Set.

Great.

And thank you, Joanne.

Welcome everybody to the June 17th 2026 meeting of the Danbury Planning Commission.

We will open with the roll call.

Mr.

Kyocchio.

Here.

Miss Hostedter.

Here.

Mr.

Nazario.

Sorry.

I know.

Chairman Finaldi is here.

I guess for the record.

We're supposed to have five regular members and three alternates for a total of eight.

We have currently four regular members and no alternates for a total of four.

So that's too bad.

I'm sorry, everybody, hold on for just one second.

Hang on.

Well, if we all leave, it'll just look like we should do that just for fun, you know.

Very funny, Helen.

Give a fool's joke.

Okay.

Um looking at our um agenda.

Uh the minutes of the June 3rd, 2026 meeting uh were distributed.

Unless there's any comments or corrections, I'll entertain a motion to accept those minutes.

Mr.

Chairman, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr.

Kyokio, for a motion to accept the minutes.

I think Helen was the second.

Do I hear any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Opposed.

Let the record show our next meeting is scheduled for July 1st, 2026.

Please note your calendars.

Um, we're gonna skip the Zoom intro.

I'm assuming that's okay.

Um I should have asked Dan Casagrani when I saw him recently, but I think we're gonna be okay with that.

You will note that our agenda has no new public hearings this evening or no continuation of public hearings this evening.

So we're gonna go right to our old business for discussion of possible action.

Uh, the one item on our agenda, UB Danbury LLC, Regency Centers LP, application for revised special exception, revised site plan to permit fast food restaurant, section 582B 16 in the CG20 zone, 20 to 28 Backis Avenue, F17010, special exception number 381.

Uh draft resolution um of approval with conditions was previously uh distributed.

And um, I will turn it over to Jennifer.

Anything you'd like to add, Jen?

Uh, thank you, Mr.

Chairman, for the record.

Jennifer Eminger, deputy planning director.

I am sitting in for Ms.

Allie Smith tonight, um, who is enjoying a uh much uh deserved vacation.

So uh the resolution um that Allie prepared um data June 10th, 2026 for Jersey Mike subs at Airport Plaza, 20 to 28 Backis Avenue.

Uh this is a fairly straightforward uh resolution again.

It's a change in use uh to allow a 1200 square foot fast food restaurant identified as Jersey Mike's.

Uh Allie's included um the standard whereas is that described the project, um, including a breakdown of all the tenant spaces again.

The uh purpose of the revised grant is a trip generator.

Um it's a cumulative um cumulative uh generation of all the uh spaces in the shopping center, um, as well as the use itself of fast food restaurant is a special exception use.

Um fast wording through to page four again.

These are all standard uh conditions.

Um file the grant on the land records five, number six.

Uh the ZEO shall verify uh that the fast food restaurant has not exceeded 10 seats.

Uh we're looking for the airport administrator to do another sign-off, make sure that there's no changes.

Sometimes facades change, they come in for a permit.

We're gonna ask that the airport administrator take one last look, make sure there's no increase, uh, given the close proximity uh to the airport.

And that is about it.

Does anyone have any questions?

Questions for Jen.

I think we went through this one very thoroughly.

Thank you for that.

Uh Jennifer.

Uh, commission members, any other questions uh on the uh resolution of approval with conditions.

And hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve or deny the resolution of approval with conditions.

Mr.

Chairman, I'll move to approve this application with the conditions specified in the resolution document.

Thank you, Helen.

Motion to approve made.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Second, Mr.

Kyocchio.

Any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

This resolution of approval with conditions is approved.

Thank you, uh Jen for that.

Thank you, everybody.

Okay, we're gonna move right on.

Uh item two under old business for discussion of possible action.

Worcester School Corp application for floodplain permit 91 Meyerbrook Road E1901 special permit number 0606.

Um there was also a draft resolution attached.

This uh this one, Jen, looks a little more complicated than your typical floodplain permit.

I know it's Worcester School, which is an old school.

I looked it up, it's a hundred years old for those of you taking notes.

So uh why don't you go ahead and let us know what we got going on here?

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

So um we've been uh talking with Worcester School for I want to say about a year, uh concerning um, so this is their um, and this is a private bridge.

It's um their Easterly bridge, um, also known it's their egress bridge.

So they have an ingress bridge bridge that's adjacent to the tennis courts.

This one's on um the other side, uh closer to the intersection of um Bacchus and Myri Brook.

Uh so when we first started having discussions, um the bridge is in um pretty bad shape.

Um it needs to be replaced, it's in disrepair.

So um, and again, this is a private bridge, it's not a city bridge.

We uh initially um the engineering department and myself, we'd had some concerns about the work within the channel, the Myrie Brook, as well as um there are sewer and water mains uh pretty close to that bridge.

So we were also concerned that any construction needed and and excavation within the channel uh would cause harm to the uh water and sewer mains.

So we um informed um uh Worcester School that they would be that we would be requiring a third party review.

So we'd hired, and they reimbursed the city, of course.

Um they um we hired Hayden Howard, who has I'm sure you've you remember them from the past.

Um they had done the review um looking at the um potential impacts to the city's Bacchus Av Bridge, which is upstream um near um waterworks, as well as uh city's uh water and sewer infrastructure.

Uh they prepared an impact uh evaluation, they were reviewing uh the high hydrologic and hydraulic evaluations of portions of the Myray Brook, as well as uh the civil engineer that Worcester School hired uh reviewing all of their information.

So it was a peer review.

Uh in their review, Tate and Howard concurred with their approach, um, which showed that there was no impact on the Bacchusav Bridge.

Um and there was um, I'm sorry, and uh as a result of the bridge replacement and subsequent work within the channel.

Tate and Howard had uh no concerns with the proximity of the work to the existing sewer line and water main.

Again, there was a fair amount of work that came in to um to come to that conclusion.

They had to do uh test pits to find out where the water and sewer were, they field located them.

Once we knew that, we looked at the span, looked at the impacts to the channel.

Um it required an EIC approval.

The engineering department looked at it as well.

So it was thoroughly vetted um to make sure that this was not going to have an impact along the entire floodplain.

So based off of the channel work, um there's approximately 20 cubic yards of fill.

It's about a dump truck that's being moved around because of the abutments.

Um and again, it's not within the city right of way.

We determined that there would be no impact to um the flow of Myrie Brook nor the Bacchusav Bridge.

So with that being said, um it complies with section 7A5C as well as 7A6 of the floodplain regulations.

Uh the condition, uh two conditions I added um the applicant's engineer as to certify in writing that the bridge was constructed pursuant to the plans, and any modification um to those plans requires a revised floodplain permit.

So, are there any questions?

Jen, I, you know, I realize that none of us were around a hundred years ago when uh Worcester School went into business, and uh I imagine they you know probably had a trend you know go over Myrie Brook at that time.

Uh, the idea of having sewer and water mains that close to the bridge.

Um I I'm guessing that that couldn't happen nowadays.

We we have we've sort of evolved from an engineering point of view.

Is that really just a function of it was done a long time ago?

Likely so.

I mean, again, it's a matter of they're running parallel, I believe, with um between Bacchusav and Myri Brook.

And I believe they're the mains that actually serve the school.

So again, I don't know when they were installed, but given again, that bridge is pretty close to the road.

Um, there's not much of a different, um, there's not much of a uh distance between them.

So the clearances that you would generally need when you're when you're digging out that channel, you know, there's forms that go up to hold the water back, you put the abutments, it's a lot of work.

Um, so again, you know, there was no way of knowing where those mains were, and you don't want to be digging, and then all of a sudden you hit a main.

So it's always better to be cautious.

Um, but I I'd say under today's standards that that would probably it would likely not be constructed that close to the bridge.

But again, there could be reasons.

Again, there's flow and pitch, and there's specific engineering reasons why that those mains are located there.

Because Myray Brook floods now, right?

It floods all the time.

Yes, it does.

So the one of the things that we were most concerned about because again, they were they're widening the channel um for those abutment for the abutments.

Um, and we wanted to make sure that because now you're right now there's a constriction point with the bridge.

There's only so much water that's able to get through, and then it backs up.

So once they open that up, the channel opens up and you're conveying more water.

So that means more water is heading upstream or downstream.

I can't remember which.

Um, heading towards the back of Sav Bridge.

What our concern was what will that increase in the flow of water do to the culvert?

Is it gonna blow it out?

Is it gonna cause erosion?

We didn't know that nexus.

So again, part of what we'd asked Cardinal Engineering to do was to analyze that.

And then we had Tata and Howard double check their work and make sure the assumptions they were using were correct and they concurred with their results, and our engineering department was part of the whole process, and they concurred as well.

Thank you for that.

Commission members, any other questions for Jen?

Go ahead, Helen.

Hey, everyone.

Um, you know, this is me trying to go through all these details here, and it's a lot of technical stuff.

Um so I hope this question isn't really out there.

But when they start to build this bridge, the the water flow will still continue.

Is that right?

Or do they have to divert it while they work on the bridge?

It's not that is a technical question.

I don't know that I can answer that.

It from my understanding, and and there's a term for the structures they use to hold, they're like these big metal beams that um hold the water back so that they can again have a free and clear way to put those um abutments in.

So it's not diverted, but they Yeah, they just uh it's still close through, but you have to make it narrower to just okay.

Again, I think it's a sequence of you do one area, hold the water back, yeah, make that done, and then you open the other side and um work on the other side of the bridge.

Do you think that you know, because it floods often, do you think they're going to have to seasonally uh schedule this, you know, repair just based on maybe flood patterns?

Well, I think the summer, well, there's two things that are driving this construction.

One, they have to wait until school's over because that's how they get out.

Yeah.

Um, and two, generally we're not getting those big storms.

Um, although his you know, the past few years we've had some pretty nasty August storms.

Um, but I think historically the best time, you know, the the stream is slightly lower because of of you know, if we're in a drought.

So they have to do it this summer.

They have to have that bridge open before school begins um after Labor Day.

Okay, that's good.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much.

Yeah.

Again, I'm not an engineer.

I think that's what they're based off of the discussions I've been in.

I think that's the sequence of construction.

Yeah, I'm not sure they got into the timing of this in these documents here.

No, they did not.

And that was intentional because again, sometimes you're not going to know until you get on the site.

So, you know, and they will definitely be coordinating with public utilities because of the water and sewer main coordinating with our environmental compliance officer.

Um, given the wetlands um out there.

So there's new there'll be numerous departments um involved in this construction.

Okay.

And monitoring it.

Really interesting.

Thank you.

Yep.

Thank you.

And uh no Jennifer, and thanks for letting us.

So it looks like we went out and solicited the best advice, you know, from you know Kate and Howard Cardinal two qualified and established the engineering firm.

So it's comforting to know that we we did that, and uh they both concurred, so that's good.

Yes, absolutely.

Again, sometimes it's you know, it's a long process, and you know, Worcester was, you know, Worcester School was patient while we were trying to figure out the best course.

Um, because again, we don't have too many private bridges.

You know, we did um Brookview Commons, but that was part of a site plan um application.

Um, you know, shops at Marcus Derry that had a bridge.

Um, and that was actually a that was really complicated because you had a floodway through there.

There wasn't a bridge there before.

Um so you know, again, they're they're they're complicated issues.

So, you know, we kind of took our time to make sure we are making the right decision and and the best direction for Worcester.

Thank you.

Yep, thank you.

Commission members, anything else for Jen?

And hearing nothing, I'll entertain a motion to approve or deny the draft resolution of approval for the floodplain permit.

Helen, please.

Um, Mr.

Chairman, I move to approve this application subject to the administrative requirements specified in the resolution document.

Thank you, Helen.

Motion made.

Do I hear a second?

Sydney?

Mr.

Chairman, I'll second that.

Thank you, Sydney, for the second.

Any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

The um floodplain permit is approved.

Thanks, Jen.

It was a that was a pretty complicated one.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, we're gonna move to something which appears less complicated.

Uh, this being an 82.

This is we're moving on to referrals.

We have one eight two four referral city council agenda item number 14 application for water extension.

15, Great Pastor Road, L16005.

Jennifer, I think um your report is dated 69.

It's all yours.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

So this is fairly straightforward.

Uh, this was this there was the site plan approval that was um approved back in April um for uh the construction of several buildings on 15 Great Pasture uh for contractor offices and associated site improvements.

Uh the municipal water main currently exists in Great Pasture, but because of the the way the site lays out, um they have a uh a loop driveway.

So we're asking for the water main to be looped inside the property, and because that can't be private, it has to be uh city owned.

We'll take that um main.

So they need uh an extension request for that.

Um, and then they just tie back in um to uh great pasture.

So um staff has no objection, it complies with the uh POCD as it's within the water service area.

Um and again, standard conditions apply.

Questions for Jennifer, anyone?

Pretty straightforward stuff.

Okay, hearing no questions, I'll entertain a motion for a positive or negative referral uh for the uh water extension as submitted.

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

Thank you, Bob.

Do I hear a second?

Second, second, Helen.

Any discussion?

All in favor of a positive referral, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

This matter gets a positive referral to the city council.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, it looks like we don't have anything under correspondence, nothing under other matters.

A couple of things for reference only.

So unless anybody wants to uh has any other items rather.

Um I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Mr.

Chairman, I'll make a motion to go ahead and there was Cindy Nazario made the motion to adjourn.

I think that was Bob with the second.

I'm not sure.

So um all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Let the record show this meeting is adjourned at 7 23 p.m.

Woo!

Uh huh, not bad.

Good job, everyone.

Good job.