P&Z Approves Revised Version Of Plaza South

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have approved revised plans for Plaza South, a 68,000-square-foot retail center that would be the largest such complex to be constructed locally in the past decade.

The shopping center is planned for a 12.35-acre site at 266-276 South Main Street. It is a sloped property that formerly was a sand and gravel mine. The land is in a (M-6) Industrial zone on the west side of South Main Street in the area lying between Sand Hill Plaza and Cold Spring Road.

The Plaza South developer had received P&Z approvals for a shopping center in April 2005, in the form of a 64,000-square-foot building intended for several relatively large tenants, plus a separate 4,000-square-foot bank. But that complex never materialized and the developer later submitted revised plans for P&Z review.

The version of the project unanimously approved for Plaza South, LLC, by the P&Z on August 3 involves four buildings: a 4,000-square-foot bank, plus retail buildings sized at 32,000 square feet, 17,000 square feet, and 15,000 square feet. The complex could hold up to 18 businesses, plus the bank. The developer has not disclosed the identities of potential tenants.

P&Z Chairman William O’Neil said that if the adjacent Sand Hill Plaza were to expand its facilities at some point in the future, such activity would trigger the construction of a private driveway that would link Sand Hill Plaza to Plaza South. P&Z members have urged that such a driveway be constructed by the two developers to allow shoppers to easily travel between the two shopping centers, thus alleviating traffic pressure on the congested South Main Street.

In approving the Plaza South complex on August 3, P&Z members restated the many conditions of approval that were part of the commission’s April 2005 endorsement of the project.

In addition to the original conditions of approval, Plaza South, LLC, must submit a complete and detailed signage plan for the entire shopping center for review and approval. P&Z is requiring that the signage be tasteful, complementary to the shopping center’s architecture, and have a consistency of appearance. Signs may not be installed at the site until P&Z approves their design.

P&Z also is urging the applicant to be mindful that the site is located in the town’s environmentally sensitive Aquifer Protection District (APD) in view of plans to have eateries as tenants at the complex. Such eateries would discharge much more wastewater into a planned large-scale septic waste disposal system than would be discharged by the stores located there.

Also, P&Z is reserving the right to require the developer to place additional decorative plantings along the edge of the site in view of the property’s prominent location along South Main Street.

P&Z also is requiring the applicant to restrict delivery truck traffic on the site to a counterclockwise travel pattern located behind the retail buildings to simplify traffic flow.

The August 3 P&Z approval of Plaza South followed the developer’s reworking of the retail center’s building layout that had been presented for review at a July 6 session. The developer reworked those plans to improve traffic flow on the site, as was requested by P&Z. 

The planned intersection of Plaza South’s driveway with South Main Street and Button Shop Road would be controlled by a four-way traffic signal. The shopping center would have 340 parking spaces.

The adjacent approximately 160,000-square-foot Sand Hill Plaza, which has been in operation for more than 15 years, has a Super Stop & Shop supermarket as its prime tenant.

In early 2004, the Plaza South applicant had sought to revise the zoning regulations regarding maximum store sizes in order to allow individual stores within shopping centers to occupy up to 60,000 square feet of floor space.

P&Z members, however, rejected that request, letting stand an existing 40,000-square-foot size limit on individual stores within shopping centers. P&Z members had approved that 40,000-square-foot size limit in 1996, a move that has deterred large-store retailers from seeking local quarters.