P&Z Blocks Expansion Of Services At Amoco Station

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have unanimously turned down a local businessman’s proposal to modify the town’s zoning regulations, which would have allowed him to apply to expand the uses of his Church Hill Road gas station/convenience store.

P&Z members September 21 voted 4-to-0 to reject a request from Jaydev Patel of 2 Stone Fence Lane, which would have allowed the gasoline filling station he operates on Church Hill Road to apply to expand its convenience store, to cook take-out food inside that store, and to add a self-service car wash to the premises. Voting against the request were P&Z Chairman Daniel Fogliano and P&Z members Stephen Koch, Heidi Winslow, and Lilla Dean.

Mr Patel is the managing member of Sundaram, LLC, which operates the Amoco service station at 62 Church Hill Road, near Exit 10 of Interstate-84. The property, which is in a B-2 commercial zone, is about two-thirds of an acre. P&Z members conducted an August 4 public hearing on the request for zoning regulation changes.

Mr Fogliano said September 21 the type of regulation changes which Mr Patel has in mind for the property are not the type of changes that he wants in town.

In presenting the proposed regulation changes to the P&Z August 4, attorney Christopher Leonard, representing Mr Patel, told P&Z members the town’s zoning regulations covering convenience stores were enacted in 1981, at a time when combining convenience stores with filling stations was still a new idea. Mr Leonard then urged the P&Z to update its convenience store regulations, noting that many filling stations have moved away from making automotive repairs to having attached convenience stores.

Mr Fogliano said September 21 that he had visited several facilities such as the one proposed by Mr Patel, but was not impressed with them, saying those facilities have large amounts of pavement and huge convenience stores.

“I don’t want to see the extra traffic,” Mr Fogliano said.

“I’m not in favor of this application, of this change,” he said.

Allowing such multiple-use properties in B-2 commercial zones would not help the town stay rural, he said.

Besides allowing new uses at the Amoco filling station, approving such zoning regulation changes would have implications for other areas with B-2 zones, such as Route 25, Mr Fogliano said.

Of Mr Patel’s proposal, Ms Winslow said it would make for “three very intensive uses for one lot.” Using one relatively small piece of property so intensively would lead to traffic problems and traffic congestion, Ms Winslow said in registering her opposition to the proposal.

The section of Church Hill Road between Walnut Tree Hill Road and the Housatonic Railroad overpass, where the Amoco gas station is located, is one of the most heavily traveled areas in town and has a high accident rate.

P&Z member Stephen Koch said changing the zoning regulations to allow larger convenience stores in B-2 zones, which also sell take-out food and which have self-service car washes, is inconsistent with the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development, in stating his opposition to the proposal.

P&Z members then voted to reject the requested regulation changes, stating the proposal is inconsistent with the Plan of Conservation and Development.

P&Z members have turned down other requested zoning regulation changes and zone designation changes for that section of Church Hill Road during the past several years, citing the practical problems posed by high traffic volumes in the area.

P&Z attorney Robert Fuller had informed the P&Z that the proposed changes did not pose legal problems, but that they raised public policy questions for the P&Z about permitted land uses.

At the August 4 public hearing at which Mr Patel’s proposal to revise the zoning regulations was presented to P&Z members, Mr Patel’s representatives said other area towns allow larger convenience stores than Newtown.

The proposed rule changes would have allowed a filling station in a B-2 zone to have an accessory self-service car wash. Such a car wash would be connected to the sanitary sewer system or would totally recycle the water used in the car washing process. Vehicles in such a car wash would remain stationary while being washed. The proposal also would allow food to be prepared in the convenience store for consumption off the premises. Current zoning regulations prohibit cooking food within convenience stores.

In a review of the proposal, Elizabeth Stocker, the town’s community development director, wrote the proposed changes would allow convenience stores to increase to 3,000 square feet in floor area, doubling the current 1,500-square-foot limit. Also, the proposed changes would allow separate buildings for each use of the property, or would allow all uses to be conducted within one building.

Ms Stocker had cautioned the P&Z to consider the traffic consequences of allowing three high-intensity uses on a single property.