A gas station/convenience store proposed for construction at a 3.7-acre site at 13 Hawleyville Road (Route 25) is slated for environmental review by the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC).

The IWC is scheduled to address the commercial development proposal when it meets at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, September 25, at Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street.

Steve Maguire, senior town land use enforcement officer, said September 17 the seven-member panel will publicly discuss the environmental protection aspects of the project when it convenes the public session, which will not be a public hearing.

The gas station/convenience store proposal is slated for a Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) public hearing on October 3.

Artel Engineering Group of Brookfield is listed as the applicant for a wetlands/watercourses protection permit for the development site, which is on the west side of Hawleyville Road, just south of eastbound Interstate 84’s Exit 9 off-ramp. Artel represents 13 Hawleyville Road LLC, the firm that owns the land.

At the 3.7-acre site, the developer plans to physically alter 2.25 acres. About 1.25 acres of the site lie in the “upland review area,” or upgradient land which is within 100 feet of wetlands or watercourses.

Engineering plans for the project indicate that extensive earthen cutting and filling would be performed to contour the terrain. The site would hold a 5,293-square-foot building that would contain the gas station and convenience store. An adjacent freestanding canopy would shelter eight gas-pump islands where there would be a total of 16 gasoline fueling positions for motorists. There would be 46 parking spaces.

When the P&Z initially approved development for the site in 2015, its owners planned to construct a diner, which would have had 80 parking spaces. But plans for that project fell through.

The diner project was associated with Covered Bridge Apartments, a planned 210-unit rental apartment complex on Covered Bridge Road, which is now under construction. One of the seven planned apartment buildings there has been completed. To the rear of the site proposed for the gas station/convenience store is the recently constructed Grace Family Church.

The gas station/convenience store complex would be linked by driveways to Hawleyville Road and to Covered Bridge Road. The convenience store would be situated on the northern end of the site with its facade facing southward.

Last March, Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) members unanimously endorsed locating a facility that sells gasoline at 13 Hawleyville Road, granting the applicant a “certificate of location.”

The town’s Design Advisory Baoard (DAB) was scheduled to review the architectural and landscaping aspects of the project on September 17. The DAB makes recommendations to the P&Z on the aesthetics of construction projects proposed for the town’s several design districts. The site is in the Hawleyville Center Design District (HCDD).

The HCDD zone is a specialized land use zone unique to Hawleyville Center that was created by the P&Z in 1999 to foster creation of a neighborhood business district that includes mixed-use activities, improvements, and the development typical of a village center. The P&Z created HCDD zoning to encourage development with high quality design, which should respect the environmental conditions and history of the area in seeking to achieve an integrated, cohesive New England village center.

In February, the ZBA issued a certificate of location to Nemco Limited Partnership to sell gasoline at a planned gas station/convenience store/cafe at a 0.7-acre site at 26 Hawleyville Road, about 2,000 feet north of 13 Hawleyville Road. The Nemco project has gained P&Z site development plan approval.