Great, Joanne, and thank you and welcome everybody to the February 18th, 2026 meeting of the Danbury Planning Commission.

We'll open with the roll call.

Mr.

Kyokio.

Here.

Miss Hostetter?

Yeah.

Mr.

Nazario.

Here.

Okay, we have uh that's it for regular members.

We have no alternates to seat, and Chairman Finaldi is here.

So we do have a quorum this evening.

Um before I get too deep into the agenda, um, I just wanted to let everybody know that uh on the matter of um BRT Sconset LLC.

It's shown as number one under our continuation of public hearings.

Uh, we did get a request from the applicant earlier today um to uh move this matter until our next meeting.

So if you're tuning in for the matter of BRT Sconset LLC, um please know that we will not be hearing any testimony or anything else from the applicant on that particular application this evening.

I'll I'll read the actual email we received at the appropriate time uh when we get to it on the agenda.

Uh let the record show the next meeting is uh regular meeting of the Danbury Planning Commission scheduled for March 4th, 2026.

Please mark your calendars.

Um the minutes of the February 4th, 2026 meeting were previously distributed.

Unless there's any uh discussion, I'll entertain a motion to accept those minutes.

Mr.

Chairman, I'll make a motion to accept those minutes.

Thank you, Bob.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Second, Helen, any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

The minutes are accepted.

I'd like to read the standard Zoom intro before we get started.

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

Even though this meeting is a virtual meeting, members of the public and interested parties continue to have the opportunity to participate in the meeting in a couple of different ways.

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'll follow the posted agenda 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 that technology glitches do sometimes occur.

Please be patient if that happens.

Okay, looking at our agenda.

We have no new public hearings this evening.

And the first item shown under our continuation agenda is BRT Sconset LLC, application for revised special exception, revised site plan approval for an existing previously approved cluster development, the Ridgetop, sections 4A2B3, 4A6 in the RA40 zone, 10 Damia Drive, F09036, special exception number 589.

Um I mentioned that we received an email earlier.

This was an email to Allie from Stephen Sullivan.

It was earlier today.

Allie, we hereby grant you a 14-day extension, and our team will not be presenting at tonight's meeting regards.

Stephen Sullivan PE from CCA.

So Commission members, unless there's anything else on this application, I'll entertain a motion to uh continue this matter until our next meeting on March 4th.

Okay, Mr.

Chairman, so moved.

Thank you, Helen.

Second.

Second, Bob, any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Okay, this matter will be moved.

Continued rather at our next meeting.

Item two, under continuation of public hearings.

Danbury Mill Plain Realty LLC.

Applications for special exceptions, site plan approval for automobile service stations, service garage and convenience market, sections 3E2, 3E9, 5B2B1, and 9 with a trip generation of greater than 500 vehicle trips per day in the CA80 zone, 85 Mill Plane Road, D14013.

Special exception number 805.

Again, this matter was um was tabled at our last meeting and uh continued until this one, and that we will hear testimony this evening.

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

Anyone in favor?

Good evening.

How are you?

Good.

Technical difficulties, of course.

My computer was working fine all day until we got here.

All right.

So yes, this was continued from our last meeting.

Just to kind of bring everyone up to speed, obviously.

Attorney Josh Pedrera, Cohen and Wolf on behalf of the applicant, Mill Plane Realty.

Member of that entity is Sammy Jamal.

I don't believe he's here today, although I did send him a link, but in any event, so this project is obviously this is our application for a special exception, site plan approval for use of the property as a convenience store in retail fueling facility.

Now I know this was tabled from last time, so you know, I just want to give the commission a little background.

Perhaps some of the commission probably knows the history of this parcel better than I do, as I kind of uh catch up a little bit from my predecessor, obviously Neil Marcus.

Um but my client basically, so the commission is aware, you know, he's in this business.

He has um, you know, he has a track record of improving and upgrading um, you know, these types of properties.

Um we he spent a lot of time.

I know that he's you know worked with the city on uh variances, you know, across, I think for the better part of one to two years already to get to this point.

So, you know, a lot of time and expense um invested here, um, but he's eager to um improve the current the current site.

I know historically, I believe this parcel um, I think it was uh a body shop or repair facility um as well as the gasoline retail um facility as well.

So um, you know, and I know it was a significant eyesore, you know.

I have I have met with staff.

Um I've actually gotten um you know some updates kind of on the history of this.

So, you know, um I know it's been problematic.

So, like I said, he's he's eager to uh to upgrade this.

Um so what he is uh uh essentially doing, um, he's doing away with the repair facility, the body shop, um, which obviously is is a benefit um in and of itself.

Um, but he's basically looking to install a convenience store while also continuing the use um as a retail gasoline facility.

Um now what we essentially have had here is historically, obviously, with this type of use, right?

Um, is a pre-existing non-conforming uh property.

Um, what he's essentially doing, in essence, right, um, is kind of making this less non-conforming, so to speak, um, you know, bringing it up to code, basically making this a lot safer uh state-of-the-art facility.

Um so what he's looking to do basically um is he's he's gonna revamp this whole facility, essentially.

Um he's gonna completely upgrade the existing infrastructure with respect to the retail gas operation, new canopy, um new concrete pad, new piping, new sleeves, um, new sidewalk along the frontage.

Um, and I know there was some comment at the last meeting um that um we're going to address in terms of traffic, health, etc.

Um, so we will um we will take part in that.

Um, but just given the the timeline here, how we got here today.

So um we did have significant feedback as the commission knows.

We did respond to that.

Um, and I I was speaking with Ali.

We did um provide our responses in revised um plans.

Um now my understanding is there was not enough time to obviously digest that.

So um my thought was basically rather than just kicking this over to the um March meeting, um, we could at least have somewhat of a dialogue here with the understanding that um you know our revisions and our our feedback have not been fully digested by the commission and staff essentially.

Um so we look forward to getting responses um to that, with I think the goal for the I believe what is it, the March 4th hearing.

Um, hopefully, maybe not cross the finish line, but essentially we can have everything in order.

All feedback has essentially been responded to, provided, um, and we'll have more of a substantive um conversation at that time.

But again, I thought this was an opportunity to kind of introduce the project, introduce the applicant, um, and then kind of go from there and answer some commission uh some answers from the commission.

Um so we do have um Condra McNamara and um Larry Webster here.

Um they will likely answer some of the more pointed questions.

Um we do not have um our environmental specialist, but she will be in attendance at the March meeting, and I know the commission's probably gonna have um a lot of pointed questions for her, so she will be available.

But again, I wanted to make sure that we at least um kept this meeting here today um to at least introduce the project, like I said, answer some questions that I know the commission had previously, at least to the best of our ability at this time.

And again, um once our revised plans and our responses to staff uh feedback have been um digested, answered.

Hopefully, we'll be in a a better position come first week of March to kind of pull this all together um and and get a decision from the commission, or at least get us close to the finish line.

So um that's kind of um what I had for a timeline, so to speak.

Um, and then um, you know, if the commission wants to reintroduce, I know there was there were some questions to my recollection um with respect to the tanks as well as the traffic report, et cetera.

So, you know, we are glad to um answer some of those pointed questions and kind of revisit that again with the expectation that um we can pull this all together at the March uh fourth meeting um and hopefully get crow get close to the finish line or um you know possibly get a decision on that.

Uh attorney Pedrera, um forgive me, I've got a lot of paper in front of me.

Who is your traffic engineer on this?

Um so Arch Larry, who was who authored that?

I have it right here.

I suspect it was Steve Allman.

Uh he's he is uh traffic engineer who works for Banish.

Correct.

And will you be making a traffic presentation as part of your overall presentation?

Wasn't planning to tonight.

I'm not qualified to do that.

Okay.

So but what were you playing?

In other words, as you laid out your team to make the presentation, was it your intent to have a presentation from your traffic person?

It was not.

We have had very little um specific comment concerning traffic levels and so forth uh from the city, and we've addressed them.

Address those that we had.

Okay.

Okay.

So you're okay.

There will be no formal presentation of your traffic report.

Okay.

All right.

Um let's uh let's keep going.

Um, Attorney Pedrera, I've is there anyone else in your team that wishes to speak right now?

Um well, right now I just I I guess we can touch a little bit on the traffic.

Um, I I guess I would say if if um it's the commission's um request, we can you know address that more formally at the next meeting because we are going to have a formal presentation.

We are gonna have um someone there, obviously, to speak um on the environmental issues here.

Um, so I don't, you know, I I don't want to minimize that just to capitalize on what Larry said.

You know, we did have a traffic report.

The outcome of that was essentially that um, you know, there were not there was not a significant adverse impact um with respect to specific numbers.

I think the added um the added traffic, the added trips, you know, during peak hours, I think was something um 40 something trips in the morning, I believe, 50 something um in the afternoon.

But the levels of service um I believe were A and D.

So those levels of service were um, you know, they were still acceptable.

So from our perspective, I don't think that we have um an issue, at least in reliance on this traffic report with respect to any traffic concerns, and we did respond um to feedback um, I believe in the interim um on any questions that were posed with respect to that.

Um, and we did have, I did I have been in um discussions with staff.

Um, so some of those more pointed issues we are still discussing um offline, um, specifically the recommendation of a crosswalk across Mill Plain Road.

Um, there was also a recommendation um for a crosswalk and added features um on Westwood Drive, which were implemented into the plan.

Um so again, we you know we have been responsive for that to that.

Um there have been revisions made to the plan, um, but beyond that, more specifically with respect to traffic controls, um, crosswalk, etc.

Uh, on Mill Plain Road, um, we have been handling those offline with staff and we have been um in ongoing discussions and we we intend to continue that just so that the commission is aware.

Okay, um that that's fine.

I would request if it's not a terrible inconvenience, since we have to continue this anyway, right?

If the next meeting, maybe you could have whoever prepared the traffic report um uh attend and and be available for questions.

I mean, you know, traffic on Mill Plain Road is an issue here here in Dandary, as some of you know, the particularly those of you who live here.

Um I I did see our um own city traffic engineers report, but most of it dealt with the um issue of pedestrian safety, and which is an important issue, but I don't know.

Pedestrians in crossing Mill Plain Road, I I don't see a lot of it.

I I certainly live in the area, and um, you know, I while I support everything our traffic engineer requested in terms of um pedestrian safety, um it's it's it's more the sheer volume of traffic on Mill Plain that is the issue rather than you know people crossing it.

I don't I don't it just doesn't happen very often.

It's an extremely busy road.

So if if it's not an inconvenience, could you have your traffic engineer be at the next meeting?

Sure.

Okay, good.

All right.

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 at this time?

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

Councilman Rotello, go right ahead, sir.

Yeah, thank you.

Not in favor, not against, but it's just a good time to ask a question.

Paul Road Tunnel, 13 London Place, Danbury.

Um, I'm assuming if this meeting is continued, public comment will be allowed at the continued meeting.

That's the question.

Absolutely.

As long as the public hearing is open, Paul, we always allow public comments.

You can speak now, or you could wait till the next meeting.

Yeah, I I'd rather wait for the environmental uh uh discussion and the traffic discussion.

Thank you.

No problem.

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

Anyone in opposition?

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

Allie, I saw a lot of um correspondence, and forgive me, General.

Is it Banesh?

Is that how you pronounce your company?

Banesh, close enough?

Close enough for government work?

Okay.

I saw I saw a lot of back and forth.

Um, a letter to Antonio back in January.

There's some other things.

I mean, the whole gamut of engineering things.

There's some sewers uh issues, strong drainage issues, um, landscape plans, watershed, lighting, it's it's all there.

Um how are we doing?

I know that the applicant said they responded.

Uh Ali and I probably, you know, earlier this week, just let me know how we're doing, uh, how this thing is moving forward.

Yes.

So we received the revised plans and response letters um on Wednesday afternoon.

Um, and as the commission is aware, we were off on Thursday for Lincoln's birthday, and then again on Monday for President's Day.

Um, so we've really only had yesterday to look at the revised plans and response letters.

Um so that is why we're kind of in this conundrum here.

Um, but staff is reviewing the revised plans and response letters, and we should have formal reports ready for um the commission meeting on the fourth.

Um yeah, those will be finalized next week.

Okay.

So it's on the conveyor belt and it's moving along.

Good.

Right.

Um, well, in that case, uh commission members, any other questions?

Oh, I'm sorry, Bob, go ahead.

Yeah, Mr.

Mr.

Chairman, thank you.

Um I guess this is a question for staff first.

Was so was there a traffic, maybe I missed it.

Traffic comments from the Danbury traffic engineer submitted or I I didn't see those.

Maybe if you can point to where they where they were.

Um, they should be attached to a previous agenda.

Um, I can send those to you separately, Bob as well.

Um Vera's traffic comments really focused on um pedestrian safety, as was mentioned, um, and ingress egress patterns to the site.

Um he did not discuss the traffic report in general due to it being a state road and this capacity of the roadway really being the responsibility of the state.

Got it.

Okay, yeah.

If if if you could share that with me so I don't have to go searching somewhere for it, that would be that would be great.

Yeah, Bob, just you know, I had to go find I couldn't find it myself.

I Ali sent it to me earlier today.

I I don't know why.

I just couldn't locate it.

When I say I couldn't find it, I couldn't find our own traffic engineers' comments, but there's there he did make comments, it's dated January 22nd, 2026.

Um little concerned that that um in terms of the volume of traffic, the implication was that this is a state road, so there's nothing uh our own traffic engineer can really do or comment or any no report he could write, but we'll look into that.

We're gonna continue the public hearing anyway, and we'll again we'll talk offline uh about that.

And the applicant said they will have their traffic engineer here at the next meeting.

So we can hope we could sort of get our arms around it next time.

Okay, all right.

Um the two other things, I guess, um for the applicant.

Um there was a question, and I don't know if they want to answer it tonight or if you want to uh table it to the next time with uh part of the presentation.

The first one is um the existing tanks are gonna be there um and and kind of maybe go through the thought process of why everything but the tanks uh were gonna be uh replaced.

It seems like they might be 20 plus years old, somewhere around 2002.

Um so I was kind of confused as to actually when they were put in there.

I'd see some at 2002, some at 2005, or some at 1981, but I think those might be gone.

I know they did take some of them out in 2002, but left some.

And so if if maybe you can give us a history of of the tanks um and then the thought process of why everything's gonna be replaced except the tanks, you can maybe do that tonight, or if you want to table that till till next time, uh, I'm I'm good with either.

Yeah, so I'll I'll defer, and I I think Larry, Larry and I, um, Larry Webster, obviously.

Um, we have discussed this.

We are in a position to address that.

I think that was addressed last time.

And so, again, just to reiterate, um, the reason why I thought this meeting would be beneficial was to be able to respond to some of those questions from last time rather than to just table this entirely.

So um, Larry, if you do want to um address that, I know we have um discussed that on several occasions.

Um, and so you can you can um address those concerns if you can.

Yes, uh actually um Larry, if this is our if you would uh just state your name and affiliate.

Yes, this yeah, I'm sorry, this is Larry Webster.

I'm with Benish, we're the um site engineer on this project, and obviously representing the owner, uh Danbury Mill Plain Realty.

And I have, I think, an answer for you.

I wasn't prepared last time because I hadn't spoken with client about the reasoning behind that.

Um those tanks were put in in 2005.

They are will be this year to 21 years old.

Uh, according to Connecticut DEEP, they have a allowable lifespan of 30 years.

Um if certain conditions are met in terms of upgrades to the equipment, such as um a lot of the things we're planning to do on this project to modernize and update, um, they should be eligible for a 10-year extension on that.

So they would ideally be available legal to use for the next 19 years.

Um more than that, the tanks that are there currently are essentially identical to brand new tanks that we would put in there.

Fiberglass tanks, they're double wall, they're fiberglass tanks, and they don't um deteriorate.

Uh Connecticut DEEP recently revised the regulations.

And if you put new tanks in now with certain uh monitoring components, they actually accept a 45-year lifespan for the same tank.

So there's there's no big hazard of leaving them in.

There is a rather large expense involved in replacing them.

Uh, and as uh attorney Pedrera has mentioned, uh our client is uh heavily invested in this property.

Uh a lot of money has already left the building, so to speak, and that would be an additional burden at this time, which would be a lot easier for him to bear 19 years down the road if he's operating a profitable uh profitable site.

And if it's not profitable, I would assume that they would just uh at that point eliminate the tanks, which you know it ultimately that's gonna be the fate of all these underground tanks for gas stations as we eventually transition away from um hydrocarbon-based fuels.

Um there's there's no real benefit to him to do this.

There's a significant expense on the order of 100,000 just for the tanks, just to buy them, plus the additional cost of taking out the old ones and putting in the new ones.

So um he's not inclined to do that at this point.

He has 19 good years uh looking forward that he can use them.

Uh that's essentially why we're at this we are where we are.

Can I ask a quick question?

Um, because they haven't been used in a while, I assume they're sitting down there empty.

Is there any sort of static testing or a leak testing that has to be done before you can activate them again?

Yes, there is a significant amount of testing required as a in uh in conjunction with the entire upgrade process.

The tanks have to be tested before they can be put back in service.

Uh as the piping is put together, it needs to be tested and then ultimately precision tested at the end of the process before the dispensers are put in service, and the tanks will be continuously monitored, both the annular space, their double wall tanks, so they have a monitor in between the walls that will have to be put into service and verified operational, and they have an in-tank level sensing probe, which will also uh detect any loss of inventory.

And they have an in tank level sensing probe, which will also uh detect any loss of inventory.

So all of that has to be up and operational before uh or simultaneously with them being filled.

Just a curiosity question more than anything else.

What when did the world sort of start to transition from the underground steel tanks to these double walled fiberglass tanks?

I know you said these are about 20 or 30 years old.

When did that happen?

When did they start?

Fiberglass tanks have been around since early 70s, late 60s, at least, in my experience.

Uh they become a lot more popular because they don't corrode, they don't deteriorate.

Uh their lifespan is long.

Regardless, any steel tank, even a protected steel tank that's wrapped in fiberglass, suffers from internal corrosion, especially with um uh ethanol fuels, which contain a lot of oxygen themselves, they add to oxidation.

Uh tanks wear away.

So the fiberglass tanks are longer lasting.

Uh they're a little more expensive to put in.

The cost differential between the tanks themselves is not that great.

Um the fiberglass used to be less expensive, but the cost of resins has risen radically in the last five years.

Uh so they've become a lot more expensive.

But yeah, it's still it's a it's just better to put it's just a better tank, it lasts longer.

So the return on investment over a long time is better.

Great.

Well, thank you for that education.

I appreciate that.

I'm happy to talk about that.

It's kind of my area of expertise.

That's okay.

No, I uh I know it's it's funny.

You go back there was years ago there were in Connecticut had this Yank the Tank program, but I'm pretty sure that was for underground fuel oil storage tanks and a residential that had nothing to do with gasoline tanks.

I'm pretty sure of that.

Around 35 years ago, maybe 40.

Um, Connecticut uh started removing underground tanks at gas stations that didn't meet certain criteria.

Uh that we replaced all the tanks in Connecticut pretty much at that time.

Uh, and most of them had 30 year tanks put in tanks that qualified for 30 year lifespan.

Um that 30 years was up about five to 10 years ago.

Uh they we started another wholesale round of replacing tanks, and that's where most of these fiberglass tanks are coming from.

This second round of uh of wholesale tank replacements.

Uh, and I'm actually working on projects right now for people that were able to get the 10-year extension because they already had fiberglass tanks, and that is expiring, and now they have to take them out and put new ones in.

No, I remember that.

I remember driving around Danbury, and it seemed like every gas station had some sort of tractor loader backhoe uh digging down to get the tank out of there.

That it like all happened at the same time.

I I do recall that, but uh but no, thank you for that again for that background information.

Appreciate it.

Bob, was there anything else?

Yes, there's a couple more things.

Um, if I can.

Um you had mentioned uh the owner has uh other properties maybe similar to this.

Um, can you share a few examples of other properties that are either similar to this or compatible with this that uh he owns that uh so we can kind of get a sense of of what those are so that is my understanding?

Um, however, I cannot identify particular um properties.

I do see that my client is online, although not sure what's going on back there.

I think is his music.

Audio might be muted.

If he hears us, perhaps there you go.

Anyway, how are you?

Hi, how are you?

So, Sammy, the commission.

Hold on, one second, please.

One second.

Okay.

Sure.

While we're waiting, I can tell you that I know of a site in North Haven that is in under construction presently, a site in Trumbull that's under construction presently.

Yes.

We're working on a North Brantford site.

It's in permitting presently.

But I all he also has several in Dambury.

We have uh uh on Main Street.

We have 419 Main Street, the mobile station.

We have uh 464 North Main Street, the excellence station just exit the five from the 84.

Uh we have uh also another site in Danbury.

We have three, four sites in Danbury by itself.

We have about one location throughout the state of Connecticut at least.

And uh most of this locations, you know, what we do is uh uh we bring all old state uh up to state compliance from Salam State compliance, uh gas station from Venus stores to serve the community and all with all new things that's in the market states and all.

Uh you know, I uh well I just like to share a few information and all about the tanks that I have heard.

Uh we're leaving the tank doesn't mean that does it mean that uh we're gonna uh you know just stay with the old tanks now when we doing the station when we're doing the station, we have uh we have to uh replace all the lining, all lining from the tanks with the new pumps.

Gonna be new pumps, new canopy, new canopy, new pumps, and a lot of improvements.

So the amount of work that's gonna be uh down to the station from the old new lining on the tanks on the can and uh on the canopy and the pumps on the islands is is a lot of work.

Um because only two pumps, you know, we don't need any more space to storage because if we allow to add an additional pump, then we will consider you know, having diesel product, and maybe we'll consider having replacing the tanks to have more capacity, but because of the capacity, we're only allowing two pumps over there at the time being.

Uh there is no need, no further need, I believe, to replace the tanks.

And I'll be happy to answer another question that the town have for me.

So um, and uh many of your other uh properties are they similar to just uh uh retail gas and convenience store, or how are they structured?

All similar?

Do you have the same footprint?

Yes, yes, they all they all similar, like uh the one in uh exit five.

We did it five about eight years ago.

Used to be a three-bag garage.

If you if you guys remember of exit five, used to be an old uh mechanic shop, and we have converted into the sea store, and it became a very nice property in our service in the area.

So we we do that, you know, we'd improve the whole property.

Um top of that, as you may see, we are knocking down a part of the building in the back.

You know, we we we uh we are the amount of area now that we have with the building is much smaller what is in existing okay, okay.

All right, thank you.

Um Mr.

Chairman, just another question.

Um I would um I don't know if it's a commission would like, but I I would love to just kind of get a lay of the property and kind of just uh if you can put it on the screen and take us through the property and kind of show us around.

Um, other than because I I've seen some of the drawings, and I I think they're the most recent one, but usually it's helpful when you uh when the client kind of uh applicant takes us through it and kind of describes uh kind of the operation and and the lay of the land, so to speak.

And if you want to do that tonight, that would be great.

And if you want to table that till next time, um we can do that as well.

I would be fine with that.

So Bob, you're talking about sharing a screen and then just having them walk us through the flow of the property, traffic in, traffic out.

Yeah, yeah, trying to show the the you know the parking spots, the loading zones, kind of just the whole lay of the land, some maybe some of the the plantings and just so we can kind of get a better sense of you know exactly what what's going on there.

I mean, I I kind of have a picture of it in my eye.

I I know the I know the property, I go by it fairly often, and um, you know, I've seen the drawing online, but you know, sometimes with a little bit of description and it just helps.

No, I agree.

Attorney Pedrera, could you uh share a screen or would you be willing to do that?

Just again, it's nothing more than the site plan in a in a flyover in terms of the flow in and out.

Uh, is that something you could do now, or do you prefer to wait?

Um, I mean, I don't know.

Connor is Connor is prepared to do that right now.

Oh, good.

Yeah, but if you have it, perfect.

I have it ready to go.

I'm Connor McCamara with Benish, um, one of the design engineers on project.

I can actually share my screen now.

Great.

Let's see.

Share this.

The site plan up.

You guys is everybody seeing this?

Oh, wrong screen.

One second.

Let me put my phone.

One second, share the wrong screen.

Okay.

Is everybody seeing this?

Yes.

Yep.

Okay.

So I don't know, Larry, if you want to walk through the actual site plan itself.

I can move my microphone to work here.

Yes, I can do that.

Um, you can see the building.

And if you zoom in a little bit, Connor, at the back of the building, you can see where the uh the addition is now.

That back section is in addition to the original building, and we're proposing to take that down in order to allow us to have uh unidirectional traffic flow around the back of the building.

It also gives us a place for some parking, which we're sorely short on in this site.

So that was an important um important uh concession, I suppose you'd say, on the amount of uh part of the uh of the owner, uh cutting down the size of the building significantly so that we can make the site work better.

Uh it was very much too crowded before.

So we've done the best we can with what we had to work with.

Connor, slide up a little so I can get back out to the street, please.

We have narrowed the two entrances.

This is part of the uh comments from the city.

Um we also received some preliminary comments from uh DOT, which we'll be forwarding to staff uh probably before the end of this week.

Uh I don't have a response for them yet.

They're relatively new, but uh they mentioned narrowing the uh the drives and making them unidirectional.

Um east drive in and west drive out only.

So that's the configuration supports that, but we don't have all of the traffic uh marking and signage that we need on here.

That's a part of the ongoing discussion.

Um I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for, but as you can see, we have multiple parking spaces in the rear.

We have some down the left side, and on the right side, we have our handicap space, uh, an additional center space next to it, and the northernmost space is also where the air tower is for tire service, which is a Connecticut state mandated component.

Um the uh the dispenser layout in the front of the building is very similar to what was here before.

We have moved it closer to the building uh in order to be able to expand the canopy somewhat.

We were granted a variance for the front setback that allows us to fit the canopy on there in this space.

We also space the islands out a little bit farther apart compared to the ones that are there presently, the islands that are there presently.

Uh that's for better traffic flow, more um more efficient utilization of the small space that we have.

Uh the canopy uh the reason for the canopy component, the reason it's important to us is Connor.

If you could zoom in a little bit, like to point out these lines around the outside of that concrete mat, those are actually grooves cut into the concrete, and they are designed to contain minor spills, such as you might have if somebody um inadvertently allowed uh the nozzle didn't shut off and they didn't grab it right away.

I mean, they're standing there holding it, but sometimes there's a small, or sometimes people just take the nozzle out of the car and a little bit spills out of the nozzle.

Those grooves will contain up to a three to five gallon spill and make sure that it stays within the concrete area where the uh attendant in the store can come out and uh address it with uh absorbent materials and uh prevent it from getting into uh into the sanitary system or flowing out into the road or whatever.

Um the center island here is among other things is a handy spot to keep a spill kit uh with materials to deal with small spills.

So uh that's that's the purpose for that.

The islands, the tanks are staying right where they are.

We're just putting a new mat over top of them.

Uh you mentioned the loading zone, that's out behind the building.

So before before you get back to that, could you stay right there for a second?

So can you can you just uh describe the traffic flow for the for the for the pump?

So are they gonna say that the uh the it's uh one way in and one way out?

So yeah, the east entrance is in only.

I expect all the traffic will come in the east entrance and travel down uh right to left, either behind or in front of the pumps.

Okay, uh, and then exit out the uh the west drive.

This is a huge improvement over the basically non-existent regulation of traffic flow before.

Um if you look down closer to the street and you can see the dashed line inside the uh the the island in the front, that's where the curb cuts were before.

Um we closed them down significantly, and we're especially the um especially the eastern one to uh to get traffic to do what we need it to do.

We have signage there on the east driveway that that little arrow is pointing to.

Those are uh do not enter signs, so people can't go out that way.

Uh the signs on the other entrance are stop signs backed with do not enter facing the street.

So we have some of the traffic controls in place.

I I believe we still have a few more things to accommodate here.

But we have so for the pumps you'll be able to dispense from from either side so you can get from from either side, yes.

So four cars at a time, maximum of four cars at a time, yes.

Yeah, and and all the pump traffic would be going from right to left or east to west.

That is the design flow.

I'm not gonna tell you that somebody won't figure out a good way to get turned around and aim the other way, but okay.

Uh, but yeah, it's intended that it should travel from right to left, and it will there will be directional arrows showing that.

Yeah, um, I I suppose they could come in from the left side and and pump and then kind of continue through and around back again to get out, I suppose.

Yeah, they they can as long as they do, and and we'll we'll work with the city to figure out what signage we need to make sure that that happens.

Okay, yep.

As bad as best we can.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Uh and then can you just show uh so people are gonna park in the rear and on the side primarily?

Um, so can you show the kind of the pedestrian traffic from the parking spots into the building?

Is there gonna be crosswalks and how uh I just I just worry about you know the uh crossing pedestrians crossing the traffic from those rear parking spots to get into the building because I believe it's kind of to the front on the east side.

Is that yeah, where's the entrance?

The primary entrance to the uh convenience store.

What's the primary entrance?

Where is it?

It's uh it's on the on the street side of the store, and it's close to the middle of the store.

I don't actually have architectural plans in our set.

Um those are uh a separate separate uh firm develop those.

Roughly in the middle, roughly, yes.

All right, so people that park in back have to walk around to the front to get in there.

Yes.

Okay.

And they would uh presume we would expect that they would walk down the left side of the building because there is a walk there.

Okay.

Um the tricky part of this site is if I pull in, you know, in the the way I'm I'm driving westbound on Mill Plain Road, I pull in, I pump gas, and I want to get a gallon of milk.

Um, I'd have to leave my car parked at the gas pump to go in and get that because you wouldn't, if you pull in and you pump your gas, um you can't pull around back to park, right?

There's just no way to do that.

That's pretty much what I expect most people do.

Okay.

Uh a lot of people come park at the pump, run in the store, pump their gas, and head out.

Most people don't come to convenience stores to spend a great deal of time.

They grab a coffee, they grab a gallon of milk, whatever, a loaf of bread, some cookies, whatever.

Um they're in and out in pretty short order.

So if they're gonna if they're gonna go shopping, they'll probably they'll figure out that they have to pull around back and park someplace.

Um, but we don't anticipate as a lot of traffic coming just for the store.

It's mostly going to be people who want to gas up and get something while they're there.

And okay.

Thank you.

But that's kind of what how life decided that this should work.

Human nature, I guess, decided that.

Yeah.

So will there be like a crosswalk so either painted or something from those parking spots in the back to kind of and I'm assuming on the left side of the or the left side of the milling, there's gonna be that's a walkway next to the there is there is a walkway down the left side, and yeah, yeah.

Um we may have to what's yes, we may have to put uh some kind of signage or crosswalk or something there.

We're not be averse to trying to do that.

Yeah, um, I expect that the back parking spaces will mostly be uh employees and other people who are coming there for a longer duration.

Because if you're just gonna stop in the store and you've been here before, you're gonna drive around and park in one of these four spaces along the left side, or if you're lucky, grab one on the right side.

Yeah, okay.

It's a shorter distance.

So I see the loading zone back there.

And and what what kind of trucks do you expect for uh for inventory to drop off in to deliver inventory there?

I would defer to Sammy on that if he's still with us.

Sammy, are you still online?

I can't see him in the uh and yeah, and that's something that you could share with us next time.

If yeah, that's fine.

I'm I'm pretty sure they're gonna be like a six-wheel box truck for the most part.

They don't generally don't deliver small stores like this in a tractor trailer.

Yeah, and I I thought I read somewhere that they're they're not going to be um uh preparing any food, I guess.

At at the store, it's just everything's pre-packaged and pre-packaged only, no food preparation.

Yes, okay.

Um I think that's all I had.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, Bob.

Um chairman, yes, Alan, please.

I just have a few um add-ons to some of those, uh, some of that dialogue.

Um, so in at the pumps, is there are there two lanes for traffic on both sides of those pumps?

On the store side, there is not a second lane.

There's not room.

There's plenty of room on the street side for um for people to to go around, but the the we're bottlenecked on the store side.

We're just we don't have any enough room to offer a lane there.

All right.

So if somebody wants to go in and get the milk or have coffee or um have a Sunday made or something, um there's no way of getting around that person if they're in the store, then right.

So that might if there's a person parked in the space behind them at the first pump to the right, and there's not a queue, which would be most of the time, I expect they can back up and then go around the building.

Otherwise, they're gonna have to wait for that person to come out.

Yeah, okay.

Uh and then another uh question was um if you have snow like we had what two weeks ago, um, where would the snow plows put the snow when you know when they plow it?

To an extent, there's a reason there's a decent amount of snow storage along the eastern side behind the curve there.

Um presently some of that is paved.

Uh it's gonna be it's going to be green space going forward, but there's a pretty good amount of space there.

If they get very much more than that, they're gonna have to haul off site.

There's just not there's no space on this site beyond that.

And and we're we're going to I mean, I I know you're looking at not queuing coming in to the site, right?

So are you comfortable that you know there's enough area to maneuver around back here if there is any queuing going on?

There's uh I would I can't tell you how much traffic is gonna be there.

Um I can based on my experience with similar sites.

Uh I unless Sammy's giving away gas there for 225 a gallon or something like that.

Uh I don't see this is gonna be busy enough to queue more than one or two cars.

Uh okay.

Okay.

Well, I guess we'll tie this to the traffic report just to be sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

No problem, Helen.

Thank you.

All right.

Ummittee members, any and commission members, any further questions or discussion for either the applicant or Allie at this point.

Oh, Mr.

Chairman.

Yes, Helen, go right ahead.

Actually, I did have one more.

I forgot to bring it up.

So there were a couple of comments and you know, questions and um, you know, from our staff and uh about facade enhancements and and and references to the architectural plan.

And the response was um we don't do that.

So I'm wondering where that's covered and who would cover that for us if we have questions about either of those.

Josh, I'm looking at you for that one.

Right.

Yeah, so that'll be that'll be from the architects.

So we will be prepared to we those are being addressed essentially.

Um so I did speak with the applicant.

Um, and um I've been provided the architect information to make sure we stay ahead of that.

So again, that's not in the purview of Larry, so that's what he's referring to.

Um so those those will be addressed again with the ultimate goal of um at the next meeting.

We'll have everything buttoned up.

Everything will be responded to from staff, including what we anticipate, what I think Allie said should be coming um by next week.

And so again, uh the goal is we'll have everything buttoned up by that March meeting.

Everything will be addressed, everything will be responded to um from staff.

But again, just to reiterate, I just thought, you know, especially in light of the conversation we're having.

I thought it'd be important to touch on, you know, um a few things and answer some of the commission members' um questions in the interim, and then hopefully um by the next meeting.

Um, you know, we'll stay ahead of of everyone's concerns, everyone's questions, and make sure that we tackle all staff feedback essentially on that March um first week of March.

Okay, well, thank you for that.

Um I appreciate that.

And uh I'll I'll give it back to the Mr.

Chairman.

Thanks, Helen.

Okay, one last time, commission members.

Anything for the applicant or staff.

And if not, I'll entertain a motion to continue this meeting until our next regular meeting on March 4th.

Mr.

Chairman, so moved.

Thank you, Helen.

Second.

Second.

Thank you, Bob.

Any questions?

I'm sorry.

Any comments?

Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Okay, attorney Pedrera, we'll see you back on March 4th.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Have a good evening.

Okay, Commission members.

We're going to keep moving forward on our agenda.

Uh, we have nothing under old business for discussion and possible action, but there are two 824 referrals.

Uh, the number one is the 824 referral, February City Council agenda item number eight, lease renewal for Tango Yankee LLC parent company operating as business aircraft center Inc.

at Danbury Airport.

Allie, I think you're taking this one.

Yes.

Um, so this is just the lease renewal for um business aircraft center at the airport.

It's the facility behind the um fire company on Kenosha Av.

So again, that leases up and they're just looking to renew it.

And staff has no objections.

Correct.

Okay, Commission members.

I'll entertain a motion for a positive or negative referral.

Mr.

Chairman, I'll make a positive referral for the uh lease renewal.

Um with the um you know declared uh um requirements therein.

Thank you, Helen.

Motion made for positive referral, second.

How about a Mr.

Nazario second that motion?

What do you think?

There you go.

Any discussion hearing not all in favor, please say aye.

Aye opposed this matter gets a positive referral, and there is a second 824.

February 2026, City Council agenda item number nine, application for renewal of previously approved water extension for 119 Franklin Street extension.

Allie, back to you.

So this is for Ridgewood Country Club.

Um, it is the extension of the water main onto the site.

Um is going to be connected to the construction of a new hydrant.

Um that extension is also proposed to be connected to an existing six-inch private service um water line on the site.

Um again, staff has no objection to this.

Questions for Allie.

Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion for a positive or negative referral.

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

Thank you, Mr.

Kyokio.

Second.

I'll second that.

Okay, Helen, any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

This second 824 referral gets a positive referral as well.

Thank you, Allie.

Um, there's two items under new business, uh, Western Connecticut Council on Alcoholism and Hippolyte Industrial Realty.

Take a look.

Those are going to be coming up in future uh meetings, and nothing under correspondence, and there is one other thing under other matter uh matters for discussion and possible action.

Request for five-year extension of site plan approval for SE 781 Danbury Proton Facility 85 Worcester Heights Road.

Allie.

Yes.

So I'm sure um the commission members have been seeing this in the newspaper recently.

Um so the commission approved the grant special exception and site plan for this back in July of 2021.

Um that site plan approval was valid for five years and it's set to expire July of this year.

Um the applicant was unable to construct within the original approval time frame due to the time it took to receive a certificate of need from the state.

That certificate of need was received um January 17th of 2025.

Um, and then as noted in this letter, um, it's anticipated for an 18-month construction period, which would not be feasible within the time limitations um of the original approval.

So they are requesting an additional five years um to fully construct this project, and staff has no objection to this.

Yeah.

Okay.

A little curious as to why it would take so long to get a certificate of need.

I guess this is a uh this is a I believe my memory, this is a while ago.

This is a cancer research facility, correct?

Yes, Danbury Proton facility.

Okay, yeah, they they got a they got a lot of pushback on the on the need.

It's kind of a very specialized uh um, I guess, operation.

So um there was a lot a lot of pushback there.

So it took them a while really to there's a lot of back and forth.

I kind of followed it a little bit throughout the throughout the years.

Sorry, yeah, Megan.

We don't normally have testimony on these types of things, but if you want to give us a quick education, I think that's very forgivable.

Of course, I Megan Miles for the record.

I'm uh attorney who wrote the letter for the extension request.

I'll also note that Stephen Courtney from Danbury Proton's on the line as well if you have any specific questions.

But my understanding is that they had actually filed the certificate of need um either shortly before they received the original zoning approval or during the process.

I think it was denied actually, and then they had to refile and start the process.

And it was the second filing, the refiling that was approved in 2025.

So that it was actually a multi uh multiple attempts to get the certificate of need that eventually was um settled, I think with the state, and they issued it.

Okay, thank you.

Mystery solved.

Anything, Mr.

Courtney, you want to add to that, or are we good?

No, we just thanked the Lord that we finally got our approval.

It was a long process.

Uh, as many of you know, we were very transparent about the process.

Uh our website, you know, regularly posted the the latest press press, the latest uh uh bump that we had to go through.

But um fortunately, uh we finally got there, and now we're just putting all the final pieces together and um and one of which was actually having the city become part of the bonding process, and we're very close to having that um resolved as well.

So we hope to be actually starting construction within the next few months, and um and won't need five years to do this at all, but that's the the way it looks.

But um, and I know this commission was very uh um helpful when we first came through.

Um we had unanimous approval from this group, so we were appreciated and Arnie, aren't you uh still at um Lee Farm up there?

No, we shipped out, we went over to the uh summit.

So Mr.

Q 1.2 and he shipped out.

So at one time we had two of us there, but not any more.

Anyway, very good, very good.

Wish you the best of luck up there.

Okay.

Thank you, everyone commission members.

Um, the request is for the to uh the five-year extension, and um, unless there's any other discussion, I'll entertain a motion for or against the five-year extension.

Mr.

Chairman, I'd like to um request uh approval for a five-year extension of the site plan uh you know from this group.

Motion made to approve the five-year extension.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Second, Mr.

Kyokio, any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

The five-year extension is granted.

Good luck, folks.

Wish you the best of luck over there.

Okay.

Chairman I'd like to um request uh approval of for a five year extension of the site plan uh you know from this group motion made to approve the five year extension do I hear a second a second second mr kyokyo any discussion all in favor please say aye aye aye the five year extension is granted good luck folks wish you the best of luck over there okay um nothing under for reference uh for reference only there's a few things you could take a look at um nothing that we need to discuss this evening and unless there's anything else commission members i will entertain a motion to adjourn chairman i'll make a motion to adjourn thank you second no i'll second okay helen thank you any discussion hearing none all in favor say aye aye meeting is adjourned thanks everybody thank you good night thank you