Borough Chinese restaurant seeks to build new site

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NAUGATUCK — Hunan Wok is looking to move and expand its business.
The owner of the Chinese restaurant, located at 1183 New Haven Road, wants to build a new restaurant at 1177 New Haven Road, directly next door to where the restaurant is currently.
The Zoning Commission heard from an attorney and engineer representing Hunan Wok about the proposed plan during a public hearing on March 21.
Attorney Frederick Hellish, who represents Hunan Wok’s owner Eric Huang, explained to the commission that the property only has an abandoned house on it.
Huang is seeking a special permit to erect a building that would include his restaurant, two apartments above the restaurant, and two commercial spaces for other businesses.
The building would be completed in two phases. The first phase would be his restaurant and the apartments. The second phase would be the commercial units.
The parking lot would be completed for both parts of the building during the first phase.
Huang, who has owned Hunan Wok for about 10 years, is moving because the lease on his current location will be coming to an end. Instead of renewing the lease, he decided it would be more profitable if he opened his own business.
Hunan Wok hired engineer David Hughes to create preliminary drawings of the proposed building.
Hughes created a few different drawings with the building in different locations.
On each of the drawings the driveway comes in from New Haven Road. He explained that even though Beacon Valley Road runs along the southern edge of the property, the driveway has to come in from New Haven Road because Beacon Valley Road is a residential district.
Hughes told the commission that, even though he was presenting a few drawings, only one of them was viable.
The drawing that Hughes felt had the best chance of succeeding was one with the building laid out parallel to New Haven Road.
This would allow for the most parking spaces and would keep the building away from the sloping land and stream on the west side of the property.
Having the building there would also minimize the amount that headlights would shine directly towards the residential area on Beacon Valley Road.
Hughes added that behind the building a row of trees would be planted.
Hughes asked the commission to consider waiving the requirement to put in a sidewalk along the edge of the property. He explained that the land drops off steeply along the west side and that it would be impossible to put a sidewalk there. He told the commission that, even if they didn’t waive the sidewalk requirement, he doubted the Department of Transportation would be able to put the sidewalk in.
The commission decided to walk the site before deciding on the special permit. The site walk is scheduled for April 9.