January 27, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Let the record show.

We will begin with the roll call at 708.

Commissioner Bennett.

Here.

Commissioner Botello.

Here.

Mr.

Fuchs, absent.

Commissioner Hall.

Commissioner James is absent.

Commissioner Jowdy is absent.

Commissioner O'Neill.

Here.

Commissioner Trata.

Present.

Commissioner Nee Jane.

Absent.

Commissioner Novis.

Absent.

Commissioner O'Laughlin.

Absent.

Had Ed is here.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

The next regular meeting is scheduled for February 10th.

I get any text messages from anybody?

No.

I don't have anything, Joanne here.

Um any members.

Next regular meeting is scheduled for February 10th, 2026.

If you at all stand, if anybody has any flags, you're welcome to hold them up for the pledge.

I pledge allegiance.

Allegiance to the flag of the United United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Everybody, excuse me, one second.

Peddy, I just texted Ricky.

I don't know.

I don't know who else to text.

Okay.

Thanks.

Uh, everybody received the uh January 13 minutes.

Um in our packets was also public uh public notice of those on the agenda.

Uh Commission members, what's your pleasure on the minutes of January 13, 2026?

Like to make a motion to accept the minutes.

Motion made by Commissioner Botello to accept the minutes of January 2026.

Second by Commissioner Hall.

Uh, any discussion.

All those in favor single by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed.

Aye.

Oh.

I got an eye on the opposition.

Let me hear that again.

Everyone in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed.

Okay.

It's unanimously.

Uh legal notice.

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

on Tuesday, January 27th of 2026.

And a web-based meeting hosted on Zoom to consider the following matter.

Petition of Salem Plaza, LLC to amend sections 582, 585, and 11B3 of the zoning regulations.

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

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

The agenda will be posted on the city website and will include instructions on how to join a Zoom meeting or view the meeting live on YouTube.

CRJ Had Junior Chairman posted on the city website and the Town Kirk's office on January 14, 2026.

Published in the news times on January 16, 2026 and January 23rd, 2026.

Purchase order number 2026-002.

Excuse me, Mr.

Chairman.

I muted everybody because I was getting feedback.

So everybody be aware that you've been muted.

Thank you.

Also, for the record, matter of housekeeping.

This uh agenda was filed in the town clerk's office on Thursday, January 22nd, 2026 at 4 58 p.m.

Ted, excuse me again.

I'm sorry.

Rick just answered me and said that he can't sign on for another half hour.

Can we start without him?

Okay.

I wonder why that is.

Whatever.

Okay.

Um there's a petition of uh Salem Plaza LLC to meant sections.

Uh I'm sorry, this is the first public hearing.

Meant sections 582, 5A5, and 11b3 of the zoning regulations.

Uh let me read into the record first.

83A referral.

Uh Theodore Hadad Junior Chairman, Damory Zoning Commissioner.

Arnold E.

Final Dr.

Chairman Damory Planning Commission regarding the 83A referral petition of Salem Plaza to amend the sections 5A2, 5A5 and 11b3 of zoning regulations at the web-based zoning meeting held on January 7th, 2026.

The City of Damry Planning Commission voted to give the above reference petition a negative recommendation for the following reasons.

This would be reversing the previous decision to remove this from the commercial zones.

And this is not consistent with plan of conservation and development, POCD.

Motion for a negative recommendation was made by Mrs.

Hofstudder, seconded by Mr.

Chiocho and passed unanimously by voice vote with three eyes for Mr.

Chiocho, Mrs.

Hofstudder, and Chairman Fanaldi.

Regarding the A3B West Cog recommendation from Tucker Beckett to Joanne Reed.

Good morning.

Thank you for submitting the attached referral to West Cog.

The opinion of a regional staff is that the proposed amendment is primarily of local interest with minimal intermunicipal impact.

Oh, my best Tucker.

Uh if I can, I'd like to call on uh this is gonna go over here.

This is over here.

I can call on the planning director.

Uh director, can you go over your um uh staff report?

The commission.

Absolutely good evening, Mr.

Chairman.

Good evening, thank you.

And good evening, everyone.

Uh bear with me for a minute here.

Hey, Joanne.

Sure.

I will share my screen.

Just could you please accept it?

You got it.

So good evening again, Mr.

Chairman.

I'm gonna be very quick and brief here.

I will give you an overview of what the application is about.

I'm not gonna get into all the details.

I will leave it up to the applicant to explain.

So we received a petition for amending the zoning regulations, and it's actually mentioned here on the slide.

The petition is about requesting or applying for a modification to the zoning regulations to allow what I would call, and this is just my language here limited self-storage in an existing warehouse in the CG20 zone.

CG20 zone is the general uh commercial zone.

I will just start by giving you a very quick overview about what we did last year.

If you recall, we had a lot of discussion, we had a workshop, and also we had a zoning amendment.

What was it about?

I'm talking about last year's zoning amendment that was initiated by the city.

It was about limiting self storage in different areas in the city and make it only uh possible under a special exception in the light and heavy industrial zones.

We used to have uh self-storage as a special exception in the general commercial CD.

Now it's allowed if it's an existing self-storage.

We never in the city had self-storage in the general uh commercial, which is CG20.

Before I delve into the discussion, I would like to point out that what we did last year was about conventional self-storage.

What is a conventional self-storage is what you see here is you have a building or a site that is only functioning as self-storage.

What the applicant is applying for is a little bit more unique.

They're applying to allow up to 15% of an existing building or buildings in the CG20 to be used for self-storage.

So on the slide, as you can see, the petition or the application, I would say can be divided into two major sections.

Section number one, it's has two provisions in the general uh commercial zone, and another provision that was worked out between staff and the applicant.

If accepted or if approved, will make it impossible to apply for any variance of the regulation.

This is number two.

Saying basically, under no circumstances will be will a variance be entertained in the future if the application is approved for basically maximizing the square footage or any other thing related to self-storage in the CG20.

As you see on the slide here, this is the legal format of what we was submitted, but I have a simple version that we can actually discuss.

So, in essence, what the applicant is asking for is in the CG20, self-storage would be permitted as it's as mission exception.

If the lot size is minimum five acres, which is shown here.

Another one, it has to be existing, it has to be an existing building that was used legally as a warehouse.

The total square footage uh of the self storage cannot exceed 15% of the existing uh square footage of a building or buildings.

Access has to be from an RTL state.

The lot that is actually where this can happen has to be adjacent to an IL40 or IG 80.

And again, the most important of it is no variance will be uh guaranteed if this is approved by the zoning commission.

So, usually when we talk about application, we look at the POCD.

As you can tell from looking at the slide, which I'm going back to, this is a very tailored kind of application.

You can see it's very specific, and there's not really a big correlation between BOCD and the application, except for the fact that self storage is not a commercial activity, and this will be taken away from existing commercial zones.

This is the only conflict I can see between the application and POCD.

POCD is a plan of conservation and development.

I want to say that when we discussed this during the planning commission meeting two weeks ago, I mentioned to the commission that I was still on between the application because it's very specific, and I know the applicant had difficult time over a year and hand to make use of an existing empty space.

However, I also mentioned that the application as submitted, as you can actually understand my position, would be contradicting what we did last year.

We you know we have a big inventory of self storage, and the position of the zoning commission was not to lose any commercial land for uh SIF storage.

That just summarizes what happened.

Um planning position.

I'm happy to answer any questions, or if you like, you can actually turn it over to the applicant.

Uh thank you, Director.

Um, while you take down your screen share, let me ask the commission members if anyone has any questions of the director at this time, commission members.

So let me uh let me think about whether I want to ask you a question now or if I want to let attorney beecher go.

Um director, the the no variance granted.

Um that doesn't stop them from coming in at a future date for another text amendment uh application, correct?

So you mr.

Chairman, absolutely.

Uh and they can ask for I'm not saying the applicant would do that.

I understand.

I'm saying yes, in the future, you can come back and say, Well, 15% is not much.

Can it be 40%?

It doesn't have to be the same applicant, it can be another applicant.

Right.

So go ahead.

I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

Director, are you you're also direct uh commissioner?

I just had a quick question.

Um, being new, and I have it, you know, the the meetings, I guess when this was discussed, I was not part of the board at that time.

But no, no, no, Commissioner Trotter, this was never discussed before.

This is brand new to us.

Oh, okay.

I didn't know yeah, the applicant, the applicant and their attorney, uh maybe without the applicant and just the attorney has had what's called a pre-petition meeting with the director, uh, which we encourage.

Um the old days we never did that before, but it became part of the uh Connecticut General statutes that allows it.

So now when he discussed that, he meant that sometimes the attorney or the petitioner will go in and say to the director say to the staff, this is what we have.

Can we massage something in the place?

What do you think?

So this is the first we're hearing it.

All right, but my question is if it is not allowed in this zone, this particular zone, why are we even considering it?

Because they're asking us to.

Okay, and they have and they have that right to.

No, exactly.

But I'm saying it's like you know, if it's not allowed, I don't know if we should set precedent and say, okay, let's allow this, but you know, then it opens up a big box.

That we can have through discussion after we hear those in favor and those opposed.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh, Commissioner O'Neill.

I just wondered, is this so specific, like with the five acres and being surrounded by the other are there other properties that would qualify for this in the commercial salon?

For for the for the members of this commission, this is not a site-specific petition.

This covers everything citywide.

That question of are there other parcels that it can apply to now, or are there other parcels that it can apply to in the future through some other piece of property or parcels being acquired?

That's a question we can ask the uh the attorney, attorney Beecher, when he comes up to bat.

Um, and then there's the other issue of when attorney Beecher says, to the best of my knowledge, there's you don't have to worry about a commission.

There's no one else in Dambray that this can go to and it won't spread to wildfire.

Our next question would be is this so specific and did he take a scalpel out so surgically to make it so this is the only piece in town?

That's another question we can ask attorney Beecher.

Attorney Beach, uh any other questions, commission members.

Uh director, what did I say wrong?

You didn't say anything on the case.

Okay, just point of clarification here.

So when any applicant has an idea, it's up to them.

We offer it as planning here in the city that they can come and talk to us, and they can actually work with us to have more of like collaboration.

They listen to what we have to say, but we have to be open from the get-go with the applicant saying, Well, maybe if you do this, we can be we will be able to stand behind it.

Sometimes they'll say, Well, if you do this, this will increase your likelihood, but we still wouldn't be 100% behind the application.

This is exactly what's happened here.

And when we went to the planning commission, I explained to the commission that uh the applicant has been open to ideas.

In fact, some of the I don't want to say condition provisions are the result of collaboration between the applicant and the planning staff.

And of course, commission members, we don't have a determination yet as to whether we're in favor or against this until we hear all of the those in favor, until we hear all those opposed, until we see all of the documents and exhibits.

Uh any other questions.

Sure.

I think that the applicant has a really hard time finding tenants.

However, I just would like to remind you, I was just giving you guys background so that you understand why we have the application.

However, when you are looking at an application, financial aspects are not part of what you look at.

I'm sorry, say again.

That's basically the zoning regulation and what condition you should be evaluating the application based on.

Correct.

Commission members, if you recall during last weeks or two weeks ago, the training, it's not up to the zoning commission to deliver to a petitioner their highest and best use.

That's not part of the equation nor the financial considerations.

Attorney Beecher.

Good evening, Mr.

Chairman, members of the commission.

How are you?

I'm good.

How are you?

Good, thank you.

You have the floor as long as you'd like.

Thank you.

For the record, Tom Beecher, uh, an attorney with the firm of Colin Tanneffan, and I represent Salem Plaza LLC, uh, which is the property owner and applicant in this matter.

With me tonight is Albert Salem, who's a principal of Salem uh Plaza LLC.

Uh I want to thank all of you uh who came tonight to this meeting.

Uh through you, Mr.

Chairman, I would request that we continue this matter until the next meeting so that uh we can see if we can get a full compliment of nine members uh or members and alternates, because based on the negative referral, if we proceeded to tonight, and I know you said we would vote on it tonight, but I would need all six members here uh to vote in favor of this application because I need six affirmative votes, regardless of how many commissioners show up.

So if it's only six, I need all six.

If it's seven, I need six out of seven.

So I would prefer to make a presentation with as many people present while I'm making the initial presentation as possible, rather than have them say, Well, I went and listened to the tape and watch the tape, and you know, I'm ready, because then I just feel like I've lost something if I haven't had an opportunity to say it firsthand to as many people as possible.

So that's my request, Mr.

Chairman.

All right, so you're you don't want to make your presentations tonight.

You'd rather do it with the full body, correct?

I um I think that's a good idea.

Um commission members, historically, um we have always um bowed to a request by the petitioner, as you learned again two weeks ago, that it is the majority is always six, it's the majority of the body, whether they're here or not.

So they need six, whether we have six people, seven people, eight people, or nine people.

All right.

Um, and I can understand what attorney beecher is saying that if he makes a presentation tonight, um, to leave it up to the those not here this evening to just listen to the tapes and not be able to interact with him, ask a question if they have one while they're watching it.

Um, he wants this to be a full and complete presentation, which I think he's obligated to us, obligated to his client, obligated to the city.

Um, so yeah, I think that's um I think that's a good idea, and I would uh I would agree with that, uhtorney Beecher.

Thank you.

And uh and again, I sincerely thank everybody on this commission who did come tonight, and I'm sorry, but commission members.

Another thing to keep in mind.

If we went forward tonight with the full presentation, once we continue the public hearing, and three new members showed up, we would then have to open up the floor again to rounds of those in favor and those opposed.

We would do it tonight, and we would do it again.

Uh so yes.

So I would look for a motion right now.

Let the record show Christian Dowdy is here.

Oh yeah, I had some um attendant issues.

That's okay.

Everybody's got those chairman point of the.

Mr.

Chairman, the meeting is open, and we heard a presentation from staff.

Are are you saying that by doing this that the public who is also here will not have an opportunity to speak upon the presentation?

Is that what you're doing?

No, no, no.

I'm saying what we're gonna do is we're gonna believe make believe.

I guess this is maybe a good description.

We're gonna make believe tonight.

Didn't happen.

We're gonna pick it up, start brand new when we have nine people here.

I I understand that, but I'm saying is it did happen.

And uh are are you within the the confines of the statute that you can simply after a 20 or 30 minute meeting just pretend that it didn't happen?

Well, you're the only person here who's not on the commission.

So that's a question I would like to answer, perhaps.

Yeah, sure.

If somebody if some if someone on this commission says I would like to make a motion to continue this public hearing, and then someone seconds it, and then we vote on it.

Uh, I'm sorry, if somebody makes a motion to continue the public hearing to February 10th, and then someone seconds it and it gets a majority vote, then that's how the that's no.

I understand that, but we heard a staff report in favor, and I think the public has a right to respond.

That's all.

I don't think the staff was in favor.

I think the staff was making a staff report that had his opinion that could be interpreted as having positive tones.

Um it's a point I don't I don't think I've I've seen before.

That's my only question.

Uh Mr.

Chairman.

No, I totally hey councilman.

I totally agree with what you're saying.

We have done this before, though.

Um yeah, absolutely.

And we are uh well within our bounds to do that.

Um, and um, I will tell the director he's gonna have to repeat everything he did tonight all over again.

Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Uh so commission members, any questions on that before I ask for a motion to continue this public hearing?

February 10th, 2026.

Not hearing any questions.

Anyone want to make a motion to continue this public hearing to February 10th, 2026?

I make a motion to continue this motion by uh count uh commissioner O'Neill is there a second, second by Commissioner Rotello.

I will now ask the commission members if they have any discussion on that before we put this to a vote.

Any discussion?

Any discussion?

Any discussion?

Not hearing any discussion.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

All right, aye.

Commissioner Joddy, yes.

Yeah, so what are you moving over?

What I had missed and messed you up.

I'm sorry.

No, where do you what are you moving over to February 10th?

We're continuing this public hearing till February 10th.

Yeah.

Um, in my absence, because of my absence.

No, there's also a couple other people missing.

We don't have nine.

They need it, they need a super majority.

Right, yeah.

Uh and um, we don't have we need a full we need a full body.

I'd like a full body plus some alternates if I can if we can scrape one up.

Okay.

Any other questions?

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed.

Uh, this meeting is continued to February 10th, 2026.

Thank you again.

Sure.

We don't have anything this evening, commission members on a continuation of public hearing.

We don't have anything on our old business for discussion of possible action.

We don't have anything under new business.

Uh we don't have any correspondence, nothing under reference only.

Uh, any other matters?

Any other matters?

Any other matters?

My other matter would be I will be reaching out to the town chairman uh for the Democratic Party and the Republican Party and tell them to get these people here.

Okay, can't do this anymore.

We've been doing it long enough.

I've done it a few times in the last go around.

If they don't want to run for office, they don't want to show up, they shouldn't be running for office.

Mr.

Chairman would like to make a motion to adjourn.

Motion made to adjourn.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second by Commissioner Trata.

Any discussion?

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed.

Let the record show we adjourn at 7 34.

With my apologies to the staff, commissioner members, the petitioner, and their attorney for not having a full body here this evening.