Okay, Joanne, thank you.

And welcome everybody to the January 21st, 2026 meeting of the Danbury Planning Commission.

We will open with a roll call.

Mr.

Kyokio.

Here.

Miss Hostetter.

Here.

Mr.

Nazario.

Here.

And Chairman Finaldi is here.

Before I forget, let me extend a uh a welcome on behalf of the uh planning commission to Mr.

Nazario, our newest member.

We're very happy you're here, Sydney.

I read um on your confirmation letter that um uh you have your uh master's degree from Western Connecticut State University.

You worked as a national sales manager for Ceres.

You're a licensed realtor, and you served two years on the Danbury Zoning Commission.

Is that all correct?

That is all correct.

Thank you.

Well, we're glad to have you and please uh at any time uh during our meeting.

If we do anything that doesn't quite make sense or you need an explanation, please stop us and let us know.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

And I'll try to do that as well.

Okay.

Um before I forget also, um, this on our agenda under continuation of public hearings, uh item one, BRT Sconset LLC.

Uh staff did receive an email yesterday from uh Stephen Sullivan.

Um, and which I'll read briefly.

After speaking with the applicant, we request the application be continued to February 4th, and we will attend the meeting tomorrow night.

That's what the email said.

Now I'm interpreting this as meaning that they want us to continue that public hearing and there will be no testimony on that application tonight.

Is that correct?

That's correct, Mr.

Chairman.

Um, and there's actually a second page that does the correction for that, saying that they will not be attending.

All right, thank thanks, Allie.

So just again, if anyone is uh attending this evening to hear the matter of BRT Scons at LLC, we will not be hearing any testimony on that matter this evening.

Um let me uh get the Zoom intro in if I could.

Uh this meeting of the Danbury Planning Commission is being held on Zoom as a virtual meeting.

You can participate via Zoom and see the audio and the video, or you can call in by phone and participate via audio only.

Please be aware that we may have to mute your microphone or telephone to avoid an echo or some other background noise.

Instructions on how to participate in the meeting appear on the City of Danbury website and all of the documents and materials that apply to the matters to be discussed during this meeting, including the agenda, are also available on the City of Danbury website.

As always, if you have any questions regarding how to participate in the meeting, please contact the City of Danbury Planning and Zoning Department.

As a reminder, the entire meeting will be posted on and can be seen on the City of Danbury website.

We will follow the posted agenda as per standard practice.

If prior to the meeting, any questions or comments on agenda items were submitted via email to the planning and zoning department, those comments will be read during the appropriate portion of the meeting.

Finally, please remember the technology glitches do sometimes occur.

Please be patient if that happens.

Um just a before we get to our public hearing.

Um Sydney, we opened a public hearing at our last meeting, this matter of BRT Sconset LLC.

Um, it might not be a bad idea.

Uh, just so you familiarize yourself with the process to go back and uh watch that public hearing on Zoom.

Joanne will tell you how to do it.

Uh that will give you a somewhat of an idea as to our process for a new public hearing, and it will also make you eligible to vote on that matter.

So Joanne will steer you ahead, Howard or Jennifer will steal you on how to do it, but uh just for practice might be a good idea.

Thank you.

I will do that.

Great.

Um, let the record show our next meeting will be held on February 5th, 2026.

There's a small typo on the agenda.

It says February 4th, but please note your records that the next meeting of the Danbury Planning Commission will be on February 5th, 2026.

Um I think that's all the housekeeping to get out of the way.

Let me take a look here.

Yes.

And uh we will move right to the first public hearing this evening.

Mr.

Chairman.

Yes.

The uh minutes from last time.

Oh, yes, thank you.

I was not done with housekeeping.

Thank you, Bob.

Good catch.

Um the minutes of our last meeting of January 7th, 2026 were distributed.

And uh, unless there's any corrections or discussion, I'll entertain a motion to accept those minutes.

Mr.

I'll make a motion to accept seventh minutes.

Helen seconded.

Any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Oppose.

The minutes are accepted.

Thanks again, Bob.

Um I'm sorry, Mr.

Chairman.

So as much as we discussed a few minutes ago that February 5th was the Wednesday.

So we are all incorrect.

Who said that it's the fifth?

It's actually the fourth and Julian didn't make a typo, and it is correct.

Okay.

Does this mean I don't have to repeat that?

Well, in that case, ladies and gentlemen, I'm correcting my correction.

The uh agenda will stand as submitted.

Our next meeting is on February 4th.

All right.

Okay.

Let's move right to our first public hearing this evening.

Item one, Danbury Mill Plain Realty LLC application for special exception site plan approval for automobile service station, service garage, and convenience market.

Sections 3E2, 3E9, 5B2, 5B2B1 and 9 with trip generation greater than 500 drip vehicle trips per day in the CA80 zone, 85 Mill Plain Road D14013, special exception number 805.

Okay.

And again, Sydney, the first thing we do, as you probably know from zoning, is we read the uh legal notice for any new public hearing, which I will do at this time.

Uh it's a revised legal notice.

Notice is hereby given that the planning commission of the city of Danbury will hold a public hearing commencing at 7 p.m.

on Wednesday, January 21st, 2026, and a web-based meeting hosted on Zoom to consider the following matter.

Danbury Mill Plain Realty LLC application for special exception site plan approval for automobile service station, service garage, and convenience market, sections 3e2, 3e9, 5b, 2b1, and 9 with trip generation greater than 500 vehicle trips per day in the CA80 zone, 85 Mill Plain Road, D14013, special exception number 805.

A copy of this application is on file in the planning and zoning office for public inspection.

Parties and interest and citizens shall have an opportunity to be heard at this time.

The meeting agenda to be posted will include instructions on how to access the Zoom meeting and application materials or view the meeting in real time on YouTube.

Arnold D.

Finaldi Jr.

Chairman posted on city website and town clerk's office on January 8th, 2026.

Published in the news times on January 9th and January 16th, 2026.

Purchase order number 2026-002.

Is there anyone wishing to speak in favor of this application?

Mr.

Chairman, again, as we started at the beginning of the uh meeting tonight, just uh chatting amongst the uh early arrivals.

Uh there are rumors of my retirement from the practice of law, and in fact, those rumors are true.

Effective on uh January 1st.

I actually uh hung up 52 and a half years of legal practice, and uh and I say my wife finally won.

I'm retired, but uh which actually surprised me because Jennifer, I always thought that you'd retire before I did, even though you're way too young to retire.

But uh I did do it, and as a result of that, uh I have a couple of obviously uh matters that have hung over from uh on the agenda from before the first of the year.

This is one of them uh where I started with uh Sammy Jamal on this project, John's best uh approximately a year and a half ago.

Uh brought it through the ZBA because as Allie Smith's report uh correctly highlights, it's a terribly non-conforming property that has been an automobile gas station, repair shop, body shop, etc.

for many, many, many years.

And uh it took a lot of meetings with the planning staff to even figure out how to approach an application that could convert this property to a less non-conforming use as just a gas station, a vending station with a convenience store of reducing the three non-conformities to two uh in making the site uh more conforming.

As I as I indicated before, I introduced you to uh Josh Padero, who's a partner of mine, now resident in the Danbury office, and he is picked up on uh a lot of the planning and zoning files that I'm trying to finish up as I actually do retire.

And he will uh be the attorney of record this evening.

Uh really here just to basically pass the torch to him and to introduce the matter.

And I'll note I note that Larry Webster from Benetch is on the uh screen, and he has uh been involved since the beginning with the design of the site plan that is the basis for the special permit, and hopefully he will be available this evening to uh comment on your on the proposal.

And hopefully he will be available this evening to uh comment on your on the proposal.

But I'd like to before I pass the torch, just note that Allie's uh report indicates that there are a lot of technical modifications of items that she wants to be spelled out on the plan that still need to be added to the plan.

And there's an engineering uh report that actually there are two of them in the file.

Uh, one is the original, which has been addressed in part.

The second one is the follow-up that shows that there's still a few items that engineering is looking for.

Uh, so quite honestly, I don't expect that there's any way this can be concluded tonight because the changes uh to the plans are uh being drafted, but it'll take a week or two to have them uh submitted in uh and I'm sure that the hearing will continue until that time.

But at this point, um I'm gonna sort of take a back seat.

Uh, since I've been so familiar with the site, I've known it since I was a kid on the school bus, going to the Myrie School School, and we used to drive by this gas station as the bus went down into Mill Plain.

It's been a gas station for a long, long time.

But uh the key is of course that the game the game changed completely when the city adopted uh zoning regulations for the Kenosha uh environmentally sensitive area.

And we are now going to address this site to bring it much more into conformity with the concerns of those uh regulations.

And uh at that point, if you if you have read uh Ali's report, you've got a correct outline of the history of the property and the history of the application uh up to this point.

So I'm gonna turn it over to Josh and to Larry uh and particularly Larry to highlight the uh the plan and answer your question.

Thanks.

Um, if I if I may, um, you know, this I'm gonna take this opportunity to say a couple of things uh to attorney Marcus.

Um we this may be our last chance or one of our last chances uh to speak to him in a public venue.

So first of all, Neil, I I do want to congratulate you on 52 years of practicing law.

That's that's quite an accomplishment.

So congratulations.

I also wanted you to know that yeah, Jennifer Eminger is not uh retiring.

Uh, but now that you're retiring, her desire to retire has gone way down.

You see, Neil, now that you're not gonna be around anymore.

She's she comes into work doing a cartwheel every day, you see.

But no, I I would just add that um I got elected to zoning in in 1987, believe it or not, which was almost 40 years ago, and and right from the start, you know, when I was just a kid really sitting there, you know, attorney Marcus came in and did presentations.

So, Neil, we can we go back a long ways, and uh you know, I I do respect you know what you've done and and what you've brought to the city.

So I just wanted to congratulate you on a good career.

Arnie, thank you.

Thank you uh for your kind comments.

And uh as I say, you know, uh you're right.

I go back with this commission when Ed DeVaux was the chairman, and he was the guy who followed Bill Goodman, who was the original chairman.

Uh it's and Manny Marillo uh was on the board way back when it's been an it's been an illustrious group of people that I've served with uh served uh had the opportunity to serve under, but uh the uh it's it's great.

And there's been no to me, there's been nothing better than the planning and zoning work that I've done and here in the city of Danbury, it's been terrific.

Going back even to Jim Ross, the the town planner that nobody can even remember was so long ago.

Thanks, Arnie.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Josh, all yours.

I mean, how do I follow that up?

Right.

I've been practicing for 14 years, I think, and nothing makes me feel like a new associate, quite like Neil and his uh uh the background he always gives in his years of service.

So I'll do my best.

I'll see what I can do.

He already uh stole my thunder on a lot of this, but um, in any event, for the record, uh Josh Pedrera, Cohen and Wolf on behalf of Dan Berry Mill Plain Realty uh LLC.

So um Neil already touched on a lot of this, so just uh very briefly, just to highlight a couple of things.

Obviously, um this application is a special exception, um, seeking approval at the property at 85 Mill Plain Road.

Um again, as Neil mentioned, um, historically, this has been a repair shop um with existing gas pumps.

Um, and the goal here is to convert this repair shop facility uh to a convenience store while also maintaining the usage of those uh gas pumps on site for uh use as a retail fueling facility.

Um I think this is a really good project, just to reiterate what what Neil said, um, it's really gonna enhance the property.

Um as Neil said, Larry Webster is on the call.

Now obviously I'm jumping in on this.

Um, I know Neil's been working on this, as he said, for you know, over a year.

So I did speak with Larry.

Um, obviously they've um you guys have have received the plans, they've worked on the stormwater stormwater management plan, the site plan, spell prevention plan.

There's a traffic study in there, et cetera.

But I do understand that there's significant um comments that have come in.

So um, you know, the expectation tonight isn't to get the approval.

Um, however, um hopefully Larry can answer some of the technical questions today.

Um, although a lot of that probably are just gonna have to be um answered and responded to at the next hearing, and they will accommodate the commission and all the comments and make the uh revisions necessary.

So um that's really the project.

Um, you know, I know Neil has spent a great deal of time on this.

Um now I'm gonna try to um take on the task of get getting this to the finish line.

So um, but in any event, um I know there's been a lot of feedback from engineering, um, etc.

And those those comments have been accommodated.

There have been revisions, um, but like I said, I know there's uh been significant um comments that we are going to have to um accommodate for and incorporate.

And so we will we will be doing that.

But in the interim, I did ask Larry um to um take part in the call um to answer any questions um in the interim, any technical questions uh regarding the project, and again, with the goal that we'll most likely get to the next hearing um to hopefully get an approval on the project.

And I think Larry is here, Larry is there, so just setting the stage for Larry.

Larry is here.

Apologies, my camera stopped working sometime today, and I haven't had time to work out the problem.

Uh for the record, Larry Webster, Alfred Benish and company, uh representing the owner.

Um the property, excuse me.

Uh, and I'm not especially prepared to deal with very much tonight.

We've received uh a large number of comments today.

I have been reading through them.

Um I don't have responses for a lot of them yet.

Most of the engineering comments, if not all of them, have been addressed.

The plans have been updated to that point.

And I approached Allie with this information about a week ago and said, Do you want me to send these in?

Uh, and she recommended that I hold off because there were she knew there were significant additional comments coming from the city, different departments.

So we kind of put that aside and then um to my surprise a little bit in my inbox showed up all of these comments this morning.

So um, I'd be happy to address any questions that anybody has to the best that I can, but for the most part, I think we'll probably most of them should be already addressed in the the comments.

Should be being should be in the process of being addressed and will be much better sorted out by the by the time we come back.

So um can I help anybody with an understanding of what we're doing or what we have done or where we're trying to get to.

Mr.

Kyokio.

Yes, I was wondering if you could maybe take us through the site plan and kind of show us uh the lay of the land there and uh what it's gonna look like and kind of the traffic lanes and how you get in and out of the shop and where you're gonna gas up.

And I know there's some some plans that were uh that were circulated, but if you can kind of walk us through that, I would appreciate it.

I do not have the capability of showing you the plan right now.

I um Josh, do you have that available?

Yeah, if we can share my screen, I do I do have it up on my screen, and and then Larry can kind of coordinate that way.

Go ahead.

Right.

Go ahead.

You're set.

All right.

All right, can you see that?

I should probably zoom in, right?

Didn't see that yet.

All right.

Is it showing up?

Not yet.

No.

Nope.

There we go.

All right.

Sorry about that.

All right.

How about now?

Yeah.

All right.

There we go.

Okay.

Just let me know if you want me to zoom in any further.

It's it's gone.

We're just seeing your uh we see your home screen.

Yeah.

Oh, that's not what I want you to see.

The problem is I have three.

I have three screens.

So how about now?

It's back.

Yeah, you want to maximize it.

We should be good.

There you go.

It went away again.

So then I don't that I can't help with.

I'm not sure why that is the case.

If we want to do it next next time, that that's fine.

Yeah, I have it on three screens here, but for some reason, maybe the sheen's the screen sharing on my end complicates the um.

I'm not too technologically savvy, I guess.

I should say.

Yeah, I'm not sure why that is the case.

It says I don't I Bob, I can give you a uh a basic concept.

The the new canopy and dispensers are going to be very close to where they are now.

Um directly in front of the building.

Uh they're positioned a little bit farther away from the building so that there we can have a sidewalk in the front there and not have people driving up, not have people running into people uh pedestrians trying to get in and out of the store.

Uh that's why we needed a variance for the canopy setback from the from the front yard, which we did receive.

Um the traffic flow.

Ah, there we go.

That looks good.

You can see where the dispensers are.

I'm seeing it now.

Okay.

Um so you can see the uh the area where the dispensers are right in front of the building.

The tanks are not moving.

They're they are there presently, they're existing, they're not going to be changed.

We are going to strip all of the equipment off.

We're going to open up the tanks, take everything off, remove all of the existing piping, and put all new containment systems and double wall piping and monitoring and uh basically bringing it up to current state of the art, uh, so that we can offer the best possible protection of the watershed.

Um we do have the traffic.

There's two entrances.

They're they're existing, uh they're being narrowed somewhat, but they're they're uh we're maintaining the existing traffic pattern off the street.

We have opened up by taking off the uh addition that was on the back of the building.

We're taking it down so that we can have traffic movement around the building, uh, which allows us to access some parking back there.

We were sorely missing parking originally.

There was they just parked the any place it was pavement, they just put cars before.

So now we have lined out parking spaces that are code compliant.

We have a uh a loading zone, which I believe is one of the um was related to one of the comments we got from planning earlier.

I have a dumpster enclosure to the left.

So we have there's a circulation around there.

It's one way because it isn't wide enough to support two-way traffic, and it just works better in in single direction anyway.

I would expect most people would enter from the entrance closest to Westwood and exit through the uh the other entrance uh uh farthest from Westwood.

So that's the basic overview.

Uh the big ticket item here was taking off that uh uh massive uh addition off the back of the building.

It freed up enough space so that we could actually kind of make this work.

It reduced the size of the building from 7,000 some odd square feet to 5,000 uh let's see.

I think it's about 5,000 now.

It's it was about a 2,000 square foot reduction in any case.

So we're down to a more manageable size, significantly less non-conforming, but um that's the best we could do with what we have to work with without demolishing the existing building.

Where do you um where are the doors to enter into the to the store?

Are there are they in the back?

Where are the people?

They are in the they're in the front of the store.

They're in the storefront.

They're uh later in the submitted plans.

There's actually renderings and elevations for the proposed revised store.

Yeah, uh, I don't know how far down they are.

They weren't part of the site drawings, so yeah.

I don't think we see I don't think we received those yet.

Uh they're in the they're in the according to the agenda, they're they're in there.

Uh okay.

I was reading through the things that are included in the I don't think they were when I looked.

Uh they were part of the original submission way back.

And when I looked at the mapping that I was told to send, I did not see them attached.

So I can send them out tomorrow, though.

Yeah, they are a separate.

They're not part of our site drawings.

Elevations and renderings and floor plan for the store.

Very helpful for the board to have access to that.

Sure.

Sure.

I'll send it tomorrow, Bob.

So the um the entrance to the store is in the front.

Is that what you said?

Yeah, it's it's uh approximately in the center of the front of the store.

And is there is there a walkway around from the back?

There is a walkway across the front of the store and down the right side and a little bit of the left side.

Um the walkway on the left side accesses a uh a back, it's like a back door.

Um there's a back door to a I think it's uh a small storage area off the main store.

So that we're maybe bringing supply is in there.

I'm not sure.

There are no there are no doors in the rear of the building presently.

Okay.

So both driveways would be uh two-way, both in and out each at present.

Um, though we have submitted this to um CT DOT for approval, and they may uh you know apply some restrictions in that regard.

We don't know yet.

Yeah, I have no re I have no um no response from them so far.

Okay.

On the um uh Mr.

Webster and uh attorney Pedrera, uh obviously Mill Plain Road traffic is you know, issue one, two, and three.

I um I we were uh a traffic report from the applicant was distributed.

I guess the company is Banash.

I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right.

Uh yes, that that's correct.

And we await um the report from our own traffic engineer from Vera.

Um will there be a traffic presentation tonight, or are you waiting for the City of Danbury traffic engineers report to do that?

I'm not prepared to give a traffic report tonight.

Uh, we would prefer to wait until we have her input before we finalize that in any case.

All right.

Understood.

Attorney Pedrera, back to you.

Yeah, just to reiterate, um, again, um, we're looking for the opportunity to um present at the next hearing, but again, to um review the substantive comments um from planning to incorporate those to update the plans, and and again, with the goal for the next hearing to really get um into the substance of this.

Um, and as Larry indicated, that includes the traffic report um and all the other reports that were submitted.

Um, and again, I think the idea is that we can at that time have a very in-depth and substantive um discussion with the hope that we can get the approval.

Um, and so that's that's kind of the goal um for tonight.

That was my expectation.

But again, I just wanted to uh make sure that we at least introduce this, um, highlighted a couple things.

Larry had the chance to address any at least um initial questions, and again, with the idea of coming back to the next hearing to really um you know get in depth with this um and accommodate all the commentary that we recently received um from the department and the uh staff reports.

Okay, um before I ask for anyone else speaking in favor, attorney or does that conclude your presentation this evening?

Yes, okay.

Is there anyone else wishing to speak in favor of this application?

Anyone else in favor?

Is there anyone else wishing to speak in favor of this application?

Is there anyone wishing to speak in opposition to this application?

Mr.

Chairman, uh is that Mr.

Rotello?

It is go ahead, Paul.

Okay, the screen is still up.

I'm just wondering if the applicant can pull that down so we can see who we're talking to.

Number one.

Oh, but for the record, Paul Rotolo 13 Linden Place Danbury.

Um I'm gonna reserve most of my comments since this uh petition is obviously going to be continued, but for the purpose of the sixth ward, the main concerns would be traffic on mill plane.

Again, for the record, the sixth ward borders the uh mill plane uh corridor were on the opposite side, we're on the west side, this is on the east side.

When it comes to Kenosha, things have changed the last couple of years.

We're now drinking out of Lake Kenosha, which we weren't doing obviously when this uh uh structure was built way back when uh attorney Marcus mentioned going by it on a school bus.

I uh there has been I I can't tell you how many vending operations have been going on in that in that situation.

I think at some point they might have even rented cars there, if my memory serves, and if they did, I might have even rented one.

This is going back 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, been there for a long time, obviously pre-existing, obviously non-conforming as the attorneys have mentioned.

So the two main concerns would be protection of the watershed, protection of Kenosha, which is critical to the development of Danbury as well as the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens, at least those on the on the city of uh water supply subscribers, and also the traffic.

So a couple of points that can be addressed at the next meeting.

So I'd like to get this out of the way so when they do come back when the petitioner can come back.

We don't have to go through this over again.

They'll they'll actually be sort of forearmed.

Uh if I remember correctly, 25 years ago or something like that, there was another application, uh, a petition by attorney Marcus about another gas station down the street near the um uh Trader Joe's uh shopping center, an attorney Marcus again in the sensitive Kenosha area.

Attorney Marcus said that his client was be willing to had he had the petition.

It was in front of zoning, not planning.

I believe it was in front of so it might have been planning.

I think it was in front of zoning because I was on the zoning commission.

Attorney Marcus stated that had the application been granted.

The applicant would swap out the tanks, put new tanks in for a safety measure.

And from what I understand from tonight's presentation, they're talking about doing everything but changing the tanks, new piping, uh new uh uh sleeves around the piping uh protection, uh uh concrete conduits, uh you know, uh a spill prevention or spill retention uh systems, which is great.

But I I'd like to know at the next meeting how come uh they're doing everything but the tanks.

It would seem to me that the tanks would be the foremost issue, and everything else would be ancillary.

So I'd be interested in hearing about that.

Uh that's about it.

And if if you don't mind, uh Mr.

Chairman, uh I'd like to take a point of personal privilege uh when it comes to attorney Marcus's retirement.

The families go back a long way.

Um, I mean, you know, Neil has worked for our family.

I've worked for his family.

We all went to the same high school.

His little brother and I were contemporaries.

We walked to Park Avenue school together.

We've pretty much done everything but intermarry.

And it's gonna be um it's gonna be different around here without having uh attorney Marcus to uh pontificate to to enjoy his his extensive pontifications, and I'm sure he feels the same way about me, and rightly so.

So, Neil, God bless you.

Enjoy your retirement, best of Lisi.

I hope you do something fun, maybe go on a ski trip, uh, do whatever.

And I'm sure you'll pop in uh once in a while, and and maybe we'll see at the next meeting too.

But it's been I have to tell you, Neil, it's been it's been a very interesting and real pleasure listening to you over these past 30 years.

Arnie, you were elected in 87.

I was elected in 97.

We've been around for a very long time, and the common thread to all of it has been Neil Marcus at one meeting or another.

And I I for one am going to miss that.

Thank you, Neil.

Thank you, Arnie.

No problem, Paul.

All right.

So um, just to the applicant, uh uh if you you can next week when you're preparing the next meeting, rather, when you're preparing your presentation, please uh address those issues that were that Mr.

Rotello brought up the uh replacement of the tanks and also you know, any any contamination issue on the site.

I'd I'd like to hear more about that at the next meeting.

So thank you, Paul.

Is there anyone else wishing to speak in opposition to this application?

Anyone in opposition?

Would anyone like to speak in opposition to this application?

Okay, so it appears that there's a lot of open items.

We're gonna uh get by next meeting.

I'm sure we'll hear from our own traffic engineer.

I guess at the next meeting, we will hear uh from um the traffic engineer uh retained by the applicant.

Um we have a lot of other questions uh that that will be presented.

So I guess next time it'll be a more robust presentation, but for now, commission members, is there any other questions for the applicant at this time?

Uh hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to continue this application until our next meeting on February 4th.

Mr.

Chairman, motion to continue.

Thank you, Helen.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thanks, Bob.

Any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Okay, this matter will be continued until our next meeting on February 4th.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

Okay, we're gonna move forward on our agenda.

Uh, again, as I mentioned at the uh top of the meeting, uh, the matter of BRT Scanson LLC.

Uh, we will not be hearing any testimony on that uh this evening.

Again, I'll just read briefly an email received by the staff um on the 20th.

Um, from um this is from Steve Sullivan, I think.

Yes.

And it says um after speaking with the applicant, we request the application be continued to the February 4th meeting, and we will attend the meeting tomorrow night.

So, anyway, Steve Sullivan.

Uh so I think we need a motion to continue that matter until February 4th.

And I would ask for a motion for that.

Mr.

Chairman, um, motion to continue.

Thank you, Helen.

Second.

Second, Bob, any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Okay.

Um, moving along under old business for discussion of possible action.

We do not have um any anything.

So we have one eight two four referral.

It is a um, I'm sorry, it's an 824 referral January January City Council agenda item number 12.

Request for extension of time for sewer extension approval at 54th Avenue, J12012.

Uh will that be Jen or Ali?

I'll be taking this one, Mr.

Chairman.

Okay.

Uh, for the record, Jennifer Aminger, deputy planning director.

Uh, so you have a uh request, um, a referral from city council.

This one's fairly straightforward.

It's a request of extension of time for sewer extension uh for 54st Avenue.

Staff has no objection.

Um pending um review of all of the legal documents and mapping um per corporation council and uh the engineering department.

Thank you, Jen.

Any questions for Jen?

Go ahead, Bob.

Um, how how long are um sewer uh extensions good for?

I guess this is only a year and a half old.

That's it.

Yeah, they're usually good for 18 months.

Um, and we generally tell applicants to try to, you know, at least a couple months ahead of time because it takes at least two months to get through um city council um because of the referral process.

Got it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Um, unless there's any other questions for Jen, I'll entertain a motion for either a positive or a negative referral.

Mr.

Chairman, I'll make a motion for a positive referral.

Thank you, Bob.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Thanks, Helen.

Any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Oh so um Sydney, just you may remember some of this from your zoning days, but uh we we get referrals in um from the city council.

Uh that's an 824 referral, like the one we just heard.

And sometimes we get referrals in from the zoning commission.

Those are the eight three A's.

And um, you know, basically what a referral is is asking for the planning commission for its opinion on a particular matter.

Uh we do not have public hearings on referrals, we don't listen to for and against and all the rest of the stuff I did earlier.

It's nothing more than uh we get a staff report, we discuss it as a commission, and we make a referral.

So I just wanted to let you know what that was all about.

Excellent.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay.

Um there's nothing under new business or correspondence under other matters for discussion and possible action.

We need a nomination and election of chairman and vice chairman of the planning commission.

Do I hear any nominations?

Mr.

Chairman, I would like to nominate uh yourself for chairman.

Thank you, Bob.

Second.

Second, thank you, Helen.

Any other nominations?

Nominations are closed.

There's been one person nominated.

That is Arnold Finaldi.

Uh, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Thank you.

Oh, thank you, everybody, for for your your confidence in me.

I appreciate that.

Thanks so much.

Just because Neil retired doesn't mean you can't right now.

Yeah, that's right.

You're not going anywhere.

Oh my god.

There's a lot of other things I would like to have said, but I've learned to bite my tongue over the years.

Okay, nominations for vice chair.

Okay, Mr.

Chairman.

I'd like to nominate Bob Kyoko as vice chairman based on his extensive experiences on this board and and other uh roles.

Um, and I'd I'm also happy that we'll continue the competition about who has the shortest meetings.

Nomination made.

Sydney, you want to second that?

I second that number news.

Great, thank you.

Motion made and seconded for Bob Kyokio is vice chair.

Any other nominations?

Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Post, congratulations, Bob.

Thank you.

Forward to continuing to work with you all these years.

I just, you know, uh it's just unbelievable how the years tick by.

I wasn't kidding.

I was on zoning in 87.

I'm not making that up.

And uh there was Neil.

So stop saying that.

Stop saying that.

I was with you.

You were Joe Umbrella at the time, but we won't.

Yes, I was.

That was a long time ago.

We're gonna move right to other matters for discussion and possible action.

Jennifer mentioned this one earlier.

Uh request for amendment to conditions of approval for special exception number 7281 Plaza West, 100 Mill Plain Road, C 1405A.

Jen, is this you or Allie?

Nope, I'll take this one.

It's it's a little complicated, and I kind of started the process.

So I'll I'll kind of stick with it.

So um if you recall um earlier this when did you last year?

Jeez.

Um last summer.

The commission approved 100 mil plane.

It was a change in use basically from office to medical.

Part of that site plan, we'd asked for some minor what we felt were minor improvements along the right of way.

You know, a little bit of sidewalk to make the connection to the ped button, and then um a crosswalk across the driveway.

And Vera had asked for um some internal um pavement markings.

So um the applicant proceeded through the process and he ended up needing to go, I believe, to District 4 DOT as well as to OSTA, which is the Office of State Traffic Administration.

So they'd started doing the review and they'd found out how complicated the signal wiring is in that area when it has to do with that um pedestrian button.

There's a pet button, you push it and you can cross.

They're all they're not tied the way we thought they were tied to in the DOT had had said that those upgrades are significant to kind of write how though that phasing happens for the pedestrians.

And because this was only a change in use, it didn't that doesn't really meet the scope of the project, and there's significant improvements.

So we all agreed that it was best to allow DOT to make that significant change the next time they come through the corridor.

But because there are conditions in the approval, we have to go back to the commission to amend that resolution to reflect those changes.

So with that being said, the resolution that I um that we emailed that we included in the agenda.

Basically, um we took out there's a clause that we always add if you're in the state right of way, and that was condition number three, which we've deleted entirely, and that's the one that says the applicant shall obtain any non-necessary permits for all work within the state right-of-way.

We've taken that out entirely.

Um, we've also um amended condition number six to take out all of the again, as you know, we're we're specific in in that works at required, and we had originally um included construction of a concrete sidewalk, driveway, crosswalk, um, and all remaining work within the state right-of-way.

We've taken I've taken that out as well.

So it just reads as including the painting, all site improvements, including the painting of epoxy pavement markings, and installation of directional signage must be installed in accordance with the approved plans as referenced in exhibit A.

So with that being said, those were the changes to the conditions.

And I also feel like we need to add a whereas, which is not in the resolution.

So I kind of want to bring it as a revision on the floor.

Um, and I'm not entirely sure where it should go.

I may end up um speaking with attorney beecher tomorrow, asking where he thinks it should go.

But excuse me, sorry.

Um, I think it should say something to the effect that um revisions made herein are based on comments received from Connecticut DOT regarding improvements within the right of way, including elimination of sidewalk and uh crosswalk improvements, something to that effect.

If you're okay with it, I'll wordsmith it with attorney beecher.

Um, you know, once it's finalized, I can certainly email it to the commission.

Okay, Jen.

So um would it be appropriate to uh have a motion to approve the amended resolution of reverse resolution of approval, or should we would we wait?

If you can excuse me, sorry about that.

If you can, I'd prefer if you could just approve as amended.

Um that way we can take care of it tonight.

Um again, the the language is gonna be pretty close to what I just said, what I think it should say.

Um again, just kind of the wordsmithing.

What do you think, Tom?

Yeah, I'm in favor of that.

I appreciate the uh the work that the department did to uh bring this forward because it turned into somewhat of a nightmare for the applicant for 1350 square feet of additional so-called medical office use.

Uh so I appreciate uh I appreciate all the efforts and I appreciate the commission taking a look at it.

But we have a tenant that's been waiting and waiting and waiting.

So we'd love to move this along if we can.

So thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh thank thanks, Tom.

Okay, uh, Commission.

Um you heard what Jennifer had and attorney beecher had to say.

I think we're okay, and unless anyone thinks otherwise, to move forward with a uh uh uh a motion to approve the amended resolution of approval, subject to the uh uh revisions agreed to by staff and and uh attorney beecher.

Would anybody like to make that motion?

Sure, Mr.

Chairman.

I'll make that the motion to approve uh the resolution of approval with conditions as amended, including uh uh language uh uh agreeable between staff and attorney beecher uh has outlined uh by Jennifer this evening.

Thank you, Mr.

Kyokio.

Second, I'll say any further discussion.

Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye, aye.

So Jen, when you get that completely redone, you'll shoot it out to everybody, right?

Yeah, of course.

And I also wanted to say um when Allie and I had talked to to Vera about this, we were I want to say we were upset that we'd we'd required something that had forced the applicant to spend money on a traffic engineer, go to Osta when it didn't come to fruition.

Um so I you know I apologize for that, but it was one of those unintended consequences.

There's no there was no way for any of us to know.

I don't think Vera knew um how that signal phasing worked across Mill Plain Road.

Um, but I think in the end, we'll we'll end up getting um when DOT does go through there, they're gonna they're gonna fix um those pet buttons and install the crosswalks.

So um, but I just wanted to to tell Tom, who can tell his client that you know we apologize for all of the extra work they had to do.

Okay, so noted.

Um so okay, so we will we will move on from that.

Um you know, if I could just as an aside, you know, Tom, now that Neil Marcus, I guess we're all somewhat taken aback by his announcement to retire.

I mean, he's kind of the guy that never goes away, you know.

But I just got to thinking how many of us the old order of attorneys in Danbury's is just changing.

I mean, recently we lost so many friends.

Tom Van Lenton, uh, we lost Fran Collins recently, Sandy Kaufman.

Uh very sad to hear he passed away.

And uh, you know, Paul Jaber retires and Marty Rain Marcus.

What's what's going on with the with the attorney?

New order coming in.

I I thought you were about to ask me if I was retired.

You can't you can't.

You're not allowed, Tom.

You're the man.

Yeah, things are changing.

All I can tell you is we hired a couple of new associates starting later this year, and I'm hoping to uh bring them on while I'm not retired.

And bring them up through the ranks.

Wow.

Okay.

Wow.

All right.

Um, looking at our uh agenda, there's a couple of matters for reference only.

Commission members, you could take a look.

And uh Joanne and and Allie and Jen, unless I'm forgetting anything, and I don't think I am, uh, we can adjourn.

Mr.

Chairman, I'll make a motion to adjourn.

Thank you, Bob.

A second.

Seconded, Helen.

Any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Um, thanks everybody.

I'm getting the feeling that our