Stamford Planning Board Meeting - April 29, 2026
Stamford Planning Board Meeting - April 29, 2026
Note: The raw transcript states the meeting occurred on April 28, 2026, but the official date provided is April 29, 2026. This summary uses the official date.
The Stamford Planning Board met on April 29, 2026, to approve previous meeting minutes, consider a lease for school bus parking, approve a purchase and sale agreement for affordable housing development, accept a state grant for dredging, and provide a recommendation on a zoning text change regarding sustainability. All items were approved unanimously.
Minutes Approval
- The board approved the minutes from the March 24, 2026 meeting (motion previously tabled due to lack of quorum) and the April 14, 2026 meeting. Both were approved unanimously with no amendments.
Leases and Property Transactions
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School Bus Parking Lease (0 and 338 Cortland Avenue): The city plans to lease two parcels totaling 2.93 acres (0 Cortland: 1.53 acres, 338 Cortland: 1.4 acres) for school bus parking. The lease is for an initial 15-year term with two five-year renewal options (total up to 25 years). Rent starts at approximately $600,000 annually and increases 2.5% per year. The city is responsible for utilities and site improvements (triple net lease). The lease is intended to support the Board of Education's RFP for bus services, providing a parking location to attract more competitive bids and reduce costs. The board approved the lease unanimously.
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Purchase and Sale Agreement – 41 Main Street (Affordable Housing): The city agreed to sell the 0.38-acre former MITA site to Main Street Housing Partners, LLC for $7,855,600, consisting of $250,000 cash and a $7,605,600 credit for developing 55 units of affordable housing. The selection committee evaluated two proposals based on quality, feasibility, experience, financial capability, and price. The project timeline includes a 120-day approval contingency, a 200-day financing contingency (with possible 60-day extension), and 24 months to complete construction. The board approved the sale unanimously.
Capital Project Appropriation
- Citywide Dredging Project (Cummings Marina): The board authorized acceptance of a $62,500 grant from the Connecticut Port Authority’s Small Harbor Improvement Projects program. The grant funds biological testing of dredge spoils to determine if open-water disposal is possible, which would be significantly cheaper than upland disposal. The city already has the required 50% match authorized in capital project CP0231. The board approved the appropriation unanimously.
Zoning Text Change Referral – Sustainability
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Sustainability Scorecard: The board reviewed a text change requiring a minimum grade (B or C depending on district) on the sustainability scorecard for new construction and substantial renovations of larger projects (10+ units or 10,000+ sq ft). The scorecard (version 5) focuses on energy efficiency and other categories. The board heard that the scorecard has been used for years and the new requirement formalizes existing practice. No negative developer feedback was reported.
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Tree Protection: The text change requires replacement of removed trees (4 inches dbh or larger) on a per-inch basis with native trees, or a fee-in-lieu for the city tree fund. It also mandates protection of remaining trees during construction. The board discussed the replacement ratio and minimum replacement size (1.5 inches dbh); a recommendation was made to consider increasing the minimum to 2 inches.
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Solar and Green Roofs: New roofs over 5,000 sq ft must have at least 50% coverage of solar panels or green roofs, with exceptions for residential amenities. Solar canopies over parking lots are reclassified as permitted obstructions, exempt from height limits, with a maximum height of 15 feet. The board recommended evaluating whether the height limit should be higher in areas with truck traffic.
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Vote: The board approved the zoning text change referral with recommendations to (1) increase the minimum replacement tree size to 2 inches dbh and (2) consider increasing solar canopy height limits in areas with heavy truck traffic. The vote was unanimous.
Key Outcomes
- All agenda items were approved unanimously.
- The board will forward its recommendations on the zoning text change to the Zoning Board.
- The next regular meetings are scheduled for May 5, May 19, June 9, and June 23, 2026. No meetings are held in July.
Meeting Transcript
Kidoki. Good evening. This is the Tuesday, April 28th, 2026 meeting of the Stanford Planning Board. Our first agenda item is the Planning Board meeting minutes. The first is from at the mean the minutes of March 24th. And trying to recall, did were we lacking a quorum? We had no, we we're so close. We were so close. Okay. And then you fell off, and we never we didn't couldn't tie that up. So yeah. Okay. Thank you for refreshing me on the logistics that ran into that. So we do technically still have a motion on the table. That's been seconded. Okay. So if there are no amendments to that motion, um, then uh can I have uh a vote on uh approval of the minutes, um, all who were present on March 24th. Um raise your hand. Uh and passes. Thank you. All right. Uh next on the agenda is the minutes from our most recent meeting, the meeting of April 14th. Um there any questions or um amendments to the minutes. No. All right. Um seeing none, um, all who were present are able to vote on the minutes. Uh, do I have a motion uh for the April 14 minutes? Okay. Jeremy motion for approval, second from chat. Um, all in favor, please raise your hand. And it passes. Thank you. Uh next we have um an item that had been tabled from our last meeting because we were still waiting for some final documentation. Uh the lease uh for zero and three thirty-eight Courtland Avenue uh for school bus parking. Um to read that into the record. Uh the city plans to lease the combined parcels. Oh, sorry, Chet. Did you have a no just clear mortar? All right, okay. That's what I thought. Okay. Um so the city plans to lease the combined parcels of zero and three thirty-eight Cortland Avenue in Stanford from the respective owners. Um the following of the summary of the terms, size of the combined parcels is 2.93 acres, uh, of which Zero Courtland uh comprises 1.53 acres and 338 Portland is 1.4 acres. The use will be for a school bus parking area and other related uses. Um, and the initial term is for 15 years with uh additional five-year options for a possible total term of 25 years. I will not walk through all of the annual uh rent uh increases, but um the annual rent for the for the years of exercise where the city will increase by 2.5% each year. Um I think I will go ahead and hand this over to our presenter at this point, given the level of detail that is included. Uh and I think uh Christela Salva will be presenting on this. Luke's raised his hand, so I think he's also gonna come up here. So I will promote him as well.
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