnabas Road. The 1.6-acre site has HCDD-E (Hawleyville Center Design District-East) zoning. The site is on the north side of Barnabas Road, about 150 feet east of Barnabas Road’s intersection with Hawleyville Road.

When Mr Nicolosi presented plans for the commercial building to P&Z members at a public hearing in early February, P&Z members had a cool response, characterizing the proposed building as industrial and utilitarian in appearance, and not in keeping with the villagelike designs that they had in mind when they created HCDD-E zoning.

P&Z members created HCDD-E zoning in 2000 to encourage redevelopment and improve the appearance of Hawleyville Center. Permitted uses in the HCDD-E zone include retail, personal services, banks, offices, restaurants, museums, galleries, meeting halls, places of worship, parking, and transportation terminals.

After he made several unsuccessful attempts several years ago to convert the residential zoning of his Barnabas Road property to industrial zoning, Mr Nicolosi eventually sought and received P&Z approval for HCDD-E zoning for his property.

The planned building would house Mr Nicolosi’s business, plus two commercial tenants. Mr Nicolosi would occupy a majority of the floor space. Mr Nicolosi is in the radon testing and mitigation business. One potential tenant at the Nicolosi property is in the audio-visual services business. Another tenant would operate a business-to-business furniture showroom. The 9,980-square-foot building will contain 1,920 square feet of office space.

At the February hearing, P&Z members told Mr Nicolosi to modify his plans to make the warehouselike steel building more visually appealing, in keeping with the basis for HCDD-E zoning. The building that Mr Nicolosi had initially proposed had an industrial appearance similar to the garage for state police cars at the Troop A barracks in Southbury. 

P&Z members had pointed out that existing buildings which lie within an industrial zone on Barnabas Road, to the east of the Nicolosi site, are more attractive than the building that Mr Nicolosi had proposed.

During the past decade, the Barnabas Road area has been developed with a range of industrial uses. The Barnabas Road industrial park contains a Connecticut Light & Power service center, a moving and storage firm, a garbage truck garage, and a horse veterinarian.

Revised Version

After considering the various comments made by P&Z members about improving the appearance of the steel building, Mr Nicolosi returned to the agency in March with some design revisions, which added some trim to the structure.

In the revised plans, Mr Nicolosi added some partial-height, concrete-block facing to the building’s façade and to its southeast corner to increase detail on the structure’s surface, thus adding some visual interest to the building.

Also, Mr Nicolosi added some landscaping features and plantings to provide a sense of architectural scale.

In approving the commercial building construction proposal on April 1, P&Z members set some conditions.

A proposed parking area on the eastern side of the site must be shifted, in order to stay behind of the front setback line of the property. The change requires planned vehicle parking be moved farther back away from Barnabas Road.

Shrubbery must be planted along the building’s façade. A sidewalk planned to run along the building’s façade must be moved out away from the building to allow sufficient space for those plantings.

Also, the façade’s design must be modified to incorporate windows in areas where doors had been depicted on the design plans.

P&Z members then agreed that the project is consistent with the tenets of HCDD-E zoning. The approval took effect April 2.

P&Z members recently formed a committee to formulate architectural standards for the Hawleyville Center Design District - East zone. Such standards would foster the architecture styles which the P&Z had in mind when it created HCDD-E zoning in 2000.