Plan & Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

someone who's trying to watch on YouTube and they say there's no volume on YouTube okay can you yeah it is now okay yeah okay James if you can state your name and address please yeah yeah sorry and if you can put your camera on that would help

Yep. Thank you. Just as somebody indicated, I wasn't hearing anything. Um, so, uh, good evening, ladies and gentlemen, James, the male professional engineer, um, addresses one McConaughey Grove and Derby here representing the application for, uh, 92 Granby street. Um, let me share my screen. I'm going to apologize ahead of time. I'm kids are going back to school and I get a cold. So it's magic. Okay. So I'm going to try to keep it brief and just go over some things that have changed since the last time that this commission has seen this application. So again, we have the existing structure. We're going to kind of keep it. We're going to kind of rehab the existing property, turn it into, you know, try to add additional fuel pumps and have it as a gas station with the small convenience store. So part of the demolition plan and some more information that we wanted to make sure that we talked about were the existing trees. on the right hand side of the property now these are some some substantial trees that are pretty much there for screening at the moment due to our activities um and their current size we we are going to need to remove them but we are planning on replanting replanting another screening uh row of trees um so we're basically trying to put them back but just due to their current maturity um know we're concerned with all of the work that we're going to be doing that we're going to end up killing them anyway so um that's that's the current intention um we there hasn't been too too much of uh of changes um that the commission uh didn't see last time um we added the snow stockpile areas, we added some more detail for our ADA accessible route, and we're providing more information in terms of the heights of all the structures, as well as the existing and new refueling canopy. So we have, I also provided some updated clarification on parking. Either way, we were meeting. I figured out where my calculation went awry previously. It was just that I had a different rounding. I rounded in a different location. So we're still removing the same amount of pavement that we were. Nothing has really changed from that regard. I added some additional information in terms of for the refueling tanks as well as the manway extensions as per the Town Engineer. I added some more pipe sizing calculations to verify that our proposed pipe will be able to handle the flows. I believe we satisfied most of staff's comments at this point. We did just get a revised letter from the town engineer, I want to say yesterday or the day before. He has some very minor comments, nothing that is going to significantly change the design. For instance, he's calling into question the need for this proposed catch basin here. The original intention of it was because there's an existing catch basin right here in Granby Street, right where our driveway is. The original intention was to convert this catch basin to a manhole and essentially relocate this catch basin into the road. that way it can collect the road drainage and help eliminate and make this a smoother transition in the driveway that is something i i will work out with the town engineer if he wants um something different or however he wants to handle that um you know we'll we'll do that but that should be minor in the way of um of changes he requested some additional details on the sidewalks again um we would be using whatever um any town details anyway so we will comply with all of anything he wants with that so that's not an issue and same thing with some spot grades um he requested some spot grades this is It's a really flat area, so it was kind of tough to give spot grades at this point. But if that's something he truly wants, it's not an issue. And then he would like our pipe size and calculations to go into the engineering report, which again, it was on the plan. But if he would like it in the report, that's not an issue as well. And then we also don't have any concerns with any of the conditions that were listed from staff as well, your planning and zoning staff. I want to go over because I know there's some questions about the building. Please be advised, I am not an architect. I am a site civil guy, but these are the plans. So just to kind of give you a high-level overview, there is a – so this would be the use of the interior of the building. So there's a storage area in the back, walk-in coolers in the rear, a cashier in the front corner, double doors in the front, and just a small coffee counter, bathroom, and just some minor pre-packaged goods. Again, aesthetically, it's not going to be anything tall. gonna have the uh like a new stone veneer on the bottom and then i believe it's going to be like a um like a stuck yeah it's going to be the brick above um aside from that i mean this is pretty much the renderings um again i i don't want to waste too much of the commission's time so i I guess unless we have specific questions, I'm more than happy to address any additional concerns, comments. And see where we're at.

Hey, thank you Jonathan.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. This has been an ongoing evolving project. The applicant is correct that. The majority of the. of the outstanding issues that have been addressed and have been resolved. We also received yesterday a memo from the town engineer indicating that he only had a couple of minor things that needed to be addressed, which can be incorporated into the staff reports. The most significant thing that had not been addressed TO OUR SATISFACTION WAS THE DESIGN AND ELEVATIONS OF THE PROPERTY, WHICH WE JUST SAW FOR THE FIRST TIME NOW. SO IF THE COMMISSION IS COMFORTABLE WITH THAT AND THE APPLICANT UNDERSTANDS THAT WE STILL NEED TO RECEIVE INFORMATION TO GRANT PERMISSION FOR ANY SIGNAGE, There is a rather extensive staff, revised staff recommendation on the last page and a half of the staff report, which does recommend approval subject to a significant amount of conditions, which we've been indicated to can be addressed and also incorporate the town engineer's memo to Ms. Laureano dated August 26th, 2026.

Are you all set, John?

That completes, yeah. If you want to go into further detail, we believe the staff report was fairly detailed. And again, we believe other than the elevations and design, everything had been addressed to the satisfaction of staff, both our staff, wetland staff, and the town engineer.

Okay, thank you. At this time, we'll entertain questions from the audience. And Rebecca, you can check, see if there's anyone online. No one in the audience. We'll then start with questions from the commission. Commissioner Millett, we'll start at your end. Any questions?

Yes. I just needed maybe a reminder. Was there a variance granted on this property I'm thinking of the setbacks.

Yes, sir. There were multiple variances granted. It was the front yard setback was the main one. Sorry, I'll share my screen again.

For the canopy?

Yes, sir.

Okay. Thank you. And... And then my only other question, and this might've gone to the height, did we have the height of the canopy?

Was that on there? Yep. So the existing height of this canopy is actually, it maxes out at 18 feet, but our canopy is going to be less. Our canopy, we're 14.6, so we're about 17 feet. The new one will be less. Correct. Yes. So we will be just underneath that. And then our structure is also going to be underneath that as well. So the existing canopy is actually going to be the highest structure, not by a whole lot, but it will be the highest structure on the property.

All right.

Thank you. That was my questions.

Hey, thank you. Commissioner Peters.

Actually, that was my question. I asked what uh more information on the canopy because i don't i don't have that in front of us but i guess if it's going to be slower um it'll be it'll still be nice to see because just like um just like we were previously stated that there's a lot of signage um that a signage package would be included but none of that is also imp uh presented so none of that i mean we can't really review or comment on that so when when will that be provided

and like when will the total package be provided of all this information that you have uh so i apologize i i was under the imp i have to check with the other people of the team uh i was under the assumption that this um information for the fueling canopy as well as these elevations were um supplied if not then

that'd be news to me i i apologize um unfortunately that wasn't me yes yes yeah i also asked about lighting last time you didn't change it in the back yeah let's just grab that one um yeah no um the only thing that was provided yeah we have cut sheets um and we have um the elevations that's the only information that was provided the canopy information has not been provided so uh I guess we're taking your word on that it'll look or be similar to the existing canopy but smaller other than that there's nothing to really go off of So, um, that, that would be my question. And, um, I guess, I guess you said that you need to follow up with that or that should have been submitted.

Yeah, I, I, sorry. I assumed it was submitted that I wasn't part of, uh, from me. So unfortunately, uh, I thought it was, well, that's, that's my only question.

Okay. Thank you. Uh, commissioner O'Brien.

Yeah. The only thing I have for drawings is a map that. has no issue dates, nobody signed it, doesn't say who prepared it, has no scale and no materials. Is there some other map that I don't have that provides any of this information? Because this map has no call outs on materials. It has no dimensions on the interior. uh there's nothing really it's just three pages of drawings with no specifics is is this one of them just so I uh have an idea of what you're looking at but it's the only thing down on the bottom is it was checked by g-o but there's no name as to who prepared it there's no no names of the sheets there's no issue date there's no scale and there's no there is There is a layout of the floors, but no dimensions. And there is renderings of what the building supposedly looks like, but there's no call out at all as to what the materials are.

Rebecca, I believe that there's somebody in the meeting.

A general contractor up in the corner. That's it. Is there some other set of drawings?

There may be. Rebecca, I believe there's somebody in the meeting named Nadim.

We don't have anything. This is all we have. And then the other questions I would have is, at the last meeting, we did discuss trees. And if I'm looking at the site plan, you have all of those parking spaces down there, which I can't anybody is going to use. Um, and it seems to me that if you re tinkered that parking, you could save those trees and I'd rather have a mature tree saved than to cut them all down. Then there was issues about lighting in the back. Uh, we looked at your lighting plan and, uh, commissioner Peters mentioned that the lighting in the back was inadequate. Nothing has changed. Uh, it's still 0.0 in some areas or 0.3. um around the handicap spot also at the last meeting you talked about people would would go in that rear door to get the convenience items tonight's presentation says they're coming in the front so um also there were issues brought up about circulation and the fact that you got two-way traffic in many many places in a narrow spot you have the parking spaces in the back backing out into a two-way traffic situation um and so those were the those were the issues that it i don't see have been addressed since the comments that you received the last time so i'll speak on those while we're on those um okay so the lighting um

It was, I mean, this is the handicap space. 0.7 is is kind of the lowest in the handicap area. so the all the lighting fixtures on the site were reevaluated um since the last time so a lot of the main concern was the how bright underneath the fueling canopies there was um but which we also don't have any information on

i i mean it's on the because there was concern about the lights being underneath the canopy and that's why commissioner peters asked for the canopy details we don't have them okay so but in terms of the lighting underneath based upon the lighting fixtures that have been redesigned now and called out for the plan

we did address the the lumen levels underneath the fueling canopies um again I believe that the the spec sheets for the individual lights should have also been submitted um in terms of your photometric I'm saying is your photometric plan and has not changed from the last submit it has It was revised on 8-11-26.

So how much brighter is it behind the building where the entrance is than it was the last time? It's less bright.

So right here, it's slightly brighter?

But the issue was the last time, it was too dark back there. So now if you've made it less light, that's going in the opposite direction.

In the back, it went up slightly. Again, not a whole lot, but just slightly. So where you were referencing, it was like 0.3 in the handicap space. It's now 0.7. So it has gone up. The problem is we can't get it much brighter while being able to prevent light trespass off the property. So we are providing... know adequate lighting now just all around the the building the where we reduced it was underneath the the refueling canopies because those had numbers you couldn't put a light you couldn't put a light pole on the property line shining towards the building it uh well it also be very close to the wetlands and now that causes other issues um in terms of the a wetland impact as well as disturbance like light pollution in terms of the wetland so ideally we want to keep those lights as far away from the wetlands as we can also um and then i asked the questions and you know the commission can decide whether they get answers okay uh commissioner james

I'm curious, you mentioned a plan to replant some trees for screening. Yep. Is there an idea of what types of trees those would be or? Yep. What's the detail on that? I called that on the plan.

So these would just be an evergreen, so a green giant. across the back that there'd be approximately actually 17 of them um so mainly because those don't grow as big as those current trees so they'll be a little bit easier to maintain in the um narrow space that we have you know um between the parking lot and the property line okay so the idea is to kind of get rid of all of the screening that's along that line

currently and and then re-establish yes okay um because we there's a very there's a very active neighbor there and i guess i just wouldn't want to do anything that would negatively impact that neighbor but um you know i think commissioner o'brien makes a good point about um the parking spaces because in the staff report there's a comment about weighing EV charger, citing need against buffer screening intent. And I realize that there's like other parking spaces too. So I guess any consideration for any ability to save some of the existing screening. And I don't know if it's the EV parking spots or the other parking spots that could be kind of compromised or

No sit around that yeah so a lot of the concern is is just due to also removing the existing infrastructure i'm trying to find the utility plan with the underground. is removing a bunch of the existing infrastructure that. Here we are so. There's the gas line and a pad with bollards and gas mechanicals as well as other mechanicals within this enclosure that were utilized for this existing canopy. When we're going to be down into these and removing these, we're going to end up harming the root structure of these trees due to how mature they are. Um, it's going to end up happening during construction anyway. So we're trying to be proactive and basically our intention is to put it back in kind or as best as we can. Um, because again, we think that our activities are going to harm these trees. And there's not a real tried and true way to be able to eliminate or to remove a lot of these improvements without potentially damaging them. And then due to their proximity to the property line, we feel it's just we're trying to be proactive and not having an issue later on. But our intention is to have that whole line fully screened.

okay um and then uh maybe i am missing something very obvious but on the site plan i i'm assuming that most gas stations offer an area to like do uh air fill fill air in your tires is that something that is planned to be offered where would that be located uh we don't currently have that on the site plan um we weren't currently

proposing that however if we were going to do it one of the easiest places would be in this back corner um which would allow these spaces or that's probably one of the better places for it because it'll be we'd be able to mount the unit on the building and and the individual using this space would be able to to fill up their tire Thank you. That's something the commission would like to see. We are not opposed to doing it.

Thank you for answering my questions. Thank you. Commissioner Marshall Neely.

Thank you. I have a lot of notes, but they're not chronological. primary question is regarding electric charging stations is there somewhere on this design where you're going to have a place where folks can charge the evs yeah yep

So these spaces right here will be the designated EV spaces. Each, there will be the three pads, which will then be equipped with the chargers.

Okay, so you're going to have five of them, right?

Mm-hmm.

My other questions, concerns were already addressed. So that's it for me for right now.

Thank you. Commissioner Goff.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just going back for a moment to Commissioner James' question about the air facility. I guess this is a question to staff. My understanding is that under Connecticut law, If you sell a certain volume of gasoline annually, you have to provide free air. I don't think that's an option. Is that correct?

Can I answer that, Mr. Chairman, please?

Sure.

My name is Nadeem Khalid. Somehow I have an issue on my recording. My voice was not going through. But the equipment we use, it has both options. If people are willing to pay or somebody requested to the cashier, they have a free air for all the customers.

So yeah, again, if that's a concern, we have zero hesitation and we would put it in this back corner for this to be utilized.

Yeah, I understand you're willing to do it, but I'm also, I'm asking staff, I believe this is state law that requires that if a gas station sells a certain volume of gas per year, they must provide free air. I think that's Connecticut law.

That's true, sir. That's what we are going to provide it, sir.

the answer to your question is yes yes so i guess my question is since that's connecticut state law why was the engineering and staff review of this plan not didn't notice that i'll be honest with you this is this is a majority gas station we built in the past

The equipment comes in, have both options, like somebody willing to use the credit card for some reason. But on the other end, they have also, there's equipment, have like a free air push button. People use it and they're utilizing it at all the stations. So we never submit in the past for any of those details. And as you're required, we can give you something in a notarized letter or something being ownership.

we can provide to the engineering or some staff comments we can reply some letter to your attention from the staff perspective um we missed it um part of the mechanicals and one of the questions we were going to ask after the commission's questions was are there any roof mechanicals on any part of the either of the structures um yeah i'm sorry

um going back the um you showed us the the architectural drawings and as commissioner o'brien pointed out there's not a lot of information about material um you know it's a pretty sparse set what materials were you anticipating using for this

We are using on the bottom is going to be a stone veneer. It's a natural stone veneer. It's going to be bottom. It's going to be a water sill right above. And then it's going to be above. It's going to be brick and some of the siding. And the second question you mentioned about the canopy detail. Canopy, we are just going through this approval process. Once this approval is done, then we are going to have this canopy signage, and we are going to apply a separate permit upon town's approval, their own rules and regulations. Whatever they allow us to put that canopy, that's where we are going to put it in. At this point, we don't know what direction we are. That's why we never submit that one sign, what name brand of the canopy will go. uh go through cell and one of the fuel gas uh uh sign we already submitted in a in a site plan uh only thing is missing is uh like the building sign i'll repeat it again any signage goes on a building it will have a separate permit and if we go we have to go through any zoning approval or anything will follow abide by that uh town laws

Um, my last question, um, questions, I guess, come back to the comments earlier about the trees. Um, and I guess this is a question first of all, for staff, because in reading the, in reading the staff discussion about the boundary trees, it also makes the, the comment that the Japanese maple tree near the street frontage, you know, talks about that. And then it also mentions it as a condition that that be preserved. Um,

where is who came to the conclusion that that's a japanese maple what and just state your name and address linda for the record linda loriano assistant director of building and land use 800 bloomfield avenue Bloomfield, Connecticut. The information was based on what was given to me. So if they had called it out as that, that's pretty much what I indicated.

So this came from the applicant?

Yes. Okay. Anything that I would put there would be information I received.

And this is the tree at the front, the red leaf maple. Okay. That's a Crimson King maple. It's not a Japanese maple. It's a cultivar of Norway maple. so i'll make that change it's not japanese maybe very good um the question i guess i i have for the applicant because i agree with commissioner o'brien and commissioner james i don't really see the purpose of carrying out a border of good mature trees and putting a new one i understand the comment that the um activity may be detrimental but i also I also wonder if that can be taken care of. What I would ask the applicant is, could they tell me what kind of trees those are? I'm not a tree guy. Okay, I'll tell you then, because I went out there today and took a look at this stuff. And what you have sort of going from west to east, you have some red maples. Then I think, I assume, I did not check them. I assume they're Norway maples because they're the sugar maple variety. um the you have mixed in there a crab apple you have some pin oaks and most importantly probably over that disturbed area you know in the back that you mentioned has some mechanicals and bollards and you know that sort of yeah that that area there uh the uh tree the large mature tree over that is an elm So thank you for pulling that up. I really think that, I understand the notion that the construction may make this difficult. I would also note in that picture, one of the things I noticed when I was out there, is that the in front of the trees at the um western side of the property in front of the trees is a curb cut is sort of like a curb um you can see it yeah if you go to if you go right there right no no the other way no go to the west Like there go toward the light pole. No, no. Go back. Yeah. There you go. That thing. That looks like almost a curb that was running in front of the trees at some point. So I was also a little curious exactly where the property line was. I assume that you have checked it and these are trees on your property line. Yeah. so i think those are mostly good trees they could be cleaned out a little there was a crab apple growing in there one of the pin oaks didn't look great but i think you know i would rather see those trees maintained if possible after the construction uh than to be putting in i don't i think you're talking about like a row of arborvitae and I'm not a big fan of Arborvitae in part because they look great if they form the right wall.

Okay, Commissioner Goff.

But when they stop.

I know, but you're going into a lot of comments now. We're just in the questions. We are.

We are. I wanted to know if they knew what kind of trees they were. That's what I am at. Thank you. Thank you.

Commissioner Medwinner, any questions? No additional questions for me. Thank you. I have one for staff. Can you just go over once again what's still outstanding that we need to have from them?

John?

Or Linda?

Good evening commissioners. Once again, Linda Laureano for the record. So in your packages, I included the town engineers, additional comments that was provided to us late yesterday. And I included in your package today, those comments are number one, the extent of the ADA ramp along Granby street needs to be shown. Spot grades on the top and bottom of the ramps shall be added. Sidewalk without curb returns shall be used. Sidewalk details show, you know, the details of it as you can see. And a proposed storm catch basin on Granby Street to collect storm water from the site is not acceptable. Storm water should be collected before leaving the site. The proposed storm water design and structure locations for the north entrance need to be revised. Engineering report shall be revised to include pipe capacity calculations and site specific data for hydrodynamic separator, including TSS removal calculations. These are additional comments by our town engineer. He believed that the plans substantially addressed his previous comments. And I think those are outlined on my report. regarding his comments and any outstanding items. So page right under section eight of the report is a list of 26 comments that our town engineer had. I'm sorry, 29. And out of the 29 comments, it appeared to be maybe two with the additional comments uh made by by the engineer okay uh my second question is what's the timeline on this application right now okay so their original application uh was submitted April 30th official date of receipt May 28th public hearing opened uh July 23rd The public hearing closing deadline usually after opening it is 35 days. So it's at this meeting unless the applicant extends, gives an extension as allowed by 8-7 of the statutes.

Okay. My next thing would be at this point with the outstanding issues from the engineering, I think this application would require an extension.

um it's not looking aware of what's still outstanding yes sir and even these are two from an engineering standpoint these are all minor as even indicated by your town engineer that these are all very minor issues that can be addressed as a condition of approval they won't substantially change any design or anything like that and Jonathan do you agree with that assessment yes okay can I just ask I thought that we're still waiting on a report from a fire marshal

That is correct. I called the fire marshal.

I didn't consider a report from a fire marshal minor.

The fire marshal has not provided comments as of this date.

I'm sorry, Linda.

I apologize.

No, no, no.

Just a response on Commissioner O'Brien's question about the fire marshal's comment. that we've reached out a couple times to the fire marshal, including early this week, and I have not received comment back. I'm not sure if this commission would like to take a note comment as a okay or but he has received the plans.

the i will say that the once we go for the building permit plans the fire marshal will need to also be very heavily in the review process with the building department prior to the start of any construction

Can I just add to that? I think one of the questions was the turning onto the street, also on the other road. The angles of the calculations was what we were asking the fire marshal to also confirm whether or not it met the turning radius for the trucks.

All right. Thank you. At this point, I don't have any more questions. We'll go into comments. Are there any comments from anyone from the audience? Seeing none, we'll start with Commissioner Medwinner.

Any comments? um it seems to me that the applicant has um with regards to the role of the commission um substantially is within um has complied with what we as a commission need to do it seems there are whether they are significant or not they're not substantial and all the other areas that have been highlighted as issues can be adequately addressed by staff or the building department um so my recommendation is that this motion be um that the the applicant be approved the application be approved okay thank you uh commissioner golf

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I largely agree with Commissioner Medwinter. I do think that, I mean, I agree with, I certainly agree with Commissioner O'Brien that the fire marshal sign-off is not trivial by any means. However, that is a condition of approval. So I do agree with that. Obviously, I think that with the list of conditions that Ms. Loriano mentioned we're outstanding from the town engineer. I think a few others have come up tonight. I think there needs to be a Um, what plan diagram, uh, of the canopy acceptable to the building department? Um, I think that commissioner O'Brien's comments about the, uh, the plan, the architectural plans while they look fine. And it sounds like the materials, uh, are what we would expect in the drawings. Uh, I do think that needs a sign off. That should be a condition. Um, the obviously putting in the free air, um, that is a, and needs to be in there. And I would obviously like us to see the condition about the, well, the Crimson King maple near the streets should be protected. And I would like to see this change so that we leave the, leave the buffer and see how it does under under construction with the understanding that yeah if the trees die we may have to replace it but i think the applicant would be better to um to leave that in place uh thin it perhaps if you know there are a few things out there that can go but you have you have a successful successful buffer and we should try to keep it that way uh but other than that i i agree i think most of the things that need to be done on this um are um well within re you know well within reason things the building department can handle and um you know i think this will be a major improvement on this property site thank you okay thank you uh commissioner marshall neely

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I concur with Commissioner Gough. I do believe that the sign off from the fire chief should take precedence in this situation. I think that that's very important, even though it might seem minor. I think it's very important. The other issues that came up with regard to the trees, I have a Japanese maple. That was just a joke. I like the mature trees and the look of the mature trees, and I don't know how you can do the planting of the arborvitae or whatever it is with you know replacing those trees but I think that's minor and can be handled I agree with much of what the what the staff report documentation or data has has been shared with us I believe that that's thorough I want to thank the applicant for continually coming back and and showing that they are willing to comply with our requests. I too drove over there. I didn't go all the way into the parking lot because of that great big pothole, the crater. I know that that'll be gone soon, but I would agree to approving this application with the conditions that have been stated. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Commissioner James.

um thank you mr chair and i i just see the uh engineer nodding to some of the commentary about trees i guess um just to confirm um you know what you're nodding to i'm i'm nodding to if any of the conditions that have been previously stated um we have no objections to trying to save those trees as best as we can if that's the the will of the commission we will do our absolute best to preserve them if during any event that they get substantially damaged or um are showing signs of distress then we will try to replace in kind as best as we can or infill the only request that i have from the commission would be would you prefer an in-kind replacement or would you prefer a a more of a solid buffer and screener screening if that makes sense because some of these trees mature a little bit higher and again with our use do you want it to be more of a full screen if we if we have a gap or are you okay with in kind that'd be my only uh comment back to the commission on just to clarify that condition just a little bit so there's no ambiguity between us and staff later

um so i appreciate the language you just said in terms of adding i would recommend or move that we add a condition on saving as many trees as possible and under the condition that they start to deteriorate or cannot be saved um we can add that as a condition in the staff report and um i'm not of the position i i don't have strong feelings about which type of tree to add back i think that's um up to the owner and that leads me to my next point i appreciate mr khalid your interest in you know doing business in bloomfield um i've expressed that uh that's my side of town where um you know i drive past there frequently i think it would be great to breathe some new life in there have a new building have repaved i could imagine in the ev spots people could park there you know head down to thomas hooker for you know let's hang out a little bit or if they're going to granby street playing some soccer it's just i think a great addition to that neighborhood and much needed so thank you for your interest in doing business in bloomfield thank you ma'am we promise you that you will be very happy with all the results hey thank you commissioner james uh commissioner o'brien

yeah i only have two things that haven't been said one is uh with respect to the foot candles that commissioner peters had originally brought up they're in the rear they're 0.3 and 0.7 and if you look up the minimum required foot candles in a commercial parking lot it's one to five foot candles so we're less than the minimum um i just pointed out to the commission and it's up to you is what you want to do about it i do believe the trees can be saved with respect to the light issue you have a pole on the south side that puts light onto it and it has a cut off and it doesn't go the other way you could easily have a pole outside the rear entrance with lights up that area that has a cut off doesn't go into the abutting area that's up to the commissioners how you want to handle it okay thank you commissioner peters

i'm in the process of like looking over things um because the light the light situation was a significant issue in my opinion it seems the darkest areas obviously is in the rear of the building um i wish i had caught this earlier to ask as a form of a question but it seems like if trash removal is supposed to occur within this facility it would have to be the side sorry it would have to be the side um exit that would bypass the existing canopy and then going all the way to the garbage. The garbage dumpster at the rear seems like a pretty pretty chaotic path. I guess what I'm alluding to is that there's a lot of coordination things that I'm not seeing with the site plans and the architectural. It doesn't seem like there's a clear understanding of certain components architecturally and mechanically. condensing units are those are going to be a part of the site where would those be located um the staff previously just said that they they missed that look on that um question but are there going to be roof mounted units because if that's the case what this this um elevation is completely um irrelevant at this point and then we don't have any information apart about the new canopy um Long story short, the architectures are dragging you guys behind. I don't want to drag you guys behind because it seems like the site situation seems a little bit more cohesive. And I think you guys are wildly, wildly Alex Dukatis, undermining the importance of the renovations that you guys are committing to with the actual existing building. Alex Dukatis, it's not as minimal as you guys previously said said in the last meeting when you said you guys were just going to paint and reface the building. there's a completely new facade i know the heights are not going to get higher but the the face of the building is changing and we would like to know what that would look like just so we have an idea of the community that we're trying to foster just as um commissioner james was saying about going to hooker brewery and then this being a location right down the street we don't want to continue that the pattern of eyesores and with what what's given it doesn't seem i i can't make a judgment if this is going to um keep the general fabric or uplift it so for me i think the amendments or the um the causes that commissioner golf has put in place upon um the architectural developing more so for us for this to be fully approved but right now i think that's the only thing that's holding you guys painfully behind um yeah i think that's the biggest my biggest takeaway is their architecturals are just not there they're they're barely even here um so i would be in favor of approving with those um conditions because i do think that this part needs to be um strongly developed and considered with the with what you're um proposing as general site conditions hey thank you uh commissioner malet

think i'll just echo most of what my fellow commissioners were saying i'd love to see the existing trees saved as much as possible would prefer that over just a vanilla arborvitae or something like that um not a lighting expert but i think i i would definitely uh Agree if there's a deficiency and especially some of the primary parking spaces. And the accessible handing spaces. If there's any way to adjust that would be great. And. i again i think most of the things we said we will capture in the conditions but it would have been nicer to see or at least to see i understand the signage wouldn't be part of it and that's um you know going to be another application but even without the signage on the canopy we still could have had the canopy um so we really only have the know on the plans where it would be located but no height and and or any other structural things that's my comments thank you

Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Millett. And my comments will be that I will echo what most of the other commissioners have said. And I'll also add that I'm comfortable moving forward with the application as long as all the conditions are met and staff get the appropriate sign off from fire marshal and town engineer regarding the turnarounds. i think it has been a big improvement and out of the 29 outstanding issues from the last time it looked like 27 of them was met so at this point i am comfortable moving forward mr chair can i just um clarify with commissioner peters were there conditions that you wanted to add or they were already in the staff report um

The lighting, I would push back on the lighting only if they would provide or I'm not sure if this is this is additional information that is outstanding, but are extraordinary. But if you could provide a path of to show where you expect traffic, I mean, garbage removal to be have to happen, because it seems like you have direct paths that are lit from the parking to the building, but I just don't know where trash removal would be and that's my concern for staff when at night when they have to go from that building to the the dumpster I don't know how that would prefer because there's a lot of dark spots in that in that space and I'm not sure if we actually fully tackled the canopy because there's yeah there's literally no information on the canopy and that I have a lot of concerns about what that will be so that we could address or have received more information on what the canopy Heights dimensions all all of that because we have literally nothing thank you could I uh just give two two comments based upon what I've uh heard just to maybe put some Commissioners at ease sure thank you um

so one thing i want to talk about real quick um actually before you do that i'm done with my comments so at this point you will have the last word to make any closing remarks before we close the public hearing so you can go there now you can start now okay thank you thank you sir um uh just in regard to the the actual architectuals and and our comments about what we were changing

So if you look, the existing building is the larger IMU block in the back with the brick, and then it already has the vinyl siding in the canopy. So if you look at our... the renderings we have it's it's basically the same thing for the blocks and the siding again we're going to refresh it but then add in the stone veneer down below so we're not actually changing substantially sorry clicking around a lot so we're not changing substantially it's it's really keeping with the same facade for most of it except we're adding this and just refreshing everything else um In terms of lighting and bringing of the trash, I'll be honest, at first I thought you were meaning the garbage truck picking up, but now I understand you mean staff. So the exits of the building are in this back corner, kind of in the front and in the middle in the front. So for trash, they would have to walk out this door and they would be walking pretty much almost a straight line towards the dumpster. Again, that's pretty much the straight path. Just because I hear a lot about lighting, I just want to just make sure it's clear. What we have for lighting on site is we have two existing light poles, which we are going to make them compliant with the current regulations, full cutoff and everything else. So we'll be utilizing the existing locations for these two. There will be the light under each canopy and then on the building there's going to be the wall scones on each in the middle of each of the of the sides so it's not like there's no light again we're just trying to illuminate as best as we can on the existing structure you know we can't put anything else along this property line because again, there's no buffer there. So we're already kind of tight. We have the wetlands in the back and there's just significant space in a lot of other places. So we're trying to work with the confines of the existing development. So we are trying to put them on the building where we can without allowing them to become too bright. So for instance, the wall scones are just these, but that's on each of the edges of the building or each side. okay are you finished with your closing remarks yeah and and again i haven't heard any conditions that we are opposed to the only recommendation i i have is um that the commission if they make the commission or the condition about replacing the trees that they specify in kind or you know, we get to choose or something like that. Just, it's easier for staff down the road instead of everybody trying to interpret what the will of the commission was.

Okay, thank you. With that said, did the chair entertain a motion to close this public hearing?

Mr. Chairman, can I make a couple of comments? Oh, sure. Just a couple of suggestions as I listen to the conversation. One is that I would add a condition that any rooftop mechanicals be properly screened if they are provided and two and Mr. O'Brien may correct me if this is improper but we know they're going to come back for a request for a sign permit and they might include when they do that although the commission can't actually act on it appropriate renderings and architectures of both the building and the canopy. So the commission, uh, lease we'll see more clearly, um, what is going to be developed there.

Okay. Thank you. At this time, the chair entertain a motion to close the public hearing. So moved.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstention? Chair votes aye. At this time, the chair entertain a motion on this item, application rather.

Can we comment first before we have a motion or we want a motion first?

No, we're all done with comments.

I just wanted to respond to John. He mentioned me. Is that all right?

Sure. Go ahead, Roger.

John, I think your suggestion is excellent, and I would recommend that it be added as a condition of approval.

Okay. At this time, the chair entertain a motion on this application.

I motion to approve the special permit and site plan application for 92 Granby street, subject to the following conditions as noted in staff updated staff report. Addendum number one dated August 27th, 2026 with the conditions as discussed by the commission and planning and director. John Coleman during discussion on August 27th, 2026.

Sarah, second.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion?

Yes, Mr. Chair. uh yes commissioner goff yeah no i think i think this is fine i you know i want to you know as we've talked about the the uh condition number eight um the crimson king maple tree near the front should be protected and they will make every effort to keep the trees um and um understanding that they you know there may be damage during the construction i did want to address in discussion the question that mr de mayo raised about what would you want to replace them um i'm going to give my opinion and we can get the opinion of the planning director um i i am not wedded to replacing them in kind what i'm wedded to is right now there is a variety of trees there And so you are in the fortunate position that if Dutch Elm hits that Elm tree, you're going to lose one tree. You're not going to lose the entire row. So my recommendation would be that if you do have to replace trees, you replace them with the same sort of kind of deciduous trees, and you don't need a perfect screening gap. I think the problem, as I said, with Arborvitae, A lot of people do that and it works fine until one or two of the arborvitae die and then they look terrible and they also don't serve their purpose. So I think you're better to stick in this area with deciduous trees, which is what you have now. But I don't think the commission should be telling you exactly what kind of trees to plant. I just think trying to understand the, you know, the forest culture of diversity is good because if something strikes, you won't lose everything. I think that's a good thing to think about. So I would, you know, in terms of direction, I think that should be, you don't need to replace them in kind. You just need to, you know, try to create sort of the same kind of barrier. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Any further discussion? Okay. It's been moved and second. No further discussion. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Abstention? Chair votes aye. Congratulations.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you all. Have a good night.

Okay, the next item on the agenda, I'll ask the Secretary if she'll read the legal notice.

Notice is hereby given that that the town planning and zoning Commission will hold a regular meeting on Thursday August 27 2026 at 7pm hybrid meeting in person at 800 bloomfield avenue. council chambers room and virtually via zoom to consider the following resub division application 1151 blue hills avenue ddc to zone. to allow a 40.49 acre parcel to be resub divided into two parcels applicant Community Development Properties Bloomfield Inc property owner First Baptist Church of Hartford hey thank you uh would you just state your name and address please

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the Commission. My name is Francis Vaca. I'm a professional engineer at the BSC Group in Glastonbury, Connecticut. I also have representatives here from the First Cathedral. I also have a representative online from the land use attorney, Mr. David Markowitz, who would like to also introduce himself and just introduce the project, if I may.

Absolutely.

He's been promoted. David, are you online?

And if you can turn your camera on and unmute, that would help.

And I'm trying to turn the camera on. Here we go. Good evening. For the record, Attorney David Markowitz. I'm a partner in HACET, George P.C., and I represent the owner of the property of the First Baptist Church. It's a pleasure to be before you this evening. I won't be speaking all that much, however. I have worked very closely with Francis, also known as Frank Vaca, on this project. He is a senior project manager with the BSC Group, our engineering firm. Frank will be doing most of the presentation this evening. We have two other speakers who will be before you this evening. One is Jeffrey Persson. He will speak on the affordable housing, which is an important part of this project and the two buildings that are to be constructed in this phase. Also with us today is Susan O'Dell. Susan is with the Projects Architects and will talk about the buildings. that are to be constructed and can answer questions that you may pose. Now I'll turn the hearing over to Frank. He'll proceed, and I thank you for your attention. If you have any questions, I'll be staying with this hearing until we're concluded. Thank you.

Thank you.

Very good. Again, thank you again, ladies and gentlemen of the Commission. It's been exactly one year and one day since our informal presentation. It's taken us this time to go through all of the coordination for it, but we are here tonight. And I would like to respectfully ask of the Commission if they wouldn't mind that I combine both the presentation for the resubdivision and the site plan application into one presentation at the Commission's discretion, if that's problem there'll be two separate votes i understand that okay i understand that that's fine all right so if at the commission's pleasure i will kind of go through the entire presentation at once again our objective here this evening we are here to respectfully request approval for a re-subdivision of the 1151 blue hills avenue property in accordance with the applicable sections of the bloomfield subdivision regulations as well under a separate vote to respectfully request site plan approval for affordable housing development at the first cathedral site pursuant to section 9.4 of the Bloomfield zoning regulations. David already went through the majority of the project team. I have a few additional people on here as well, but I won't delay with that meeting agenda. This is rather extensive meeting. from a presentation standpoint i have you know it has been a year and we have been diligently working on the project i will try my best to condense it as streamlined as possible but there is a lot of information i would like to cover and hopefully alleviate any of the concerns or questions that the commission may have uh i would like to ask pastor bailey just to step up and to just say a quick few words just to kind of explain the the background behind the reasoning behind this if i may

If you can state your name and address, please, for the record.

Sure. Pastor Leroy Bailey III, First Cathedral, 1151 Blue Hills Avenue. Thank you, Chairman, for leading this meeting and also the commission. The First Cathedral, of course, has been around for 27 years or more, and we have participated in a lot of benefit activities and know that talking to the community that affordable housing is one thing that we need. One of the comments that some of our people have told us that it's very hard to be able to afford to live in Bloomfield. And so that was one reason that we decided to do this project and one reason we decided to move forward. And we just want to thank you. A year ago, like Frank said, we stepped in front of this commission. We have worked diligently in order to do what the commission has asked us to do and get the approvals that we need. So thank you for this evening.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right, just again, a brief existing site review of the entire parcel. So you can see the first cathedral is located to the north. The magenta line that you see that's just popped up on the screen, that is the boundary of the site. The site is 40.49 acres. The lower west side of that is a field area. With some courts, and then the southeastern side of the site is an auxiliary parking area with 552 spaces. That will be what the focus of tonight's presentation on is the subdivision of the 40 acre parcel into a smaller subdivision and then the site plan for the affordable housing. What is getting conveyed here is now the orthographic survey of the property. So the aerial view that you see in the background is actually a fully accurate ortho photograph, which can be used for the development of the site and it is incorporated into the site survey which was included in the packet. We have a formalized full site survey now, 2A2, T2 standard, and the additional information is provided by the orthophotograph. is just a bit of background on the site just for everyone's understanding there are wetlands associated on the site we have met with the wetland commission and it has been approved through the wetland commission based on our previous presentations there is also a recorded conservation easement that will be adapted and coordinated into the new resubdivision so we are not proposing any modifications to the conservation easement lines they will be adapted into the subdivision as two separate areas in those individual properties. Subdivision itself. Again, here's a clarification of the boundary lines 40.49 acres and we are proposing The subdivision to a smaller, we're calling it the residential parcel. It is a 14.716 acre parcel that will satisfy all of the requirements of the 2 zone requirement from setbacks and offsets. And then the remaining parcel is a 25.783. acres is the remaining church and the associated fields. The 14.716 acre parcel will be the land use category seven, which is the multifamily residential use. The map that I'm showing now is actually two separate maps that are combined into a map one and two. This was actually just provided to the planning department earlier today it was one of the main items of concern from the wetland commission review this is the full subdivision map it has all of the meets and bounds there are items on here including the delineated water courses the delineated wetlands and other information that was specifically requested as part of some of the review from the wetland agent as well as town plan planning and zoning The lots have been identified, so it will be the remaining land, the 25-acre parcel will be lot 3000. The new re-subdivided lot would be lot 3001 with the areas provided and everything has been designed in accordance with the subdivision regulations, particularly this section referring to all of the information that needs to be provided on the plans. One of the main statements that were asked for was an overall view of the entire Map the entire parcel 40 acre parcel, because this essentially will be the documented record of what is being modified not only for the smaller subdivision, but for also the 25 acre parcel with all of the meats and pounds associated with it. So this has been provided to planning and zoning commission. To address all of those comments that were identified. And then, if there are any additional comments, following formal review from both Peter, the wetland agent, as well as John and Linda, we will make sure that they all get incorporated into this. But we believe that we have satisfied all of the outstanding comments and all of the specific requirements of the subdivision regulation. That's the subdivision piece of the presentation. I'm going to move on now to the site plan. Since we're here, are there any questions specific to the subdivision?

No, I know. Mr. Chairman, can I be recognized? yes he he did explain that yeah but i think you were out of the room okay but i'm saying is that it's two different public hearings because your one public hearing is on the sub resub division and then you got a second public hearing and so you really got to have only the items on the first public hearing on resub then you got to close that and then you can vote on it later but it's two separate public hearings you can't combine them

I don't, I'm not asking to combine public hearings. But he's only combining the presentation. But it's, it's, you know. So you're going to have the same presentation or just carry it over? I can continue with the presentation. I can also, I'm more than willing to stop if there, if we would like to just speak on the subdivision at this point, we can do that.

Well, when you honored a room, he did ask about it and we, and we okayed it for him to continue. All right. Okay, go ahead.

I will continue. Yes, please. Very good, understood.

With regard to the site plan specific portion of this, we have one of the requirements and one of the conditions, I would say one of the requests of the technical review that the Wetland Commission and Planning Department was they wanted a more detailed existing conditions plan that focused directly on the proposed development that has been provided. It includes information on there with regard to the conservation easement what you're essentially looking at is the gray that has now been highlighted that is all of the existing pavement associated with development it shows all of the existing drainage that was one comment was to ensure that we show all of the existing drainage on the existing conditions plan for the duration of the site plan information I'm going to touch briefly on erosion and sedimentation control for the site. All of the double dark lines that you see around the boundary of the site, we are proposing as straw wattle. We are requesting this in exchange for the typical silt fence. We've been seeing more and more in the industry that straw wattle is being requested more often because it causes substantially less disturbance to the site because silt fence needs to be essentially buried into the ground to function effectively. The straw wattle essentially gets laid on top of the ground. We are showing a double layer of this and adjacent to all of the wetland areas and then we are also There are a few areas where there's substantial disturbance directly adjacent to the edge of the property boundary. We are proposing a more substantial sediment control area along that area, which is the lower photo that you see here. It's called a coconut fiber choir log. It's much heavier. It has a much greater filtration capacity and we specify those specifically in areas where there is substantial disturbance directly adjacent to any of the borders of the site there are there is a construction entrance identified on both this plan and the next erosion control plan which I'll talk about momentarily we've we don't have it directly adjacent to the end of the site because the intent behind the location of this is it's essentially The intent behind the removal of any of the existing payment prior to construction is they would start at the farthest point away from the exit and they will continue as they move towards the exit on to the state route. The intent behind that construction entrance is to essentially be wherever the edge of that proposed payment starts. It will continue to move its way closer and closer to the edge before it ends up on the end. So we are. Ensure that we've clarified that with the contractor so that there will be construction entrance provided, but maintain as much of the pavement as possible during the removal process to essentially. Add belts and suspenders on top of the standard construction entrance. We have all the black rectangles that you see are all of the inlet protection sacks that will be placed in all of the catch basins. Essentially, as soon as all of the pavement is removed, the catch basins essentially are taken out of play anyway because they are now above grade. But they will be stabilized during any of the demolition to ensure that no sedimentation makes its way into the drainage system. We also have provided at the request of Peter, the Welton agent, we have provided additional straw wattle controls at the direct outlet points from the drainage we have we didn't originally add those we did not want any additional disturbance in any wetland areas but in coordination with peter he agreed that at least one row of control directly at the outlet of the previously improved discharge was warranted again as the last measure before the final discharge into the adjacent wetland areas. One additional request that came out of our coordination with Peter was an interim erosion and sedimentation control plan during construction. Essentially, the first plan prepared essentially is ineffective as soon as they remove all of the pavement. So this is essentially an interim control plan that provides additional information to the contractor that has some of the proposed grading identified on the plan and it also includes temporary diversion swales and temporary sediment traps that are strategically placed throughout the property to convey all bare soil areas to a centralized point where it will essentially settle out any of the sediments that are created through construction will settle and then will ultimately discharge into first the existing drainage system and then as the new drainage system gets installed into those new pipes before discharging out of the existing Outlets we are, and to clarify, we are maintaining all of the existing discharge points. We are not modifying any of them through any of our drainage design. So that was a request from Peter to just add additional information, which we have done through this plan. And at this point, we will transition over to what is now considered to be the proposed development for the site. Pardon me, one moment.

mr chairman if i can interject for a minute sure um i think that um to be appropriate i think commissioner o'brien suggested earlier is one that you may want to follow that there'd be a separate um we you have called for two public hearings and i think you need to act on them independently um so before they move into the um to the site plan uh I think it would be appropriate for you to take action on the subdivision request.

Okay. What I was going to do is I was going to let them do the whole presentation. When you do your comments, I wanted your comments to only start with the subdivision. And then we could vote on that. And then we can give you a second comments after we go through the question and answers regarding the site plan. at your pleasure mr chairman so so if you're done are you done with your full presentation no i have i have okay you're getting ready to start the site plan yes okay well maybe maybe we should just pause here and then go through the reset and do uh vote on the resub division that's fine now would be the time to do it okay that's fine i totally understand uh jonathan comments

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As the applicant indicated, this has been a long and windy road. We're glad we have reached this point where we can hopefully move the project along to moving dirt. In terms of the subdivision application, we recommend that it be approved. It meets the conditions of the subdivision and related zoning regulations. We do have some recommended approvals for that that are listed. Some of them may have, because we have received later plans, but in terms of conditions, we're recommending that obviously they conform to all the conditions of the Inland Wetlands approval and that they be incorporated verbatim into the plan set. Uh, that the outstanding subdivision plan, uh, sub one, um, the identify in section three, overall lot plan, water course flagging and, uh, property lines and final building addresses, which will have to be worked out with, um, with Peter. that they enter into an appropriate subdivision agreement with the town. We also ask for performance surety. That usually relates to public improvements, and they're not, quote, public improvements on the property. So that may just be an agreement, but we don't need the surety. And that all lock counters and monuments shall be set and certified by a licensed surveyor. And the final plan be revised to be suitable for the building Bloomfield land records and mile hours shall be submitted in accordance with the subdivision regulations section 4.12. Fairly straightforward recommendations, but we recommend approval subject to those conditions.

Okay, thank you. At this time, we'll take questions from the audience. Any questions regarding this resubdivision application? Nothing online? OK, we'll start with the commission. Commissioner Medwinter, any questions?

Good evening. Sorry, but maybe we're about night now. Thank you for coming back. Absolutely. I am certainly excited about affordable housing. And I know this particular application is regarding the subdivision. My question with regard to subdividing, I was curious, what was the thought process behind subdividing?

Currently, it was recognized, and I can also have an attorney Mark, what's also answer as well, but my understanding being currently the property as a 40 acre parcel being. As soon to recognize as the church is a non taxable parcel and we, they, from the very beginning, as well as the coordination with pro America, the residential subsidiary recognize that for that level of. affordable housing, that it would need to be considered a taxable parcel. So that was one of the main reasons behind that, as well as in my coordination with town planning, because it is resubdivided to the DDZ2 zone. The categories associated with the uses of each of the properties needed to be specifically identified and the cleanest way for us to subdivide cleanest way for us to identify all of those areas also tied into the fact that that those areas would be resub divided. Now. We are only proposing the this area to be sub. In other words, we're not resub dividing the 25 acre parcel. again that is not the intention of that one because all of the additional uses associated with any of the future phases which are not relevant to this particular application but all of those would fall underneath the uh church i want to say category but it's the the categories associated with the land uses and the development of those do not need to be individually subdivided again And then, as far as the, the sizing associated with this subdivision, it was set based on the density requirements set forth in the zone, which is the 16 units per acre. As well, as the lot area calculations associated with only being able to use 50% of the wetland area for, um. only using 50% of that area in the area calculation. So the sizing of the subdivision, three subdivided parcel was such to allow for all of that density to essentially satisfy all of the zoning requirements.

Very detailed explanation. I am by no means a land use expert. my my the the reasoning behind my question is how does that impact the ddz zone um if And I appreciate you addressing the 25 acres as well as that in terms of how does that impact the DDZ zone with it being separated off. We approved the entire.

Sure. There are portions in, there's a subdivision section of the DDZ requirements that allows for resubdivision within the DDZ2 zone and essentially what it states. And so I can clarify, and you can see it on the, here, let me turn on my, hold on. So, you can, you can see, like, the rear property line set back on the side set back and the frontage and so on, like, all of those items essentially satisfy the bulk table requirements for the zone. And that's allowed in the. Requirements of the for subdivision, if it were to be additionally subdivided at any time in the future. you are allowed to do that as long as the, and you're allowed to do that and then you do not need to satisfy the setback requirements as long as the total area of the land use still satisfies the DD2 requirements. I don't know if that's answering your question or not. Thank you.

Commissioner Garth, any questions?

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be brief because actually my questions were essentially Commissioner Midwinter's questions, but I will ask one sort of follow-up. So that was my thing. Why? And obviously I'm not surprised the taxation basis of the two pieces of property, that's sort of what my guess was. But the other thing was, when we rezoned it part of the reason we did the ddz2 zone is this a is this a question yes it is yes it is we did that was because it allowed all this variety of uses is there any reason for the um what 25 the parcel that the church will remain in is there any reason for that to be ddz2 now mean you did this initially so that we could have multi-fan you know affordable multi-family housing a um a um uh daycare center church you know of the um counseling area to help with employment those are a bunch of you and that's sort of what the ddz2 ddz1 and ddz2 zone are now that we've resubdivided it know in the new in the one we're looking at tonight with the site plan you're essentially going to have housing and a daycare center right right now that's the plan well this is just the housing piece right but the phase the next phase with the other the the

the the uh the empowerment center the uh additional services the storage the church that's all those categories those are all still part of the 25 acre parcel and all and still sad and still fall within the categories associated of with the ddz2 zone so those all still fit within the ddz2 requirements and because this was the most appropriate path to follow for the entire parcel. We knew that we would always need to do the subdivision for the housing, but the zone that satisfied all of the different criteria that the church was hoping to achieve was the DD2 zoning amendment. And it still applies to the 25-acre parcel for the categories that will remain in the 25-acre parcel. I'm not sure I'm answering your question.

Well, I think you largely are. It's just that the activities that will happen there, except for potentially the empowerment center, were things that could happen there before we change the zone i i have no problem with this i'm just trying to understand um you know doing the sub resub division now um it almost seems like we should have done the resub division and then decide what to zone each of them but i i i'm okay with this i just i i totally understand that sentiment um it when we first started the project a year and a half ago um

I don't know, first off, I don't believe Grow America was involved yet, and then I don't think it was, it wasn't overly clear exactly how the housing piece would end up if you, well actually you don't recall, because it was initial, we never presented this to the commission, but some of the initial examination of it had other categories that were originally listed, and it kind of settled down to this and then through that process we also determined okay well if this is just going to be the housing slash daycare piece it's the most appropriate for this to be subdivided separately actually taxable separately than the church great thank you sure okay thank you Commissioner Marshall Neely that was a great explanation

I just have one little simple question regarding the coconut fire log.

Sure.

And the environmental difference between how are we saving or preserving the environment with that versus the plastic or whatever that satin thing is. And what... What was it that said to you, this is going to be better for the wetlands, this is going to be better for Bloomfield? I love that. I really do. I love that. So I had to ask the question. It looks like pumpkins, but I think that that's a great thing. So could you explain a little bit more detail about that?

so the the silk fence that is typical the black fence that most everybody sees is one of those that it's it's a technology that's been around for 25 30 years um and it definitely serves its purpose um this technology has been on the market not as long and as a result It was more expensive at time, but the technology and the ability to manufacture this type of stuff has gotten more and more effective and there has been enough study on the products to determine that these products work equivalent to these plastic films, if not better, and are also all natural. The benefit behind the majority of these products is, unlike the plastic silk fence that needs to get ripped out when you're done, is they have varying stages of biodegradability. And then basically you install it, and the project is built. And over a year or more, they essentially disintegrate into the soil. um but the same but they're still right in the same cost bracket as silt fence and as i previously stated they do not require the actual embedment into the soil for you know it never made sense to me that let's put up silk fence but let's dig a hole and put the silt fence in it and then bury it it's why do we want to disturb a bunch so that techno and people have recognized that and the technology has improved now as far as the the coconut log it's the manufacturing process is more substantial and it is heavier and it is intended to I mean, the best way to say it is like, all right, so we have a torrential downpour or something and all of this flow hits the silt fence and it will blow it out. All of the flow will hit the top straw wattle and basically just push it away. The weight of the fiber log, potentially once it gets saturated, it becomes extremely heavy and it basically stays in place so that as the water is banging into it, it's not moving, it's not going anywhere. And that's That's the prevention measure that we are recommending with that level of disturbance adjacent to the wetland areas. And again, these are all the technologies that are coming out and yes, I propose some of these, some contractors haven't seen them before, but it doesn't mean that we can't change and start adapting. It's the responsibility of the manufacturers to make sure that they make their products at the same price point as some of these other older technologies, because they're not going to want to stop using the cheaper products. So that's the direction everybody seems to be moving in.

Thank you for that.

Commissioner James. No questions, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Commissioner O'Brien.

Yeah, I guess this is a question for staff as to do we have the right map in front of us? The map that was handed out here today is dated April, but I think you said you just received one today. so um and the map i'm looking at in the map the gentleman put up on the screen says a subdivision map it should be entitled resub division map so what is the date of the map that we're actually looking at because i'm again i'm looking at a map that says april 2026 and doesn't have a revision date so if there is one that it does latest revision august looking at this right this is the this is the subdivision map now the one on the screen i don't know what there's no it i don't know what the revision date on that is either but We ought to establish what we're approving.

you are correct commissioner this this map has been updated as of today it will identify in the revision block that it will be updated as of today the original april 2026 is because the entire submission was filed what are you showing us on the screen this this is the this is the map that has been that has updated with all of the comments that had been asked from both the weapon has this been filed with how

Yes, after our meeting.

State your name and address.

Linda Loriano, once again, for the record. Thank you. Just to answer your question. This was the one that was given to us today, which is the one that he presented today. So that is correct. It's just what he's stating that the revision date was not on there. And yes, staff has reviewed it with him. Um, earlier and during our meeting and, um, we found it to be, uh, more compliance with what our comments were. Thank you.

So the map that we're, that you're asking us to consider to approve as part of this public hearing is, is this is the map is showing on the screen, which needs a revision date and the title needs to be changed.

With those two recommendations, yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? Commissioner O'Brien? Commissioner Peters?

No questions for me, thank you.

Commissioner Millett?

No questions on the site. And I have no questions, so we'll go to comments.

Any comments regarding the subdivision of this application? Anyone in the audience? Rebecca, anyone online? Just go to the podium, state your name and address. And this is regarding the subdivision.

Yes, Stephanie Calhoun, 383 Park Avenue, Bloomfield. How close is the pineapple stuff to the wetlands area? How far away or how close is that? Thank you.

Sure. So the... The squiggly line, which is represented here also in yellow, there will be a double layer of this, the line that you see with the little notches in it, that is the wetland boundary. So in distance wise, we're probably talking between 12 to 15 feet away and there is a down gradient for that. This area, I don't have it identified in this plan, but it's essentially directly adjacent to the tree line. So it is not Essentially, it's at the very top of the slope of the existing parking lot that's there right now. So if you visit the site, you have the rigged parking lot, and then you have the curb, and there's a drop down into the wetland. This would ultimately be placed right at the edge of that, the top of that, before it drops down. And it will, again, like I said, now, as I originally stated, Once the pavement is removed, the 1st order of business would be regrading the site so that everything pitches. I'm sorry pitches towards the center. So it will always remain effective during construction. It will not be as effect. That's not the right phrasing. it will serve its major purpose during the removal piece and then as soon as it the area is re-rated which would be one of the first orders of business it would no longer be serving as much of its function because all of the drains will be flowing towards the center of the site sure okay uh far as comments we're going to start down with commissioner malet any comments

No comments. Thanks. Commissioner Peters.

No comments.

Commissioner O'Brien.

Okay.

Commissioner James. No comment, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Marshall Neely.

No comments. Commissioner Goff.

No comment.

Commissioner Medwinner.

I do want to comment. I appreciate the explanation in terms of the basis for the subdivision, but more what I want to say is that It also creates a taxable base for the town. And I was just curious as to why you'd be willing to give that up. So thanks for the taxes, future tax that it will bring into the town. Thanks for coming in.

Hey, thank you. And I don't have any comments. So at this time, if you want to make any closing remarks before we close the public hearing.

I personally don't have any closing remarks. Attorney Markowitz, I don't know if there's anything additional you would like to add.

I'm fine.

Okay. At this time, the chair entertain a motion to close the public hearing. So moved. Second. Moved and second. Any further discussion? seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed abstention chair votes aye this time the chair entertained a motion on the resub division of the resub division application i i move that we sorry um approve the resub division application for 11

51 blue hills avenue ddz to zone to allow 40.49 acres parcel to be re subdivided into two parcels. With subject to the following conditions as noted in staff report dated August 27 2027 and discussed during the tpc meeting August 20 20 August 27. 2026.

Is there a second? I second. And moved and second. Any further discussion?

Were we approving it subject to the map, the comments that were made by Commissioner O'Brien? With regards to the date? Yes.

Okay, all those in favor of approving the application signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstention? Chair votes aye. At this time, you can continue with the site plan portion.

I have to open a public hearing.

Well, we did that already. No, not for this one.

Got to read the notice and open it.

Notice is hereby given that the Town Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a regular meeting on Thursday, August 27th, 2026 at 7 p.m. Hybrid meeting in person at 800 Bloomfield Avenue Council Chambers Room and virtually via Zoom to consider the following site plan application, 1151 Blue Hills Avenue, DDZ 2 zone to allow for a proposed affordable housing multifamily development phase one composed of two five story apartment buildings, with a total of 101 affordable housing units applicants Community Development Properties Bloomfield Inc property owner first Baptist Church of Hartford.

Okay, Jonathan.

presentation verse.

No, I want your come.

i didn't hear the question i'm sorry yeah wants to know your opinion on the site plan portion of the application mr chair we um in terms of the site plan application uh first of all i'd like to to comment that um this is a 100 uh affordable housing proposal uh which i think is um obviously a very welcome addition to the community and one which we support strongly in concept. In terms of the application itself, the site plan by and large meets the required conditions for site plan approval. We have, again, been working through this over the past few months and have received updated plans almost as late as today. So our staff recommendations for approval, and we do recommend approval, reflect the last review we did, which there may have been some corrections since that review was completed, and that review was completed very recently. But our conditions are that ALL OF THE CONDITIONS THAT WE SET FORTH IN SECTION 9 OF THE STAFF REPORT BEING INCORPORATED RELATING TO REALLY TO SOME OF THE DETAILS RELATED TO WHEEL STOPS, LOADING AREAS, BICYCLE PARKING. AND AGAIN, WE ARE STILL AWAITING THE FIRE MARSHAL SIGN OFF BEFORE WE HAVE PLANNED SIGNATURES. THAT THE APPLICANT COMPLY WITH ALL OF THE CONDITIONS OF THE IWC. including the IWC's bond requirements, that the town engineer will independently verify the accuracy of the HydroSat CAD stormwater model that they are proposing, that we have evidence of their coordination with DOT District 1 and any required encroachments permits, which are going to be required for this site, particularly on Blue Hills Avenue 187, in terms of right-of-way, that they have, that they post, in this case, a performance bond as required in Section 6.5.D, related to erosion control, grading, drainage, and related site improvements. The development will comply with all of the implementation requirements of 6.5E, including installation of erosion and control. Sediment control measures as approved that the applicant shall will conform to and submit the required housing affordability plan. That's required under 6.14.A.3, demonstrating compliance with the inclusionary zoning requirements. prior to the issuance of a certificate I can see and sets forth the whole process for how this will be managed as an affordable housing complex and completion of the off street parking and loading facilities required under section 6.2 then we close obviously all approved plans and notes shall be binding upon the application and its contractors so there's some details to be dealt with still as there have been along the way but overall the site plan this phase one conforms i think there's a slightly different unit count than we indicate in the uh in our in our floor because that that was changed and i hope that will be reflected on the plans it's a slightly lower unit count there is sufficient parking to satisfy that unit count there are some excellent proposed amenities on the site and they have responded to most of the staff comments that have been suggested along the way relative to buffering and landscaping in the parking area and the siting of the buildings. So we, in general, we fully support this application subject to the conditions I listed.

Thank you. You may continue.

Very good.

Again, just for the record, under this public hearing, Francis vodka for the group 180, Glastonbury Boulevard, the view that you're looking at right now is the most up to date plan set. If I can clarify the, there was updated plans that were submitted last Tuesday, which I believe the commission does have in their possession and everything that I will be speaking of today will. Be in those plans and are have been clarified some of the recent coordination again was more for the subdivision piece. We believe that we have addressed the majority of the issues associated with anything associated with the site plan. As far as the development, it was identified in the notice that it was 101 units. It is two four-story buildings. They are not five-story. That was one of the major revisions that took place over this year. So the building size height-wise has been reduced down to the four stories. There are 92 units you can see in the upper right-hand corner. Uh, mix between building a building a is the, the, uh, left, uh, the rate most building building B is to the left. The different unit mix studio 1, 2 and 3 bedroom. So, 48 unit, 48 units and building a 44 and building B for a total of 92 for the phase 1 development specifically. There has been substantially additional amenity space that is provided throughout the development in between the buildings predominantly, and I will speak about that a bit farther on. We are proposing what's called LID stormwater, low impact development stormwater. It is another similar to the choir logs and so on it is another more forward-thinking stormwater management process i will get into that a bit further on and then there is full utilities provided to the site all of the utilities come off of blue hills avenue and there is a main utility corridor that runs through the center of the site to connect to the buildings i don't have much more information on the utilities if there are any questions on them i can provide but but it's essentially a standard connection to the buildings for all of the utilities provided. As far as layout, we are maintaining the existing site entrance onto Blue Hills Avenue, predominantly the dedicated left turn out, right turn out. There is also improvements that were provided on the state route itself to allow for left turning into the property. We have maintained all of that. The total traffic associated with the development is going to be less than that would be leaving from the 552 parking area. So, but by maintaining all of those existing services, it will just provide that much higher of a level of service to the intersection for both people that are attempting to exit as well as those that are entering the property. As had been, the commission had indicated this all does need to be presented to the as a, an encroachment permit to do disturbance for them. So they will review all of this as well as intersection site distance to ensure that everything complies with all of their requirements. There is a site monument sign that is being proposed that will be in accordance with the Bloomfield regulations. It hasn't been exactly finalized yet as far as the layout. We're anticipating some type of stone type of sign. But as far as the specifics of that will be finalized and will be included in the land record set and I don't recall exactly off the top of my head if there is a separate sign permit required. But if there is, we will ensure that that is followed in accordance with Bloomfield requirements. 1 of the 1 of the other main components that have been added is there is now a pedestrian Boulevard so that the area that you see there in yellow is actually a raised. Uh, pedestrian crossing, it does essentially go to nowhere currently, but it will be connecting to phase 2 when phase 2 is built. The other benefit that this provides is this raises is essentially a table. It's developed as a table platform. So, as it, as you would drive over it, the pedestrians have the right of way. They always have the right way, but they are not act. They are not walking down into the parking lot. They are staying level and the, the user, the vehicles in the parking lot will be traversing the table. The table is also designed to be able to provide. uh adequate access for fire vehicles this also will prevent there was a comment last year about there being a racetrack this will alleviate this is one item to alleviate the potential for them to be racing around because they'd be you know launching themselves off this uh pedestrian access way which is one other reason we wanted to tie the two portions of the site together specifically because the major the majority of the amenities are going to be on the south side. So the users of the future development would be using the amenities. We wanted a tying point. There is also a stone dust path that is being added around the border of the site for the residents to use. There is one thing I wanted to add that we are providing in accordance with state statute requirements. We are providing infrastructure for 14 spaces for EV chargers. Two of those spaces will also be identified in the handicapped because that is one of the things that hasn't caught up yet, but is currently catching up where you need to ensure that you provide EV chargers to handicapped accessible spaces. So the electrical on the Left side, west side of the site will handle the infrastructure for that. Currently, they are in coordination. The developers are in coordination with EV charger developers, but the infrastructure for 14 spaces will be provided regardless of the number of chargers that are provided and that is currently being coordinated at this time. as far as the access to the entrances to the building we have an accent drop off so it's it's not a true dedicated drop off pull off type of thing but we wanted there to be a a direct access directly into the building it would be in the aisle it is not intended to be parked in and loaded there and the reason so we as a result of that we have added an additional um loading space in accordance with the zoning requirements. So that is going to be a striped area here identified in red that is not a handicapped space, but it is provided with the lines that you see in the sidewalk is there is an additional curb ramp that is provided to allow for someone to essentially move all of their stuff into their apartment. There will be there's a sign identifying it in the site plan identifies it as a loading area. in accordance with the zoning regulations. One, so the red area now that you see it highlights around the interior grassed islands. We have oversized interior grassed islands to not only meet the interior parking requirement for landscape, but also to provide as much green space and as well provide adequate stormwater retention and stormwater mitigation. for the site. The yellow boxes that you see now that kind of popped up on the screen. Those are 2, 6 space bike racks that have been on the plans and those are in addition to bike storage that is being provided inside the buildings that Susan could speak about a bit later. But we want to, I just wanted to rewrite the fact that we do have bike storage identified in the development. There is a 3000 square foot patio, the amenities that are being shown. The little blue areas are essentially tables with umbrellas. The smaller icons on the side are going to be game tables. The black rectangle you see will be pergolas with a lounge-type chair type of things. There is also proposed a 5 to 12-year-old play structure that's identified here in the photo. It kind of fits with the style of the development being or in you know with the more woods and so on in the general vicinity so we wanted something that worked better from a play structure there also although it's not shown on the plan there is also going to be permanent bean bag toss they manufacture they're essentially concrete beanbag toss structures that are immovable but are being provided for additional recreation and amenities for users at the for the residences. There were comments, I believe it was from the public about additional like where's recreation space for the for the site so in addition to the. patio area and the playground structure it's actually I apologize, I should say five to 12 year old, so the five to 10 there are some open space areas around the property. So there's a larger section along the back of building A, the grades associated with this. And then again, we're not modifying the grading, but this is based on the original shape of the parking area. So this is being restored with grass. So this can be usable as a larger green space. There's some green space on the sides of the building. I also want to identify the fact that at least for, a certain amount of time, there is still going to be the viability of the baseball fields and basketball and tennis courts that are part of the property. Those are still going to be viable for the next number of years because the proposed phase associated with that is the last phase and there's still Multiple pieces of coordination to take place with that. So those fields will still be available once this development is in place. And I also wanted to identify that. I believe it's 1.1 miles. It is a direct pedestrian access along sidewalks from the development all the way down Blue Hills Avenue to the Rockwell fields and Blue Hill neighborhood center. So I wanted to make sure that that was and the important part about that is the fact that the sidewalk is fully contiguous. So it's there's no traversing on the side of the road or through the grass. So I wanted to make sure that was clear. As far as parking for this development, let me move this out of the way one moment. Three studio units, the 46 bedroom, the 41 two bedroom, and then two three bedroom for our clients, one space per one bedroom unit, two spaces for two bedroom units. We have included the calculation. spaces for the one bedrooms 86 spaces for the two bedrooms which is the total of 135 spaces required for this we are providing 159 plus the handicapped and van spaces which is 169 the sole purpose for providing additional spaces is for fire access and for viability of drainage it made the most sense to just Finalize the upper portion of that side of the parking. We're not providing the alternate side for phase 2 that will come during phase 2, but because for drainage purposes, we needed to provide all of the pavement to ensure that all worked. We just included all of the additional parking that parking could theoretically could be shared by the, by the church if required, but it's not intended to be. Again, so we're over parking it technically, but they will be utilized during phase two when that gets constructed. As far as the stormwater design, again, I had mentioned the low impact development. Right now, this is what is currently taking place on the site. There are standard catch basins that run into standard pipes, which go to these rectangular structures. The rectangular structures are the very initial steps that the industry took back 20 years ago to try to provide water quality treatment. They're basically baffle structures. They're about 9 feet by 12 feet with a large baffle in it. It's intended to basically slow down all the sediment, sediment overtops and discharges. um we are proposing to maintain them simply because of the closeness to the adjacent wetlands they will be fully cleaned as part of the development but they are no longer serving they don't serve any purpose from a stormwater quality standpoint or stormwater management standpoint they just happen to be part of the train what we are proposing for our low impact is all of the areas that you see identified here in orange are bioretention treatment areas. I will get into the specifics of that momentarily, but all of the contaminated impervious areas are essentially going to run and direct their flow towards all of the orange areas you see here, which are graded to allow for the infiltration of the water instead of using the standard catch basin piping and so on so i'll kind of get into a bit more information on that this rectangle represents a blow up of that end island to kind of explain on from a grading standpoint what's taking place so the area itself is depressed it's lower than the surface of the pavement and these individual pre-treatment units there's i have more information on that in future slides All of the flow runs through these pretreatment and you get your initial treatment before it enters into this depressed area. And then it will essentially filter down through a very specifically designed biofiltration treatment before passing through that we are reducing the total impervious on the site as a result of that we do not need to provide additional detention from the storm water because in our coordination with the town engineer we have reduced the peak flow so all we have to do is treat the water quality and we're treating the water quality using these greener and more forward-thinking methods than the standard hydrodynamic separator and catch basin and so on. So, low impact development, a land use development strategy that uses natural process to manage stormwater and protect water quality. So we, I, in my experience utilize, it is a proprietary product. However, I believe it is It is the pinnacle of the treatment. There are multiple other products on the market. I don't believe that they satisfy the requirements that have now come out of the most up to date 2024 stormwater quality manual. This probably looks foreign to you because these haven't been utilized in Connecticut very often because prior to 2024, the standards for the stormwater quality were such that it didn't make sense to use these. You could just get all of your treatment out of a swirl separator, pipes, and deep slump catch basins. Since the 2024 changes to the water quality manual, there is now mandatory requirements for treatment of phosphorus, treatment of heavy metals coming off of vehicles, additional water quality storage requirements. There's a bunch of additional requirements that are now part of the standard. And the benefit of systems like this is that they provide all of those additional requirements while In order to satisfy all those requirements, you have to use a filter structure. You have to change it. It's kind of like a pool. You got to go in and change the filters and all that. This natural product does all of that instead of having to have these manufactured catch basins and so on so the way it essentially works is instead of using a catch basin this product it's called a rain guardian turret it's actually it's very it's very shallow it's only about a foot deep so the flow comes off your parking area flows enters this great all of the floatables like garbage and cups and so on gets trapped in that top part The sediment drops down through the great and then there's a screen. You can't see it's basically. It's on the side, you can't view the screen there basically catches all of the larger sediment type of stuff. benefit of this product is because it's so small your landscapers that are essentially doing all your improvements on your site come and they lift up the grate and they shovel out the sand and they put the grate back down and they're done after the pre-treatment it goes into the actual storage area and then the little blue dots that i had i should have clarified that so on and i'll have another photo when we go there's there are these small areas those areas are this specific uh bioretention area the the it's three inches of hardwood mulch so the majority of the remaining sediment that isn't collected in your pre-treatment structure basically it's filtered out by your mulch once it passes through the mulch it goes through this high flow media the high flow media is uh it basically drains at 100 inches per hour which is extremely fast But it's designed to have a very small amount of organics in it. And those organics basically react with all of the pollutants like the, you know, phosphorus and nitrogen and all of those things. And it basically treats all of the contaminants that come off your vehicles. It runs down through, it runs into this open cell under drain identified here. and then it exits the property. So this is how you provide your water quality treatment. As this area fills up with water, you've treated all of your flow. So anything over your five-year storm is going to overtop in your overflow drain and just exit the site. So all of the water quality treatment that you would get in your entire drainage system is all contained inside these basins and they're all treated. And instead of essentially storing the water quality volume, you are treating the water quality volume as it flows through this product. The main benefit of this entire product, the additional benefit of this product is people don't usually account for well there's maintenance associated with your catch basins there's maintenance with your detention systems the maintenance associated with this product is you every year you remove your mulch and you put it back that's your treatment because this the high flow media is essentially self-repairing it basically eats all of the contaminants and it just keeps thriving and there is no need for you to replace any of the additional products below this. The case studies have been proven for this. These, these systems are in place in most other. States in New England, except Connecticut, because of the delay for the water quality requirements that we haven't adapted. They're coming in and trust me, because the contractors looking at me like. What are these things so, but I have to kind of. And the other benefit is the cost savings comes from you don't have to pay for the maintenance and you don't have to pay for your catch basins and pipes and all of the other stuff. So there's an offset. Yes, these are initially on a higher price point, but you're going to save in a bunch of other areas that aren't really focused on initially. So those blue areas are the focal points itself. The orange is just the depression. The blue area, because it's 100 inches per hour, you only need about 50 to 60 square feet of this product to be able to treat for all of the area that is contained for each one of these drainage areas. And that's why we're proposing them and they check off all of the boxes. I am working with Darren at the town. He's still wrapping his head around the whole design. We've coordinated with him a number of times. We've provided additional information to him because it is a very unique way to get the water quality and treatment to function effectively. But we are working with him and he at the meeting we had earlier today, he was comfortable with what has been presented and our final coordination with him on the stormwater quality. He accepts it, he just needs to finish his final review. And again, peak flow discharge reduced for every storm on the site. And then again, this is designed in accordance with the 2024 stormwater quality manual. There is one, I did add one piece to the documentation that shows phase two. There was some question that Linda had with regard to it. The reason why I've included that is, We have to install all of the drainage system for phase one. In order for phase one to function, we need to install everything that would be usable for phase two. So I provided this sheet for informational purposes to show that we have achieved everything that is required for phase two through the phase one drainage. That's why it's been provided. Oops, hold on, back one. As far as landscaping, this is a view of our landscape plan that was produced by one of our landscape architects in-house. A few items to point out. The plantings that are associated with those bioretention areas are very specifically designed. I've coordinated that with Peter Castaldi. He had some questions about it. The plants are chosen specifically because they each provide a very specific type of pollutant uptake. One of them treats nitrogen better, some of them treat phosphorus better, so that they have been specifically chosen. There were requests to add additional plantings in the vegetated buffer area to essentially restore the vegetated buffer. Because we have Because we're proposing the path, we do not want to have too much understory plantings to ensure that there isn't hiding space for safety. So in my coordination with Peter, some of the more of the clearing associated with the development will take place in phase two, and we will be providing additional mitigation of the vegetated buffer during phase two, and he was comfortable with that compromise. I did provide the plan schedule. I am not a landscape architect. If there are any specific questions, I'll do my best to answer them. But what I can say is that we have done our best to include as much pollinator species. I do know that all of the areas along the interior portion of the island that aren't bioretention are showy wildflower mix specifically for pollinator habitat and all of that. As far as site illumination, everything that we utilize for all of our developments are dark sky compliant. We coordinated with Peter to ensure that the luminaire, which is identified on the left side of the screen, the top of the luminaire is at 14 foot, not the base itself. And then all of the areas you see identified here with the stars are all of the placements of the light poles. And the, we do have a photo metrics associated with that the dark line identifies the final cut off of light. And again, what we were trying to accomplish with all of this was to ensure that we were. Not shedding as we're preventing the shed of as much light as possible into the wetland area. Because we're nowhere near the boundary, it's more of a concern to ensure that we are not flooding the wetland area and causing modifications to any of the wetland species. last two items uh from my piece the sidewalk deferral there was a major discussion last year about the requirements for installing sidewalk around the entire property as part of phase one since that time what we've determined is that phase one currently has sidewalk on its entire newly voted upon boundary. And for the purpose of the phase one part of the project, we would like to request of the Commission a deferral of the entire property until a subsequent phase, simply because we are satisfying its requirement for this phase and we need to go through the grant funding process to to receive the funding available to pay for the sidewalk in the subsequent phases. So we are requesting a deferral, not a waiver. We are not trying to waive the requirement of the sidewalk. We totally recognize its value, especially for the area. we also in part of our coordination today with darren i believe that there is a project that dot is undertaking that would also need to be coordinated with the sidewalk in this area so we are requesting a deferral to coordinate for that product as well project as well i'll try to keep this really quick all right So the for the overall church parking in order to understand how this is going to work. The church has The original church. One second. The church proper has 778 parking spaces. The auxiliary lot has 552 spaces combined. That's 1,330 current spaces. The church seats 3,400 people, one space per three seats in accordance with the regulation. That's 1,134 spaces required. So we are essentially over-parked right now by 196 spaces. Phase one and two, however, cannot share parking. part of the regulations identify that you are able to share parking amongst different uses. Well, because it's residential and they're living there, you can't share it. So essentially we are removing 552 spaces from the usable church. Only 778 will remain, so we have a deficit of 356 spaces to satisfy the requirement of the church. However, There is, in the regulations, 6.2 H reduction parking facilities, E permanent size use reduction. Commission may, by special permit, allow for a reduction up to 35% the required parking spaces on individual sites that are connected, et cetera. 11,134 spaces times the 35% is 396. So technically, that request would allow us to satisfy the requirement If it were granted, what I can say is the backup behind the, you know. Do we did we provide any parking assessment or so on? Anecdotally from the 20 years that the church has been 27 years, the church has been in position. The accessory parking lot, I think at most has been 50% full once or twice a year or something. So removing that. reducing the total parking which also was a request from the the meeting last year we believe it would be viable given the fact that the church has anecdotal evidence that they do not need all of the parking that is identified in the additional parking area and additional besides that we also did a quick calculation so that there are 21 spaces in the existing field lot and then if required depending on whatever might be happening, they are willing, we have the ability to use essentially temporary parking spaces on the field if necessary. Again, it would not replace the total deficit. But again, if it's amenable to the commission that the 35% is based on the anecdotal evidence that we have, We would essentially still satisfy the parking requirement. I know that's a little bit outside the phase 1 realm, but I just wanted to be clear that. Through the installation of phase 1, we are modifying the overall site parking requirement. Are there any questions on that? I know that was. That was pretty deep. That is the end of my piece. I'm going to briefly turn it over to Susan for architecture. And then again, if there are any questions later on, obviously. Thanks.

Okay. Good evening. For the record, my name is Susan Odell. I'm from Paul Bailey Architect at 110 Audubon Street in New Haven, Connecticut. I am a licensed architect and I am the senior project architect in the firm. I will be presenting a brief overview of the architectural features of this project. We're looking now at the site plan that Frank has already presented. As you know, the two buildings are creatively named A and B. The buildings, though, were arranged to best utilize the site dimensions and the shape of the site and to keep the buildings away from the street edge to afford natural woodland views to all of the residents. The red arrow on the site plan indicates the view angle of the renderings in the next slide. This rendering shows our two four-story buildings. The colors of the buildings were chosen to be warm, earthy tones that blend in well with the natural surroundings, with pops of blue to emphasize the entrances. The materials include brick and fiber cement panels with precast concrete and fiber reinforced cement trim and metal clad columns and overhangs at the entries. The footprint of each building is about 14,000 square feet for a total of about 56,000 square feet per building the Florida floor heights or 12 feet on the first floor and approximately 11 feet on the upper floors resulting in buildings that are just under 50 feet in height. There are 92 units, as has been mentioned in this project 48 and building a and 44 and building be the unit mixes three studios 46 one bedrooms 41 twos and two three bedrooms. 12 of the units are suitable for a person in a wheelchair those units are distributed over all floors of each building and our representative of the unit mix. On the next slide, we have tiny incomprehensible plans of the first floor of each building. Apologies. Just to briefly mention the amenity spaces that are available to the residents in building B. At the end, facing that patio that Frank mentioned, we have a generous-sized community room that opens onto that equally spacious patio. The property management offices are located in building A. Each building contains a common laundry room, a bike storage room, a lobby with indoor mail delivery with a separate package room, trash collection rooms on each floor, and a quiet library space on an upper floor. Heating and cooling in the building is provided through individually metered gas-fired air furnaces in each unit and electric heat pumps in the common areas. Hot water is provided through gas-fired tank hot water heaters. The building will meet ENERGY STAR standards, including advanced air sealing techniques, greater insulation values than the code requires, double pane windows, ENERGY STAR appliances, and LED lighting. safety within the building is provided through controlled monitored access through one central entry for all building occupants controlled access within the buildings to all common rooms and security cameras in all common rooms corridors stairs and elevators this concludes my presentation i appreciate your attention and look forward to any questions or comments that you may have And I want to pass it off now to Jeffrey Pearson of Grow America, who will speak about the affordable housing component of the project.

For the record, Jeff Pearson, Grow America, 633 3rd Avenue, New York, New York, 1007. And I'm a Windsor resident, by the way, so my house is 10 minutes away. So on the affordable housing side, I thought it would be good to just set some context in terms of why this project and why we're excited to be partnering with First Cathedral here. When we started discussing this five years ago, I was looking at the calendar, five years ago, at that time, we looked at a report that the Department of Housing put out indicating that there was 11% affordable housing, restricted housing in Bloomfield. And during that time period, there's been several market rate projects that have been happening downtown. Great to see more residents here, but what everybody is realizing is once these numbers get recalculated with more market rate housing, Bloomfield will be at risk at dropping below 10%, which the state has indicated as a priority. So in thinking about this project, we were just, you know, understanding that we think that this project meets the moment now. Since then, Bloomfield has published its affordable housing plan, which we think, you know, again, this project is the moment there. So I just wanted to set that backdrop. So with Legacy Village, we hear affordable housing, but what does affordable housing mean in this context? we indicated that the first phase is going to be 92 units and from an affordable housing standpoint we basically measure that by area median incomes okay and that's essentially published by HUD and we'll go over that in a second but when we're talking about what does that actually mean for household income typically what we're looking at for this development here is folks who are making between forty eight thousand dollars and eighty two thousand dollars and again this is This is based on a published schedule that HUD updates, I think, every July. So all of the units here are going to be restricted to folks earning between 50% and 70% of the area median income. And because Bloomfield falls in that Hartford Metro, you have to average West Hartford, Simsbury, and all that other stuff. I took a look. I think the area median income is around $129,000. So when you're thinking about affordable housing in that context, 50% of the area median income, depending on the bedroom sizes. So because we're getting financing or pursuing financing through the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority and the Department of Housing, who has been very supportive of this project, because this is going to be using financing from CHFA, There's going to be a minimum affordability commitment for 40 years. So there's going to be a land use restriction that's going to make sure that all the rents are going to be restricted using these HUD schedules for at least 40 years. So this is going to be true affordable housing. And there will be strict regulatory oversight here. The financing that we're pursuing is through the low-income housing tax credit program which has been around since 86 it was actually a bill passed by Ronald Reagan it's received a lot of bipartisan support actually a few years ago actually under the Trump administration, they've actually enhanced it in some ways as well. So this has been a program that, again, has received bipartisan support and will be fully compliant with all the regulations that are there as well. so i know it's pretty late so we're not going to get too much into numbers but when i said we're looking at area media incomes what does that mean for someone at 50 percent of the area media income folks who will qualify here for 50 percent um 50 the 50 units which will be 20 will be earning between 48 000 and 58 000 um The lower end is for like the studios and one bedrooms. The higher is for the three bedrooms. For 60% AMI folks, household income is between $54,000 and $69,000. And then for the 70% area median income units, we're looking at folks who are making between $67,000 and $81,000. I took a look before I came here at the USA survey. of statistics and the estimate here is uh the average household income in bloomfield is around 98 000 in comparison so again you're gonna see um again this is this is you know true affordable housing I thought it'd be good to essentially show a snapshot of what the rents are likely to look at. Again, these schedules are gonna be updated every single year, so expect some inflation. But in terms of a snapshot for today, for example, the two bedroom units that are, you know, or for the 50% units that are ones and twos, You'll see if this was built today, you'd have rents ranging between $1,000 and $1,100. If you're taking a look at the 60% AMI units, you're looking at rents between $1,100 and $1,600. And if you're looking at the 70% rents, you're looking at rents between $1,400 and $1,700. And in comparison, when you look at heirloom flats and some of the other, you know, rents in the immediate vicinity, this is affordable housing. So very excited to bring this project here. Working with John Coleman and Laura or Ms. Laureano has been great, a lot of back and forth. As Susan mentioned, or I think maybe John mentioned, we've tried to incorporate as much feedback as possible. And we definitely plan on being good neighbors and building on the great reputation of the church. So thank you.

Thank you Susan and Jeffrey that is the conclusion of that presentation and again I welcome any questions from the Commission if there's anything I can do my best try to answer or anything Susan or Jeffrey can respond to with regard to the thank you very much is there any questions from anyone in the audience or anyone online Rebecca

Now we'll start with the Commission. Commissioner Medwinner, any questions?

Yes, I do have some questions. You ended with a big question that I had, which is affordable housing and what does that really mean? It's a very sexy word that we throw out and To the average person, sometimes what you say as affordable is not affordable. So for example, when you look at your math, first of all, you have 92 units, only three of which are two, sorry, only two units are three bedrooms. More than 50% of your units are studios and one bedrooms. You have 41 two bedrooms. Of the 46 one bedrooms units that you have, 10 of them, the rent based on the income that you give there, 10 of them are for 1,444. If I'm earning $2,500 a month, $1,444 seems to be more than 50% of my income. I thought that affordable housing meant that my housing expense was going to be 30% of my income. That's what I thought.

Thank you for the question. So using that example, the way that this is structured, if you take the $1,400 rent and you multiply it by 12, and then you divide that by $67,000 on a gross basis, that would represent the 30%.

Yeah, that's the interesting part. Because when I heard affordable, they have this thing that the architect and the tax collector and the builder everybody sees your house different yeah so that's the kind of thing where you saw affordable housing and the income you're using is six or seven thousand but for the average person who is looking for affordable housing that can't qualify for a mortgage one-third of their income is not So I'm like, wow. As a matter of fact, look at the two bedroom, two bedroom unit is 1715. And even using HUD's guideline, 30% of my income for the average person. And I know you use the average, but you know how averages are, right? averages can be it's average but the little guy down here struggling not anywhere near the average um so i appreciate that i was um just curious as to what affordable meant because i'm not from where i sit i'm going to be very honest that's market rate right it might be presented as affordable but that's market rate but let me get to my next question And that might not be directed to you. My next question is regarding, I don't have the notes here in terms of the total, all the phases. What's the total number of residential units that will be constructed?

We don't have an exact number yet. Again, when we presented last year, we were presenting with five-story buildings. At the time, I don't recall exactly what was identified for the total development. What I do know is that the phase two, which was, again, initially a five-story building, there were 45 units in that, and I believe there were, Again, I don't want to misspeak on the record, but the total number of units have been reduced as a result of the reduction to the four-story buildings. What I can say with regard to the phasing, the phase one and two, and again, two will be identified on the north side, those will be the only residential proposed for the entire 40-acre parcel. And I say it's 92.

We're going to be in the neighborhood of 150 or so open completion, you'll have 150 units so you'll probably build another 60 units.

The second phase right now, we're contemplating roughly 45 units, so it's late. Going through the math, 45 plus 92. Oh, that's fine. That's fine.

I just wanted to get an idea. Okay. That's fine. I didn't hear a mention of any traffic. So, or any kind of a traffic analysis or anything related to the impact. Did you do it?

Maybe I don't know what will so so what is being produced is because the total overall development is, it's called a major traffic generator through the office of the state traffic administration. It's greater than 200 units as a result of. Any modification to the land use requires you to go back to for a review. So. That is currently being produced. We cannot submit it to them without approval. They won't even look at it without zoning approval. So, as soon as that is. As soon as zoning approval is granted, that will be handed off to OSA and they will come back to us if there are any additional requirements required for any potential improvements. All of that being said, in my coordination with our traffic engineers, all of the turning movements, all of the analyses that have been examined right now, everything that is being generated is less than the potential exit of people from the 552 uh space parking area i recognize that anecdotally it hasn't been used to its capacity however the the use associated with it in other words what i'm trying to say is that the the improvements that were made to blue hills avenue and the exit for the property are already more than what would be required for this size of development that's what i'm trying to say

Okay, and you mentioned that in creating this phase of the development that the church as it is loses, I don't remember the number of parking spaces. And you said that that's partly because, well, they're not using that much. But what happens if they have events, large events or things of that nature? I think you had a carnival this summer, didn't you? Yeah, I passed through the carnival. So, I mean, maybe on a regular Sunday morning, you don't use all that parking space. But what happens in the interim if, for example, you host a wedding or you have some other event i i think iron sharpens iron has been at the church there's number of events conventions, things of that nature that happens there. So what happens in the interim with regards to parking?

So you would have the 778 spaces on the site itself directly. And then again, we have the ability to utilize the fields as there's 21 spaces available in the existing parking. There's also the ability for there to be temporary parking on the field. My understanding is the field is not used I don't want to say enough, but it is used to the point that If it were to be temporarily utilized as a temporary parking for an event, such as this, that is the, the church has already we've spoken about it and they would, and they would fully be fully responsible for the control and access and maintenance and so on associated with that temporary parking. But that is what we are proposing to use. In the interim, in the event of a concert or a carnival or something along those lines.

Okay, no further questions.

Okay thank you Commissioner Goff oh sorry can I more fully uh respond to the affordability question because it is really important right really important um so I want to take that example here of the well first thing with these types of developments we typically want to see some um diversity in income because we don't want to necessarily just have let's say all 30 units We want to see diversity. So like an example of the 70% AMI, like we talked about before, actually taking a step back, generally in affordable housing circles, we essentially say if a person is paying more than 30% of their income, then they're considered rent burdened, right? If you're paying more than 50% of your income, which many folks are, then you are extremely rent burdened and it's a huge issue. One of the ways that that's been solved is by having project-based Section 8 vouchers at the federal level. So the issue there is 25% of the people who need it, or of all the people that need it, only 25% of them get them because there's a reduction in funding. There's not a lot there. So that's one area to make sure that people are paying exactly 30% of their income. That's not what this program is here. So in this example here for the 70% unit, we will be looking for someone making about sixty seven thousand dollars if they do and you do the math they would be paying thirty percent of their income that's how these schedules are determined however if someone is making let's say sixty thousand dollars in that unit then they're no longer let's let's work with a more um practical number of about 35 000. Yeah. So in $35,000 here with the household income, you'll see that this mix here doesn't really target people who are making 35,000. So what I'm saying here is these bands that are established at the HUD level, and this is because of the financing that we're pursuing, this is like the program.

Oh, hold up. Sorry. Are you saying HUD is not catering to people that earns less than $48,000?

Mr. Chair, point of order, point of order, the application at hand is not an application about affordable housing levels. That seems to be separate from what we're supposed to be reviewing in the site plan.

Thank you. I agree. At this time, let's move on and keep with the zoning issues. Site plan. Thank you, Don. Jeff. Oh, Commissioner Goff, any questions?

Yes, thanks. Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So I want to start with one question to staff, just in terms of approving this application. The comment in terms of requirements, I think it's requirement eight. is the applicant should confirm submission of the affordable housing plan under our section of the code, which I certainly agree with, but I'm a little concerned that that would be the requirement for approving this application because our requirement is the 12% be affordable. They are they the applicant correctly and we're happy is proposing 100% so I would assume that the approval would be that what they're presenting to the Commission is what we is what is designated affordable housing.

Yes, that is correct. Yeah, that is correct.

Okay. So I just want to make sure that provision is correctly stated. And thank you for providing this. So I have a few questions. And thank you for the work you've done on this because I think the improvements are wonderful. I'm very happy about the stormwater management, et cetera. let's talk about traffic and parking for just a minute uh you had the slide up where you were doing the calculations with the 35 and so forth could you go back to what the auxiliary parking currently is now are you is this for the overall site or for just this space Well, when you start reducing the current overall parking for the cathedral, and they have so much parking and so much ancillary parking, and then the comment is that So 552 spaces is the ancillary.

That's correct. The ancillary parking area is 552 spaces.

So if that's been 50, if anecdotally the sort of max on that is 50%, we're talking roughly 275 spaces. That's correct. Okay. And 275 is not quite the difference of the 305. whatever the 35 percent that 96 yeah 96 yeah okay but it but it's a large number yes okay i just wanted to see what that what that number was um i also want to bring up the traffic study and i understand the whole requirement that they won't look at this until it's approved and i do get that the traffic has been approved for obviously a large influx or outflow of traffic relative to the useful the useful parking lots and the ancillary parking lots my question to you though is besides the sort of maximal amount and the curb cuts satisfying that maximal amount, et cetera, there does seem to be with this project a much different level of timing. With the cathedral as the entire focus, you have specific service times know a couple of times a week and you have some other events with this for the housing portion you're going to have a constant movement you're going to have people living here who are going to be going to work who are going to be coming home etc how does that play into the traffic study i mean it seems like the maximum flow onto Blue Hills Avenue, that may be the same as the church at a maximal event, but it seems like you're going to have a lot more flow at lots of different times. Well, different flow, probably nowhere near the maximum, but a lot, maybe less maximal flow, but much more of it because you now have people pursuing going in and out. What are the traffic engineer's thoughts

So, beneficially, as I stated, we're working on the OSTA application right now, anticipating approval so that we can submit. So, luckily, I actually just had this conversation with the traffic engineers. The requirement that would trigger beyond what would be considered an administrative approval through OSTA is greater than 100 trips an hour, and they've performed the analysis for the peak morning hour and the peak afternoon hour, and those trips both are I don't know the exact numbers I'll be honest but I what I do know is they are less than 100 trips an hour and that from from a level of service standpoint is not considered to be a major impact to any of the traffic intersections it does not affect any of the levels of service of any of the analyzed intersections which would be the Winton Berry and Blue Hills Avenue intersection, the intersection to the south. I apologize, I don't remember which one that is. But they analyzed those intersections and none of those um level of service are decreased as a result of the changes in the traffic i'd recognize and i acknowledge that the the type of traffic is different but the overall impact associated with those trips being less than 100 trips an hour do not have a drastic effect on any of the area traffic based on my conversation with them.

And have you asked them the question, I mean, are they also looking at, and I appreciate that, and that's sort of the, you know, what's the change in the signal times and, you know, does it make an intersection degrade from C to D or whatever? In Bloomfield, one of the worst traffic accident intersection is all the way down Blue Hills at Cottage Grove. So are they also looking at the ultimate flow effect on that intersection?

Again, that would only be required. If upon the submission to that, they came back and said, we, we considered this to be. Worthy of analysis beyond an administrative decision. And usually, when it's beyond administrative decision, that's when it triggers a number of additional analyses. That type of analysis would not occur unless it comes back and they say. yes we need you to do xyz additional intersections i don't have an answer to to whether to my knowledge right now that intersection would not be analyzed but it's uh and again it's it's It's related to, and I should clarify, all of the turning movements, all of the analyses associated with this are all performed in accordance with the Institute of Traffic Engineers standard requirements. So it's whatever they are doing and whatever their results are, it's based on all of the other type of developments all across the country associated with this type of project.

Thank you. That answers the question. The other thing I want to just, well, I want to talk about the amenities. But before we get to that, I just want to understand in reading the staff report and your presentation, There I understand. I understand the question about deferring when you do the sidewalk. And I know we talked about that when we first approved master plan that we wanted in the first phase. So we can as a commission talk about that. But in the in the uh staff report and i think even what came back from the engineer uh there seems to be some question about where the sidewalk will be placed uh and i don't enlighten me on enlighten me on what that discussion what the i i don't i don't have an opinion because i don't really know what it is that is at issue here let me find my slide on that one moment here uh there it is okay

Okay, so If I'll try to zoom in on the side. So this dark heavy dash line, that is the state right of way line. So that's essentially, that's the property line, but it's the street line. So everything to the east of this, to the right, is DOT property. Because this is a public road and that would be considered a public sidewalk, typically the sidewalks are built on DOT right of way. For some reason, and I don't have the answer. The, uh. The sidewalk was built on the private property. So just, uh, the, the town engineers statement is. In accordance with the standard requirements, they are requesting we shift the sidewalk to be on the state right of way for the purposes of phase 1. We recognize that question, but we are still in further coordination with the town engineer on that specifically given the fact that we are requesting the deferment and the cost associated with those with the installation of the sidewalk particularly since there is already one existing for phase one in addition to all of this needs to get reviewed with dot so dot will also have an opinion and if dot comes back and they say no you need the sidewalk needs to be on state right-of-way that's we don't have a choice that's what needs to take place what we're requesting in this case is a deferment of the installation of all of the sidewalk in addition to essentially moving our sidewalk from there to there. It's basically a I don't want to say a common sense thing, but we're hoping the commission would work with us for the cost associated with that. That's probably $75,000 to $80,000 worth of work for just moving it over, coordinating with DOT and saying, yes, we want to make sure this is correct. But for the purposes of this project, we would like to keep what's shown for now. And we will handle the deferment and any modifications that DOT will require

in the next phase okay okay that thank you that that makes a lot of sense i can't see why we would want to move an existing sidewalk but you know if that's the rules what whatever thank you that makes sense um so i want to go back to the amenities because i think you guys have done a you've done a good job of trying to add those to the to the project and um i think though i think that's going to make be one of the things that makes this kind of um design successful um what i'm i guess what i want to ask you and and concerned about is isn't enough and i mean i realize we've got limited space but you have you know you have 92 units here of very of various sizes and you have a patio area that appears to seat two, you know, to have two seats. Um, and I'm, I have no idea what the usage, um, you know, the usage would be, you know, for parking spaces, we have formulas, we have this many people, you know, so we have this many cars, um, looks nice, seems low. Um, and I don't know exactly what to do about that, but I, I, I raised the question. Um, The play area too. Do you have any, in terms of looking at this kind of development with affordable housing and the number of units and something, do you have any demographic ranges of how many,

kids you think would be living here and is the is the amount of playscape adequate for that um so one of our landscape architects that assisted me on this project is also a licensed landscape designer and uh the so and he designed he actually designed this entire uh amenity space area to address your first question about is there enough tables and so on, we've shown two gaming tables. That is what is presented, but it's because they're physical movable objects, we have... Unlike the number of parking spaces, if there's additional money in the budget to buy more tables, yes, we can definitely look at more tables, more gaming tables, more so on. And it is also something that can be added at a subsequent time. okay, we can afford to add two more tables this year. We can, you know, the play structure is that was specific, that was strategic. And our landscape designer kind of reviewed the different options to both relate to the site as well as to now, there isn't necessarily a demographic study that is to say, this is the number of students that they're gonna be or five to 12 year olds. the the various types of amenities we're providing we are trying to hit as many of the as many of the different ages as possible which is why we are also offering the uh the beanbag toss as a permanent measure there are other amenities we also looked at a ping pong table for example like you can get an actual like concrete immovable ping pong table it's just a there are those amenities can be added or subtracted to better fit with the demographic in the building as it kind of changes you know what i mean so because these are amenities that are fiz When I say physically movable, it's because the other reason why it's, it's, we don't want them to, you know, walk away either. You know what I mean? So it's, it's, we want it. We wanted to be conscious of what was getting installed with the demographics of the building with the users of the building, but also still have the ability to have, you know, we can bring in some other type of. Amenity treatment or so on. if it makes more sense.

Yeah, I'm just concerned, sort of, not concerned, but, you know, just a question of will there be enough? And I guess I would suggest you maybe look at potentially what kind, you know, arrange what kind of thing. Last question, sort of on the same thing as amenities. What about people who want to garden? Is there any opportunity for community or not community, this community particularly, but is there any opportunity if someone moves in here and all their life they've had a garden plot or something, what do they do?

well we've we don't explicitly have it identified on the plan but we've i've done this on a number of projects where you have the option to do raised bed planters or something like that you know that it again the benefit of what your the questions are asking are those are those are nothing in small dollars anymore, but there are amenities that are viable that could get added. A raised bed planter could get added at some point in the future. It's not explicitly proposed, but there are

they are all relatively affordable potential options that could be investigated yeah yes excuse me I think you did say that this is subject to change yes okay so we can move on now uh thank you that's my last question Commissioner Marshall nearly thank you Mr chair and thank you for your presentations

Did anyone ever consider solar panel on these buildings before you put this whole thing together? I think about the coconut fire log and how you are protecting the environment and so forth and so on. Was that ever a consideration?

Yes, it was heavily considered. We went through a number of coordinations with solar providers for it. The problem is, and I don't want to speak out of turn because I don't have as much knowledge of this, but the process associated with that is much more complicated than it should be. That's my opinion, and I don't It's subjective, but there is funding that needs to be available in order to have solar amenities like that and other type of green amenities like that. And it was investigated and it was determined that it was not viable for us to continue. Well, let me put it this way. They were not willing to work with us because we could not provide enough solar for it to be viable for them. That's the better way I should say it. So the cost associated with the development of the solar, if you don't produce enough kilowatt hours they won't work with you. So we did investigate it. We also investigated the potential of doing like a, so on. Actually, Susan is probably better to answer this. Go for it, Susan.

I don't know if I'm better, but.

And just identify yourself again, for the record.

Susan Odell, Paul Bailey Architect, 110 Audubon Street, New Haven, Connecticut. What you don't see on the roof plan there, is that every unit needs a condenser on the roof. Every apartment has an individual condenser on the roof that takes up square footage on that roof. So at the end of the day, we do this all the time, buildings this size. At the end of the day, you can fit on that roof somewhere between 5 and 75 kilowatt solar PV system on each roof. If the owner's willing to fit the cost of that and fit it into their funding package, they do that. But Frank's comment about they weren't willing to consider, that is the Connecticut Green Bank will pay for infrastructure if it's 50 kilowatts or more. And it just wasn't working on these buildings to fit that. The other, so if the owner wishes to put a small PV system on the roof, we'll absolutely do that. The benefit of that goes to the owner's meter. And that's where Connecticut law gets complicated about how you have to share that with your tenants. I'm not the expert on that. So to Frank's point, PV systems have become complicated, but a lot of our owners do put small systems on their roof. It's just not the big bang that you think it is in terms of output and benefit to tenants.

Thank you. I thought about that because on part of the presentation, you referred to full utilities and individuals pay, you know, the full utilities. And I was thinking, well, what about solar? But I'm going to move on because there is also, I have a question regarding the playscape and the play area and that sort of thing. So my question with regard to that, because you talked about the baseball or basketball area is going to be probably removed after you do the first phase. And then when you're working on the second phase, well, it'll be removed when you work on the second phase and then it'll be put back in. Am I wrong or am I wording this wrong? Did you say something to that effect? Because my question is the play field that is going to be part of this project, right? Is that gonna be artificial turf?

Okay, let me take a step back. We're not proposing any play fields. So this is currently the parking. This is the current operating softball field. baseball field and courts. This is proposed as what we are calling phase four of the overall master plan development. We don't have an exact timeframe on that. So during, and when I say timeframe, I believe the master plan is viable for 15 years. So we potentially have 15 years of time that the fields will still be usable by the tenants. The statement I made about amenity space as far as open space areas, there's area behind building A, but we are not proposing an actual turf field or a field as part of the development. That doesn't mean that as the phases move forward, and we move in the direction of phase 4 that it doesn't change and it stays part of what was shown for phase 4. Was parking to alleviate some of the discrepancy in. by removing those 552 spaces. If it's determined by the commission with the 35% and so on, that additional space is no longer required, phase four can definitely potentially change to something else instead of a parking lot. So we have the ability to look at that when those phases come down the road.

OK. Thank you for that. I'm trying to do this quickly. You talked about areas inside the building to put your bikes.

Yes.

Is there a bike riding trail around the facility? Or if folks are putting their bikes inside, where are they riding their bikes?

Well, to answer your first question, there is no actual bike riding facility. And Susan, you may have more information on this, but we're kind of looking at the bike availability more as a use for potential transportation, not as like, hey, I'm going to go ride around. So if they are potentially using their bicycles as a potential primary form of transportation, there is a viable space in the building to lock them. In other words, we're providing that as a means for some of the people to have

that as a potential option for transportation as opposed to just for recreational purposes can i chime in here go for it if i were a kid with a bike there's a huge loop here with the church parking and the sidewalk and the i mean there's plenty of places for bikes to recreate but the concept that we're always concerned with is bikes as an alternative mean the means of transportation for adults basically um

Okay, thank you for that and then my final question. You spoke about a common laundry rooms. Right, so the common laundry rooms and there's four floors in each building. And the common laundry rooms, where are they located? Are they on each floor, alternating floors? And then the reason I'm driving this is because I think you said something about a couple of handicap apartments. So if there's someone in a wheelchair or something like that, how do they get in their wheelchair? How do they get to wherever the laundry room is? You know, the movability of this. I'm just asking and then I'm done.

um so the laundry rooms are located on the first floor of each building there's one common laundry room in each building a person in a wheelchair would use the elevators to get if they were on if they weren't on the first floor they would use the elevator to go to the common laundry room okay thank you

Okay, thank you, Commissioner James.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you talk about, you know, that's a big lot right there. Where would snow go? Would it kind of take over some of the parking spots or is there designated areas?

We've looked into that and I, so this is there there is additional space available in phase two for snow storage that we will be incorporating the benefit we have with phase one is we have a whole bunch of space for snow storage temporarily until phase two gets installed at which time we have more space for potential actual reserved snow storage area as far as the actual clearing itself it would be we have a few wider islands for snow potential snow storage and then i also there's been multiple studies of the focal point areas they continue to function effectively even if snow is put in them it seems counterintuitive but they they in fact because of the basically the the um the way the bioretention kind of continuously functions the whole time, it actually assists with some snow melt and so on. So those portions of those end areas of the islands would also be utilized for snow storage.

Great. And then it seems like the required number of parking spots, 133 and 169 total parking spots?

That is what is being proposed in phase one, yes.

Okay, great. I mean, I bring it up because in town there was a conversation about another complex that, and maybe this is more property management, but There was no visitor parking. So I guess there's like a minimum amount that would accommodate at least people who are residing there. But I guess maybe I'm curious if there's any consideration for visitors.

As a, we have the benefit of, and I'm not saying that people need to walk, but we have the benefit of having the church parking for potential visitor spaces. We erred on the side of reducing the size of the lot for the ability to have visitor parking in the adjacent church lot during, I'm not gonna say visiting hours, but, you know, the church would only be Very specific times versus having dedicated visitor spaces that are taking up additional impervious space in the residential lot itself, so we we thought it was reasonable to say there is viable parking available at the church, rather than additionally add impervious space to the direct residential lot.

Thank you. And so I guess it sounds just to clarify that that path that connects those two lots between the church lot and this lot would remain.

It will remain. Yes.

Okay, great. And then just one final question about, was there any consideration for like a walking path? It seems there's a huge lot anyways, and I don't know how much space is behind building B. I was kind of looking at the renderings to see how much space there is anyways.

Declare a walking path around the entire parcel?

At least the developed area that we're looking at here.

Yes, there is one. Oh, there is sorry if I did yeah that's what the that's what this purple it did kind of look like shaded for that's what the purple is okay i'm sorry if I rushed through that bs there is a stone dust walking path that is that's what the purple that's also why we don't have a substantial amount of additional vegetation screening to provide for safety purposes, but, yes, we are providing a walking path apologies for missing that thing that's right.

Okay, thank you, Commissioner Brian.

uh thank you i only have four or five questions um there's uh one is our responsibility as a commission is to make sure that what you're proposing tonight is basically pretty similar to what we approved on your overall plan so could you tell us or could staff tell us how it differs

From the master plan.

Yeah, like you submit a master plan and then when you submit the site plan is supposed to be pretty much what the master plan was so like what are the differences.

When we submitted the master plan the in order for the master plan to be approved, we were only able to submit for the We were only able to submit the land use area. So the land use area is category seven multifamily. So the site plan is, this is the first time you've seen what we have created as a result of the master plan.

Well, you had more buildings and they were taller. We know that. Right. So what were the other changes?

Oh, is it from, are you saying in relation to the informal presentation that we, in other words, we approved a master plan.

And one of the requirements in the zone is that when you come in now with the site plan, we're supposed to find out, are you sticking pretty much to that master plan and what changes have you made? That doesn't mean we won't approve it, but we should consider it and know what it is.

So, You only see a portion of the master plan here. And for that portion, the buildings lost one story. They went from five to four and building a used to be kind of a wide Y shape. You know, it was like at an angle in the middle of it basically. Um, and working with the construction management team, they said it's more economical to build the same building twice. So building a became the same footprint as B. Those are the changes.

So the two buildings look like one looks longer than the other, but you're saying they're exactly the same?

Right. Yeah, same footprint. Okay. Jeffrey just mentioned that we went from 101 units to 92 units in this phase.

Okay, great. The second thing is when we did the master plan, there was a lot of talk about somebody getting groceries and having access to parking and the elevator you might have discussed this earlier but do we have places that somebody can drive up and park and get out and get their groceries in and out of the building yes we have uh all right thank you uh I don't need, so next is the question of roof mechanicals. I can't tell from the drawings is the parapet high enough to screen the mechanicals.

Yes, that's the intent of the parapet. I'm sure there's some view somewhere where you could see them, but the intent is for majority screen.

Thank you. Next is all of the drawings say issued for permitting. So the drawings that issued for construction will be similar to, will be the same as this or they won't be different. is correct the only changes that happen from the issue for permitting to construction is we provide the detail to the contract for them to be able to right because sometimes i've seen drawings that say not for construction purposes but but this issue for permitting means they will be followed yes okay and there is a note that if you want to remove trees you're going to call the um you're you're not consulting the land use department uh you're you're consulting like the town engineer or somebody and i would prefer that that say that you would consult the land use department it says that the if if there's any trees to be removed you will consult i believe it says the town engineer i believe it would say the well and agent i believe because i think that was one of peter's comments But it ought to say that they would call the land use department, right? Maybe our environmental planner.

Yes, along with really wetlands because we consult a lot with our engineering department of our wetlands agent who reviews our landscape as well.

I would just like the land use people to make the decision on what trees are coming down. okay thank you and then i think there's only um the the sidewalk thing uh why we why are you asking for the deferral of sidewalks on the other phases

deferral to install all of the sidewalks in phase one we are only requesting to defer the installation of all of the rest of the property until one of the subsequent phases because currently this development as proposed already satisfies that requirement for this specific parcel i know it was discussed at the initial meeting and in other subsequent times about sidewalk around the entire 40 acre parcel we are fully on board with making those improvements we need to have the ability to gain the funding to do those improvements and we will do that under the subsequent phases that's what's being requested so you got the sidewalk already on phase one and well why do we need to defer them on the others because you wouldn't have to do them until you come in anyhow right That is correct. I'm just following what I believed I needed to do, which was, there was statements in the master plan. In fact, actually it was a condition of the master plan that said that the phase one plans will include sidewalks for the entire parcel. That is why we are requesting a deferral.

Okay. All right. I understand that now. Thank you.

Thank you, commissioner Peters.

I only have one question. For this medium, I'm glad that we're on this slide. We have this RAISE platform in the middle. And you indicated that that was suggested to, I guess, slow down traffic. And it also allows people to cross the street safely. This is a pretty large parking lot. Is there any consideration to add more of those to achieve what you're trying to achieve and also provide a safe access from the middle of the parking lot to the actual sidewalk on the opposite side? The answer is yes.

So we've been in the process of interviewing several qualified management firms, and we've been talking about safety and security and that sort of thing. There's the ability to put basically rubber speed bumps around because again, especially with, you know, phase two contemplated, potentially a daycare, we want to make sure that that's in control, that sort of thing. So that's something that we're taking very seriously and We are actually in the process of selecting a management agent as we speak.

So this was a big part of our conversations. Okay. So I guess this is going to be a continuation of my question. So you're going to add rubber speed because what I'm asking is twofold. It'll be a speed bump and an actual cross, like an indicated cross path for people who are in the middle of the parking lot, that median to come to the whatever the respective side is. Is there a way that are you going to add speed bumps

and a path in the middle so all right let me actually turn the graphic off so you can see it better and i'll zoom in on it so uh the actual engineering term for it is a speed table so it's You drive up the side of it to the top where the pedestrian crossing is, and it's intended for the pedestrian crossing to essentially be a continuation of the sidewalk. It's essentially. The pedestrian has the right of way, and the vehicle is crossing over top of their right of way. In this case, the. The Chevron's are installed to provide. Information to the driver that there is a speed table there and. It is. I probably misspoke slightly on, I was indicating that because there was a question at the original informal meeting about the fact that it looked kind of like a racetrack. in this case it serves the purpose to provide traffic calming by slowing the vehicles down it's not specifically designed for like a speed bump to slow them down but it will inadvertently have that effect and then as uh jeffrey indicated there will be potentially additional measures for that. I'm not sure if I'm answering your question.

I understand everything you're saying and that's not what I was asking. I was asking if you're going to have something like that to a path from that middle portion to the building and several other areas in that lot because that's the only location in that lot that can safely transfer people from the middle.

I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. Okay. So you're saying, are there additional crossings from here? Yes.

And if that was going to be created, would you also incorporate speed bumps or raceway, race platform, whatever? I forgot those proper terms you just said.

At this point, this was the only one that was conveyed specifically as a result of the, and it was. Placed in this location to provide direct access to the amenity spaces. It's definitely something that could be investigated for additional for potential additional crossings.

Sure. I think.

I want to bring up the rendering because the site plan is never your actual perception. The site plan may look like a racetrack, but your actual perception is never of that view. This is your actual perception. It's a parking lot. And we build these routinely.

year after year after year and they're not racetracks they're parking lots and that's how they're i didn't say it's a racetrack i know i'm not saying perception i'm just saying the distance from the middle to the end of the parking lot if you go to the others um lot is i think we're you're misconstruing my statement can you show the actual site plan so your your question is are there so if i parked all the way at the entrance only way the only way I have a safe path across the center the middle median of the parking lot is that path over there that's what I'm asking I'm not calling it a raceway I'm just saying that there's no other walkway there are no other raised walkways in the parking lot and there's no there's no other stripe there's not even striping that's the only striped area for to go again

i'm just thinking about every project that we build with parking lots like this none of them have even a raised pathway okay well you did it once i'm just wondering is it is there a possibility to do it more times there's certainly a possibility i have no other questions thank you uh commissioner mullett i think i'll ask a follow-up question um on the uh

So you think of a Walmart parking lot. Sometimes there's a carriage pass through because you walk down the wrong aisle and you realize you know you need to walk through and you have a car. It's not like you can just walk over the median. If it's just me and I don't have a car, I can just walk over the meeting. So. Is that a potential to have? the egress across the median without stumbling?

Yes, I understand. I understand both of your questions now. Yes, it's definitely viable and possible for us to have that. The one thing I would like to just qualify with that is a Walmart parking lot is everybody is parking and they're getting to Walmart. this all we by providing the adequate number of parking for the development for each individual unit the likelihood of you parking in front of your building is significantly higher so the reason and it is an inadvertent reason i will admit but the reason why it wasn't overt overtly focused on is we are not expecting for if you're living in building B, that you're going to be parking way down here. The people, the spaces that will be out, they are not independently allocated for the buildings, but there will be adequate space provided so that there will be spaces available in front of building A for building A tenants, building B tenants. So we did not... we didn't see well we didn't it was it was inadvertent but the the we didn't provide the cuts throughs because the reason people will be traversing through the parking from the c building down to the amenities spaces is to get to the amenity space all of that being said it's definitely something we can look at if that is a major uh request of the commission

sure thank you that explanation helps with you know the predominantly where people will be parking it's a big parking lot yeah i i think just to clarify i'm not trying to be argumentative i think we accidentally created an issue here by adding what is normally a road feature to a parking lot the the raised design in the middle there is really for roads, not parking lots, in my experience, at least in Connecticut. And to Frank's point, we added that central path so that future residents in building C, future phase, can go to the amenity spaces across the way directly. But we don't, this is the first parking lot I've ever seen that we've added a raised area like that.

Understood, and I only had one other question on the bridge, so my understanding from prior discussion was it will be open to pedestrians. Will it be closed or gated? I thought I saw a comment on one of the notes be more of a locked fire access, or will that be? A regular driveway.

The bridge will be for the second phase. It will be utilized as part of the the traffic movements for that development. For construction, it will be closed and will not be usable for construction access. There was actually a discussion on this recently. The It is not required for use by the fire department. However, the fire department will traverse at the fastest direction that they can go. So it would be viable for use as an emergency access. For phase one specifically, we do not have a specific need for it to be open or closed with the exception of the fire access. But it is potentially to be used as part of the traffic movements for the subsequent phase. So we don't right now it is kind of open for whether to be remain closed or stay open for phase one. It will be intended to be used for phase two.

Thank you.

Sure.

Okay, at this time, we'll go into the comment section. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to make any comments regarding this site application? Okay, if not, we'll start at this end. Commissioner Millett, any comments?

Wow, this has been a long time since the initial informal presentation. I've seen the progress. I just summarize by saying i'm excited about it, I think a lot of thought has been put into it it's wonderful we have the affordable housing component of it. And it's a thoughtful use of of the space and you know, being initiated by the church, so thank you for being a part of our Community.

Thank you, Commissioner Peters.

Yeah, I would agree. This has been a long time coming for this, and I'm glad to see the progress and the development of the plans and the initiative that the church has brought to the town of Bloomfield. I think this is a step in the right direction according to affordability. I did a little bit of the math. It's around 24%, not 30. So I just wanted to pull that, call that out a little bit. And I think that's, once again, in the positive direction. of what we would like to see, especially on this access way, which has a lot of connections to public transportation. So under service, individuals who don't have cars could immediately get to a proper bus stop and be en route to where they need to go and all that. So I think this is amazing. I'm just glad that we're still having this conversation where, um, our comments and our questions can be addressed and we could perfect this or get as close to perfection as possible, um, for future residents and, um, for, to obviously align with, uh, Bloomfield's values. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Commissioner O'Brien.

obviously this is a terrific project project for bloomfield and um i'd like to thank the um the applicants uh both uh and the african staff both paul bailey and and bsc for the quality of their presentation and also the gentleman who did the affordable thing um the drawings uh in and so forth they're about the best drawings that we've received since I've been here in a year and a half. The only comment I would make since we haven't heard from the fire commissioner is if you look at the site plan up here, I think the fire department would have no problem dealing with building A and B. You may run into a problem when you put the other buildings up with that, the way you come in the driveway and then you immediately swing right then you immediately swing left. Maybe a problem with a fire truck doing that, which would mean that you would have to modify that island there. It may make it, but to my trained eye, it would be difficult. You may have to consider that in phase B, but I think there was no problem in the fire department on dealing with A and B. So with that and the comments, the questions I asked earlier and a few minor changes,

um nice job okay thank you commissioner james yes thank you to all parties involved and i think i've expressed this before thank you to first cathedral um i really appreciate the plan that you've put forward um and how beneficial it will be to bloomfield um just pointing out the walking trail i went to a meeting last night for a greenway that's down blue hills avenue and so I know in Bloomfield, we love to exercise. We love movement. And I could see people really taking on that challenge and being connected. And so it's all coming together. And thank you for being a part of that. I really appreciate, you know, affordable housing is really important to me. And we did a lot of work on our commission on affordable housing plan that defines all, you know, what affordable housing is, capital A and lowercase a. And I think that this plan really hits that mark and appreciate all the work that you have put into it. So thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Marshall Neely.

Thank you so much, thank you everyone everyone for. This awesome presentation and all of the work that you put in I. I still in my mind have a concern regarding someone who might be in a wheelchair and have to roll the wheelchair down to the laundry room to do their laundry and carrying their laundry basket while they're in a wheelchair. But that's neither here nor there. It's just a concern that I have because I'm that kind of person. and i concur with commissioner james that you know the walking trail and so forth and so on i'm i'm kind of like a gym rat and and so when i when i brought up the the bike trail you know i'm thinking fitness fitness gotta have fitness here and so i i I shudder to challenge myself for not asking, is there a fitness facility in one of these apartment buildings? I didn't ask, and I should have asked because I asked about the bike. But I thank you for all of your work, everything that you put in there, the coconut stuff. I want to go home and look that up again. But thank you so much.

Thank you, Commissioner Marcianelli. Commissioner Goff.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I will echo my other commissioners. Very happy with where this has gone. We're starting from the master plan and where we are now. I think you've made a lot of great improvements. The couple of things I, well, one thing I did want to mention, there was a question about solar and I do understand the issues with solar in the, especially for apartment buildings. But one thing that is new now is that Connecticut just passed legislation allowing balcony solar, and that's just plug and play. And for a lot of people in these apartments, buying a balcony solar unit and plugging it into their existing infrastructure may work great. So that's another option without the putting everything on the roof and going through that. The one thing I think that and I another thing I really want to compliment the applicant on and the work done is on the environmental concerns with the wastewater. As my colleague said, with the type of silt venture using and all of that, I think those things are important and I think they show respect for the for the land here and what we're trying to do with it. The two comments, well, I'll make three comments. One comment, as I do understand, I think where Commissioner Medwinter was going, and we can't solve all the problems of the world. This works great if you're at 50, 60, 70% of AMI. It doesn't work so great if you're at 20. And I think that was the point we were making. These rents can still be high if people are below that 50, 60 or 70. But again, we can't solve all the world's problems. And I think this is a good start.

And I appreciate that.

The two final comments I'll make. i don't know what to do about the sidewalk deferral issue we did the first time through asked that it be done in the first phase um certainly deferring moving moving the sidewalk i'm completely in favor of that but the um Question I have, I guess the question I have with that is deferring the sidewalk around the, I guess, Windbury side makes a lot of sense initially, but then the other thing I heard is that phase four may be 15 years in the future. So that's a long, long deferral. So I guess I would ask ultimately when we get to final discussion on this, what staff thinks about that. And I guess my last comment is that I do think that, you know, the Concern I have, and not because I want to be concerned, is just that there is enough space for the amenities, for the demographics of the people that will be moving in. So one thing I would ask as you plan and move forward is maybe get somebody to be thinking about what are we likely to have? How much should we have for this? And then you can move around accordingly. But I realize it's completely flexible. Things can change, and that's great. Thank you, and this is moving along very well. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Commissioner Medwinner.

Thank you so much for your time. It's a long night. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. And my final comments is I just want to congratulate the team. I think you guys did a very good professional presentation. Jeff Person, Attorney Markowitz, BSC Group, you guys did a great job. I think the timing of the application was perfect. We had just passed our inclusionary zoning regulations to allow affordable housing. So the timing was perfect. I think this is going to be a welcome addition to Bloomfield in terms of affordable housing. So I just like to say you guys did a good job and congratulations. At this time, if there's anything else you'd like to say, any closing remarks before we close the public hearing?

Uh, there was 1 question about the fire Marshall. I do recognize that we need written information, but we did speak to the fire Marshall. So the design. Was he was in agreement with what we had presented for the design? I just wanted to put that on the record. But other than that, thank you all members of the commission for the wonderful questions. And I very much appreciate all of your time. Uh. Attorney Markowitz, I don't know if you have any closing remarks yourself either.

Yeah, thank you, Frank. I just wanted to thank the Commission for their serious deliberations and comments and questions. Their extraordinary patience. This was a very long presentation. You all did very well, and I appreciate the time and the commitment that you've made to the town of Bloomfield. The members of the community should be thankful that they have you

the planning of zoning commission thank you okay thank you at this time the chair entertained a motion to close the public hearing so moved second it's been moved in second any further discussion saying none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye opposed abstention chair votes aye this time the chair entertained a motion on this application

I make a motion to approve. The site plan application for 1151 blue hills avenue ddz zone ddz to zone to allow a proposed affordable housing multifamily development phase one composed of two five story apartment buildings, with a total of. four stories, two four-story apartment buildings with a total of 92 affordable housing units subject to the following conditions as listed in staff report dated August 27th, 2026.

Is there a second? I second that. It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion?

Mr. Chairman? Yes. You need to do a friendly amendment or the motioner needs to amend the amendment to specifically defer the sidewalks to one of the, to a specific phase, whether that's phase three or four.

Mr. Chair. Do that amendment.

uh yeah that's fine um well i don't know um are you doing the friendly amendment uh i will do a friendly amendment that we that's what's on the floor right now a friendly amendment that he made well he made a request for a friendly minute the the um the the yeah i i i don't know how to phrase it be completely because i don't know what phase we went in i would make a motion that we amend the motion to do two things, one, to determine when to defer the sidewalks to, and we can add which phase it is. And secondly, I would also ask that in the application comments made, again, that Section 8 be changed so that it indicates that this is 100% affordable housing, not just that it comports to our affordable housing law. So I would make that friendly amendment.

I'll accept that. Yeah.

And I'll second that. Okay. The amendment has been, the amendment has been accepted.

So discussion, Mr. Chair, I would ask the staff, give us some indication of what the sidewalk deferral should be to what phase we should put this in.

I probably phase three by then we should, um, As the town engineer put in his staff report that we did distribute this evening, we should know that they should have the encroachment coordination with DOT done by that. And we also, DOT will be doing some projects in the area and we should know the exact extent of those projects and where their sidewalks will be related to those projects in place. So I would say phase three.

So I will add to my friendly amendment that the deferral of the sidewalks be to phase three. I'll accept that.

Okay, thank you. Okay, this has been moved. It's been accepted. I second. Any further discussion? Okay, seeing none, all those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Abstention? Chair votes aye. Congratulations.

Thank you very much.

Okay next item on the agenda. is under new business. And now, as the Secretary if she read the application.

Yes, site plan review 46 and 91 rockwell avenue aka rockwell park major park improvements applicant owner town of bloomfield um.

Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. Uh, before we get started, I just want to ask for, I do have members from the Banesh team in the audience. Um, if they could be promoted so that they can share the presentation, it is Ryan Dean and I believe Ryan Scooter Scooter all I'm pronouncing that. Correctly. um so my name is david molesko i'm the director of parks recreation leisure services um 800 bloomfield avenue here before you this evening to discuss the rockwell park uh improvements projects um just i'm going to do a brief introduction and then i'm going to hand it over to the benesh team to move forward into the the remaining portion of it um the rockwell park also known as blue hills neighborhood center bill lee fields is a primary He's a primary town of managing approximately 10 and a half acres on Rockwell Avenue. The current construction phase is funded by the state of Connecticut Community Investment Fund 2030 round four. The design consultant right now is Alfred Burnett and Company was engaged in September 2025. Why this project? In 2022, Weston and Sampson did a master plan process and included a site analysis, field use inventory. We used an advisory committee and we had a 191 response community survey. public voting at one of the celebrate bloomfields events along with several other small community engagement events residents prioritized walking paths basketball courts permanent restrooms community gardens play apparatus and gathering space there were three schematic options that were as part of that and we uh came up with the final design that you'll be seeing here this evening. The master plan estimated just to be approximately 13.4 million project. Right now we currently have 4 million for phase one. That keeps recently renovated pickleball courts at Rockwell. adds courts, new basketball courts, community garden, organizes a multi-use field complex, play area, pavilions, restrooms, parking, and a perimeter trail on Rockwell. cif round four funds in the first construction phase so the town can deliver high demand amenities now while completing planning and permitting for later phases of the adopted vision the separate greenway walk-in path along the park edge and will connect rockwell um to the neighborhood i know that that came up this evening as part of one of the commissioner's comments there was a meeting last night for that so there was a uh a connection um Um, for the green way going around the, uh, the old trolley tracks, um, yeah, just located behind Rockwell or adjacent with Rockwell avenue that will connect with the park and run through it. Um, phase phase one, um, which is the, where we currently have the funding for now entails for new basketball courts with athletic light in fence and seat and gathering space between courts, walkways, accessible routes, and consistent materials palette throughout the park. There will be parking on the north and south side of Rockwell Avenue, including EB stations and later build out. Gathering pavilion and spectator plaza, restroom concession building in the overall site plan, community gardens with a shed, pergola, raised beds and water stations. There will be stormwater and water retention facilities in above ground management areas. site plan review outline also presents playground and fitness equipment court and pedestrian light and plant in the east coast greenway multi-use trail interface drawings include future athletic fields and other master plan amenities that are not part of this current phase but will be for future phases but it is being presented this evening So we're in the final stages now. We did go through the wetlands and we received approval through them. So hopefully we'll be successful with the final approvals here. And then at that point, we can then move forward with submitting our RFP and start soliciting for the construction phase. So at this point, I'd like to turn it on over to Ryan Dean.

All right, thank you, Dave. Again, my name is Ryan Dean. I work with Alfred Banish and Company, which is that 200 Glastonbury Boulevard in Glastonbury, Connecticut. I'm just going to kind of reorient everyone.

Ryan, if you can hear me, they're having difficult hearing you.

Hmm. Okay, let me see if I'm just gonna have to try to talk louder. I don't know is this can I guess I'll just keep going, but let me know if you can't hear me at all. Um, so what we've got currently is, is the existing, um, bill Lee fields or Rockwell park, as you will, uh, the, you know, at the, the Southern edge is wall street, um, you know, right near, uh, cottage Grove, which is, you know, where we'll be talking about a connection for the East coast greenway. The North side appropriately is Rockwell avenue, which cuts through the two portions that Dave was just speaking about. uh you know this the larger portion that we have here um will be you know re reoriented into similar you know athletic fields um and as dave said addition of basketball and such above with reorganizing reorganizing the the circulation as it works today that where it splits from the daycare into you know the public park okay uh just some some imagery to get everybody excited about you know what we're thinking this this project is in the end this was an early rendition um that we showed dave you know with with kind of the master plan um implemented uh just to kind of give you guys a feel for that i know you've all gone through the drawing set so far um and you know given them the staff comments were fairly minor you know i think i'll keep this fairly high high level Um, well, I wanted to start, you know, even though we have two phases, phase one is kind of everything that's not lime green. Um, it's the lighter, the lighter colors that you see in here. Um, and you know, I wanted to start from the north and work my way south on this site plan. So this is the overall, but the next sheet, we'll just zoom in a little bit closer to the north of Rockwell. Uh, one of the exciting things that happens with this project is that the East coast greenway is coming through on the north side of the site. Uh, with that, the connectivity down to, uh, to cottage grove, um, as as possible. So we've coordinated with the consultants working on the East coast greenway. To align that connection and have it come right in through our site. So that's what you're seeing here. This would be the tee off point and it would come through 2 sets of. double basketball courts with bench seating. We've incorporated a water bubbler out here just because that's not there currently. And then existing pickleball courts will stay and be updated with lighting. All of these courts will be lit at night for nighttime use till whenever your town bylaws say that lights need to come off. Something that's new here is 53 parking spaces located over in this location. I know one of our other coworkers lives right north of Bloomfield and uses the courts here often, is excited about having more pickleball parking for all his buddies to come as well. So with that, I think we'll kind of take the East Coast Greenway across Rockwell. Again, we were just talking about what the situation was with a speed table, and that's what we've got intended here. So the bike paths will go right across the road at grade. We do have some bollards to slow everyone down and then connect into this other trail. So I'm going to jump to the next portion, which is just right here is where we were. So the nice part about the east coast greenway is that we can kind of keep it to the outside edge of the site so that we've got that benefit it keeps the circulation as a kind of a carriage drive on the outside edge but what we're looking at doing is providing the same section which is i think a 10 foot 10 or 12 not sure whatever their standard is uh with a with a outer fence coming all the way down through a bituminous um to come across there and connect in so that's that's going to be an amenity that feeds the park, what we've done is created a location where we've broken the fence and added a dozen bike racks or so for folks that want to stop at the park and use that. The existing curb cut on the north side will stay the same, and we're going to just pull that new geometry of the road down through. The master plan actually used to end with the with the lot here and not continue on but we said you know there's a lot of opportunity to punch through and have your own curb cut on on wall street and then you know you'd have that that full circulation and access from both sides so within this portion you can see you know the handicap spaces that are uh allocated uh throughout the department on the project on the north and the south here and then also what we're showing is the requirement for the 10 of EV charging spaces to be provided. I think as we work over to the west here, this is where it gets really exciting to me. This is a fully accessible route that will get everyone from any point in the site onto the fields and back up. What we're able to do with this design is hold this grade a little bit, not necessarily higher, but we created a plinth where the parking lot and this beige area, which is all concrete, with the pavilion on top and then the restrooms and concession building right next to it, is that this will have about a four foot, four or five foot height difference between where you're standing here in the field. So the whole kind of view out is really kind of a nice spot for parents to come and kind of hang out while they've got a smaller kid that could be working, playing around on the playground. So with that, you know, along this whole edge, we have a kind of a security area for a closed playground, which we can get to the equipment in just a moment. We're trying to hit, you know, we've got three pieces that kind of cover all age groups that would, you know, be out here playing around. And then another hexagon or a hexagon shaped pavilion for, you know, the parents to watch or grandparents to sit and watch in the shade and hang out there. Moving down further south, there's a whole lot of opportunity to start introducing more mature plants to the site. The current condition, as you've seen, is open field, which, you know, there's one mature tree that is unfortunately going to be lost because of the mass regrading to get all of this at one level. But within this zone is really what we're imagining to be kind of the bosque with the picnic tables scattered throughout and potentially a phase two pavilion if needed. I'll let Ryan Scritorel get into the stormwater and the drainage because that's what you're seeing down on the southern end. But all these trails integrate into a loop path that David mentioned that will be built as part of phase one, or yes, ideally part of phase one. But then we will, I'm sorry, get back in down through here. So the walls, as you come around that loop, The small retaining walls will show the images of that in just a few slides, and we can start to talk about the lighting as well. The one thing that wasn't mentioned on this slide is the Community garden space, which is, I think, pretty exciting space we've got some good imagery as well. we've got about 35 individual raised planting beds that has will be for Community members to come in and maintain their own. We have a quarter farms style shed or quarter farms actual shed that we're looking to put within that zone for housing tools and and what have you for for anyone that wants to come use, you know the Community garden space. And with that, I think I'm going to jump on to the next slide to keep things moving along. The lighting, we've, you know, without going into great, great detail, I know we have some coordination that we need to do with Eversource with the lighting for the courts and such, but we have, you know, gone through a few iterations. We're using, you know, your town standard, which is this, you know, pedestrian, the BAS acorn style light. Uh, for, for all of these kind of big squares that you see throughout the site, right? Those are the locations where it's just a pedestrian scale, 12 foot fixture. Um, but where it gets more efficient with higher poles, we start to use, you know, this, what we call the kind of the modern day Cobra head. It's not that terrible one that they put everywhere in the eighties and nineties, but it's very efficient led that would cover the lot. And then this is part of phase two as the athletic field lighting, um, would This would pertain to the baseball and football and multi use fields where the court lighting appears is a much smaller and more kind of integrated package that gets those those courts up to the appropriate levels at night. plantings again, you know that the site was fairly devoid of any planting, so what we wanted to do is really introduce a native canopy layer, you know. throughout the periphery of the field so that there is that kind of human scale element that brings, you know, the wide open space down, you know, and lets that transitional space between the parking lot and the fields occur. So we've got, you know, a lot of native plants, but I think probably easier to talk about out of the gate is, you know, we have used some others as ginkgos just to mix up and get some more, you know, cultural variety in there. A lot of Betula Nigra for winter interests. And then we really shot for having four seasons of color at all times. So the planting plan is, I can't show you it all at this scale necessarily, but I welcome any comments as I know you've reviewed the drawings already. architectural elements again I'm a landscape architect so this is just carried over from Silver Petrocelli Associates these are the elevations and plans that we have for the restroom and concessions building this would be a level one concession so we are not looking to have fryers or there's no grease traps required this would just be a microwave or refrigerator some water the toilets and power I we actually I think May run gas to that, but I'm not, I can't say that for sure.

Excuse me, Ryan.

Yes.

Can you try to talk a little louder?

Yep. I'll try to get a little bit louder. I'm so sorry. Um, so yes, the, the color schemes have been kind of thought through with other, you know, town, um, town color schemes and really the Rockwell team's preference from the Bloomfield side have kind of picked out the imagery for what these will be. There's a small transformer that's required for this building that has been placed just to the south of Rockwell Avenue. And I think this is, you know, it's a happy medium where we didn't go too large to save money, you know, on this unit so that it can You can have the restrooms and have the concessions, but it's not the Taj Mahal of concession stands. So with that, we wanted to make sure there was enough cover area for the playground viewing, which is what you're seeing at the bottom here is tied in over at this location. And then the larger pavilion, which would be more for sitting down in larger groups if There are classrooms or classes or entire sports teams there to sit down and eat, something like that. This is the aesthetic that we were looking at in the northern location. And as far as actual site materiality goes, this is where we've kind of landed. This is that shed that we're talking about from the Clodagh Farms portfolio. We're looking at this kind of an aesthetic for the raised beds as to not have rotted out wood. and keep that kind of a clean aesthetic. To keep the budget down again, we had looked at, you know, these precast concrete block wall for that three to, you know, the four-foot wall that kind of runs along the east side of the fields. And then, again, just trying to keep with all of, you know, the aesthetic similarities of what are across town. This is the bench that we selected that we'll have dozens of throughout the park. Dave Kuntz, And then you know Dave and I talked where we do have brick at some crosswalk locations and some high touch locations. Dave Kuntz, we're proposing to use real brick at this point in time before the you know anything goes through a value engineering effort so having a red brick you know it feels very New England for the for the palette and should, I think, be very successful in the aesthetic. Uh, finally, and without going into too much detail, these are the structures that we've, you know, kind of placeholding for, uh, the younger crowd, uh, in the playground area. And also why not throw old folks too. So the 40 plus active agers, um, set is also has been located in that site plan, uh, for, you know, it's a workout circuit that you would all identified as part of being part of the master plan. And I think, again, just to round that out, we're really increasing, you know, the accessibility of the site. Currently, you know, none of the paths are, there are no paths, so it's not very accessible. We're really updating the amount of recreation and, you know, variety of amenity on the site for all different ages. And we're just trying to make sure that we've got a cohesive site that works for you all and drains and works perfectly. So with that, I'm going to hand it off to Ryan to talk about some of the particulars on the technical stuff.

Thank you, Ryan. Can you guys all hear me right now? We can hear you fine.

Yes. All right.

Perfect. Okay. So I apologize. I actually heard Ryan Dean the whole entire time. So it was confusing to me, but Ryan's crittoral for the record. My name is Ryan's crittoral. I'm professional engineer with Alfred Bench and company. Our address is 200 Glastonbury Boulevard in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Um, so I'm going to go a really high level, um, just to not bore you guys to death. Um, So I'm just going to start on the north end of the site, just to the north of Rockwell Avenue. The drainage patterns as they stand right now, most of that northern portion drains to the south down towards Rockwell Avenue and gets picked up by the storm sewer system that's currently in existence. there is a small portion that goes to the north which is there's a small wetlands uh just north of the blue box that ryan's kind of highlighting right now we're maintaining those same drainage patterns after construction so what we're planning on doing is collecting the water through a series of catch basins and yard drains and then running them through a hydrodynamic separator and then due to the fact that the soil conditions up in that northern leg are actually quite poor we're going to end up with an underground detention system to kind of retain that water and throttle it back so that we match pre-development conditions Moving south kind of as we kind of go down below Rockwell Avenue. This area again flows from north to south overland flow for the most part. There's a series of a small amount of catch basins in the middle of the ball fields that then run west over to Chapel Street. We're maintaining those drainage patterns for the most part. Every single drainage outfall that we have existing is being maintained from pre to post development. We're also reducing peak rate runoffs from post-development to pre-development standards per the 2024 Connecticut Stormwater Quality Manual. The southern portion of the site and the eastern portion are all being collected via a series of catch basins, area drains, and yard drains, and then routed down to the green area that Ryan was referencing before, which is an infiltration basin. That is going to be having a series of two four bays, their size to take the water quality volume for the site. And then that ultimately then goes into the actual infiltration basin, which is a little bit kind of actually the green area itself. Once that kind of fills up and it's allowed to percolate into the groundwater again, There are actually two outfalls, two high-level overflows that we put on, one for each side of the infiltration basin. The reason for that is we wanted to maintain the flow that's going to the southeast, which is kind of highlighted actually right where Ryan is, just south of Wall Street. There's a small wetland over on that area, and we didn't want to deplete that of the water that helps maintain the ecosystem down in that wetland. We have a high-level overflow that brings stormwater over to that area, and then another one that brings it to the west as well, basically maintaining drainage patterns from pre- to post-development. Now, in terms of utilities, we're just planning on doing some new utility services to the concession building. So a sanitary sewer lateral will go to the south from the concession stand down to Wall Street. We'll have a new water service that comes off of Rockwell Avenue. And then as Ryan had mentioned, there'll be a small transformer that's off of just south of Rockwell Avenue and then feeds the buildings itself and they site electrical. um with regards to the erosion and sedimentation controls for the site um we're utilizing pretty much standard you know out of the box kind of methodology we will be adhering to the 2024 connecticut erosion sedimentation control manual we'll be utilizing a lot of the features that you heard from frank vacca in the previous uh presentation uh we'll have construction entrances at both wall street and rockwell avenue to access both sites we will have be utilizing silt fence and straw wattles along the site. They pretty much get used interchangeably. Then on top of that, we are also going to be using silt sacks and all of the existing catch basins and proposed catch basins, hay bales for areas where we have area drains in the yards, and also utilizing the infiltration basin as a temporary sedimentation trap. And what we do with that is we direct runoff down to that area temporarily and then use that as a way to kind of clean out the stormwater prior to discharge. And then ultimately, once the construction is stable, then we would then excavate that out and build the permanent infiltration pond and put in the plantings at that point. And that's pretty much it in a nutshell from an engineering standpoint. I don't want to bore you all to death technically, but I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you all may have. I know we kind of sped through this because it is 1123 p.m. at this point. So if you have any questions, we'd be more than happy to answer them.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Another great addition to the community, I think we have secured a CIF grant to cover the costs of the first phase. In terms of staff review, I'll be brief. THIS IS A TWO-PART APPROVAL ON YOUR PART. ONE IS THE SITE PLAN REVIEW UNDER SECTION 9-4, BUT ALSO IT'S A REFERRAL UNDER SECTION 8-24 OF THE STATE STATUTES IN TERMS OF PROPOSED MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENTS. IN TERMS OF SITE PLAN, WE THINK IT MEETS ALL IT GETS. THE LOCATION IS SUITABLE. THE IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPROPRIATE. THE TRANSPORTATION CONDITIONS ARE SUITABLE. There's adequate utilities and services. There's appropriate environmental protection and conservation, and it has been signed off by the Wetlands Commission. We think it has long-term viability, and it is consistent with the plan of conservation and development. And in terms of the recommendations, which would be a letter to the town council, it is consistent with the town plan of development.

and we would recommend that a favor report be sent on to the committee to the council okay thank you this time we'll have some questions from the commission and i'll start with commissioner medwinter any questions no questions uh commissioner goff yeah um so

I don't know what it is we are approving and what we have plans for. Because what I have plans for, well, what I have a staff memo talks about phases one and two. My understanding is we have my funding for phase one Phase two includes the fields. The fields in the comment on phase two make the comment that they are plastic fields, they're synthetic turf. And that has not been decided yet. Um, additionally, we somehow have a series of plans that when they refer to some things, it's hard to find it in here. They do refer to features dealing with synthetic turf. So my, my question, my initial question to staff is what is it you want us to approve?

We would like you to approve phase one, uh, in its entirety and Phase two in terms of the use, not in terms of how the use is actually turfed, because we know that is a very sensitive issue. And we know that the town does not have an official position on it at this point. And we think that that needs to be determined before the commission takes action on on the type of phase two.

So your recommendation then is not to approve exactly what's before us, but to approve phase one. to approve sort of a master plan for the entire Rockwell development in terms of the athletic fields, but to any specific reference to synthetic turf that's on any of these documents, as far as being finalized, it should be removed. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. The one other comment I will ask, I guess, of the director, I know the Rockwell Park, you know, at some point worked very diligently on this. And I think it's, you know, I think the features are incredible. I really, well, I'll make a comment about the rest of them when we get to comments. Do you think it's overdone?

No, not at all. I think that it's right-sized. You could probably enhance it even more if you wanted to go even further with it. But I mean, it hits every aspect right now.

Can you go back to the first picture?

There's a... There is a major need right now for additional athletic fields in town. As it speaks right now, the Junior Warhawk program is practicing on a field behind a race that is not actually designed to be an athletic field. It is just a grassy area that we mow and we line for them. And there's no lights out on the backfield right now. And when they do bring lights in, they need to be portable lights. We do have lights currently right next to the building at 330 Park Avenue. And they do share those fields between them and soccer, but between the large number of kids that both programs have, we can't accommodate them at this. So this is the reason why, you know, the athletic fields in this are so important. And I will comment on the athletic, on the natural turf.

Actually, let me just stop you because that really wasn't my question. Could you go back like one more slide, maybe?

The original picture you showed us.

so that's that's that's yeah there no that one so no my question was not on the athletic fields themselves uh the athletic fields in this look fairly straightforward what I was asking about was the busyness on the right side of the screen uh what's that

Is this an AI generator? Yeah, that is not an aerial view of the park. Now, it's probably AI generated in terms of the right side, but those buildings do not exist on the right side. Can you go back to that page, please? Yeah, well, there is an existing view. This is the existing view right here. So what you see where the red dot is, that's where the old belt building is now. The Blue Hills School. Yeah. Right. then the parking area none of that is changing to the right side of the ball fields in the court itself so that's just an embellished image on the right hand side of the park so if you could go back to the other screen so no no no no other side he wants the there we go um the parking area is is is accurate all everything in between there in the fields would be accurate the basketball basketball courts and the northern side are accurate um as well as that but nothing on the right hand side of that parking lot that's okay thank you because you know when i saw the picture

Yeah, okay.

That's got to look like an amusement park area.

So straightening out what we are voting on and that we are not voting to make a decision on the substance of those fields. I have no more questions. Thanks.

Thank you. Commissioner Marsha Neely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had a question also, but... No disrespect, but I could not hear what Ryan was saying. I tried my darndest, but I was trying to follow along, and it would have really helped if I had a copy of the slide presentation that he was looking at so that I could at least follow what he was trying to convey to us. And I'm not being disingenuous. i don't think i'm alone when i when i said when i say that i i was having such a challenge trying to follow what he was saying because the volume was not up okay what do you know can i can i see we cannot hear you we see your lips moving uh yeah ryan you're having technical difficulties on your end Okay. So I I'm glad for the clarification of phase one and the master plan. My question, what my question is, even though we are going to focus primarily on primarily on voting for phase one, how how do we in good conscience vote for phase two and you have this multi-use synthetic turf field in here we're supposed to you know vote on that and exclude that you know um it kind of seems like Maybe we should hold off on phase two until we can come to some kind of understanding with regard to the synthetic turf field.

I think all you're doing is voting on whether or not those fields are appropriate. The materiality is... is what you're not voting on right now is what is what the is what was stated so whether it's synthetic or natural grass the layout and the use are going to remain that same way is what we're trying to ask for thank you thank you I don't have any more questions then okay thank you Commissioner James

Um, no questions. I was actually on the Rockwell park planning committee with Dave. So thank you for all your hard work. Okay.

Commissioner O'Brien.

Yeah. As we, the three of us who campaigned the last time across town, this, this was a winner. Everybody said, this is great. Uh, and, uh, would like to see it. Um, and I think with the, with the change to the. presentation and saying that what the field is, whether it's grass or whether it's synthetic, that's out of the equation. We're going to say that's got to come back to us at the time that you're going to put it in for approval. Then I think we vote the entire thing. and then they know this is where the field's going to be. And so I would say it's good to go with come back at another time as to what the field surface is.

Thank you. Any questions, Commissioner Peters?

What do we have to do to get those AI cottages in the proposal?

no questions i'm just joking no questions i have no questions uh and i don't have any questions either we'll go to comments uh commissioner malet any comments

Um, thank you for the work. I, I think it'll be great to, uh, enhance, uh, that park and the fields and the playgrounds. Um, it, it'll be a great improvement for that neighborhood.

Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Peters.

I, I definitely agree. Um, based upon the slides that we've seen, this is long overdue and I, I definitely am looking forward to this facelift for Rockwell Park, so I'm excited.

Thank you, Commissioner O'Brien. Any comments? Huh? Any comments? Yeah, I know.

I think I did my comments.

Any more comments? Commissioner James.

Just thank you. Appreciate all the hard work. Yep.

uh commissioner marshall neely i'm sorry it's almost midnight i have no comments uh commissioner golf yes no i will i will let call everyone i think this as commissioner o'brien said and i know uh commissioner james and commissioner um uh um Lester, we're out knocking doors with us in terms of accomplishments. This is one that everyone is happy to see Rockwell Park refurbished, expanded. i you know i hope i hope not too much uh but i think that the um you know the um parks and rec and uh everyone has done a good job in terms of getting the connectivity the greenway i would like to say one thing about this because it is a great accomplishment something is getting done i would like to thank mayor wong for this former mayor wong for this uh when i was when she was first on council with her first term not as mayor i was on council this was one thing she pushed for to get the funding to do the initial study for this uh to get it done and then she when became mayor appointed the rockwell park committee and um you know this is one of her accomplishments um and i think that we need to remember that thank you okay thank you um

Commissioner Medwinner.

Thanks for the hard work. Thanks for hanging in there until almost midnight. Thank you so much. I think it will be a well added and very used amenity to the community.

Thank you. Yes. And I'll also echo what my fellow commissioners have said. It really looks nice. Guys did a great job. Members on the commission day for you. uh just want to say thank you for all that you've done over the years i've had a chance to work with you and i know this is probably going to be it for you so i just want to say thank you you did a great job for this town i'm going to miss you at the driving range so stay in touch so we can uh continue to play some thank you

My last official meeting.

We wish you all the best.

Thank you.

This time, I guess we'll entertain a motion.

I motion that we approve the site plan application for Rockwell Park renovation at 46 and 91 Rockwell Avenue, as depicted on the plan set entitled Rockwell Park renovation prepared by Bench dated March 12, 2026, revised July 10, 2026, subject to the following conditions as noted in staff report as prepared for meeting date August 27, 2026. Is there a second?

I will second that, and I will also make a friendly amendment. UM, THE THE WHAT WE ARE PROVING AGAIN IS PHASE ONE. SO PHASE ONE WE'RE PROVING PHASE ONE AND WE'RE IMPROVING THE MASTER PLAN AS PRESENTED IN THE UM THE PRESENTATION AND THE YOU KNOW WHAT IS SHOWN TO US WITH THE MATERIALS FOR THE ATHLETIC FIELDS, FUTURE ATHLETIC FIELDS STRIPPED OUT OF ANY OF THE UM SUBMITTED DRAWINGS.

the usage of a page the usage yes usage as a master plan for phase two that's fine mr chairman one other thing that needs to go into that resolution uh that motion is um favorable referral um report to the town council in accordance with section 8-24 of the general statute i i will add that to my friendly amendment okay thank you i'll accept that

Okay, it's been accepted.

Can I just ask a clarification? I thought that we're going to approve the entire thing except for the materials and that they would have to come back. So I think we're approving the entire plan as a site plan and then they would come back for approval for what the field was. Um, so there's not, we're approving a master plan. We're actually approving this site plan that added your understanding. Yes, it is. Yes.

Given, Mr. Chair, given Commissioner O'Brien's comment or discussion point, I will change my friendly amendment that we, instead of phase one, we accept the site plan without the materials for the fields and add the referral to the town council, as mentioned.

I'll accept that. Okay.

And I was the second, so I accept.

Okay, thank you any further discussions. Okay, seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Abstention? Chair votes aye.

Thank you very much. Thank you all.

Okay, next item on the agenda, I'll ask the secretary if she'd read that.

Site plan review, 335 Cottage Grove Road, aka Copaco Center, facade improvements, part of a multi-phased major improvements.

Okay, is there someone here to present that? State your name and address, please.

Good evening. Dustin Hicks. I'm with Sterling Organizations. We are the owners of the Capaco Center. We are located at 302 Detour Street, West Palm Beach, Florida. I don't have a formal presentation. I believe the package include elevations and other documents. We also have some material boards tonight, but I did just want to give a brief overview of our plans for the center and what this application entails. Sterling bought the property last year, September of last year. We see Capaco Center as a great opportunity to invest significant capital in a rich and storied center that's part of the Bloomfield community. But it's a little tired and needs some renovation. We think it's a phenomenal location. We think it's a great opportunity to bring new tenants to the market and improve sales for the existing tenants. and just the overall operation of a pretty significant commercial property in your town. We do have a multifaceted approach to this property. Tonight's application is just about the facade improvements and we'll get into that in a little more detail. But I do as just an introduction since the first time we're meeting, I want to let you know that the facade improvements are not the ultimate only thing that we plan on doing here. We are looking at other improvements such as new landscaping, new and renovated signage, public art. We are marketing some of the areas for out parcel development that are currently undeveloped, as well as just capital improvements to the property, significant asphalt and concrete curbing repairs, which are long overdue. But as I said, tonight's application is for the facade enhancements, which we're ready to commence. This is for two of the buildings on the property, what we call the 400 building, which is the multi-tenant building anchored by Chase currently up near the main road. That building is, as you can imagine, super dated. It does not lend itself well to leasing to new and exciting tenants that want to come to the market. Our plan involves removing the metal sign rail that exists there now, creating a larger sign bin for tenant signage, creating some vertical articulation across the top of the building because it's one just long flat area today, creating a consistent storefront. Today it's a hodgepodge of different storefront systems that quite frankly are very dated and poor condition. In addition to that, on the stop and shop anchored building, we will also be removing the metal sign rail, which will also include removing the birds netting that's up there that doesn't look the greatest. So that'll be a fresh look. We'll be removing the fiberglass column wraps that are out there that are also in poor condition and putting stone bases with a proper column wrap. And if the rainbow space currently, if you look at the facade, you know, the five below when it came in, they built up a larger parapet and it gives a nice vertical articulation of that facade. Today, the rainbow kind of steps down and it's sort of off-putting from an architectural perspective. So we'll be building up a junior anchor facade where the rainbow fashion is as well. again that's a high level overview of the improvements i'm happy to answer any questions specifically about the colors and the materials but we're very excited to get started on this project which i said which again is just one aspect of all the all the improvements that we're considering making to the property okay thank you jonathan thank you mr chairman when sterling purchased this property they came in and met um

with staff, um, and indicated, um, at that time, their commitment, uh, to make a series of, um, significant improvements to the property going forward and indicated at that time as well, that those improvements, um, were going to be phased, that it was not going to be done at all one time. And this, um, this represents really the first phase of those improvements, uh, and staff thinks that they are. They're very appropriate. We support them and we look forward to the subsequent improvements to other parts of the property over the next months and years. But we think this is a great, a really good improvement to the property and to the community as Sterling follows through on their commitment to really upgrade the facility and make it not only local, but make it a destination shopping plaza.

Thank you. We'll start our questions. We'll start down with Commissioner Millett. Any questions?

Just one quick question. Does the facade update also include all the windows that look like the renderings the windows might be?

new uh the storefront systems um so on the stop and shop building uh our improvements don't include any storefront systems but on the 400 building which is the building that chase is in that's all new storefront systems great thank you commissioner peters uh my question would be um this these um metal bands they're they're actually awnings or the are they exclusions on the 400 building Yeah, currently there's the red canvas slanted awnings. These are aluminum eyebrow canopies that have the stanchions that attach back to the building. So they're metal canopies.

Okay. I think last time this was presented, I think there were some questions about dimensions about how far they come out. And, you know, I mean, that's the only information that I feel like that's still missing this because last time it was just, I don't know, it wasn't as detailed as this. i think the dimensions or how how the profile of it on the side was still just not apparent sure um so that would be my only question to see what that would look like um that would over overlap with the sidewalk and how that affects the whole profile of it and i apologize i don't have that information offhand uh that that detail is in the construction drawings that we submitted to the bloomfield building department um

They don't come all the way out to the end of the sidewalk, of course, but they do provide, my approximation would be they'd be about a three to four foot extension off the building. Typical of the same coverage that a canvas awning would provide. Okay, thank you.

uh good evening i guess in 10 minutes i can say good morning right um the um first of all uh welcome to bloomfield we're happy that you've invested in our town i do have a question though on the materials that you've chosen you've got drive it and unlike materials given that this is new england and that uh we have a lot of brick structures such as the building we're sitting in and we have Did you give any consideration at all to brick veneer rather than drive it? Or even to have accents of brick veneer or stone? Because I think stone and brick veneer would be more appropriate for a New England town than drive it, which actually drive it has been proven not to hold up well in Northeast. in the wintertime it tends to split so that would be my question to you and then after that i have one question for staff Sure.

Yeah, I'll address the materials real quick. You know, there is a lot of brick on the buildings right now, and we're not removing that brick. So most of the EFIS, if not all of the EFIS, or drive it as you refer to, is above the canopy height. So our experience with shopping centers throughout the country, including in other cold climates, where EFIS drive it doesn't perform well is where it can be damaged by patron customers, people using the shopping center. on this center currently, and also as we've proposed it in our plans, there's no EFIS or very little EFIS down below the canopy height. It's all up on the facades. Currently, the facades at the shopping center are EFIS, so we're not adding any additional EFIS to what's there today. We're actually net removing some of the EFIS and going with some other materials that are included in the sample material. uh as again as far as the brick goes we're not recovering any of the brick that exists today we're leaving all that brick there uh and then finally on the uh new column wraps um they're kind of a cheap fiberglass plastic looking column wrap and on those the bases of those are a stone veneer that's included in the elevations thank you the question to staff is

The renderings appear to show that the size of the signs increased considerably. So do we have any idea whether these are consistent with our sign regulations?

Hi, good evening once again, Linda Laureano for the record. We're not approving signs. The signs that are there, they're just installing back is my understanding. This is for just the facade materials. They may have shown it for aesthetic purposes, but signage is not part of this approval.

And what you handed out, you have existing and you have one size rainbow and you have proposed and you have a lot larger rainbow. So that's why I wanted to ask because what we have in front of us appears to be that the signs get bigger with the new facade.

Well, if they do apply for a sign permit, we will then consider that wall signs are under the purview of an administrative zoning permit. We will look at it and ensure that the size does not exceed what would be permitted.

So what's before us is not an increase in signage size?

That's not what you're approving, no. They would need a separate permit for that.

Commissioner James.

Thank you. I say this because I love Copaco. I go there every day. Does this facade improvement and the, you know, column wrap include more trash cans?

So site furnishings will be part of the package. So better benches, new benches, trash cans, better quality trash cans. Absolutely.

Okay, great. Thank you very much.

Commissioner Marsh.

I was hoping that I would start speaking when the clock struck 12.

I wanted to know whether or not there's going to be any trees planted

I see the trees in the background, but are there going to be any trees when you do your thing?

Sure. So this application doesn't include any landscape improvements. As I mentioned, we are in the process of designing landscape improvements for the center, and we'll be presenting those to staff. And then if it's coming before the board, you'll see those as well. So we are planning that, but we're not fully designed on what those landscape improvements will be yet.

So my second question is, can you see how excited I am about what you're about to do?

Well, it is late, but we're very excited too. We think this is a kind of a home run opportunity. Great, great property. Just needs some capital invested.

Thank you. Commissioner Goff.

My only question is, The work has started on this, right?

It is. We would like to get this facade portion of the project done this year before winter conditions set in. In order to do that, we worked with the staff and Mr. Schwab to get a permit on the non-discretionary items.

Oh, okay. I was out there the other day, and I saw, like, oh, they're working on it, which I think is great. But I just wanted to confirm that. Great. Thank you.

okay thank you commissioner medwinter no question okay and uh this time i don't have any questions uh however the commissioner of economic development i guess would like to make a statement

Bonnie Berkowitz, 492 Park Avenue in Bloomfield. Excuse me, it's a little late for me too. I'm the chair of the Economic Development Commission slash Development Authority. I am also the last generation that ran Copaco Shopping Center. And from the start, Sterling has shown that they understand the place that it holds in this community. Not only did they reach out to staff, they reached out to me. And we have an ongoing relationship. The only comment I want to make besides that is, When you start looking at the Granby Street, Toby Road revitalization project, Copaco, in my opinion, is the entranceway to that area. And I would like us to very much kind of see it that way as we move forward with the revitalization and the rebranding. Whatever happens to Copaco Shopping Center happens to that whole area. So this is very exciting. They're great partners. I give you a lot of credit for hanging in here. What, are you leaving at 4 o'clock in the morning to go back to Florida? Right. You might as well not even sleep. But thank you very much for letting me speak. I'm glad. It warms my heart to hear how you feel about Copaco because that's how I feel about it too. And thank you.

Hey, thank you. At this time, we'll have comments, and we'll start down with Commissioner Medwinter. Any comments?

I just want to thank the applicant for hanging in there until midnight. Thank you so much for your presentation. I look forward to Capaco looking beautiful. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Commissioner Goff.

Ditto. Thank you.

commissioner marshall neely i'm going to do more than ditto as a as a young kid as a young kid i would go to connecticut packing company with my grandparents and that's where they did the animals and everything you know and it was just a standalone building i remember as a little kid you know being dragged into the end and the building had this awful smell It's awful. I'm telling my age. So I am really excited that you're doing what you're doing. I look forward to a new entry to Bloomfield. So thank you so much for all of the work that's about to happen. Go get them.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner James.

thank you very much very excited for all that you've um invested in the Copaco and that you are expressing that you will do so as I said I go there every day and I look forward to it as all the improvements as well so thank you so much thank you Commissioner O'Brien what the best Commissioner Peters

uh yeah I I really appreciate your continued efforts um uplifting and um Bloomfield and Copaco I'm glad that Chase will no longer be the only one that's shining right now because it's the only thing that looks nice but yeah I'm looking forward to this as well thank you thank you Commissioner Millett yeah it's a good addition of I think we all have some nostalgia of old barns and animals and

Rene Valladares- Being silver and tobacco but it's good to see. Rene Valladares- It looking nice again and at least looking forward to that Thank you.

Rene Valladares- Yes, and i'll just say thank you so much for coming in and the renovations that look like you're proposing looks very nice.

Rene Valladares- Thank you very much.

Okay, at this time, the chair entertain a motion on this application.

I motion that we approve the site plan for 335 cottage grove road aka Copaco center facade improvements part of a multi phased major improvements.

I second.

moved and second any further discussion. seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed abstention chair votes aye congratulations so if did you get approved on the 28th did you get a proof on the 28th on the 28th

okay next next item on the agenda uh it's the secretary to read uh amendment to site plan approval to request a deferral of sidewalk installation at 529 cottage grove road applicant mark diabo adabo property owner estero holding company uh uh good evening for the record my name is jim cassidy professional engineer and principal with the firm halsey pearson and cassidy i think you have mark the adabo online uh if you can promote him uh if he's still up

SO I'LL START OFF. ALSO IF WE COULD POSSIBLY SHARE THE SCREEN. I HAVE A PACKAGE I WAS GOING TO HAND IT OUT TO EVERYBODY BUT DUE TO THE LATENESS OF THE HOUR I MIGHT JUST DO IT ON THE SCREEN INSTEAD AND HOPEFULLY MOVE THIS ALONG A LITTLE BIT. BUT THANK YOU FOR WAITING AND HEARING US THIS EVENING. AS YOU MAY RECALL WE WERE BEFORE YOU BACK IN JULY OF 2025. At that time, we did receive approval for the development of property of 529 Cottage Grove Road, which consisted of the development of a new 15,349 square foot retail store as shown on the site plan that's up before you right now. Associated with that also was a parking area consisting of 87 parking spaces. You may recall access to the site was via a right turn in, right turn out only off Cottage Road Road, which is shown through the top of the page. The secondary access, full access through the back portion of the property out to Northwestern Drive. I'll start off this presentation by saying we're requesting a deferral of the sidewalks that were proposed along the front of this project. but i'll also say that we're all in favor of having sidewalks sidewalks would definitely benefit this project um but as we've gone through the process um what we're finding out and again the applicant is one that initially told me to put sidewalks on this site plan so from day one we've had sidewalks But you may recall, as we went through the approval process, I think it was Commissioner Golf had mentioned that you might want to see a multipurpose path in front of this property rather than the conventional concrete sidewalk. So as we've gone through and as everyone has seen at this point, we've started construction. We did notice that the state is making some improvements to use signal signals in this area. And as part of that, we noticed that especially at the intersection of northwestern Drive and Cottage Grove Road, they're putting in access ramps, handicapped ramps. So initially we started the conversation with your former town engineer, Rob Trottier, about is the state planning to extend the sidewalks to this property where we have some kind of connection? And it came back that they were not at this point. There was grading issues, so they're not going to be extending them. uh as we also went through the process we initially started laying this out we were aware of your green ray project that's coming down the road which actually um would can be coming down i think it's sherman road which is a paper road off to the far right or to the east uh and hopefully be able to make a connection from there to this development again we're all for it uh and drastically benefit this property uh as we continue on the process we also went to dot and talked about sidewalks about what can we put in there right away they came back with they needed to be a concrete walk So what we are at at this point is, number one, would we put in for a sidewalk? And then ultimately, is it going to match up with the Greenway project when it eventually happens? We're all for putting sidewalks in, having sidewalks here. We just don't want to put a sidewalk in that's not going to get used. What happens with sidewalks when they don't get used is they deteriorate, they crack, they get broken up. And ultimately right now for the state, we're putting a concrete walk in and ultimately when you get your Greenway project approved, it may be something totally different. So we're going to put a sidewalk in that's actually going to get ripped out in the future to accommodate the Greenway project. Again, we're not looking for a waiver of sidewalks. We're looking to the 1st sidewalks until there's a plan of what's actually going on in this area. You were handed a declaration we're proposing to put on the land records that basically says at such time that the Greenway project is approved and funded. and you can start construction this applicant is willing to put up the funds to build his section and sidewalks but we don't want to build it if we don't know what it is or we don't want to build it if it's not going to be used until such time so the applicant again we're not trying to get away from doing it we're just trying to wait until it's an appropriate time we would hope it had happened a little bit sooner But it's not and we're well under construction and we're actually hoping to have a parking lot paved and pretty much wrapped up by winter of this year, a building closed and then ultimately occupied probably in the winter or early spring of this year. And from my understanding, the Greenway project is probably not going to happen for at least another couple of years. i know you have a memo from your town engineer that kind of concurs with what we're saying they want to put a time limitation on it we respectfully request that again it doesn't occur until that project actually comes into play because once again if something happens and it doesn't come in play we have a set of sidewalks that go to nowhere and then again a set of sidewalks that we don't know what type of material it actually should be based upon future development in this area The caveat or the declaration can be on the land record. And again, if it ends up, they build sidewalks from Northwestern, and it ends up being concrete sidewalks, and it doesn't go to the Greenway, then we'd match up with whatever is built from Northwestern. But it just doesn't make sense right now. So we respectfully request deferral of sidewalks. And again, we're more than willing to put a declaration on the land record. Basically, it's like a caveat. I can almost think of it like a sewer caveat where you can go to connect in the future we'd have to put them in we'd have to pay that fee and we'd have to put them in so i'm going to be short i appreciate the late hour but i'll gladly answering questions that this commission may have jonathan staff fully supports this request for the reasons that the applicants indicated in terms of

where the state is finalized going to be doing what they're doing, but more importantly, the finalized location of the Greenway so that it can be appropriately connected to the Greenway in a manner that makes sense, whether it's a sidewalk or a multipurpose trail. Really can't determine that at this point. So we think that deferral is, and I would suggest that in terms of time, that be deferral be until um the design and location of the greenway is finalized in this location thank you uh questions we'll start with uh commissioner millet i have no questions uh commissioner peters i have no questions either commissioner o'brien

would you object to a two-year uh yeah yeah yeah and that um again because we we don't we don't really know what's what but it seems like two years you could come back and we'll know what's what and the ability to defer it further but if we say until such time what if the greenway never happens the greenway never happens then you're off the hook and you don't you never build a sidewalk i think we need to take a look at in two years i'll be honest with you you've been looking at this property for over two years already and i heard two years ago what i'm saying i would be more comfortable saying it's deferred for two years come back in two years and then we'll see what where we're at we can come back and talk about it as long as the greenway never happens as long as we're not actually putting them in at that point but i think we could you know look at it again in the future i do have a question about your site i don't know if it's appropriate mr chairman but you know we spent a lot of time on trees on this commission review when you came in for a site plan and there was commissioner goth was asking what what trees were staying what trees were out uh there was questions about you know trees that had to go and so forth uh and then you know there was

we drive by the site and you completely clear cut it we actually only cleared the trees that were indicated on a tree clearing plan that we provided okay but before we go any further I really don't want to get into that I want to stay with this amendment sure okay um I mean I

would agree that it mean we don't even know if the greenway will go that way it's that far off it is not even a set timeline of when it would happen, but today, people are walking on the street on cottage grove so you know what would be.

why would it be so bad to put something there now and then if 10 years or five years even you have to change it then you get a new sidewalk let's so right right now with the state they're saying put a concrete walk in if your greenway project goes through and you're saying to put a multi-purpose path and set our trail in it's going to be a five it's going to be an eight foot wide bituminous path what's put in is what is taken out so not only is it a waste of the money that the developer had split out but it's also additional costs to the Greenway project to remove those sidewalks not a huge cost but it just seems like it's a kind of a waste of money at this point to remove those sidewalks I haven't no more questions

Commissioner Marshall Neely.

Thank you. Would you be amenable to saying, okay, we'll defer for two years and we'll come back and look at it again? It's not going to cost you anything, right?

So again, we do have the applicant online, so I'll let him speak to that. Mark, are you, can you unmute?

Mark?

He may have fallen asleep.

Okay, then we'll go to Commissioner. Oh, I'm sorry. No, continue.

Okay, so now I'm done.

Okay, we can come back to you if he comes up comes along. Okay.

Okay, so my question mark was, would you be amenable to saying, okay, we'll defer for two years without commitment and then we'll come back in two years and we'll revisit because we can't project the future? But you're signing this promissory note saying that you do want sidewalk and you will put it in, but there's some other things that might be coming down the pike. So to cover CYA for you and CYA for us, would you agree with that request?

I'm okay with revisiting this in two years.

Okay. Thank you.

uh thank you um yeah my question is i i agree with you guys completely uh we can't put something in now we don't know um i think there's no doubt that the path for the east coast greenway now for the connector to toby road is going to go it's a question yes yes yeah so my my only thing is what would you if we didn't want to just leave it open-ended

two years three years of what what's your i will be heard marky agreed to come back in two years and take take a look at him yeah okay thank you uh commissioner medwinter any questions um no i have no questions i think what i have would be more of a comment okay and then we'll start with you right now uh comments commissioner medwinter

I think, and I'm not sure about this, but I'm not sure that the developer, I agree with a deferral because if the developer went ahead and put a sidewalk in now, and I am not sure that the town could subsequently ask them should things change and they want the greenway, that would now become the I'm almost sure it would become the responsibility of the town, which the whole point of having the developer put it is to shift the cost burden from the town to the developer. So by the developer putting it now, and then we want in a green way later on, and the town would now have to remove and then install that. I'm not sure we would have achieved the original goal that of deferring or given that responsibility to the, That's just my thought, that I'm in favor of deferral for that purpose.

Thank you. Commissioner Goff?

Yeah, I'm in favor of deferral too, and I understand Commissioner Medwinter's thinking, but that's actually, I don't think in this case, the case. The greenway is something the town will be putting in, and it will go essentially north-south but it will be to the east of the sidewalk multi-use path that will go to their um their business you know their mall um shopping area and the whole point is they want they what the developer wants to put this in in this case because now they're connected to the greenway and people can be get to their establishment via the greenway the issue they have is well we don't want to put something down that's going to be the wrong specifications and not match up and i agree with that completely thank you okay thank you commissioner marsha neely i concur commissioner james

I would not support a deferral because I've heard the applicant say that they are really interested in adding sidewalks and today people are walking on Cottage Grove Road and this is a piece of adding a sidewalk and a safer access point for people to move about Cottage Grove. I wouldn't say that the dollars of the applicant are more important than the safety of people who are traveling on Cottage Grove. There's high school students that go back and forth.

two years however many years i think that's a valuable time to have a sidewalk access so i wouldn't be in support of a deferral commissioner brian yeah you know when commissioner james mentions people walking on college grove road i i have to say i see them all the time and i just cringe um and um you know in life Maybe we don't defer at all.

Okay, thank you. Commissioner Peters?

No comment.

Commissioner Millett?

I have no problem with the deferral.

Excuse me?

I have no problem with the deferral.

Oh, okay. And I have no comment at this time either. So at this time, We'll entertain a motion on this application.

Make the motion, but I don't close sign. I motion to approve 335 Cottage Grove Road. No, excuse me. I motion to approve amendment to site plan approval to request a deferral of sidewalk installation at 529 Cottage Grove Road for two years.

second it's been moved in second uh any discussions on that i i have one one question um if we don't defer it john then what's the other option they have to build it if you don't defer it um they'd have to move forward as building as part of their construction project okay and what time frame would that be

When would that happen? Yes, I would. Um, that's up to the applicant. He knows the construction schedule.

So it's probably going to be prior to a CEO. So we're trying to get all the site work wrapped up before snow flies this year. Uh, the CEO will probably be in the winter or spring sometime. Mark, is that about the right schedule? Mark is still there.

Yes, I'm here too. I'm here. No, we're hoping to get, um, some of the tenants open this year. So the sidewalk would be poured this year. If that's what you want, we'll do it. I just, to me, you know, we'll put it in that. I think it's a mistake.

Okay. Thank you.

so there's a motion on the floor there's been a second we're in the discussion period right now is there any further discussion i just would ask her a clarification because the original approval was he was going to build um not a sidewalk but he was going to build like the thing so like if if we're going back to something else then and requesting that be done then i think we're requesting a regular sidewalk and not uh not the pathway type sidewalk yeah multi-use path so i i just would look into clarification So you wanna go?

Mr. Mr. Chair, I guess I would ask the town, if we don't grant the deferral, and the developer yes he says they could put it in this year but there's nothing stopping them from putting it in next year or the year after is there there's nothing there's nothing stopping them there's no deadline for them to say they have to complete this project by x date so they could themselves they have come to us asking for the deferral but there's nothing i'm at whether there's anything that would stop that

Yeah, I think he just said that they would put it in before the CO and that they were hoping to get the certificate of occupancy either in the winter or early spring. Is that correct?

That's correct. Okay. Mr. Chair?

Yes.

Commissioner Cushar-Millet. i'm a little torn on this i am going to support the deferral i do hear what commissioner james and and then what commissioner bryan said my problem at this point i and i agree i see people walking on cottage grove i see people walking on 189 i see people walking on blue hills um i this is not good we need a sidewalk system um but what does concern me and i think we talked about this a little when mr cassie came in for the edith lane development um if we put a and i'm sorry i don't know the exact footage a 200 foot section of sidewalk in front of this development yeah people who happen to be on that side of cottage grove road can walk on it when they walk along that section of the road and it's a little bit of safety feature for people who are there but it's going to be hard for people to get back and forth to that so um you know I want this connected to the Greenway and I want this connected to something that people can get to uh so I think that makes the most sense and not just build it now um but I think the two-year compromise is a good one thank you okay uh commissioner Millett I wasn't sure if there was uh

I thought I heard a comment that the state being a state road would only allow the concrete option.

Can I just add to that? I think as we had the discussion in our meetings, if I recall, the preference was to do a multifunctional path, but ultimately it was the decision of Public Works Department for the town and also ultimately the state because it's in the right of way. That's why we did reach out to the state, and they said at this point, it would have to be a concrete sidewalk to meet their specifications. So that's when we started running into the conflict. If you're going to ultimately get the Greenway approved, which we're all for, it could be totally different at that point. So whatever goes in may be coming out. So if we're going to put it in at this point, it's going to be concrete.

May I say something? uh yes commissioner motion lately i i too see people walking down cottage grove road isn't there a bus stop over there yeah there is so there there's also a bus stop and i've i've seen people with small children walking down cottage grove road so you know in in support of commissioner james i do believe i know for a fact that you know the safety of pedestrians takes precedence and so i'm going to say i would agree with her and say we probably do need to have a sidewalk go in just for the for the safety of the pedestrians mr chair yes commissioner goff i i would like to ask the the applicant or the engineer for the applicant we just want an additional question um if we

first of all we wanted the multi-use path because it connects easier to bypass if we can't go to the um to the west which seems to be the problem right now with the state right that was their their issue um we go to the east for the greenway um know this is a connector path to you so i don't really it doesn't really matter whether it's five feet or eight feet and what the what the material is um but you talked about you know obviously the degradation of the sidewalk over time if you put the sidewalk in now granted the connection might not be obviously to the greenway because it's not there yet um but the greenway comes in in four years is that sidewalk still going to be i mean is that really a time level we need to worry about degradation um i so