Sandy Hook Center—

P&Z Reviews Betts Square Redevelopment Project

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members are reviewing the Betts Square mixed-use redevelopment proposal, which would renovate and expand an existing circa-1843 house and add two new buildings to create an office/retail/residential complex at 107 Church Hill Road in Sandy Hook Center.

P&Z members took no action on local developer/builder Michael Burton’s proposal at a September 18 public hearing. Mr Burton is doing business as Pootatuck Rentals, LLC.

The project has gained both a wetlands protection approval and an aquifer protection endorsement from the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC).

The Police Commission, in its role as the local traffic authority, has conditionally endorsed the traffic aspects of the project.

Mr Burton told P&Z members that he recently had overgrown vegetation cleared away from the front yard of the 1.75-acre site, which abuts the Pootatuck River. The property has a replica of the Statue of Liberty in the front yard.

Mr Burton said the property offers good potential as an example of Sandy Hook Design District (SHDD) zoning. The P&Z created SHDD zoning for Sandy Hook Center in 1995 to foster mixed-use development and redevelopment, as well as provide pedestrian amenities. SHDD zoning is intended to stimulate economic development.

Plans calls for more than doubling the size the Betts House by constructing an addition at the rear that would increase its area to more than 10,000 square feet. The house has a large basement.

To the rear of the Betts House, a carriage house and a barnlike structure would be built. The site would hold three residential apartments.

The project would include about 10,400 square feet of office space and about 5,000 square feet of retail space, plus the apartments.

The project has received an endorsement from the town’s Design Advisory Board (DAB), Mr Burton said.

It remains unclear which tenants would occupy the Betts Square complex, he said.

The site would be served by two existing driveways and hold parking spaces for 57 vehicles. Bennett Sullivan Associates of Southbury is the architect.

Civil engineer Alan Shepard, representing the applicant, said, “I’m glad to see how Sandy Hook [Center] has progressed. I’ve always thought it’s been a diamond in the rough.”

The mixed-use aspect of Betts Square would attract people to the area, he said.

The site would require no major earthen cutting or filling to redevelop it, he said. The project would have sanitary sewer service, he added.

Landscape designer Andy Serfilippi, representing the applicant, said the site’s landscape design would match the visual cues established by the Sandy Hook Center Streetscape Project, a street beautification project that was performed by the town along Church Hill Road in the area. Site lighting and plantings would be attractive, according to Mr Serfilippi.

Traffic engineer Michael Galante, representing the applicant, explained the traffic aspects of the project to P&Z members.

Mr Galante said he expects that the state Department of Transportation (DOT) eventually will upgrade the traffic signal at the nearby intersection of Church Hill Road, Glen Road, Riverside Road, and Washington Avenue. The irregular geometry of the intersection and its limited sight lines pose hazards to motorists traveling through the area.

Mr Galante presented statistics to the P&Z detailing the traffic flow that would be generated by the Betts Square project.

No members of the public spoke at the September 18 hearing.

P&Z Chairman Lilla Dean said on September 18 that P&Z members would be reviewing at an upcoming session the aquifer protection information on the project, which is required because the site lies within the town’s environmentally sensitive Aquifer Protection District (APD).

On September 24, the IWC endorsed the project’s aquifer protection plan. The P&Z reviews such endorsements and then acts on the aquifer protection aspects of projects.