At the October 3 Planning & Zoning Commission meeting, Kevin Williams, representing 2-4-6-8 Riverside Road LLC, presented updates and changes made to Application 24.11, which concerns 2-4-6-8 Riverside Road in Sandy Hook Center.

The proposed application includes five buildings with mixed use. Building One is to include 12 units on two floors that are about 1,200 square feet each. Building Two is mixed use with residential over retail. There is 6,670 square feet of retail space beneath the nine proposed townhouse units. The retail space can be split up into 1,000 square feet units, “or some combination thereof,” as the architect, George Wiles, noted. The applicants also changed the storefronts to picture windows.

Building Three is six residential units over garages. These units will also be townhouses, so living is spread out across two floors. Building Four is similar to Building Two, on a smaller scale, with four residential units over retail space, and the units will be all one floor.

Building Five is where an antique former dwelling currently sits at 2 Riverside Road, on the corner of Washington Avenue. The proposed plan will completely demolish the circa 1838 building and create four residential units over more picture window retail spaces. on the 0.63-acre lot

As it stands, the plan is to preserve the Norway Spruce in front of 2 Riverside Road and create a stadium staircase that leads up into the development. The tree was planted on the corner of Riverside Road and Washington Avenue in May 2013 to complement the tree on the opposite corner, within The Glen at 1 Washington Avenue, that had already been serving as a Sandy Hook Center Christmas tree for 11 years at that time.

Hilltop Kitchen at 4 Riverside, a 1-acre lot, will also remain where it is in the center of the development, according to the plans presented during the meeting. The lower level of 4 Riverside is home to The Graceful Planet Studio of Dance.

6 Riverside Road is a single-family, 1,644-square-foot home built in 1813 on one acre, and 8 Riverside is a 0.85-acre vacant lot.

The feelings about the development were mixed with some support from the public and some opposition from the commission. Most public concerns were about traffic as the intersection of Riverside, Glen, Church Hill, and Washington is already a level F intersection, meaning traffic is routinely congested in that area. Most Newtown residents are aware of the increasing level of traffic through town; whether due to construction or crashes on I-84 or generalized traffic, it has become a serious issue.

The applicants stated that “As a result of this development, we added some average delay, certainly … But the levels of service [do] not decrease … we’re looking at approximately 10 seconds in the morning peak hour, and about 50 seconds in the afternoon peak hours. And that’s if you assume 100% of the site traffic is new to the area.”

Erica Sullivan, the owner of Castle Hill Chocolate on Glen Road, expressed concern.

“My concern as a business owner is if there is so much traffic that it becomes an issue for our customers to even get to us, it may impede customers from coming to our store,” she said. Sullivan added she had not heard from the developer as a business owner as to what her opinion is about the traffic and the potential issues that may arise going forward.

Tania Stergue, who lives on Glen Road, said she already sees cars and tractor-trailers waiting outside her home to go through the intersection for minutes at a time.

“It’s a mess!” Stergue added. “That is a horrible four-way … I can’t see [the development] helping.”

Steve Perrone said Riverside Road is like “a racetrack.” His worry is if the stores become popular, there might not be enough parking in the proposed 134 spaces. The town guidelines suggest 150 spaces for the development. Perrone also said, “It’s the traffic. Something’s got to be done … it looks great, but we have a problem.”

Sandy Hook Organization for Prosperity (SHOP) President Michael Burton noted that SHOP is all for improving Sandy Hook Center and the downtown area. SHOP wants to see Sandy Hook grow, he said, but there are still major concerns about parking and how the construction might affect Hilltop’s business.

Chris Hottois also spoke at the meeting, raising concerns of proportion in reference to building two.

“When you introduce a structure like this on Riverside … you got a 200-foot structure cutting across Riverside Road that will dwarf everything in the vicinity of it,” he said.

Williams responded, saying, “I hear loud and clear that traffic is a big issue, and parking.”

Commissioner Roy Meadows stated the style and what is being proposed does not fit in with Sandy Hook Center.

Following that, a motion was made by P&Z Chair David Rosen to continue the public hearing at the next regular P&Z meeting, scheduled for Thursday, October 17. Meadows seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.

=====

Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.