Developer proposes gas station, convenience store near Tollgate Plaza

MONROE, CT — A developer is planning to build a gas station with 12 fueling positions and a 2,844-square-foot convenience store on vacant land at 846 Main Street, at the corner of Pepper Street by Tollgate Plaza.

The applicant, Gondal Corporation, came before the Architectural Review Board on Tuesday night and a Planning and Zoning Commission hearing is scheduled for May 18. Its gas station/convenience stores are called The RoadRunners.

Hussnain Gondal, managing director at The RoadRunners, told the board they have gas stations in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

“I live in Middlebury,” he said. “Monroe is a nice town, so we picked it for a gas station.”

The applicant told the ARB a market study was performed showing a need for another gas station on that part of town.

The plan includes associated site improvements, including grading and drainage, landscaping, and utility work.

During the ARB meeting, the applicant was represented by Matthew Wittmer, principal of Phase Zero Design architects and interior designers, and project manager Luke Mauro and assistant project manager Matt Baldino of Solli Engineering LLC.

Wittmer told the board the building will have an architectural asphalt shingle roof, cementitious clapboard siding, and a cultured stone veneer base and sill. Coffee would be sold at the drive-thru, which would be on the Route 25 side of the building.

“We don’t know how the co-tenant will use the space,” he said.

The front facade would have a lot of windows for natural light and Wittmer said there would be some windows around the back, “so not to have a blank facade as you drive by.”

The building’s mechanicals would not be roof mounted. Wittmer said there would probably be two compressors for a building of that size with an air handler in the attic as well.

The dumpster of the business would be on the Main Street side, so ARB Chairman Raymond Ganser said it must be well-screened. Baldino assured him it would be.

Baldino said they will work with the Connecticut Department of Transportation on a traffic analysis.

Metal columns would hold up the canopy over the fueling pumps and Ganser and Cathleen Lindstrom, a board member, asked for stone-wrapped columns.

Ganser questioned whether a tanker truck could navigate the site safely when delivering gas to the business. Baldino said there would be ability for the truck to circulate around the pumps and the site would also have a bypass lane.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Schultz asked Gondal if the business would have any outside storage, such as caged propane tanks and merchandise displayed on sidewalks. If Gondal wants that, Schultz said it is easier to make the request now.

“We don’t store anything outside,” Gondal said.

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