MONROE, Conn. — Planning and Zoning Commission members will soon vote on a proposal to establish a new Special Development District allowing for the construction of a three-story building at 715 Main St. with 20 one-bedroom apartments on the top two floors and commercial uses at street level. The first floor may include retail and restaurant uses.
Ten percent of the units, two apartments, must meet state affordable housing requirements. The mixed-use development would be built upon an approximately 1.6 acre site.
Some opposition was expressed at the continued hearing Thursday night, primarily for traffic, drainage and the close proximity to the Pequonnock River, which eventually drains into the Easton Reservoir.
The hearing was closed Thursday, and commissioners will vote on a written approval with conditions at their next meeting.
During public comments, longtime resident Ronald Bunovsky Sr. expressed his opposition to the plan, while contending it calls for too much activity on a relatively small site.
Among his criticism, he said snow removal would be difficult and require salt and sand (the engineer for the applicant said something else could be used), the Connecticut Department of Transportation has already said there are too many curb cuts along Route 25 and this would add another one, another traffic light is the last thing driver’s need, and the stormwater management system is complex. Though Bunovsky said it is intelligently laid out, he said it’s shoehorned in his opinion.
Bunovsky said all of the complicated stormwater management and septic systems approved along Main Street have failed at some point. If a system fails, he said it could hurt his son’s business, TLC Wholesale Nursery at 742 Main Street, a nearby.
“You just have to say no at some point,” Bunovsky told commissioners. “Protecting health, safety and general welfare is your job.”
He asked if police or a traffic engineer reviewed the plan and said he could not imagine anyone supporting it.
Planning and Zoning Administrator Kathleen Gallagher said police, fire and EMS have an opportunity to comment on all applications, adding the police chief and EMS submitted letters with comments on the application.
Bunovsky spoke on how response times for EMTs are critical and of the difficulty of fighting through traffic on Main Street.
“You’ve got to start thinking about these types of things,” he said. “You’re the only commission that can do something about it. None of these developments ever cut our taxes.”
Bunovsky said the application would convert about 89-percent of the lot to an impervious surface with the building, asphalt and sidewalks, and a restaurant would be the biggest violator of clean water there.
Bunovsky’s wife, Gail, who had served on the town’s Conservation Commission for eight years, expressed concern over traffic safety, more congestion, potentially failing septic and stormwater systems, and of the need to emphasize safety.
Doug Dubitsky, an attorney representing the nursery and its owner Keith Bunovsky, said his client is concerned that the mixed-use development could negatively impact his nursery business. Dubitsky said drawings for the application seem to show well over 90-percent impervious surface, which could cause drainage problems and present a serious health and safety issue.
Dubitsky questioned why the septic system in the plan was moved from the back of the building to the road in new drawings, and speculated it was due to the ledge in back with little soil.
He said there did not seem to enough room for the galleries to leech and, from the drawings, that it looked like there are no reserve galleries for the septic system.
“It’s all crammed between the road, the building and the adjoining property,” he said.
If the septic system were to fail, Dubitsky said it could contaminate his client’s wells, and he also wondered where the stormwater would go after it leaves the property, noting how the topography is steeply sloped toward Bunovsky’s property.
The attorney also mentioned potential problems with storing snow on the property after it is plowed.
“If the commission is going to make a decision tonight, I would certainly hope that it takes these significant health and safety issues into consideration and deny the application,” Dubitsky said.
Stephen Shapiro, a member of 715 Main Street LCC, the applicant, responded to public comments.
“I appreciate everyone’s opinion, including the attorney there, like he had mentioned multiple times, he’s not an engineer,” Shapiro said. “We have police review, health review, engineers, health departments — all these people for a reason, to do their job, and it’s been vetted by all those people. He’s entitled to come out here and state what he wants to state.”
Shapiro acknowledged that snow removal is a concern, but said they discussed it with the commission and could make moving it off site a condition of an approval.
He said the number of curb cuts along Main Street is something, in which approvals from the state of Connecticut will be needed.
“If you meet the standards and the criteria and you do the best you can … again everyone else is entitled to their opinion,” Shapiro said. “I don’t want to go back and forth with this gentleman forever.”
Commissioner Ryan Condon noted how there were a lot of questions about where the stormwater would go once it leaves the developer’s property. “Do you mind telling us where the stormwater is going?” he asked.
Jason Edwards, the engineer for the applicant, said the water is piped to a catch basin down the street.
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