Special permit sought for apartment building

NAUGATUCK — The proposed development of an apartment building would put the Zoning Commission’s plan for side-by-side residential and commercial development to the test.

Jerry Nocerino, owner of the Ansonia-based All-Star Property Management, has submitted a plan to the borough that calls for a 51-unit apartment building at 628 New Haven Road.

According to the plan, the building would be four stories and contain 27 single-bedroom apartments, 12 studio apartments and six two-bedroom apartments. The plan doesn’t state what the remaining six units would be.

The proposed apartment building would have a green space with benches, sitting areas and stations for pet waste. The plan also calls for an additional 71 parking spaces on the property.

The property is the site of the Salem Square Shopping Center, a 19,636-square-foot shopping center with stores on the first and second floors. The overall size of the lot is just under 3 acres. The apartment building is slated to be built to the north of the shopping center.

Nocerino is also seeking a special permit to blast and remove approximately 19,000 cubic yards of rock in order to fit the footprint of the building. According to the application, the blasting will expose a “clean face” of rock along the back of the building.

The property is part of the New Haven Road Design District, which calls for any new apartment building to have commercial space on the first floor. In May 2017, the Zoning Commission approved Nocerino’s request to change the regulations to read an apartment building must have commercial space on the first floor or at least 10,000 square feet of retail space on the same property.

Zoning Enforcement Officer Ed Carter said Nocerino would have to create a walkway between the apartment building and the shopping center in order for the two buildings to be considered connected on the same parcel.

In addition, Nocerino is requesting seven waivers under the design district, including increasing the allowable number of stories for a building from three to four; increasing the maximum allowed height of a building from 40 feet to 44 feet; and decreasing the required number of parking spaces per dwelling from three to 1.4.

The plan for the apartment building requires a special permit. The Zoning Commission scheduled a public hearing on the project for its Oct. 17 meeting.