Following discussion at an August 16 public hearing, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members unanimously approved the construction of an 8,300-square-foot industrial building at Curtis Corporate Park in Sandy Hook.

Voting in favor of the project planned for a 1.01-acre lot in an M-4 (Industrial) zone at 3 Turnberry Lane were P&Z Chairman Don Mitchell, Corinne Cox, Barbara Manville, Robert Mulholland, and Roy Meadows. The sandy site is on the north side of the dead-end Turnberry Lane, about halfway between its intersection with Toddy Hill Road and its turnaround circle.

During the public hearing, engineer Steven Trinkaus of Trinkaus Engineering LLC of Southbury, representing applicant 3 Turnberry Lane LLC of Bethel, told P&Z members that the project gained an aquifer protection endorsement from the Aquifer Protection Agency (APA) on August 8.

Mr Trinkaus asked that the P&Z waive a requirement for a traffic study for the project, noting that the several businesses that would be located in the building would generate little traffic, and thus a traffic study is not warranted. P&Z members agreed not to require a traffic study.

The prime occupant of the building would be Lawn Doctor Inc, a lawn care firm. Other spaces in the building would be occupied by various trades businesses, such as plumbers and electricians.

Mr Trinkaus assured P&Z members that if any of the three as-yet unspecified industrial businesses occupying the building other than Lawn Doctor would be storing chemicals on the premises, the matter would be referred to the APA for additional environmental review.

The 3 Turnberry Lane site is in the town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD). The P&Z created the APD in June 1999 to safeguard water quality in the underlying Pootatuck Aquifer, the town’s sole source aquifer, which is the source for two public water supplies and widespread individual domestic water wells.

The APA’s August 8 aquifer protection endorsement for Lawn Doctor’s planned use of the property was forwarded to the P&Z for its consideration. Mr Trinkaus had explained to the APA that Lawn Doictor would only be storing lawn fertilizer in the building, not any pesticides.

The engineer had presented to the APA an aquifer protection report that had been prepared a decade ago for a flooring firm that had planned to occupy a proposed 8,600-square-foot building there but was never built. The engineer told APA members that the 2008 aquifer report for the flooring firm largely pertains to the lawn maintenance firm’s plans for the site.

The 2008 aquifer report states that the flooring firm did not need to formulate any emergency plans to protect against spills/leaks and to control any spills/leaks of hazardous materials at the site, which has sandy, porous soil.

The APA did not require 3 Turnberry Lane LLC to have a new aquifer report be prepared for the site.

Site conditions do not require a wetlands/watercourses protection permit for the property.

Lawn Doctor would occupy 3,000 square feet of commercial space, plus 800 square feet of office space. There would be three separate 1,500-square-foot spaces suitable for occupancy by tradesman.

In approving the site development plans for the industrial construction project, P&Z members agreed that the project is consistent with the tenets of the 2014 Town Plan of Conservation and Development. The approval takes effect on September 10.

In January 2001, the P&Z approved the creation of Curtis Corporate Park, a 13-lot industrial subdivision on 49 acres. The industrial park and the nearby Quarry Ridge Estates residential subdivision on Quarry Ridge Road sit on land that formerly was a major sand-and-gravel mine. Quarry Ridge Estates, which the P&Z approved in March 2002, contains 20 house lots on 48 acres.