P&Z Revises Approval For Industrial Complex 

By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has granted a revised approval for a four-building, 93,750-square-foot  industrial complex, which is now under construction off Edmond Road.

The P&Z’s October 18 action specifies certain permitted uses at the site, and also explicitly states the number of individual uses allowed at the property, thus clarifying an approval that the P&Z had granted for the project to 5-K Enterprises, Inc, last March.

The new approval will allow the site to hold garages to be used to shelter commercial vehicles and construction equipment that is used off the site. Also, the new approval specifies that up to five tenants may use each of the four buildings planned for the site, allowing the potential for 20 tenants on the property.

The P&Z’s March approval had restricted the uses at the site to warehousing. That approval also had stated that a maximum of five tenants could use the site.

Besides industrial garages, the site’s zoning designation would allow the complex to contain warehouse space and light manufacturing facilities, among other uses.

The wet 22.8-acre site has a street address of 3 Edmond Road. The property is on the west side of Edmond Road, south of that road’s intersection with Schoolhouse Hill Road.    

Access to the site will be provided via a driveway located near a cellular telecommunications tower on Edmond Road. The site, which is a wooded slope amid wetlands, is in a M-5 (Industrial) zone.

5-K Enterprises, Inc, is a Connecticut corporation whose shareholders are Warren Kimball and his five children.

Plans for the overall 5-K industrial project call for two 9,000-square-foot buildings, one 35,250-square-foot building, and one 40,500-square-foot building. The structures would have utilitarian designs and be set well back from Edmond Road.

On October 18, the P&Z required that 5-K provide a site lighting plan for P&Z review; specify the location of fire hydrants, and install external key safes on all buildings for firefighter access in emergencies.

Also, the applicant must submit a signage plan for the complex based on applicable sign regulations.

The P&Z also specified various requirements for garbage handling and storage on the property.   

In an initial application to the town, 5-K had sought to create almost 180,000 square feet of industrial space at the site. The project went through many revisions before the Inland Wetlands Commission approved a 93,750-square-foot version of the complex.

The site has been the subject of several past development proposals, none of which have ever materialized.