Noise & Lighting—

P&Z Ponders Outdoor Aspects Of Proposed Sports Complex

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members are continuing to consider the potential adverse effects of a proposed major private indoor/outdoor recreational sports complex in a M-2A (Industrial) zone, where spectators would be allowed.

Some P&Z members have expressed second thoughts about the zoning rule changes that the P&Z unanimously approved last spring allowing such an outdoor land use, asking whether permitting outdoor athletic fields would be too intensive an activity near residential properties, considering the presence of nighttime lighting and spectator crowd noise.

Those P&Z zoning rule changes came in April, following a March request from developer SEPG, LLC, of Brookfield, which has a purchase option to buy a sloping 33.4-acre site at 93 Mt Pleasant Road, where it wants to build the proposed Newtown Sports Center in a M-2A zone.

An initial construction phase would include indoor and outdoor sports facilities, as well as office space. Future phases of the four-building project would include office space and industrial space. One version of the overall project has been proposed to enclose more than 320,000 square feet of space. The site, which would contain an estimated 500 parking spaces, lies west of Whippoorwill Hill Road.

Upset that they were unaware of the implications of the zoning rule changes that were being sought by SEPG due to a vague legal notice for a March P&Z public hearing, a group of residents from the Whippoorwill Hill Road/Tory Lane area is urging the P&Z to rescind its decision to allow such sports complexes in the M-2A zone. The site is located in the only M-2A zone in town.

The residents charge that such a complex would be troublesome to them in terms of noise, traffic, lighting, and security issues. The P&Z held a July public hearing on those residents’ request that the P&Z reverse its earlier decision to allow such sports complexes.

At an August 16 P&Z session, P&Z member Dennis Bloom said the nighttime illumination of athletic fields, especially on Sunday nights, poses a developmental issue for the project, in view of nearby residents’ concerns.

Mr Bloom noted that he has no objection to recreational sports activity inside buildings at such a facility.

P&Z member Robert Poulin said the nighttime lighting of outdoor fields poses an issue for the project. “I don’t think it’s fair to the neighbors,” he said.

Also, at other such facilities in the region, sports complex users tend to travel to and from the facility until 11 pm on Saturday nights and Sunday nights, he noted.

Mr Poulin said that having recreational sports occur inside buildings is not troublesome, but added that he opposes outdoor sports facilities at such a complex.

The developer has yet to submit formal applications for the project to the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) and the P&Z. The developer is seeking approval from the Water and Sewer Authority (WSA) for a sanitary sewer extension to the site. (See related story)

P&Z member Jane Brymer suggested that any buildings on the development site be positioned to physically shield nearby homes from the sports fields.

P&Z member Robert Mulholland stressed that the P&Z has not yet received a specific development proposal for the site from SEPG. 

Mr Mulholland said that the town has athletic field lighting in use at Treadwell Park on Philo Curtis Road in Sandy Hook, but has received few complaints about it.

When SEPG eventually submits a site development plan for the 93 Mt Pleasant Road site, the P&Z could then set certain limits on the site’s usage, Mr Mulholland said.

It was “unfortunate” that SEPG presented a general development plan for the site when the developer sought the zoning rule changes earlier this year, Mr Mulholland said.

Mr Mulholland said he has no problem with adding recreational sports as a permitted land use in the M-2A zone.

Community Development Director Elizabeth Stocker that although the P&Z has yet to review a specific development plan for the site, neighboring residential property owners have concerns about how such a facility would affect their lives.

Ms Stocker noted that the M-2A zone’s specifications require that the edge of that zone contain a 75-foot-wide buffer area within which construction is prohibited. Such buffer areas are designed to provide protection for adjacent properties, she said.

“It’s not unusual for us to add a [permitted land] use from time to time,” said P&Z Chairman Lilla Dean of the P&Z’s past addition of “day care centers” as a permitted land use in an industrial zone.

Ms Dean noted that the site that SEPG proposes for the sports complex would be physically difficult to develop.

“This is a very tough piece of property,” she said. Challenges in developing the site would include obtaining municipal sanitary sewer service, addressing traffic flow and site access, protecting a watercourse on the property, and dealing with the slopes there, she said.

Such a parcel would require much site development work to make it a workable project, she said.

“I see this as one of the toughest pieces of property [to develop] in town,” she said.

If the town wants expanded economic development, it must allow various land uses to achieve that goal, Ms Dean said.

The developer is seeking to have the town extend the Hawleyville sewer system to the site for wastewater disposal. The initial leg of the Hawleyville sewer system was constructed in 2000-01 to support economic development, unlike the town’s central sewer system, which was built in the mid-1990s, to resolve longstanding groundwater pollution problems caused by failing septic systems.

Ms Dean said she has concerns about the noise and lighting that would be part of nighttime outdoor spectator sports at a sports complex, especially on summer weekends when nearby residents are outdoors.

“We really don’t have a [development] plan before us at the present time,” she said, adding though, that the P&Z could set certain restrictions on the site’s use after reviewing such a development proposal.

Ms Dean said she wants to do more research on the usage of existing recreational sports complexes in the area before acting on possibly modifying the zoning rules that the P&Z approved last April to allow recreational indoor/outdoor sports complexes in a M-2A zone.

The P&Z is expected to act on the matter at an upcoming session.

In its April zoning rule changes, P&Z members decided that recreation facilities in M-2A zones may include indoor and/or outdoor golf courses, dance studios, health and exercise facilities, racquetball, squash, basketball, volleyball and tennis courts, baseball, football, soccer and lacrosse fields, field hockey, track and field, swimming pools, ice-skating rinks, and any other recognized collegiate sport. Also, such facilities may include seating for spectators.

Other permitted uses in an M-2A zone include office buildings, hotel/conference centers, light industry, and research-and-development complexes. Retail and service businesses are allowed as accessory uses.

The purpose of M-2A zoning is to allow significant economic development, without adversely affecting the character of surrounding neighborhoods or overburdening the natural or built environments.