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Amoco Owner Wants To Serve Take-Out Food

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Amoco Owner Wants To Serve Take-Out Food

By Andrew Gorosko

A local businessman is seeking changes to the zoning regulations, which, if approved, would allow the gasoline filling station he operates on Church Hill Road to apply to expand its convenience store, to cook take-out food inside the store, and to add a self-service car wash to the premises.

Jaydev Patel of 2 Stone Fence Lane, the applicant for the zoning regulation changes, is the managing member of Sundaram, LLC, the operators of 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 a public hearing on the application early on the morning of August 4. P&Z action on the application is expected at an upcoming session.

Attorney Christopher Leonard, representing Mr Patel, told P&Z members the current regulations covering convenience stores at filling stations were enacted in 1981 at a time when combining the two uses on one property was still a new idea, according to P&Z records. Many filling stations have moved away from making automotive repairs to having an attached convenience store, Mr Leonard said.

Traffic engineer Alan Mess, representing the applicant, told P&Z members that the public primarily uses combination filling station/convenience stores for gasoline purchases, adding that buying other items is a secondary use.

Representatives for the applicant said other area towns have more liberal regulations than Newtown concerning the size of convenience stores.

P&Z member Heidi Winslow said that lines of vehicles waiting to use a car wash at a combined facility could cause traffic congestion. 

P&Z member Lilla Dean expressed concern that patrons could cause a litter problem by throwing away take-out food containers obtained at the convenience store.

Mr Leonard said the town’s regulations on such facilities are outdated.

P&Z members received various written comments on Mr Patel’s proposal to change the zoning regulations.

P&Z attorney Robert Fuller wrote the proposed changes do not pose legal problems, but raise public policy questions for the P&Z about permitted land uses.

The proposed rule changes would allow a filling station in a B-2 zone to have an accessory self-service car wash. Such car washes 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 area from 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, she added.

Ms Stocker wrote that the proposed changes would allow several uses that generate high traffic volumes to coexist on a single property. She recommended that the P&Z review the traffic consequences of approving such regulations.

Ms Stocker also questioned the P&Z’s ability to control “a drive-through fast food grocer” from becoming the principal use of the site. She noted that the proposed rule changes do not require any business relationship between the several uses on the site.

In a review of the rule change proposal, the Greater Bridgeport Regional Planning Agency wrote, “These proposals may allow for a density and intensity of uses not intended by the existing zoning regulations and therefore conflict [with] the intent of the existing regulations.”

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