Well set.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to a regularly scheduled meeting of the Zonic Commission of the City of Danbury, April 14th, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Let the record show at 7.04.

We'll begin with a roll call.

Commissioner Bennett is absent.

Commissioner Wotello.

Here.

Commissioner Fuchs is absent.

Commissioner Hall.

Yeah.

Commissioner James.

Here.

Commissioner Jowdy is absent.

Commissioner O'Neal is absent.

Commissioner Trata.

Here.

Commissioner Nee James absent.

Commissioner Novis.

Yeah.

Commissioner O'Laughlin.

Here.

And I'm Commissioner Hadad.

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

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

That all works.

Yeah.

Let me move uh Commissioner Elvis over one block over here.

And I'm going to move over here.

And I'm my screen is frozen.

Nice.

Commissioner Novis, I'm going to seat you for Commissioner O'Neill for the entire evening.

Commissioner Olachlin, I'm going to sit you in for Commissioner Bennett for the entire evening.

The next regular meeting is scheduled for April 28th, 2026.

Let me look here.

We might have something there.

No, mate's both.

Okay.

April 28, 2026.

Everybody received a copy of the February 10th, 2026 minutes with a correction by uh small uh typo um from Commissioner O'Neal.

Commission members.

We'll make a motion to accept the minutes from April 14th.

As corrected.

No, no, wait, wait.

The motion.

He said April 14th.

No, February 10th.

Sorry, February 20th.

That's all right.

The corrected minutes from February.

Yes, thank you.

Sorry, guys.

That's okay.

Is there a second?

Second.

So goodbye, Commissioner Novus.

Any discussion?

All those in favor, single by saying hi.

All right.

There are no public hearings this evening.

There's there's no continuation of any public hearings.

There's no old business for discussion of possible action.

Tommy Jane.

Hello.

Hi, you having trouble getting in.

Okay.

Let's do the let's do this.

If you don't get insulted, and if you don't mind, we got we're all set.

We got a quorum.

So you could you could finish drinking the drink that you have in your hand and just watch this uh on YouTube next week.

Or now or now.

All right.

Or now bye.

Okay, so he's not coming.

Okay.

No.

He said he got a new iPad and it's not set up yet.

He thought it was set up and he tried to get on and he can't.

Okay.

That's okay.

I'm sorry for the interruption, but I thought um, since it was a commissioner, I'd grab it.

We don't have any continuation of public hearing.

No old business for discussion of possible action, no new business.

Um, we don't have any correspondence.

Um I will save other matters and for reference only for later.

Um, presentation and discussion on proposed updates to the zoning commission.

So to the zoning regulations.

Uh Commission members, we are joined this evening uh with uh with the associate planner who will be making the presentation.

I want to say that uh director uh al Bakri is in a uh another meeting at this moment, does not know when it'll be out.

Uh, but he will be on as soon as he can uh tonight.

So right now we have uh um Ms.

Smith, the associate planner who will make her presentations.

Here you go.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Um, good evening, commission members.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Allie Smith, um, associate planner for the record.

Um, if I haven't met you yet, I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen now.

Um, give me one second.

Sorry about that.

That's all right.

Take your time.

All right.

Can everyone see this?

Yes, yeah, we got it.

Okay, perfect.

Got it, thank you.

So do you do you want to tell us you're just going to be doing uh well, you have I the question is do you want us to ask questions during or at one time after?

Um we can ask questions during the presentation as well.

Um, definitely an open discussion with the commission members.

Um, Mr.

Chairman, if you see anyone raise their hands throughout, um please just let me know because it's a bit difficult with the shared screen.

Yes, same here.

And uh commission members, if you have something, raise your hand and if it's up for a couple seconds and I don't see it, you can uh say, hey, hey.

Okay, go ahead.

Uh go ahead, Ms.

Smith.

Okay.

So I'm sure um Mr.

Albrocky Albakri has um communicate with you the state mandated updates, the zoning regulations.

Um, so that's what we will be reviewing tonight, as well as some other updates.

To start off, um, the accessory apartment, which is a state mandated update.

Um we'll have updates to the definition section to have this as added as a use as well um as the accessory use section itself.

So, really the big point here for the accessory apartment is that it is going to be located within the DTOD zoning district, so it's only limited to that zoning district.

Um it has to be located attached or within a single family residence within that zoning district.

We're making a minor change to the accessory use um definition to allow for the accessory apartment only um to be 30% of the usable gross floor area of the principal use, all other accessory uses will stay maintained at that 25% usable gross area.

So there are some further restrictions on place um for the accessory dwelling units.

One of those is that the property owner must have owned the subject property for at least three years, and um one of the units must be owner occupied.

So either the thing single family residence has to be owner occupied or the accessory dwelling unit.

Does the commission have any questions regarding accessory dwelling units?

Yes.

Um let me just uh mention again for the commission.

This this is being mandated to us from Hartford.

Uh and some of the details in here where you see 30 percent or no more than um a thousand square feet or blah blah blah blah blah.

That that stuff we can't change, from what I understand.

Um so this is what they've been talking about up in Hartford, and it's come down to us, and that's what's being presented here.

Um by Ms.

Smith.

There's something else I want to talk about.

Yeah, I uh um Ms.

Smith, I I talked to the director about this because I had a bunch of notes I wrote down all over this, and and there's just some things that we we we cannot Hartford is not flexible on that.

We're kind of stuck with.

So um I wanted a commission members to know that.

If you recall, Commissioner members, we talked last few meetings about a bunch of stuff that Hartford is making us do, and uh this is one of it.

Okay, commission members, any questions?

Yeah, Teddy, I have a question.

Uh Commissioner Trata, go ahead.

Yeah, um, how close is Danbury to meeting the criteria for these dwellings?

Because there's a certain percentage I know that that has to be in you know, in order for it to be to go forward.

How close are we in Danbury?

I think it was like what 20 some percent or something like that.

I I'm not sure the percentage.

No, I are you're are you asking?

Uh are you asking the the 10% affordable um deed restricted and affordable units in Danbreak?

We're over, I think we're at 11.54%.

Yes, so are you asking about that or are you asking about something specific something else specific?

No, basically that when when it comes to all this stuff that Hartford is sending down, how close are we to attaining the percentage that we need, as opposed to like I know New Fairfield or Bethel?

They're probably a two none of that.

Yeah, we're we've we've already exceeded it, but still nonetheless, this is being mandated by Hartford.

Is that correct, Miss Smith?

Or I'll let you handle that.

Yes.

So um, I think a little bit confusion here.

This is for an accessory apartment per the state mandate.

We cannot require them to be deed restricted affordable units.

Okay, so this is not gonna go toward our percentage at all.

If the property owner who um constructs the accessory dwelling units wants to make it deed restricted affordable, um, they have the option to do that, and it would count for our 10% per section eight um of the state statutes, but it's not a requirement in order to have an accessory apartment on your single family residence.

Um by the way, while we're talking about percentages, did I have the percentage right or am I off on that?

I believe you are slightly off we are over 10% though, so we do meet the requirement.

Okay, uh commissioner, thank you.

Commissioner Watello?

Yes, thank you.

Uh question, what happens after this this person takes over, does everything he needs, moves in, and then he sells the property.

What happens to the next owner?

Does he have to lose that accessory dwelling unit before he sells it?

Um, I can follow up with Wally about that.

That is what were the restrictions on that?

So is it a is that a permanent thing in the house and what do you do with it?

And if they don't meet the guidelines, how can it go on?

Well, that's a good that's a good question.

And we will find that there are still some things up here that have question marks on it through all of these mandates, I think.

Um on other on other matters.

I would think excuse me.

Yes, unletting Wally D in so oh good, okay.

Well, I would I would think though that if that if somebody's selling it, if it's if it's required to be owner occupied, somebody sells it, they have to tell the next I'm I'm sure they're gonna have to tell the next buyer you've got to occupy the unit that I'm leaving, um, and to keep your accessory dwelling uh rent accessory dwelling unit rented.

So does the city still have control of it?

Uh control meaning what?

I mean, you talking that that it's it's uh it's a viable accessory dwelling unit, and the city knows that it's been sold to someone else.

There's gotta be something that's some verbiage that's in there to protect all parties, and maybe Wally would know better.

Wally, the question that I have is that someone does the accessory unit, does it per the book, and then after a couple years decides to sell the house.

What happens to that accessory dwelling unit?

What statuses they have and what does it need for to be uh brought in and be brought into the system.

And for the record, the director uh has just uh entered the meeting.

Hi, director.

The last meeting must have knocked them out.

Hi, director, go ahead.

Can you hear me now?

Good evening, everyone.

I just came from a different meeting, so I'm a little bit talked out, so I'm gonna be very that was my guess.

Like so to your point.

If somebody's to sell a unit, like say they have a house and you have an illegal accessory apartment, then you owners would have to come in to have the license.

And if they buy they cannot actually immediately have an accessory apartment because you have to own it for at least, as you see here on the screen, it says under bullet number one, you must own it for at least three years.

So it wouldn't work if somebody's uh selling a property that the new owner will legally have an accessory apartment.

So they're gonna have to keep it vacant for three years.

I wonder how that's gonna go.

The issue with this one, we don't want to be to keep living poverty, just for you to know.

That's very important for us.

It's not meant as a way to get uh just any time to get an additional unit.

You must actually live in the property.

Otherwise, what will happen is you will end it will end up unsettling the neighborhood.

You will have unstable neighborhoods, people coming in and out, and it would we don't want to this one.

We want to have some control over how this is functioning.

And just for you to know, and I don't know if uh the chair was able uh to mention it at the beginning.

We don't expect this to happen.

It's only in downtown, and the only reason we're having it is because we want to meet the state requirements.

As you know, in downtown the TOD, you can have a lot of flexibility to have multi-family.

We don't see anybody using it.

We are just keeping it the way this way to meet the new state mandate.

Yeah, if you think about everything in the TOD district, there's really there's not nothing that would really qualify for this anyway.

So it maxes it out on a legitimate unit.

Well, you do have some single family homes in this in the TOD.

But you still actually can turn them into more than just accessory apartment because we don't have a limit on the size.

So a lot of them could actually be four or two dwelling units.

But when I say dwelling units, the big difference is when you have an accessory apartment, you have a limit on how big it could be.

So it's really not very flexible, but the state wants this to have this kind of option anyway.

And can you make it a two-bedroom?

Because a thousand square feet leaves you enough leeway to make it two bedroom.

Is that restricted to one bedroom?

Uh, don't believe there's actually a requirement.

You can have if you have enough space, you can have more than one bedroom.

The only requirements is what you see here, and the other ones you will see on the next slide when Ali is explaining it.

In my mind, I find that hard to believe that anybody would even in the TOD district do this anyway.

I I hear what you're saying, and I believe it will not be very attractive, but just we want to keep the option just in case.

And we're being told to do it.

Yeah, to do it.

We have to do it at least in the TOD.

We are not doing it anywhere else outside of downtown TOD.

And let me beat what I said, it's only applicable in the downtown TOD.

It does not apply outside of that district.

Excellent.

Commissioner members, anything else at this time.

Thank you.

Should we go on with uh uh Ms.

Smith?

Yeah, Ali, you just keep going, Ali.

Okay.

So just to get into a bit more, um, I think the director covered a lot of the questions for accessory apartments, but just to make sure um the accessory apartments cannot be leased for less than 30 days, and it would follow that zoning permit process.

Um, additionally, it would have to be developed per building and fire codes.

Um, and in the rare occurrence that well and septic um is on the property or the properties being served by well and septic, health codes will also have to be met, and additional approval from the health department will be required.

Any questions here.

I think we're good.

Thank you.

Okay.

So the next section is the design standards.

Um this is similar to the DTOD design standards that the commission approved um pretty recently with that big text amendment.

But basically, um it just provides standards so we have a more cohesive city look.

Um it would be required for all multifamily development um of two or more attached units or vertical mixed use buildings.

Um, and this would be the requirement for the residential portion of that vertical mixed use.

And I've listed the categories here for where these design standards would really be um implemented.

You can see the visual in the above graphic talking about the changes with the awnings, the setbacks, um, interesting roof lines and different architectural details.

Um, the two pictures on the bottom just show the vertical mixed-use building, so commercial on the bottom, residential above, um, and some open space for the residents on the on the rooftop.

And again, the multi-family development focuses on those interesting roof lines, um, different setbacks for the individual units, um, and some landscaping elements as well.

Question the this is for all these well.

As far as the condition for the TOD zone and these buildings, is it going to be mandatory to have open space or not?

There are standards for the landscaping and what we would like to see um provided for residents and commercial businesses, um, basically providing that open air environment, a more interactive street front.

Um, is it going to be on the site plan where it's going to be considered open space, either it's at the rooftop or somewhere on the property?

It will not be required open space for the residential units, if that's your question.

Yes.

Okay.

Uh Ali, I'll just qualify this.

Uh Bob, if you are talking about downtown, it's another requirement for the open space.

However, outside we have specific standards for minimum open space if you are having residential units.

Right.

Okay, thank you.

So yeah, go ahead.

Oh, we're good.

Okay.

So this is next slide is just more examples of how the different elements of the design standards would appear to the street front.

As I mentioned before, the interesting roof lines, setbacks, um, different heights in the buildings, things like that, parking around the rear.

Yeah.

And if I may, Ali, so for you guys to understand, the reason why we have the items is when you have any application, we want to stay away from subjectivity.

We want to be as objective as possible.

And the only way to do this is if you have regulation that you can go back to.

Anybody working in the field in our field, we cannot hold applicants accountable for what doesn't exist.

So it was more about, oh, it would be nice to have so and so, it would make it more attractive.

It would be good for the development at the city.

Some applicants will say, well, it makes sense.

Yeah, it's a good idea.

Some will say no, I'm not interested.

And if they were not interested, there was no way we can hold them accountable.

What we are having now is going to be, as you see, very visual, very clear guidance and requirements that we are hoping and we are expecting a lot of positive outcome once implemented.

Back to you, Ali.

Thank you.

And again, this is for a cohesive look throughout the city.

Um definitely applaud your efforts because that's great to just be able to raise the bar and make us better than who we are.

Well, it's a team effort here.

So Ali has been working on it, you guys have been working on it, other staff and also the development community had their own input.

We were not doing this behind closed doors.

There was a lot of communication.

Excellent.

Okay, now moving to the nitty-gritty of the house bill.

Um so we'll focus in on some of the definitions that are added.

Um, really highlighting the transit community middle housing, um, which will be added to the list of zoning districts that you see here.

So, as you can see from the definition of the visuals here, the transit community middle housing um is a lot zoned for commercial or mixed-use development, can contain um a minimum of two dwelling units and no more than nine dwelling units.

Um, so there are some examples here for which types of housing would qualify for this transit community middle housing.

Again, this would be allowed in commercial and mixed-use zones.

As we get further into the definitions for this, um we add we are adding in the parking needs assessment, which we will get into a bit further once we get to the section 8 C4 parking regulations um amendments, but this basically outlines that um you can evaluate your actual parking demand for a proposed residential development rather than um strictly taking the required number of parking spaces as listed in the parking section of the requirement.

So if you if the developer potentially sees that there's a less parking need for the proposed development, they can submit this assessment.

Um, and it can be reviewed by the department and relevant staff um to see if that fits the need for the development.

Commissioner Patello.

Yes, uh, thank you.

Are there gonna be any conditional or any improvements under the RMF zones?

RMF4 or much you know the smaller multifamily zones.

I do not believe at this time.

Director, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Yeah, uh thanks, Ali.

Uh but as we speak now, the focus uh is on what you see, which is some of it is mandated by the state.

What you are talking about, we have been following the state.

There might be at the end of the year new mandates from the states for multifamily.

We don't have it yet, so we're not touching it as we speak.

Okay, thank you.

So then the mobile manufactured home, just updating um length and width of that section as well.

Um the set-aside development is a residential or mixed-use development in which not less than 30% of the dwelling units would be that affordable deed restricted, as we discussed earlier.

And a summary review is the state language for the administrative review process um for viewing site plan applications.

So there are going to be some uses, um, specifically that middle community housing.

Um that would be under the summary review process.

Who's gonna make that summary review?

Um most likely me because oh no, no.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean excuse me.

I mean, is it gonna be Danbury or is it gonna be regional or is it gonna be Hartford?

I didn't mean to hit you between the eyes on that.

Oh, you're okay, Mr.

Chairman.

I was like, yeah, Commissioner Botello, did you have a question?

No, I'm sorry, I just brought my hand down.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

Okay, so this is an example of the bulk requirements um that would be used for the transit um community middle housing and that mixed use development that we discussed earlier in those definitions, um, adding them to those commercial and mixed-use districts, as you can see, a new section would be developed for the summary review process, um, permitting those two uses, and then some updates to the bulk requirements, just so it is um compliant with the state regulations and meets our requirements as well.

Uh, can I bother you to go out?

Can you just go to back to the other page about the uh the trailers of the mobile homes?

Yeah, this is or the manufactured mobile home.

This this is gonna be in a specific zone, or where is this going to be?

Um, it will be added to the permitted uses in some zoning districts.

Okay, yes, some zoning districts.

Do you know which ones they are?

I'm not entirely sure.

So, Chairman, yeah, what we're talking about here, it doesn't have to be in any specific zone because what the state is telling us, say if you are building a single family home on a site, it doesn't matter if you build it outside and bang it to the side, or if you build it on the site.

That's what it says.

In a state of all the legal language, that's what it boils down to.

It doesn't matter from a legal point of view if you have a mobile home and just put it as a single family, or you if you build it on the site.

The reason is because the state believes that if you build a home on the site, it's more expensive compared to having a mobile that you actually put on the site.

Just I know the legal language can be difficult, but this is what actually it means.

Well, director and uh and Ms.

Smith, let me say that you're you're gonna be asked questions that are sometimes ridiculous because we really don't know what Hartford is making us do.

So, for example, here's my next ridiculous question.

Can this be done, for example, in a commercial zone, a CN5, for example?

Or is this strictly a residential scenario?

Yes, specifically talking about the house, a single family home.

The mobile, the manufactured home or trailers.

That's correct, yes.

And don't forget, if you go back over what Addy was explaining about the commercial district, that you can have between two and nine units.

You cannot have a single family in a commercial district.

Okay.

So that will apply only for our single family zones, the mobile home.

Thank you.

I could ask another question, please.

As far as mobile homes, right?

I understand that uh so that there's a there's companies that are around that manufacture and they'll be they look pretty much like a normal house that you would stick build.

But how is it are they allowed to bring in like like that's what are they the single units and double units of mobile homes that they're like uh they put together and it's it's like what you'd get in a trailer park?

Is that gonna be permitted?

Is that what they're thinking about too?

You're not gonna have it like the trailer type.

No, I think I think the question is is this mobile manufactured home?

Is this a language that we're using, or is this language that Hartford told us to use?

Because we're used to the word modular, right?

We're using a module, and a modular is a one-family dwelling.

Well, it could be multi, but it's divide for train design for transportation after fabrication on streets and highways on its own wheels or flatbed.

All right, a mobile home, in my opinion, is like the mobile home trailer parks that we have here.

So this is more this sounds to me that the definition of a mobile manufactured home is what we're used to calling a modular.

Is that correct, director?

Uh not exactly.

So let me explain to you what's going on.

The definition that Ali here has on the screen.

This is actually as we speak, it is in our zoning regulation.

All that we're changing is changing how wide it could be.

As we speak in our zoning regulation, it says 35 feet.

The state says make it 40 feet.

40 feet.

That's all that we're changing so far regarding this definition.

It's not a new definition, it's not a new language.

That's right.

I just I just realized that we're we did talk about that already.

That last time, remember?

Yeah, this is our this is as we have it now, except for the change of feet.

Exactly.

But but Commissioner Botello does raise an issue of we're we're used to saying you know, modular rather than mobile manufactured, but I just I see an uproar in the single-family neighborhoods if you start moving trailers, and that's all I can say.

That's like there's a lot of communication going on across the state, and also between us and our zoning enforcement.

We made them aware of the new changes.

We will work on this as we start implementing it.

So far, all that we need to worry about.

Well, actually, let me correct myself.

All that we need to consider is that we are only changing how wide it is from 35 feet to 40 feet.

That's it.

Got it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry for the interruption, Miss Smith.

Okay, so going back down to some of the bulk requirements, as we can see.

Um commission members, you can review that.

Yeah, and then I will move down to the parking.

So this is um what I touched on a bit earlier.

So developments with fewer than 17 dwelling units.

Um, no minimum parking is required.

And then developments with 17 or more dwelling units, there is requirement for that.

Um again, there are two um traffic and congestion overlay zones that we will get to a bit later on.

Um, regarding the developments with fewer than 17 dwelling units.

Um, so in those overlay districts, parking would be required for developments with 17 with fewer than 17 dwelling units.

Um, so I'll go to those maps now.

So again, in these areas as shown in the outlines, there would be parking requirements for developments with fewer than 17 dwelling units.

If you are outside of these overlay zones, there would not be parking required for developments with fewer than 17 units.

Any questions here, commissioners?

Uh, I think we're good.

Thank you.

This section here um adds and renumbers some of the sections for an amendment to the zoning regulations and a change to the zoning district boundary.

So this pertains to zoning commission procedure, and then getting into the um newly proposed mixed use transit-oriented development.

This new zoning district would provide new opportunities for infill redevelopment and neighborhood services within arterial corridors.

Um, and it transforms the fragmented zoning districts into a modern and coherent zone.

So, as you can see here, the section that the director is proposing includes all of these fragmented zones listed on the left.

And as I go down into the proposed mixed use, you can see how it extends from the DTOD into a commercial and mixed use corridor that already exists and providing a more coherent um transition into residential districts and less intense commercial zones.

And again, that's taking into consideration the Pad Near Road.

Is that we're talking about school?

So this will go down from the end of the DTOD at the downstreet and north street intersection, which is located here.

I'm not sure if you can see my cursor.

Yeah.

And then North Streets here, and then into Paiden Aram through here.

That's right to the new Fairfield line.

Or next to uh the right that you go to Amber.

The road to Amber Room that would stop right there.

That's what I saw.

It's like Stacy Road.

Exactly.

That's where the traffic light is.

So as you know, this this um corridor itself um has a slew of mixed uses, um, some conforming, some non-conforming.

So this will really make it a coherent zone, especially with the new design standards provided specifically for this zoning district as well.

And I think that's great.

Two of the major things here is that the minimum law area is zero zero square feet, and the minimum front yard setback is zero feet.

So we're really um continuing that downtown feel with maybe less intense scale of the buildings um to have that interact interactive um street front interactive businesses on the main level with potential residential above uh question if I can.

Um just thinking about zero front yard setback.

I mean, would couldn't that be trouble if we have to have any road expansions in the future?

Why would we want to do that now?

For example, paid near road.

Yeah, so there it's similar to the DTOD district where there is a zero front yard setback there as well.

It is already okay.

Yes, if there are any needs for a sidewalk per se, there an easement can always be granted by the property owner or conveyance to that effect.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, and as I mentioned before, um, some of the building requirements that we're carrying over in terms of design and things like that, um, the interesting roof lines, architectural details as shown in the diagram.

Any questions, commission members?

No, thank you.

Commissioner members, we're good.

Looks like we're good.

Thank you.

Okay, and I believe that is the end of the presentation.

If anyone wants me to jump back to a section to review, please let me know.

Commission members.

Okay.

So can you go back where you're talking about the RMF zones and what is actually so we were just told before that nothing's gonna change on it, but then they were involved in this transition.

So I was a little bit thrown off by that.

So when you say mixed-use transit oriented development in the RMF4 and the RMF six zones, what is that gonna enhance?

What's the ability that's going to be given to that zone?

They would be allowed to have some mixed use in those zones with some limited residential component as well.

So commissioner you're talking about highly residential zones.

It's that's they want to be able to put mixed use on it in a deep residential zone.

It is only going to be in the corridor as shown here.

So it the properties that are located in those before mentioned zoning districts.

Um again, it's just in the corridor that's proposed here.

Um that section does abut some of those zones, um, which is why you see them listed above.

Make makes sense.

Director, did you have something also?

I just uh I don't see uh see it as confusing.

If you go back, if you don't mind, Ali to the slide that had yes, this is the one.

Well, talking about if you look closely at the map, you see those are existing zones along the corridor.

Those will actually be deleted and will be a place by the new zoning district.

So we are not changing, for example, for in this corridor.

We're just taking it out.

Well, not touching any uh for anywhere else in the city.

So for example, the a major property or some of the major sections that we deal with every day in the current planning aspect is the CN20 zone here, um, which includes the um old basilica property where Dealinda's is now, as well as the Bagelman property, um, Thayer's driving school, all those properties along that section are zone CN20, which some of the uses are pre-existing non-conforming.

Um the uses do conform, but they are the property owners are restricted in what can go into those existing buildings or what they can develop in the future.

So this mixed use um transit-oriented development zoning district really allows for um a better mix of uses in these zoning districts and allows a bit more um flexibility for the property owners and what they can develop as well.

So commission members right below her her arrow is the CL10.

Now that's the North Street shopping center.

Right down below our arrow is where the traffic light is, where you could take a right to go to Canadawood Lake, or you go straight up to New Free.

So that's North Street Shopping.

Am I correct?

And then once you get past the shopping center, you've got I think McDonald's is included in the CL10, right?

And then I think so.

Then the next parcel over begins your CN20.

Is that correct?

I think so.

I believe you are quite Mr.

Chairman.

McDonald's would be at the far northwest corner of the CL10.

I don't know if you can see it.

Yes, I believe I have my cursor over it now.

Yeah, okay.

I have a question.

Uh who's that?

Commissioner Novas, go ahead.

Ask.

Ask anything.

So there is a plan around, you know, the queue.

Uh going to so there's a plan for uh building uh so uh new project.

So that's gonna be affecting that whole area.

Is that taking consideration here with a new proposal with any changes?

Uh so I believe across the street from the queue is going to be nine units, something like that.

Is that early?

Yes, something like that.

All right, yeah.

So then your question is is this it does it fall within this corridor?

And how is that is that is that is there any correlation with this things that are we see in here with a cor uh with the new corridor, you know.

Uh uh, with that project, isn't it is it's affecting in any way?

I'm sure I'm sure after they have an approved site plan, then they've already started the demolition and excavation, they're not gonna be changing their plans, it's gonna stay cluster housing.

I think it's like 12 units.

It's not a lot of it's it, it's cluster units, and they're already moved ahead and they're not gonna re resubmit a plan to make it uh next use, I'm sure of that.

But but to answer your question, other directly is it does fall, it does fall within this corridor.

That's the corridor goes up just a little bit farther past it to where the you take the right word uh to get to the Yamber room where that traffic light is.

And this parcel is about three or four parcels before that on the right.

Yeah, so it is within the corridor.

Uh, I don't think anything that's being done here on this is gonna affect that at all because they're they're married to what they're doing right now.

All right, Commissioner, you good on that?

Yep.

Good.

Thank you.

Anything else, Commissioner?

Uh, Commissioner Botello, your hand's still up.

Oh, sorry.

That's right.

Anything else, Commissioner members, right now?

Where were we?

Uh who had the floor?

Uh Ms.

Smith or the director.

Um, that concludes the presentation.

If there are no more questions from the commission members.

Let's see if there are.

Uh commission members, anything else.

Um thank you, Ellie.

Very good presentation.

No, we I don't have anything, but let me ask uh the director and Ms.

Smith, your opinion on this since um it's not it's it's not a public hearing.

Um we generally don't do anything like this, but I I do see a councilman here or a member of the public.

Uh, I don't know if is it appropriate?

Is it appropriate to have uh a so many that's not a commission member to ask a question if they so desire?

Is there any shop, Ms.

Chairman?

Anyone asking the question?

It's a workshop, it's another public hearing, so we don't have to follow the legal requirement.

Anyone can chime in, there's a lot of perfect.

So, councilman Rotello, you're the only one here that's not a commission member, and I don't see anybody else in the waiting room or present.

Anything you want to uh toss about here?

Yeah, I I do actually um a couple of things to to begin with, the state is still working on the um uh removing the ability of communities like Danbury who opted out of ADUs citywide.

The state is considering seriously considering removing that ability to do that, which would mean we would no longer be opted out of ADUs, we'd have to allow ADUs all over Danbury following state guidelines.

So, my one question is would this would this ADU procedure apply Danbury wide, or would you have to come up with new regulations?

Um the strong chance the state does remove the ability for cities to opt out.

That's number one.

Number two, under 8002 and previously under 5002, they talked about allowing uh development of 15 units per acre within a half a mile of a transit station, which can include train stations and bus stations.

And while we do have a train station downtown, we also have a train station um in West Bretting, pretty much on the Danbury border, which includes essentially all of Long Ridge.

And I'm wondering what the status is of that, and has the city done any planning to deal with the strong potential of building 15 units per acre on long ridge.

Some of those houses are 50 and 70.

I mean, the the if if this isn't a a very quick way to to overturn an entire political system, I I don't know anything faster than that.

People are gonna go absolutely ballistic when they hear this.

And then finally, I I just need some clarity on the CN5, uh, Mr.

Albakri.

Um you you uh I'm not quite up to speed on putting trailers in your definition of a trailer sounds suspiciously to me like what normal people would consider to be a trailer in a trailer park of a manufactured home with wheels on it.

And the previous slide to that one mentioned CN5s, so I I just need some clarity.

Are you saying that property owners in CN5s?

Let's just take Worcester Village, for instance, with which has single family homes in it as well as multiple family homes, multifamily homes.

Would they be allowed to bring in a trailer?

That that's my final question.

So I don't know if you remember all three of those questions.

Okay, um, I'm not even sure I remember all three of those questions, but basically, can you put a trailer uh in in an existing yard if it's big enough um in Worcester Village?

And I I understand that you're talking about lot sizes, uh theoretical lot sizes, obviously, of zero.

So that means basically any lot size would have would be able to do this.

Are there any plans to do anything with transit-oriented districts along Long Ridge Road?

And then uh the first question I've already forgotten.

Maybe you remember anyhow.

That's okay.

No, take a stab at it.

Would you like to take a stab at it?

And then I will continue after I sound off my mic.

Okay, so the ADUs will only be allowed in the DTOD district as of right now, and that meets the state mandated changes.

So that is where we the city is going to uh move forward with allowing them.

Okay, thank you.

Um the 15 apartments within um a certain mileage from the train.

I do not believe that this has been an effect from the state.

Um might know more about that, but I do not believe that's in effect.

Um, and then the CN5 with the trailers.

Basically, the definitions for the mobile manufactured homes needed to be updated to comply with the state regulations.

There are certain zoning districts that already exist that allow the mobile manufactured homes in it.

Nothing's changing there.

We're just updating the definition for those mobile manufactured homes.

Um, I believe the list, I'm gonna scroll there very quickly, so I apologize for this list here of the zoning districts that are affected, deal with the transit middle housing um being added to those zoning districts, which I will scroll down a little bit.

Which this would be the transit community middle housing.

So these types of housing developments would be allowed in the above mentioned commercial and mixed use zoning districts per the state mandate.

Got it.

So if I I just follow up on that, what you're saying is you've made no changes to the old the stuff that was already allowable except adding the TOD to it.

Is that correct?

For the accessory apartments.

Yes.

And for the trailers.

Um for the accessory apartments, they are only going to be permitted within the DTOD with a single family residence as the principal use.

For the mobile manufactured homes, they will only be permitted in the existing zoning districts that they are allowed in.

Okay, so there's no change for the trailers at all then.

Correct.

It was an update to the definition to meet the state mandate for the 20 or the 40 um feet in length.

Right.

You increase the size of basically the density of the okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Absolutely.

Uh Ms.

Smith, can you go to the protest petition page?

Yes.

I want to let everybody else speak first before I took the mic.

Is this is this um there's no are these percentage?

Did nothing is changed.

This isn't what we presently have.

Or is this new dated?

I'm going to allow the director to speak to that.

Okay, director.

Mr.

Chairman, as we speak now, our zoning regulation doesn't have any of the percentages.

However forget about what we have on the slide.

The state law used to actually, I forgot the exact percentage.

It was about 25% owner if they protest, then the zoning commission will have to consider it.

What the state is doing is uh saying, hey, we wanted to make it less easy for anybody to protest a decision from the zoning commission.

So the actually changes that percentage to 50%.

That's why I asked, because that was the impression I was under.

They want to they would they they don't want to they they want to make it harder for the public, the ones that actually cast the vote for them, harder for the public to protest the petition and make it easier for the developer to have a little bit more smooth selling.

So that's what my language, Mr.

Chairman.

My language is to make it a little bit uh something that the public should consider that not like if you don't get like if you get two people they just don't go in and just protest.

It has to be a significant amount.

Well, the number you used to be 25%.

I mean, in damage 25%, and then actually it was protected by uh Connecticut General Statutes as well.

Hartford changed it to make it harder for somebody to protest and easier for the developer to go through with their with their projects.

Yeah, as you want people to consider their decision first.

That's what I would say.

And I think right now they got on the board where they're going to remove the environmental protest totally.

There used to be a provision for somebody to make a uh environmental protest against protected lands and wetlands, and I think they're removing that altogether.

Uh, but I wanted to just double check when I had asked Ms.

Smith to put this here to see if we can't are our 10 i5 has always been there, but it's the percentages that change.

Is that correct?

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Smith.

Commissioner members, any more questions?

If anybody's trying to ask, I can't see you that you may be muted.

If anybody's asking, try and ask a question while they're on mute.

Just remove the yourselves and ask.

Anyone?

Or we're back to full screen here.

Now I could see everybody.

Uh I don't think so.

So, Ms.

Smith, thank you very much for two things for your presentation tonight and your hard work.

Director, as always, thank you for your hard work and thank you also for staying on top of what they're telling us to do.

Um, and you really dive into these things and get the job done pretty quick, which is quite amazing.

And it's appreciated by this commission and also I'm sure by the by the citizens of Danbury.

Um the presenters, uh Ms.

Smith director, you have any any final comments or further discussion that you want want to throw out.

Oh, thank you, Mr.

Chairman and the committee and Ali.

She did just uh phenomenal job tonight.

And one thing that I would like to mention, I don't know if it was mentioned before I joined you guys or not.

If you look at uh two documents, the one for downtown and the other one for the corridor, we are making it a requirement.

If you have housing over a certain bit, like over 10 units that you have to have a component of affordable housing as a requirement.

This is just be this is a change we have, and it's very important for us.

Number one, we need affordable housing.

As you all know, each community is required to have at least 10% affordable housing.

So sometimes we were time before to have the incentive.

So you say, hey, you can have more units if you can have a percentage of affordable housing.

Now, because we as a city are at I believe 10.51 or so percent affordable housing.

We need to actually acquire affordable housing.

We are very flexible.

If you look at the regulations, they're very flexible, they're very forward looking, but we still need to protect the city's best interest, which is actually meeting the 10% affordable housing.

Otherwise, as you know, the sequence consequences can be severe.

We can lose our autonomy in terms of a lot of decision related to zoning and also other issues.

So this is a big component we added in the new documents that were sent to you.

Excellent.

Director, can I ask if there's any is there anything pending right now under the HIO?

Um any any properties, any projects, housing incentive option?

In terms of as we speak now, not bending.

We have some affordable housing that are coming online, hopefully.

One of them is gonna be senior housing on Maine.

Uh you I know the commissioner, sorry, the councilman is here tonight.

He was asking me about it last council meeting.

Well, hopefully that the whole construction will be completed in two years.

If this is the case, the city will get 79 new units that are senior housing and affordable.

Do you know the percentage of each?

So percentage of that senior housing will be affordable.

All of them will be senior housing.

Oh, yeah.

Minimum 80% of the senior housing would be affordable.

80% of the 79 units will be uh minimal minimum will be affordable.

Yes.

Oh, that's excellent.

All right.

However, don't forget the more housing we get in general, yeah, so the percentage goes.

So we need to all the time to be actually having more affordable housing.

Right.

Yeah, no, I was asking about the housing incentive option, for example, anything that we recently approved.

I don't know if the guy on uh which uh commissioner Botello was just talking about over on Paid New Road across the street from the queue.

I thought it was nine, maybe now it's 12.

I was wondering if they got any extra units under the HIO or the guy over by the reserve that we changed from industrial blaziest.

We changed from industrial to um uh multi.

I don't know.

They they mentioned they may come in under the HIO for more units.

I don't know if that's happened at all.

Do you know?

This question you had about uh the 12 units.

Ali might know more than I do.

Ali, do you have any idea about the 12 units?

Um, yes, so that's for one in three Pembroke.

Um that is going to be a nine unit cluster development, and they're maintaining that nine at a market rate.

Oh, so it is nine, Bobby.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

The other one you were talking about.

I believe um, Commissioner Mattello is a bit confused with the um Damia Drive application, which added 12 units to their development.

Right, okay, sure.

That's certainly it's not gonna be affordable.

Unless you can afford 1.2 million.

Uh director, what were you gonna say about the uh blaziest property?

Anything?

Yes, the blaziest one, it's at a stage where they actually are looking at how to build it, so it's too far ahead to tell when they are gonna come us come back to us with an actual site plan application.

Okay, okay, got it.

Thank you.

I know that they were actually looking at different options for selling the property or actually uh teaming up with a developer to develop it based on how it was approved, but this is the latest I knew about it.

I don't believe that they did any actual engineering studies about the site yet.

Thank you very much.

Uh commission members, anything else?

Uh director, Ms.

Smith.

I think we're good.

Don't forget we have an open house.

If you can actually join us, it's you don't have to stay all the time.

You can come in anytime between uh 4:30 and 6 30 and just leave any time.

It's gonna be just collecting uh ideas, talking to you, explaining what's going on.

It's very informal.

I understand if you cannot make it, but if you can just show up for 10 minutes or so, it would be helpful as well.

That's tomorrow night, right?

No, it's Thursday, isn't it?

Thursday.

Yes, it's a Thursday.

Okay.

Yeah, did you receive an email from Joanne?

Uh yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Everybody got it.

Oh, we did.

Okay.

Yeah, for it's 4 30 at the Palace Theater.

That was last week.

Thursday to 16.

Yeah.

Right.

Uh yeah, I was gonna meant thank you, Director.

I was gonna mention it under the other matters.

So yeah, Commissioner members would be great if you want to stop by.

We've had a couple open houses like this before.

And uh we had one, I think a mothership at one time too.

Yes, we had one at mothership for downtown.

Yeah, this is just like so cool because the people uh we're so transparent in what we do.

Nobody can say, hey, you put one over on us.

Everybody knows ahead of time.

And that works out great, I think, uh, especially for a city this size.

Um all right.

Well, thank you very much.

Um I said there was Chairman Ali, do you have any final comments?

Anything you want to add?

No, I just want to say thank you.

Um to the commission for having me.

Thank you.

It was great to have you, and thank you for your hard work and great presentation.

Much appreciated.

Very well organized.

Yeah, excellent.

Um, so we do have under reference only a petition of Waleed Al Bakreed planning director to amend the master plan for the reserve, specifically the project phasing and future use update and the phase plan from 2016 addendum.

That public hearing is scheduled for May 12th, 2026.

Um director, thank you for I got the cop the copies of the letters that you sent me.

We talked about it today on the phone.

I do want to give you a call.

Um, because I did see a problem with one of the letters, and I want to see and I want to see if we can catch it before that before that meeting or get you or get your opinion on it.

Uh maybe even tonight.

Well, I I could talk to you tomorrow, but I don't know you.

Let me know.

Okay.

Yeah.

Uh okay.

Umbers, are there any other matters?

Well, just one last question that all that we were interested that we're reviewed tonight.

When is that going to go into action?

Is that gonna be in June, July, or how is it gonna proceed from here?

Good question.

Director, when are you planning on uh and sending the sending those through?

So, what's going on now?

It's being reviewed by our corbation council.

When I say corporation council here in the city, it means our lawyers, our city attorneys.

If everything is fine, they might ask for some tweaks in the language here and there, but once I hear back from them, which I hope this will be in the next two weeks or so, I will submit an official application to the zoning commission to all the application to the planning commission.

So the goal is to have everything adopted by the zoning commission before July before the July 1st.

Oh, excellent.

Oh, I think we're supposed to have it by July 1st anyway, right?

That's a legal requirement, yes.

Yeah.

By the state.

That's the city, yes.

Yeah, we're required by the state to get it our house in order by July 1st.

So this was an incredible undertaking, and uh a job well done in my opinion.

Thank you again for that.

Thanks, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Commissioner members, anything else?

Just a point of interest to address Commissioner Botello when he was talking about uh Colonel Sanders at the beginning of the meeting.

Um, I usually when I look at myself and brush my teeth and look in the mirror.

I don't have my glasses on, so I am now looking at my face with my glasses on, and this thing does look pretty ridiculous, doesn't it?

No, I mean it's just definitely distinctive.

I mean, it's just it's just what what look you're looking for?

I don't know.

It's definitely gonna be a curiosity.

People are gonna look at you and say, Wow, is that guy does he want to be Colonel Sanders?

Or I guess what I'm doing is younger without it.

Come up with any look that'll take 30 pounds off.

I mean Colonel Sanders.

Oh, so Joanne has a comment for you.

Okay, Joanne.

I just heard my left way up here.

Joanne wants to give you her opinion.

She told me she's on the younger and thinner.

So maybe maybe Thursday when I show up at the palace, I'll look younger and thinner.

Okay.

Uh any other matters?

Any other matters?

Hey, Mr.

Chairman.

This is I don't know if Joanne mentioned to you at the zoning commission what her plans are.

I would like her to talk to you.

She had been serving the committee for a long time, and I would like to give her the floor that she can talk to you about her future plans.

We don't want you to do that.

I'm I'm officially retiring from full-time work on May 28th.

Oh my god.

May 28th.

Waleed has asked me to come back part-time, so I will be doing that.

Wow.

We're not sure what that'll entail yet, but I'll be around.

I hope so.

Well, congrats.

Well, first of all, you I don't want to be selfish and say no, no, no, no, don't.

So I have to say congratulations.

So congratulations on the retirement.

But uh wow, that's uh well I'm glad we're still gonna have you.

It's been just about 40 years, Ted.

Come on.

Yeah, I know and last my last birthday.

I turned 70, so I think it's time I slowed down a little.

I just when I look at you, you still look so young because we've known each other for so long.

Yes, that's it.

We've known each other for so long.

70 year old Joanne.

I don't I know, I can't believe it.

I'm thinking wait a minute, wait a minute.

70 is the new 50, okay?

70 is the same.

Bobby's 70, too, so he'll agree with you.

We're all the same.

I just got I just got notification from Union Savings Bank that they took me off the board.

I said really, yeah, because I turned 70.

So Jeff Levine, myself, uh Ray Boa, we're all gone.

I said, you know, we still have some froth in us.

Like you're just pushing us out.

Like all of a sudden I feel like we're getting pushed out.

And then the next step is going to be the convalescence home.

Like well, thank you for the information, Joanne, and congratulations.

Yeah, congratulations.

We have like specific days that you'll be in, or is it gonna be a real we haven't worked that out yet?

Okay, wow.

Okay, we're let it let us know.

Thank you.

We hope to hear that you're gonna travel and enjoy yourself and be with your husband and just enjoy life.

Enjoy it.

You earned it, you work we'll be able to take our RV and go somewhere without worrying about if I have internet access so I can do my meeting from wherever we are.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Wow, that's great.

Enjoy.

Um any other any other matter?

We'll do the we'll do the thank yous when it gets down to crunch time.

Maybe we'll throw a party that won't be Zoom.

No, definitely.

I'm sure they'll have a party at City Hall.

A big Joanne party.

Are there any other matters?

Any other matters?

Any other matters?

Anyone want to make a motion to adjourn?

Motion made by Commissioner Lochlin to adjourn.

Second by Commissioner James.

Any discussion?

All those of favour seems like aye.

Let the record show at 8 11.

We have adjourned.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you for the commissioners.

Thank you, Thaddy.

Excellent presentation.

Thank you.

Yes, very much so.

Very good.

Thank you.

Thank you all.