The Borough Zoning Commission (BZC) has endorsed certain design changes for The Village at Lexington Gardens retail complex on Church Hill Road, including some modifications required for Market Place Kitchen & Bar, a restaurant that plans to locate in one of the two spaces there intended for eateries.

Architect Hugh Sullivan of Bennett Sullivan Associates of Southbury, which designed the complex now under construction at 30 Church Hill Road, explained the various planned design changes at a December 14 BZC meeting.

Market Place has contracted to lease first-floor space in Building A/B at the complex, which is on the east side of the 6.3-acre site, according to Mr Sullivan.

The design changes would adapt the facilities to the specific needs of Market Place. The changes include adding two outdoor facilities for refuse handling; constructing an approximately 800 square-foot seasonal patio; building a stone wall alongside that patio; installing doors for access to that patio; positioning an exterior fireplace on the patio; and installing a rooftop chimney to handle smoke from the restaurant's exhaust hood.

Market Place Kitchen & Bar has restaurants in Danbury, Woodbury, and West Dover, Vt. A new restaurant is planned for Avon. Market Place offers Modern American cuisine in the farm-to-table approach to dining.

Other design changes for Lexington Gardens involve the placement of heating-ventilation-air conditioning (HVAC) units for Newtown Savings Bank. That mechanical equipment will be visually screened with shrubbery and fencing.

Yet other design changes involve the specifications for vehicle parking spaces at the complex.

In October, the project's developer installed a full set of traffic signals at the intersection of Church Hill Road and The Boulevard, setting the stage for better-regulated traffic flow in the heavily traveled Church Hill Road corridor, an area of town with dense commercial development.

The signals, which have yet to be activated, will control traffic flow at the four-way intersection of Church Hill Road, The Boulevard, and the main driveway for Lexington Gardens. The Boulevard residents have long called for traffic signals at the hazardous intersection. The new signals will be synchronized with other traffic signals in that area to keep traffic flowing through the general area.

In September 2012, the BZC approved The Village at Lexington Gardens. Plans approved by the BZC list constructing 60,500 square feet of new commercial space in the form of four two-story buildings. Each new building has retail space at ground level and office space on the second story. To make way for that new construction, a former plant nursery and garden shop were demolished.

An adjacent flat-roofed, two-story, red-brick 16,000-square-foot commercial building, commonly known as the Morganti building, will receive a variety of external improvements to enhance its appearance, making it visually complementary to the new construction.

The Village at Lexington Gardens marks the largest redevelopment project in the borough since the mid-1990s.