BY ANDREAS YILMA
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
NAUGATUCK — Chipotle is expected to open a restaurant on Bridge Street with a possible urgent care facility next door.
Attorney James Ziogas speaks at a Zoning Commission hearing on April 19 at Naugatuck Town Hall.
The Zoning Commission approved a special permit application at its April 19 meeting after closing a hearing for the applicant Berlin RE Development. The plan calls for a proposed restaurant with a drive through and retail store for the property at 112 Bridge St., the former headquarters of the Eastern Co.
The approval came with several conditions including the applicant provide the borough with a sediment and erosion control landscaping and sidewalk improvement bond in the amount of $70,000, the site design, construction and material used shall meet the borough of Naugatuck engineering standard as well as the streetscape and sidewalk amenities standard and the roadway easement for the intersection of Bridge Street and Spring Street be provided to the town.
The commission also approved the building renderings with the condition the applicant return to the commission for the architectural approval of the second store front before construction.
The plan calls for a roughly 6,690-square-foot building with two store fronts.
The Chipotle restaurant would occupy about 2,400 square feet of space including 350 square foot patio for outdoor dining. The remainder of the building, or about 4,200 square feet, would be for a potential walk-in clinic, said Attorney James Ziogas, who represents the applicant.
Jay Mehta, of Berlin RE Development, said their interest is not to have any empty spaces and would like to show the potential second tenant an approved site that would hopefully be more enticing to land them as a tenant.
“So that’s why we don’t have a full rendering of what the building looks like now but we thought in turn we could show the architectural looks like,” Mehta said.
There would be about 45 parking spaces for both stores. The drive-thru lane, or pick up lane, would be only for customers who ordered and paid online, Ziogas said.
The proposed plan for the site also includes four electric vehicle charging stations in the rear parking lot.
Zoning Enforcement Officer Ed Carter said the Land Use office has been meeting with Mehta for about a year and a half over various locations in the borough for a potential Chipotle due to Mehta having contacts with the restaurant.
The police and fire commissions both gave approvals. The Planning Commission also gave a positive referral, Carter said.
Ziogas said Chipotle has a start date of sometime in November.
“I’ve dealt with Chiptole over a period of a couple of months and they’re excited about coming to Naugatuck and we’re ready to get into the ground,” Ziogas said.
Carter said the applicant will come back to show the commission the final designs.
“We’ll come back as soon as we have a tenant in place,” Ziogas said.
