P&Z Increases Office      Park Tenant Limit

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have approved a local firm’s proposal to increase the number of tenants that it is allowed to have in its South Main Street office building, known as SCB Office Park.

P&Z members on July 31 approved SCB International, LLC’s, proposal to increase the limit from six tenants to 15 tenants at the 153 South Main Street building.

The building formerly was owned and occupied by Heise/Dresser Instruments. Constructed in 1961 and later expanded, the building was a manufacturing facility for precision pressure gauges that were used in the aerospace and shipbuilding industries. Heise/Dresser moved to Shelton in 2001, after which SCB International bought the property.

The SCB building contains 40,687 square feet of gross leasable area, according to town land records.

Current office building owner Peter D’Amico told P&Z members July 31 that most firms seeking rental space in the building want between 1,000 and 3,000 square feet of floor area for their businesses.

Mr D’Amico’s firm, Bulk Materials International (BMI), occupies a section of the office building. That company purchases materials for sale to cement manufacturers. 

Besides BMI and the several tenants that now occupy the office building, the structure contains much rentable space, Mr D’Amico said. The building is in a M-2 Industrial zone.

Mr D’Amico noted that when the building’s interior would be modified to accommodate new tenants, he would obtain approvals from the town building department and from the fire marshal for building configuration changes.

Although the P&Z conducted a July 31 public hearing on SCB’s request to increase its tenant limit, there were no public comments. 

Approval

In their approval, P&Z members endorsed allowing up to 15 tenants in the office building, with a minimum size of 1,000 square feet of floor space per tenant. Medical offices would be an allowed use in the building.

P&Z members required that the zoning enforcement officer review the effect that additional tenants would have on vehicle parking at the office building. A parking lot there contains 120 spaces.

P&Z members decided that the town health department must evaluate the septic system’s waste disposal capacity before the building’s 159-person capacity is exceeded. The office building has a public water supply.

P&Z member Lilla Dean said that allowing the office building to be used by multiple tenants, who need relatively small amounts of office space, makes for a good use of the property. Before receiving approval from the P&Z, the minimum allowable rental size in the office building was 2,000 square feet.

In a recent letter to the P&Z, Mr D’Amico said it would be simpler to rent out space in the building to multiple tenants who need relatively small amounts of space, rather than a firm that needs 10,000 square feet of space or more.

Because the SCB property is not in the town’s Aquifer Protection District, medical uses would be allowed in the office building.

Mr D’Amico has suggested to P&Z members that an “executive suite” office configuration be set up in the building. Under such an arrangement, a tenant would lease space from SCB. That tenant would then sublease space to subtenants. The individual offices of subtenants would have access to commonly provided services, such as telephone answering, computing, and secretarial service.