TnT Partners—

Neighbors Raise Concerns

Over Office Building Proposal

By Andrew Gorosko

Residents living near Curtis Corporate Park in Sandy Hook have raised a number of concerns about a local firm’s proposal to construct a 24,600-square-foot office building at the turnaround circle in the industrial park.

TnT Partners, LLC, is seeking a special permit from the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) to construct an office building at 12 Turnberry Lane. The 2.8-acre site is in a M-4 (Industrial) zone.

The P&Z held a public hearing on the construction proposal on December 21.

TnT Expense Management, LLC, which currently is located in a 7,500-square-foot office building at 13 Berkshire Road in Sandy Hook, is seeking to construct a new building to meet the firm’s increasing space needs.

The company, which employs 65 people, is in the business of telecommunications expense management. The firm performs computer analyses of its clients’ telecommunications bills to find ways to cut operating costs.

Michael Bodetti, president of TnT, told P&Z members that the technology-based business is growing quickly. Mr Bodetti noted that 21 of the firm’s 65 employees are Newtown residents.

Architect Kevin Bennett of Bennett Sullivan Associates of Southbury, representing TnT, said the proposed two-story structure would be constructed on a slope on Lot 11 in the industrial park. The firm also owns the adjacent 2.5-acre Lot 12 for future potential development.

The office building site would contain 93 vehicle parking spaces. TnT would have a shared driveway with an adjacent property owner in the industrial park.

The steel-frame building would have an exterior fashioned of brick, stucco, and glass. The office building’s design has been submitted to the town’s Design Advisory Board for review, the architect said.

Engineer Dainius Virbickas of Artel Engineering Group, LLC of Brookfield, representing TnT, explained that the office building would have landscaping elements to visually buffer the view from the adjacent 20-lot Quarry Ridge Estates residential subdivision, which lies to the south.

Both the industrial park and the residential subdivision are located on a mined-out expanse of land that was formerly quarried by Newtown Sand & Gravel. The P&Z approved the industrial park in January 2001, and then approved Quarry Ridge Estates in March 2002.

Stormwater would be discharged onto the office building site and infiltrate into the sandy soil, Mr Virbickas said.

The site is within the town’s environmentally sensitive Aquifer Protection District (APD), an overlay zone within which various regulatory safeguards are enforced to protect water quality in the underlying Pootatuck Aquifer. The aquifer is the source of two public water supplies and hundreds of individual domestic water wells.

The TnT property would have both a water well and a septic waste disposal system because the industrial park has neither a public water supply nor sanitary sewers.

Mr Virbickas said the developer would stabilize existing steep slopes near the construction site. Also, the project would be designed to keep headlamp beams from straying onto adjacent properties, he said.

Public Comment

Daniel Dougherty of 3 Fir Tree Lane, which lies east of the industrial park, asked why he had not received a formal mailed notification of the December 21 public hearing, as had his neighbors. Mr. Dougherty stressed that he has many questions about the implications of TnT’s project effects on nearby Fir Tree Lane. “There’s a million questions,” he said.

In view of Mr Dougherty’s failure to receive a formal notification, the hearing will continue at a future P&Z session, said Lilla Dean, who acted as P&Z chairman at the meeting.

Mr Dougherty posed questions about the proposed office building’s proximity to a berm, asking whether Fir Tree Lane would be sufficiently visually shielded from the structure. Nighttime illumination in the industrial area already creates glare problems for the neighborhood, he noted.

Mr Dougherty also posed questions about the presence of a conservation easement in the area, as well as about potential tree cutting on the site.

Mr Dougherty said he would be reviewing TnT’s plans in preparation for the upcoming reconvened hearing.

Michael Brennan of 2-A Fir Tree Lane told P&Z members that he does not want to be able to see the TnT building from his residential property. If trees were cut away from the berm that lies between his property and the industrial site, there would be erosion problems on the berm, he said.

Robin Rush-Hanson of 8 Quarry Ridge Road asked why the P&Z is allowing larger and larger buildings to be constructed at Curtis Corporate Park. The heavily used Toddy Hill Road, which intersects with the dead-end Turnberry Lane, cannot handle additional traffic, she said. She asked whether the applicant has performed a traffic study for the project.

Ms Rush-Hanson also asked whether the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units for the TnT building would be screened from view, and whether garbage dumpsters would be kept out of sight.

She also posed questions about the building’s height and how the site would be landscaped.

Stacey Greenberg of 2 Fir Tree Lane raised issues about a loss of privacy due to the presence of an office building, the environmental effects of such construction, and nighttime illumination. The development application must be carefully reviewed, she said.

Lewis Socci of 5 Fir Tree Lane urged that P&Z strictly adhere to the land use regulations in reviewing the TnT project. Toddy Hill Road is prone to traffic congestion, he noted.

Joshua Drew of 11 Quarry Ridge Road said it appears that Curtis Corporate Park has an inconsistent set of land uses within it. Mr Drew predicted that the TnT project would generate much traffic in the area, adding that traffic issues must be reviewed.

Mr Drew is a plaintiff in a recent lawsuit against the P&Z and Stock Building Supply, Inc, over the P&Z’s approval for Stock to create a lumberyard at #2 and #6 Turnberry Lane.

Newtown resident John Dunleavy, who is a TnT employee, told P&Z members that TnT is a good company to have in Newtown. The firm is involved in community affairs, he said.

Response From TnT

Mr Bennett, representing TnT, said that the office building would stand 28 feet tall at its facade and 14 feet tall at the rear. The rear of the building would be approximately 3½ feet taller than the top of the adjacent berm, he said.

A specialized textile mat, which would be used to initially stabilize steep slopes near the building, would be nontoxic, he said, in response to one resident’s concerns about whether the presence of such a material in the ground would contaminate nearby domestic water wells.

The conservation easement in the area is off-limits to development, he said. Mr Bennett said the developer would provide P&Z with a nighttime lighting plan for the site.

Mr Virbickas said that a traffic study was not performed as part of the TnT application. The firm’s proposed use of the site is in line with other land uses in the industrial park, he said. No retaining wall would be constructed on the property, he said. No tree cutting would occur in the conservation easement, he added. If desired, the applicant could plant evergreen shrubbery within the easement to provide visual screening, he said.

Ms Dean told TnT representatives that P&Z wants the firm to submit a site lighting plan, as well as a revised landscaping plan for the property. The public hearing on the project is scheduled to resume on January 4.