Marcus Dairy Warehouse/Office Complex Approved By P&Z

By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has approved a special permit for Marcus Dairy of Danbury that would allow the firm to move its dairy distribution business and corporate office space from Danbury to an 8.6-acre site in a M-5 (Industrial) zone at 352 South Main Street in Botsford, at the Monroe town line.

P&Z members unanimously approved the application at a February 5 session, following the conclusion of a public hearing which had begun on December 4.

Certain unspecified issues, however, have cropped up over Marcus Dairy purchasing the site from its current owner, clouding the prospect of the transaction occurring. Andrew J. Julian of West Haven is the current owner of the property, according to town real estate records.

Sean Marcus, the dairy firm’s warehouse operations manager, said February 11, “We have some issues we have to get through first…We have hit some unexpected snags.

“There are some things that we are hopefully [going] to work through,” he added.

The problems do not stem from the town government, Mr Marcus stressed, noting that the firm has had no problems with how the town handled the development application.

Attempts to reach Mr Julian for comment before the deadline for this edition of The Bee were unsuccessful.

At the February 5 P&Z session, civil engineer Bill Carboni of Spath-Bjorklund Associates, representing the applicant, described to P&Z members how the applicant has modified the site plans following the December 4 session. The applicant of record for the project is Claris Construction Inc of Newtown, representing Mr Julian.

The project’s design changes include modifications concerning septic waste disposal and motorist sight lines near the site, Mr Carboni said.

In response to a nearby residential property owner’s concerns about noise emanating from the industrial site, the applicant has agreed to position the mechanical units for a planned refrigerated warehouse in an area where the sound from those units would be shielded from the neighbor, he said.

P&Z member Dennis Bloom suggested that for the sake of traffic safety, the applicant post road signs stating, “Trucks Entering Highway” to alert motorists that trucks would be entering South Main Street from the site.

In approving the special permit for the project, P&Z members required that the “back-up beepers” used by the trucks traveling on the site, be set to the lowest sound levels permitted by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to reduce sound pollution in the area.

P&Z members decided that the project is consistent with M-5 (Industrial) zoning, and also conforms to the 2004 Town Plan of Conservation and Development.

In its plans, the dairy firm proposes using approximately 33,200 square feet of space overall at the site in its planned $4.5 million project. That space would be in the form of a new 16,200-square-foot refrigerated warehouse for dairy products, as well as 17,000 square feet of existing, renovated enclosed space on the site. Existing businesses at the site would leave to make way for Marcus Dairy.