PROSPECT — Sightlines have emerged as the biggest worry concerning a proposal to build an industrial building on Union City Road.
Industrial Storage, LLC, which is owned by John Gallagher, is seeking a special permit for a 40,000-square-foot industrial building and accompanying site improvements at 99 Union City Road.
The plan is to use the site for storage, including for large equipment and vehicles. The 29.69-acre parcel was previously approved for a five-lot industrial subdivision, but those plans fell through. There are temporary storage buildings on the land now.
“It’s considerably reduced, we feel, from the previous application,” Roland Desrosiers, a land surveyor and planner based out of Naugatuck, told the Planning and Zoning Commission last week as the public hearing on the special permit application continued.
The commission ultimately continued the hearing to its July 5 meeting.
The driveway would be on Union City Road, a state road also known as Route 68. Trucks, cars and tractor-trailers would be entering and leaving the site during the day. The sightlines from the proposed driveway do not meet the required distance set by the state Department of Transportation for tractor-trailers.
The DOT requires a sightline of 765 feet on a 45 mph road for tractor-trailers and semi-trailers. The sightlines for tractor-trailers from the proposed driveway are 710 feet looking west toward Naugatuck and 672 feet looking east, according to the site plan.
The plan is subject to state approval, since Union City Road is a state road. Desrosiers said if the state DOT doesn’t approve it, the plan won’t go forward.
The commission would have to give its approval first, though. Commission Vice Chairman Jack Crumb said the lack of adequate sightlines for tractor-trailers is a safety issue.
“I’m not going to sit here and approve something that I don’t think is safe,” he said.
Attorney Leonard Caine, who represents the G&G Trust that owns the neighboring building at the 103 Union City Road, told the commission that sightlines and safety are a major concern for his clients, as well. Gregory Ploski is one of the owners of the building at 103 Union City Road and is an alternate on the commission. He has recused himself during the public hearings.
Caine suggested that a traffic study would be smart to obtain for the plan. The commission did not request a traffic study last week.
As for the site plan, Desrosiers submitted a revised version that took into consideration comments from the public from when the hearing opened earlier this month.
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 in the middle area of the parcel.
The original proposal called for grading the land near Union City Road near the abutting residential property at 95 Union City Road for landscaping. Desrosiers said the revised plan changes the contours and leaves much of the land undisturbed in the area.
The town requires a 100-foot buffer between residential properties and industrial buildings. According to the site plan, the first 15 feet of that buffer, which contains trees and bushes, that runs along the property lines from about 10 Cedar Hill Drive to 20 Cedar Hill Drive will remain untouched. The land will be graded after that leading to the proposed building.
Additional trees will be planted after the initial 15 feet of buffer, and within the area undisturbed abutting 95 Union City Road, according to the plan.
