Hearing on proposed industrial building opens

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PROSPECT — Nine years after the Planning and Zoning Commission approved a permit for temporary storage at an industrial site on Union City Road, the owner of the parcel is seeking to construct a permanent building on the land.

The Planning and Zoning Commission last week opened a public hearing on a special permit application submitted by Industrial Storage LLC for a 40,000-square-foot industrial building and accompanying site improvements at 99 Union City Road.

Roland Desrosiers, a land surveyor and planner based out of Naugatuck, and John Gallagher, who owns the land, discussed the project with the commission.

The plan calls for demolishing the existing temporary storage buildings on the site and grading the land so the proposed building would sit in a hole about 40 feet deep on the 29.69-acre parcel, Desrosiers told the commission.

Gallagher said about eight cranes and tractor-trailers will be stored at the site. The trucks would be leaving the site between 5 and 6 a.m. and returning during the day, he said. He added that trucks will also be delivering to the site about two or three times a day.

Residents from Cedar Hill Drive, a residential road that abuts the property, and other neighbors raised concerns about trucks making noise in the morning, trees being cut down behind Cedar Hill Drive, and safety due to the sightlines from the proposed driveway onto Union City Road.

The town requires a 100-foot buffer between residential properties and industrial buildings. Desrosiers said the first 15 feet of that buffer that runs alongside Cedar Hill Drive will remain as is and the existing trees won’t be removed. He said the plan is to plant an additional staggered double row of trees after the 15 feet.

There will be grading and landscaping done around the driveway for the site, Desrosiers said. He said the driveway is about 800 feet and curves down into the site, so the building will be hard to see from the road.

The driveway will need to be approved by the state Department of Transpiration since Route 68 is a state road.

Desrosiers said the driveway will also require a waiver from the DOT because it doesn’t meet minimum sightline requirements. For example, he said, the required sightline for a tractor-trailer is 765 feet. Looking west toward Naugatuck from the proposed driveway, the sightline is 710 feet, he said. Looking east, the sightline is 672 feet, he said.

The public hearing was continued to the commission’s June 21 meeting. The meeting starts at 7 and the hearing is scheduled to resume at 7:20 p.m.