RECEIVED STA FFORD, CT

• Town of Stafford l~lb JU!~ I b A 8: S2 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting June 14,2016 7:00 p.m. - Veteran's Meeting Room Warren Memorial Town Hall

Members Present: Nancy Ravetto Gene Julian Kathy Bachiochi Leonard Clark, Alternate Doug Fassett, Alternate

Also Present: David Palmberg, ZEO Eamon Moran, Sr. VP, Real Estate Development with Aubuchon Realty Guy Hesketh, P.E., F. A. Hesketh & Associates Edward Hansen, Commissioner, West Stafford Fire Department Public

• Public Hearing Application of Aubuchon Realty Company, Inc., Section 6.31, Special Use Permit for Commercial use with 20,000 s.f. of gross floor area or greater. Owner: Aubuchon Realty Company, Inc., Location: 39 West Stafford Rd., Map 47, Lot 18, Zone: HI.

Nancy Ravetto, Chair, opened the public hearing at 7:07 p.m. establishing a quorum with regular members Nancy Ravetto, Chair, Gene Julian, and Kathy Bachiochi, and seating alternate members Leonard Clark for Ron Houle and Doug Fassett for Roger Pelizari. She explained the process for the public hearing for those in attendance. Kathy Bachiochi read the legal notice into the record.

Eamon Moran, Sr. Vice President of Real Estate Development for Aubuchon Realty, attended the meeting along with Guy Hesketh, a professional engineer with F. A. Hesketh & Associates. Eamon Moran said based on their preliminary meeting, they made some changes to their site plan. The property is located at the comer of Middle River and West Stafford Road (Route 190) and is in the Highway Industrial Zone. They are seeking a Special Use Permit, because the proposed development exceeds 20,000 sq. feet. They are also seeking a site plan approval.

Guy Hesketh reviewed the proposal. He said they will be seeking a temporary waiver for parking in some areas under Sec. 3.34 of the Zoning Regulations. However, they will be providing

• grading and layout for possible future use of the parking.

• the site encompasses an existing 10,900 sq. structure and the applicant

to add a 2,400 ft. footprint to the back of the as a 12,800 sq. ft. additional retail. They also wish to add a small 320 sq. ft in size, and

for queueing up to five vehicles. Guy said they are proposing adding an near the center of the property, as well as an additional of Middle River are proposing a dedicated truck entrance and exit of Middle River Drive,

for tumaround of large trucks and for a loading area. and customer vehicular traffic. Therefore, , drives

back.

is asking for a temporary waiver of 28 to place an outside storage/sales area for

would be decoratively fenced off The applicant and a propane filling station.

as presently has an

, landscaped buffer, but their request would area.

landscape plan, which includes shrubs and trees with landscaping within the parking area.

• the town is extending the water main and that provide are existing sanitary sewers on West River touched base with Rick Hartenstein with Control Facility and was told the system has adequate capacity for their communications, and cable service will be all underground, although proposing pole on the site.

Guy storm water management plan. For the majority structure which drains to the neighbor across

catch basins that will convey through Hesketh said they

has been

require sedimentation erosion control at an anti-tracking pad with crushed stone for

down around the catch basins, and will silt the proposed grading of

report, which includes a traffic impact statement. Guy proposal would have little impact on roadway structure.

• of Transportation will want the roadway to be to

and while that issue falls under the purview of the they will Palmberg noted that the D.O.T. cannot act on

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until there is local approval on the project. Guy Hesketh said encroachment permits are given by the D.O.T. to the licensed, bonded contractors for projects.

Eamon Moran reviewed the architectural details of the plan. He provided two handouts showing various elevations. For the front building, front north elevation, they plan to maintain the existing brick and vertical metal panels and plan to add a wooden 8' to 9' overhang. The colors will be cypress green on the bottom of the building, the top third a country cream color, and white trim. The vertical paneling and cupolas will be a light gray. He provided a sample of the colors and materials they plan to use.

Eamon Moran said they want to keep with a country, rustic look with bam doors and cupolas along the existing ridge line.

For the new addition, they will paint the existing brick cypress green.

Eamon Moran reviewed drawing A2, which is the proposed building to the rear of the site. This building would be 160' long by 80' deep with six individual 2,000' to 2,400 sq. foot in-line retail spaces. They incorporated the cupola feature and color schemes on this building to tie it in design to the front building. This building would have an asphalt architectural shingle roof. The roof lines over the second and fifth storefronts would include cedar green shakes (vinyl) and country cream horizontal siding. Space is provided on the building for signage. The building also includes decorative columns.

On the west side elevation, Eamon Moran said they would like to include a proposed outdoor seating area with a dedicated sidewalk and separate entryway to it. They will build this only if they find a tenant interested in this feature. Nancy Ravetto said she had concerns that there is no final rendering for the back building. She noted that whatever is proposed this evening is what is bound for the applicant to build.

Doug Fassett asked if the cupolas will all be on the Route 190 side of the building. Eamon Moran said they would be.

David Palmberg said he reviewed the plans and met with various town officials to go over them. He said he found them to be thorough. He reviewed his report on the proposal, noting the Inland Wetlands Commission has provided approval for activities to be conducted in the upland review area. The only issue is the abandonment of an existing well on the site.

David Palmberg said he has no objection to the applicant's request for a temporary waiver of 28 parking spaces. He noted there appears to be a discrepancy in their existing regulations regarding parking. In Section 3.34, the Commission is allowed to grant a temporary waiver of up to 50 percent of the minimum required spaces. However, elsewhere the regulations state that the Commission may waive up to ten percent of the total parking requirements for a development that includes a mixture of land uses which have parking demands at different times. The requested waiver of28 spaces amounts to 26.4 percent of the required 106 spaces in the regulations. The other area of differed parking is on the west side of the Aubuchon store and would consist of a concrete pad to be utilized as an outdoor display area.

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Regarding traffic, David Palmberg said the Town of Stafford is considering approaching the State for a traffic signal. He noted they already have a traffic issue in this area with or without this project.

There was a discussion about the proposed patio and if it is included in the plan, then at the time it is constructed, additional landscaping may be required. David Palmberg also discussed screening of the propane filling station. Eamon Moran said they can add decorative wrought iron fencing for screening on the plan. There was also discussion about adding plantings to a mulched area. Guy Hesketh said they could add day lilies, which work well as they are hardy plants that spread and are easy to maintain.

David Palmberg asked if the dumpster areas would be screened. He said he had some concerns about their appearance from Middle River Drive. Guy Hesketh said they had none proposed, and David Palmberg recommended adding some minimal screening. David also asked to add the locations on the plans for the ground mounted mechanical units, adding screening or plantings to conceal them.

David Palmberg asked that the applicant add the details of the site lighting to the plans, including construction detail for the light base and the type/model of lighting. He also recommended providing a photometric plan for the lighting and that all proposed lighting confonn to Section 3.22, namely that lighting does not extend beyond the boundaries of the property.

David Palmberg noted that bump outs and the overhang are not shown on the site plan, and that footprints on the site plan should include these. He suggested that under the facades that the applicant consider incorporating a portion of the existing brick.

David Palmberg noted that the ''upper'' and "lower" sections of the existing building do not have a building material specified. He asked if the existing metal material would be painted . Eamon Moran said it would be. David also asked what the non-functioning barn doors would be made of. Eamon Moran said it would be of the same wood material as they are proposing for the canopy. David Palmberg asked why the brick was being painted green rather than kept its natural color. Eamon Moran said the brick is not conducive to their color scheme. There was some uncertainty if the brick wasn't already painted another color.

Regarding the grading plan, David Palmberg asked if there will be any stockpile areas. Guy Hesketh said they would want to minimize that by trying to get any materials off site as soon as possible. He said they could provide fencing until it is removed. David said he raised the issue only because there is a residential neighbor next door. The applicant agreed that it would be helpful to have a pre-construction meeting to address such issues, which can be handled at the staff level.

Gene Julian noted the cream color was referred to as both Heritage Cream and Country Cream and asked if they are the same. Eamon Moran said they were. It was also noted that there was a typo on the plans, where the Cypress green color was incorrectly referred to as Cypress cream.

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• Julian also noted that the plan appears to call for a partially flat roof on the new building

which would not to Eamon Moran noted there will be no mechanicals on the roofs. some difficultly visualizing the flat portion of the roof and noted it would a drawing to better understand where the flat portion of the roof IS that applicant was basically proposing a hip roof.

• Nancy Ravetto said Route 190 as they sidewalk provided from their goal is to make request would additional

regular in this

as

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do not confonn to their regulations. He said he had seen one, with this type of material and he felt it was

about where the road widening for the bypass lane this on the plans. Doug Fassett also noted

between and that from a distance it wish to sandblast the existing brick

Moran said if they can incorporate

outlets David Palmberg said are required for the parking lot to handle runoff are

vouched for the PVC AZEK holds up well.

that the applicant has included plans to bring a sidewalk up preliminary meeting. She said she would also like to see a

driveway down to meet the sidewalk on Route 190. of a walkable, cohesive community. Eamon Moran said this

challenging for He would not like to burden the site with

suggested they continue the public hearing to their next the applicant may address the various issues discussed

,'nn{lp{l by Doug to continue the public hearing to June 28. said he would email Guy Hesketh with the details of the

the applicant also provide a drawing of the

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• I. Call to order and establish a quorum.

2. Review minutes of April 26, 2016 and May

3. Discussion and possible action - Application 1, Special Use Permit for use

greater, Owner: Aubuchon Realty Company, HI

4. referral - West Stafford

5. of potential new or

6. business.

7.

to order and establish a quorum.

16 regular meetings.

Aubuchon Realty company, Inc., Section 20,000 floor area or

West Rd., Map 47 Lot 18,

lot

to consider.

• Nancy Ravetto, Chair, called the regular meeting to She established a quorum with regular members Nancy Ravetto, Chair,

alternate members Leonard Clark for Ron

2. • ........ ~."'" of April 26, 2016 and May 24, 2016 26,2016 meeting minutes were tabled to the next

in the May 2016 meeting that was 3 on the second line, John Rossi was and that word should be removed, as he is

2016 as

3. Discussion and possible action - Application of Aubuchon Realty Company, Section 6.31, Permit for Commercial use with 20,000 s.f. of floor area or Realty Company, Inc., 39 West Stafford Rd., Map47

public Aubuchon Realty application was continued to the 16

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• 4. Sect. 8-24 referral- West Stafford Fire Department parking lot expansion.

Edward Hansen, a Commissioner on the West Stafford Fire Department, attended the meeting providing a sketch of the parking lot. David Palmberg also provided a picture of the existing aerial view of the site.

David Palmberg said the WSFD had approached the town about expanding the side of the parking lot closest to Cooper Lane. They would like to install additional parking perpendicular to the pavement. He noted there is a wetland area down in the woods. They will need to add fill and pitch it back toward the stonn drainage area . Erosion control will be put in place, and Public Works will be involved in the project.

This requires an 8-24 referral to be sent on to the Selectman's office, as it is a town­owned property. There are also future plans for a tower extension for installing an antenna for emergency communications going up to 70'. This is not part of the proposal today.

David Palmberg noted that this September will be the 15th anniversary of 9/ 11 and the WSFD plans to hold a memorial ceremony and will need the additional parking. They hope to have the extension completed in time for the ceremony and did not feel it was critical to have an engineered plan for a simple extension.

Edward Hansen said he learned just this morning that there is a possibility they will put

• this project on a back burner until next spring due to the plans for the tower extension. However, it would be good to get the referral in case they decide to move forward now.

Gene Julian made a motion, seconded by Kathy Bachiochi, to give a positive 8-24 referral to the Selectman's office for the proposed West Stafford Fire Department parking lot expansion. All were in favor.

5. Discussion of potential new regulations or amendments to consider. Nancy Ravetto said the only issue she would like to address this evening on the regulations is the inconsistency in their current regulations regarding the amount of parking the Commission may waive. After a brief discussion, the Commission agreed to revise the Zoning Regulations in Section 4.64.C.1 and in 3.34 to allow the Commission to temporarily waive up to 50 percent of the total parking requirements.

Nancy Ravetto noted that housekeeping work has been completed on the regulations up to Page 66 to date.

6. New and other business. David Palmberg reported that he received a proposal from planning consultant Donald Poland for the sign regulations, for $2,500 or less, so he forwarded this on to the Selectmen to sign. There is money in the budget for this and he noted the Commission

• has been very fortunate to be able to have completed a number of projects in house and in getting favorable quotes from the consultant. He also said he would like to have a

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• separate line in the budget designated for related to Planning and Zoning issues, as it would be more transparent.

David Palmberg provided an on the Hill cease He was appealed to the Zoning Board Appeals and the appeal

continued to next month. the meantime, applicant has applied for a Special "<>r,h".., which will heard by the meeting on Thursday, June . If

approved, then the cease and the would then need to come before the

7. Adjournment a motion to adjoum, by Clark. All were favor.

Regular Meeting of the Planning and Commission was adjourned at 9: I 0 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Annie Recording Secretary

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