Fairfield Hills Topped 2007’s Land Development Issues

By Andrew Gorosko

In the realm of land use, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members dealt with a wide range of issues in 2007, among them the town’s redevelopment of the Fairfield Hills core campus.

In a 4-to-1 vote in May, P&Z members approved various revisions to the Fairfield Hills Master Plan, including provisions that shifted the planned location for town/school offices there from Shelton House to Bridgeport Hall. P&Z members endorsed the master plan revisions based on the recommendations of the Fairfield Hills Authority (FHA) and the Board of Selectmen.

Fairfield Hills is a former state psychiatric hospital that closed in 1995, which the town purchased for $3.9 million in 2004. Bridgeport Hall formerly served as the main dining/kitchen facility at Fairfield Hills.

P&Z members decided that Bridgeport Hall, which the master plan had initially designated for assembly space, office space, and community reuse, now instead be designated for town/school office reuse.

In October, the P&Z approved the construction of the Newtown Youth Academy (NYA), an 80,200-square-foot private, nonprofit sports/recreation facility at Fairfield Hills. The NYA would be built at a site formerly occupied by Bridgewater House.

The FHA has recommended that the town enter a lease agreement to allow the NYA to be built by resident Peter D’Amico. Under the arrangement, the town would make land available at Fairfield Hills and Mr D’Amico would finance the sports complex. The FHA is the applicant of record for the NYA project.

Also, in 2007, the P&Z approved construction of a town baseball field at Fairfield Hills. Fairfield House, a former residential building at the psychiatric hospital, was demolished to make way for the new playing field.

In November, P&Z members decided that a $40 million-plus plan to expand and renovate Newtown High School is consistent with the provisions of the 2004 Town Plan of Conservation and Development.

P&Z members pointed out that the high school project must receive a special permit from the P&Z for its construction, as well as undergo an aquifer protection review in view of the site’s presence above the Pootatuck Aquifer.

Also during 2007, much public attention was focused on a development group’s proposal to construct a controversial major indoor/outdoor sports complex on Mt Pleasant Road, known as Newtown Sports Center.

In April, the P&Z approved a set of zoning rule changes to allow such sports complexes in the M-2A (Industrial) zone, following a March request from developer SEPG, LLC, of Brookfield, which had a purchase option to buy a sloping 33.4-acre site at 93 Mt Pleasant Road, where it wanted to build the proposed complex.

An initial construction phase was proposed to include indoor and outdoor sports facilities, as well as office space. Additional phases of the four-building project would include office space and industrial space. One version of the overall project was proposed to enclose more than 320,000 square feet of space. The site is west of Whippoorwill Hill Road.

The sports center proposal later encountered stiff opposition from neighbors, who charged that the presence of such a facility would adversely affect them. In response to those neighbors’ concerns, the P&Z tightened its zoning rules in September to more strictly control the use of such a sports complex.

Also, the Water and Sewer Authority (WSA) in September turned down the developer’s request to provide municipal sanitary sewer service for the project.

The developer has not submitted proposed site plans for a sports complex to either the P&Z or the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC), according to land use officials.

Multifamily Proposal

A Danbury developer, whose application for a municipal sanitary sewer connection for a controversial proposed 26-unit condominium complex in Sandy Hook Center was rejected in September by the WSA, appealed that sewer rejection in court. Through the appeal, the developer seeks to have a judge order to WSA to approve sewer service for the multifamily project.

In that lawsuit Dauti Construction, LLC, names the WSA as defendant for its decision to reject the firm’s request for sewer service. The firm proposes Edona Commons as a mixed-income condo complex on a steep, rugged 4.5-acre site at 95-99 Church Hill Road, near Dayton Street. Developer Guri Dauti does business as Dauti Construction, LLC.

Following lengthy review, WSA members rejected the sewering application because it failed to meet WSA regulations concerning the classes of properties that are eligible to use the central sewer system’s remaining sewage treatment capacity.

The developer also has a court appeal pending against the P&Z over its April 5 rejection of the Edona Commons proposal. That rejection marked the fourth time since 2003 that the P&Z had turned down various multifamily development proposals for the site from the developer. That pending court appeal may be decided by mid-2008. The condo proposal has drawn strong public opposition.

Industrial Complex

In October, the P&Z granted a revised approval for a four-building, 93,750-square-foot industrial complex off Edmond Road. 5-K Enterprises had gained an initial P&Z approval for the project in March.

The complex will contain garages to shelter commercial vehicles and construction equipment that is used off the site. Warehousing and light manufacturing space are among other potential uses of the industrially zoned property. The wet, sloped 22.8-acre site had been proposed for various uses in the past, none of ever materialized.

Also, the P&Z, among other local land uses agencies, discussed during 2007 the Economic Development Commission’s (EDC) conceptual proposal for Newtown Technology Park. Land use officials are seeking to gauge the feasible extent of industrial development for the environmentally sensitive town-owned site located near Deep Brook, which is a trout stream.

The site has steep slopes and wetlands. It is partially in the town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD), a tightly regulated area that lies above the Pootatuck Aquifer.

In February, the P&Z approved a local business services firm’s controversial proposal to construct a 24,600-square-foot office building at Curtis Corporate Park, off Toddy Hill Road in Sandy Hook.

P&Z members unanimously approved the construction proposal from TnT Partners, LLC, to construct a two-level office building on a slope at a 2.8-acre site at 12 Turnberry Lane. The property, which is located in a M-4 (Industrial) zone, is situated on Turnberry Lane’s turnaround circle. The TnT project is now under construction.

In November, Grace Christian Fellowship gained unanimous P&Z approval to construct a new church off Hawleyville Road (Route 25), near Exit 9 of Interstate 84. The special permit will allow the group to construct a 29,053-square-foot church on a 13.7-acre site at 4 Covered Bridge Road.

The congregation currently occupies a 13,500-square-foot church about one mile away at 174 Mt Pleasant Road (Route 6). The group wants to build a new larger church to meet the needs of its expanding congregation.

The new church would contain a main assembly hall holding 518 seats for church services. The building would enclose a sanctuary, baptistery, office space, kitchen facilities, a nursery, and youth facilities, plus various meeting rooms and gathering spaces.

South Main Street

As part of the ongoing redevelopment of the South Main Street site that formerly held The Fireside Inn, the P&Z granted several approvals in 2007 to Highland HC, LLC, for the creation of Highland Plaza, a planned almost 60,000-square-foot retail/restaurant complex in a B-2 (Business) zone at 121-125 South Main Street.

Highland has been reconstructing the former Fireside Inn building, which would hold new retail/restaurant uses. An as-yet unnamed restaurant is planned for the section of the building nearest South Main Street. The renovated Fireside Inn building encloses about 33,000 square feet of space.

Two additional structures are planned for the eight-acre property. A new 22,000-square-foot building would hold retail space. A new 3,000-square-foot building situated in a parking lot would hold a bank.

The Highland Plaza site exists within a Special Development District (SDD) zone situated within the South Main Street Village Design District (SMSVDD).

The Highland project represents the first P&Z development application to be subject to the SMSVDD rules.  

In July, after several years of discussion, the P&Z enacted the SMSVDD zoning regulations to more tightly control commercial design on frontage lots located along South Main Street, in order to preserve the area’s New England visual character. The SDD aspect of SMSVDD zoning is a regulatory mechanism that allows the development or the redevelopment of a commercial site along South Main Street to be tailored to the characteristics of that individual property, provided that the P&Z and the applicant agree on the specifics of the project.

The heavily traveled 4.2-mile-long South Main Street corridor has seen continuing commercial development and redevelopment during the past several years.

In April, a developer gained P&Z approval to construct a 7,500-square-foot, six-space retail building at 23 Barnabas Road in Hawleyville, at the southern corner of Barnabas Road and Hawleyville Road (Route 25). The project is located in the Hawleyville Center Design District (HCDD), a special commercial zone intended to foster the type of commercial growth that is deemed desirable by the P&Z.

Also, in February, following lengthy review, the P&Z approved a set of architectural and site guidelines for the Sandy Hook Design District (SHDD) zone in Sandy Hook Center.

The detailed standards, which were formulated by the town’s Design Advisory Board (DAB), with advice from a group of Sandy Hook Center property owners, provide builders and developers with specific aesthetic recommendations from the P&Z on the appearance of future development and redevelopment in the SHDD zone.

Borough Growth

In October, the Borough Zoning Commission approved St Rose Church’s proposal for an expansion and modernization of St Rose School and related facilities at the church campus on Church Hill Road. The church hopes to complete the project by the fall of 2008.

The project would include an additional classroom-meeting room, new offices for school officials, a faculty room and an instructional science facility. Also planned are a gathering hall with kitchen facilities, a gymnasium, a stage, a multimedia center including church and school libraries, computer facilities, storage space, and restrooms. An atrium is also planned. Landscaping improvements would be made.

Also in the borough, the owners of Eton Center at 5 Queen Street are soon expected to file plans with the borough zoners for redeveloping the shopping center, which formerly held the Grand Union supermarket. Local officials have long eyed the redevelopment of Eton Center as a key growth component in the town’s central business district.

The proposal from a New York City developer calls for the construction of a new 3,195-square-foot freestanding building near Church Hill Road, which would house a branch office of Wachovia Bank. Overall, the project would contain 51,284 square feet of enclosed space, including a grocery store, general retail space, and bank. The grocery store would occupy about 33,000 square feet of space. Parking would be provided for about 250 vehicles.