Following extended discussion during an October 18 public hearing, Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) members dropped the commission’s proposal to create a regulatory mechanism through which restaurants at “shopping centers” would be allowed to have drive-through window service.

The October 18 session was the fourth hearing that P&Z members held on the topic to solicit public comment on the wisdom of allowing such drive-throughs. Previous hearings were held on August 2, September 6, and October 4. Among members of the public who spoke on the topic at those hearings, a large majority opposed allowing an expanded use of drive-throughs at local eateries.

On October 18, an initial P&Z motion to create zoning regulations to allow drive-through windows at shopping center eateries failed to draw a second from a P&Z member, and thus failed.

In a subsequent vote, four P&Z members rejected the rules proposal, and one member endorsed it. That tally had P&Z Chairman Don Mitchell, Jim Swift, Corinne Cox, and Barbara Manville voting to drop the rules proposal, with Robert Mulholland voting in favor of it.

Of the P&Z’s action, Mr Mitchell said October 23, “Our residents, the people of Newtown, really didn’t support it. That’s what we wanted to know.

“What we wanted was [public] input,” he said, adding that because the drive-through window rules were being proposed by the P&Z, it did not necessarily mean that P&Z members supported the idea.

At the October 18 session, P&Z members reviewed a revised rules proposal fashioned by Town Planning Director George Benson, which modified some aspects of previous rules proposals.

Based on an audio recording of that session, the topics discussed by P&Z members included whether traffic signals would be needed to control vehicle access to and from shopping centers where drive-through service at eateries would be located, the safety of such traffic access, the vehicular queuing space required for drive-throughs, the configuration of drive-through sites, and the fast food industry.

Currently, the P&Z allows drive-through windows at banks and pharmacies, but not at eateries. The only exceptions to that prohibition are at 75 Church Hill Road and at Botsford Drive-In at 282 South Main Street.

Developer Sunrise Church Hill Road LLC is building a 12,170-square-foot retail center at 75 Church Hill Road, which will include a Starbucks Coffee shop with drive-through window service. In order to get P&Z approval for the drive-through feature, the developer proposed and then received P&Z approval for a new zone and corresponding zoning regulations for that area, known as the Exit 10 Commercial Design District (X10-CDD) zone. Those X10-CDD zoning rules allow restaurants with drive-through facilities.

The Botsford Drive-In’s drive-through window for fast food was in operation before town zoning went into effect in 1958, and thus is allowed to continue. That property is in a B-2 (Business) zone.

The P&Z has long considered the topic of allowing drive-throughs at eateries. Discussion on the matter has included the convenience aspect of such facilities versus potential littering and noise-related issues.