P&Z Rezones Fairfield Hills Acreage

For Industrial Growth

By Andrew Gorosko

As a preliminary step toward the town’s developing acreage for new industrial growth, the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has rezoned more than 34 acres at Fairfield Hills that is planned as the site of the future Newtown Technology Park.

At an August 4 session, P&Z members approved rezoning the acreage, which lies north of Deep Brook, from C&A (Conservation & Agriculture) zoning to M-5 (Industrial) zoning.

As the developer of the industrial complex, the town would extend a dead-end street onto the industrial site from Commerce Road. A short spur road would extend from that new dead end street. Through such a road layout, the town hopes to create up to ten new building lots for technology-oriented industrial growth, which is viewed as a way to broaden the local tax base.

The rezoning stems from the town’s desire to maximize the number of building lots that could be created on the site, in view of what land is best suited for development and what land should remain undeveloped due to steep slopes and the presence of wetlands, according to Community Development Director Elizabeth Stocker.

“We’re in the conceptual planning stages,” she said.

Such development would be subject to review by the P&Z, and the Conservation Commission serving as the local wetlands agency, and possibly by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Ms Stocker said town officials are studying using the proposed new roadway in the industrial area to serve as a link in a connector road that would join Church Hill Road to Wasserman Way. Such a connector road is viewed as a way to relieve traffic pressure on Queen Street.

A complicating factor in the town’s creating such a connector road is the state’s ownership of the land at Fairfield Hills that lies between the industrial site and Wasserman Way.  

Economic Development Commission Chairman Chet Hopper said that the rezoning sets the stage for new industrial development that avoids environmentally sensitive areas. The initial conceptual plans for the industrial subdivision were reconfigured to both avoid development in environmentally sensitive areas and also to maximize the number of building lots that could be created.

“This has been an excellent compromise,” Mr Hopper said.

Having the site’s zoning designation converted to M-5 will allow planning to proceed for the site’s industrial lot layout, he added.

Following a public hearing, P&Z members unanimously approved rezoning the 34 acres from C&A to M-5 zoning for industrial development.

P&Z members noted that that the site has various developmental constraints. Deep Brook, which is a natural trout fishery, is on a site boundary. The site is located in town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD), an area above the Pootatuck Aquifer that has stringent development regulations due to environmental issues.

P&Z members decided that the rezoning will provide the town with an opportunity to develop the least environmentally sensitive areas on the site for economic growth. They agreed that the most sensitive areas on the property will be protected as open space land. They also decided to create an environmental protection corridor on the site along the northern edge of Deep Brook.

P&Z members agreed that the change of zone is consistent with the 2004 Town Plan of Conservation and Development.