Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Stamford Zoning Board met virtually by Zoom on October 20, 2026, chaired by David Stein, with members Bill Morris, Roseanne McManus, Jerry Bozak, Keith Walker, and alternate Peter Rustin; staff included Ralph Blessing and Vanita Matter. The board conducted public hearings on zoning text and map changes and McDonald's special permit applications, then approved several regular-meeting items. Note: the transcript opens with the meeting called to order at 6:53 p.m. on October 19, 2026; the date used here follows the provided meeting date of 2026-10-20.
Application 226-27 (residential parking text change under Public Act 25-01): The board agreed to separate the state-mandated parking changes from the city's additional proposed changes. Members Roseanne McManus, Bill Morris, Jerry Bozak, Keith Walker, and Peter Rustin expressed concern that the non-state proposals reduced parking too much, especially for the West Side, Springdale, and Glenbrook, and wanted more time to review newly submitted traffic data. Staff said the transportation department was unavailable that evening. The board asked staff to prepare a revised draft containing only the state-required changes and continued the hearing to October 26, 2026, without taking public testimony because the application would be rewritten.
Application 226-20 (ML Light Industrial text change): Continued to October 26, 2026, while staff worked on possible changes.
McDonald's applications 226-09 and 226-10 (1103 East Main Street): Attorney Chris Russo presented a proposal to rezone the site from CN to CL and add a second side-by-side drive-through lane. The plan would reduce parking from 61 to 33 spaces and increase drive-through queue capacity from 11 to 23 vehicles. The existing building is more than 3,200 square feet and has operated for about 40 years. Traffic engineer Paul Going reported queue observations from February 5 and 7, 2026: weekday maximum queues of 10 at breakfast, 14 at lunch, and 18 at dinner, with four queue backup events; on Saturday, a maximum of 15 vehicles and two backups to the highway. Parking observations showed a maximum of 32 parked vehicles on Saturday lunch. The study also identified seven crashes involving left turns at the driveway. The planning board had unanimously recommended approval with landscaping and patio changes to replace excess parking spaces. Board members were skeptical that the proposed island, delineators, and signs would deter illegal left turns, and asked for a street-view rendering and a revised plan narrowing the entrance as much as possible. A filing-date issue was raised: the application was filed on April 24, 2026, after the CL zoning regulations took effect on April 13, 2026, so the new regulations may apply; the applicant agreed to provide a memo. The hearing was continued to October 26, 2026.
Application 226-14 (CD district text change to CMC): Staff presented changes to add townhouse provisions, design standards, and rename the district to Commercial and Mixed-Use Campus District. The purpose was to encourage homeownership opportunities in former office-park districts along Long Ridge and High Ridge Roads. Discussion included whether 30% building coverage was enough, the proposed 2,000 residential density divider for townhouses, and whether detached cluster homes should be included. The public hearing was closed without a vote.
Applications 226-24 and 226-23 (CSC text change and map change): Staff proposed deleting the obsolete CSC district and rezoning the city's only CSC-D district plus an adjoining CN parcel, including properties at 2215 Summer Street and 2510 Bedford Street, to CL. Staff stated the change would not create new nonconformities and would simplify the zoning code. The hearings were closed without a vote.
Applications 226-26 and 226-25 (MD text change and map change): These would delete the MD district and rezone the city's only MD districts to ML and R5 at 80 Brownhouse Road, 328 Selleck Street, and 1 and 202 Blatchley Road. They were continued to October 26, 2026, because of the related ML text change.
Application 226-28 (coastal site plan review text change): Staff explained that Public Act 25-33 removes the exemption for new single-family home construction outside designated flood hazard areas from coastal site plan review. The amendment also refines exemption criteria and removes duplicative language, generally exempting internal work that does not expand the building footprint. A 25% building-coverage threshold and a 2,500-square-foot floor-area threshold remain for flood hazard areas. Staff estimated the change would produce fewer coastal site plan review applications. The hearing was closed without a vote.
Regular-meeting text approvals:
Yes. All right. We can start the meeting, David. Okay. I'm co-host now. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I'd like to welcome everyone and call tonight's zoning board meeting to order. I'm David Stein, chair of the zoning board, and it is 6.53 on October 19th, 2026. We apologize for the delay in beginning the meeting. The members of the board and the staff are holding this meeting by Zoom video conference, and the public is in attendance both on the video conference and by telephone. I'd like to do a roll call of the board and the staff. Bill Morris? Here. Roseanne McManus. Here. Jerry Bozak. Here. Keith Walker. Here. Peter Rustin. Here. And now for the staff, uh, Ralph Blessing. Here. And Vanita Matter. Yes. Good. We have everyone. The uh board's microphones will be open throughout tonight's meeting. The applicants' mics will be open during the public hearing when their application is being heard. However, I would ask the applicants to please mute their mics for not speaking in order to reduce background noise. The first part of tonight's meeting is the public hearing, during which the public will have an opportunity to speak. Each member of the public will be muted until it is your turn to speak. Here's the procedure for the public to let us know that you would like to speak. If you came in through Zoom, please use the raise your hand function and you will be unmuted when it is your turn to speak. If you called in on one of the telephone conference call phone numbers, please press star nine and this will raise your hand and then star six to unmute when you are called on to speak. When members of the public speak, please give us your name and address for the record. The board requests that members of the public limit your comments to three minutes so that everyone will have a chance to speak.gov and tell her that you're having a problem and she will uh do her best to resolve it. Uh this meeting is being recorded and will be posted on the zoning board's website. You can find the agenda for tonight's meeting and the meeting applications and other materials by going to our website www.stanford ct.gov slash zoning. We will now begin the public hearing. First item we have is application 226-27. It's a zoning text change continued from our previous meeting on September 28th. The purpose of this text amendment is to implement the changes required by public act 25-01 with regard to residential parking requirements and to update and streamline the mobility section in alignment with the city's comprehensive plan.