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OLD SAYBROOK – A developer whose proposal to build houses on a riverfront property was rejected in 2021 offered a concession to settle his nearly two-year legal dispute with the town – one of the five houses would be designated affordable.

91 Sheffield LLC, registered to Branford builder Mike Picard, returned to the Zoning Commission on Monday to settle its lawsuit against the commission, presenting a concept to build five single-family homes on about 10 acres at 91 Sheffield St., alongside North Cove on the Connecticut River.

In 2021, the commission unanimously rejected a proposal from 91 Sheffield to use a “planned development district” to build four homes on the Marine Industrial-zoned property.

Then-chair Robert Friedmann argued at the time that the industrial zone was made just four years earlier specifically to prohibit more homes being built in flood-prone areas. The developer appealed, arguing Friedmann misapplied the law and “stifled debate” by dominating the discussion.

Marjorie Shansky, the attorney representing 91 Sheffield, said the developer has since gone “back to the drawing board” in an attempt to compromise with the commission. One of the commission’s points, she said, was that including affordable housing would better reflect the town’s goals, so the developer added a fifth, much smaller home to the plans, which would be designated “affordable.”

Shansky said the one deed-restricted unit accounted for 20 percent of the development, and wouldn’t be moving the town further away from the state-mandated threshold of 10 percent affordable housing stock to remain exempt from its affordable housing law.

The 8-30g statute allows housing developers to bypass most local zoning in towns below the threshold if their development includes affordable units. Currently, just 2.87 percent of Old Saybrook’s housing stock meets the state’s definition of “affordable.”

“We’re not putting you in a hole, we’re not taking you backwards,” Shansky said.

Shansky noted there will be a public walking path and kayak launch, and private docks for the homes. The waterfront has limited use because it has a low draft for boats and is part of the safe harbor where ships are brought during storms, she explained.

The Zoning Commission was receptive to the plan, with some commissioners saying they liked the inclusion of the affordable home. The proposal will be set for a public hearing before an official vote.

“I like this plan a lot better than last time,” Vice Chair Geraldine Lewis said.

First Selectman Carl Fortuna, who attended the meeting as an ex officio member of the commission, said he appreciated the affordable component of the new proposal, and that he thinks Old Saybrook has been “incredibly welcoming” to affordable housing compared to its neighbors.

He said he wants to see the proposal move forward because the property has been blighted for a decade, and is in litigation.

“Like I said, it’s either open space or it’s something else,” Fortuna said. “I am relatively convinced that a [Marine Industrial] district does seem to be a little bit improbable here.”

Friedmann, now a regular member of the commission, was the most skeptical and questioned how the proposal was not spot zoning. But town attorney Matt Willis said spot zoning is rare, and that this spot is conducive to a planned development district and fits a residential use.

He also noted that the five units on almost 10 acres would be less dense than one house per acre – a common zoning restriction that commissions “get beat up for across the country,” he said.

“In this instance, this is creating a new entity where the density is actually less than one dwelling unit per acre, and zoning is having to defend the concept of less than one dwelling unit per acre,” Friedmann said.

Shansky countered that environmental protection and “clustering an appropriate amount of development” were the key concerns for the property, half of which is wetlands along the cove.

“It doesn’t overtax the available landscape and preserves the function and value,” Shansky said.

Brendan Crowley covers energy and the environment for CT Examiner. T: 860 598-0050

[email protected]

OLD SAYBROOK – Plans for a Whole Foods on Boston Post Road are moving forward despite the developers withdrawing an application for a wetlands permit last week, a town official confirmed.

Town Planner Chris Costa said she met with the developer, Rhode Island-based Carpionato Group’s attorney on Monday to discuss setting up a preliminary meeting with the town’s Architectural Review Board to talk about the project – which involved building a 40,000-square-foot Whole Foods and redeveloping the rest of the plaza that now houses NAPA Auto Parts and Alforno Trattoria.

The developers were scheduled to meet with the Inland Wetland Commission on Thursday, but withdrew their application last week to continue work on their plans, said Costa, and because state law sets a 35-day window for public hearings.

The Carpionato Group could not be reached for comment.

If approved by the town, the store would be the first Whole Foods along I-95 between Milford and Providence. The closest existing Whole Foods stores to Old Saybrook are about 40 minutes away in Milford and Glastonbury.

Costa said that when the developer resubmits its application for the plaza at the corner of Boston Post and Spencer Plain roads, it will need approval from Inland Wetlands, the Architectural Review Board, and a special permit from the Zoning Commission. That process will also involve a traffic review, and will be reviewed by the Planning Commission and town engineer.

Parking was the major question for the project when David Taglianetti, vice president of development for Carpionato Group, met with the Zoning Commission last October to discuss the development.

Town regulations require a 25-foot setback between the road and parking lot, which Taglianetti said would not be enough to meet Whole Foods’ strict parking requirements, which demand 240 spaces in the lot.

At the time, the group planned to apply for an exception from the setback requirements, and for approval to expand the plaza by 12,000 square feet to fit a 40,000 square foot Whole Foods. The developers intend to renovate the remaining 25,000 square feet of the plaza into retail, restaurant and a potential medical office space.

Brendan Crowley covers energy and the environment for CT Examiner. T: 860 598-0050

[email protected]

OLD SAYBROOK – Plans to bring popular fast-casual chains to the Max’s Place plaza on Spencer Plain Road could be in jeopardy if the Zoning Commission takes much longer to sort out the town’s drive-thru regulations, the shopping plaza’s owner said.

Starbucks, Chipotle, Panera and Chase Bank all have leases to open new locations in the plaza on the west end of town that’s anchored by Big Y, but all of them want drive-thru windows.

But the town has had a moratorium on drive-thrus since November 2022, and voted on Monday to extend to June 2024.

“The tenants aren’t willing to hang on forever,” Tyler Lyman, the leasing agent for Max’s Place, told CT Examiner. “We spent a lot of money on concept plans and attorneys for the leases, and we were under the impression that this was going to get figured out many months ago. We’ve been hanging in there as long as we could with the moratorium, so it’s been frustrating.”

Initially, the regulations were paused through April this year as the commission held several workshops to talk about trends in drive-thrus, where they fit best in town, and how to move forward. Then the moratorium was extended to December, and now to June.

By approving a zoning change last year to allow drive-thru restaurants in a proposed new shopping plaza just south of I-95 on Spencer Plain Road, then-Zoning Chair Robert Friedmann said at the time that the commission unintentionally opened the door for multiple drive-thru restaurants on neighboring properties.

The commission proceeded to put a pause on drive-thru regulations. Zoning Chair Mark Caldarella said the regulations hadn’t been reviewed in a long time and that the commission thought it was a good time to review where they make sense in Old Saybrook.

Caldarella said the commission is “99 percent” done writing its new regulations, but it didn’t have enough time to set a public hearing before the moratorium expired, so they extended it another six months. He said they still hope to have a public hearing in December and make a decision before the end of the year.

A requirement for new locations

Lyman said the plan is to combine “phase one” of Max’s Place – the Big Y, Ulta, Kohl’s and other stores that are already there – with two adjacent properties on Boston Post Road and have four different “pad” sites close to the road for the new restaurants and bank. There could potentially be more pads within the plaza, but the four are where they’re focusing now, he said.

“The town is, I’m sure, concerned with what happened with the newest Dunkin’ Donuts, where the drive-thru does sometimes spill out onto Boston Post Road,” Lyman said. “Without knowing what the town is going to implement, we’ve set up concept plans where there’s no chance the drive-thru would spill onto Boston Post Road.”

Especially since COVID, customer’s habits have changed drastically to the point where drive-thrus are a requirement for a lot of businesses to open new locations, Lyman said. The leases at Max’s Place are contingent on the drive-thrus for the new stores being approved. Now that the moratorium is extended to June, some of the tenants have the right to end their leases, he said.

“It’s really up to the tenants if they want to continue to wait or if they want to pull the plug on the market altogether,” Lyman said. “We can’t really speak to that, but the longer this takes, the higher the chance they walk away.”

In a letter to the commission, Thomas Howley, president of Howley Bread Group with 25 Panera Bread stores in New England, said they’ve wanted to open a Panera in Old Saybrook for several years, but haven’t been able to because of the drive-thru regulations.

Panera is only building cafes with drive-thrus except in urban areas and hospitals, he said. So they were excited when they heard Old Saybrook was rewriting its drive-thru zoning regulations and signed a lease to open a store in Max’s place.

But he said any more delays could jeopardize their “cafe development requirements and revenue expectations,” and could cause them to look elsewhere.

“We don’t want that to happen,” Howley wrote.

David McLellan, the real estate manager for Chipotle, said they are planning a store within the Max’s Place plaza, where everything is on the interior of the lot and wouldn’t back onto any public road. He said they hoped to have the opportunity to work with the town on managing the flow.

“Chipotle’s window is actually simply a pick up window,” McLellan said. “People order and pay for their food with the app on their phone so our stacks are typically about 2-3 cars.”

Max’s Place owner Ron Lyman urged the commission on Monday to set a target date and work towards being finished by then. The discussions have already carried on for a year, he said.

“I’m not sure how many things you can do with drive-thrus, other than if you just want to eliminate them, which it seems like that’s where we’re heading here,” Lyman told the commission.

Caldarella said the commission had brought in businesses to talk about the future of drive-thrus, and how things had changed since the pandemic.

“Whether they’re for pharmacies or banks or restaurants, all three of them are more heavily dependent on drive-thrus,” Caldarella said. “So we wanted to give it the due diligence to review the market against the regulations and see if there are any necessary refinements.”

He said people love Old Saybrook because it’s a beautiful town on the shoreline, but also for the low tax rate. What the Zoning Commission decides can change that, he said, determining whether these new businesses can open and raise the town’s grand list.

“Maybe you folks will be retired in Florida and it won’t matter to you,” Lyman told the commission. “But the rest of us who enjoy the low taxes, I’d hate to see them double or triple over the next seven to ten years, which is the way we could be heading unfortunately.”

Brendan Crowley covers energy and the environment for CT Examiner. T: 860 598-0050

[email protected]

OLD SAYBROOK – A plan to fit a Whole Foods in the former Benny’s plaza on Boston Post Road received wetlands approval from the town Thursday after neighbors said the project’s increased paving would worsen flooding in their shoreline community.

Members of the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission acknowledged that the neighbors in Chalker Beach have real concerns with runoff from development on Boston Post and Spencer Plain roads, but said the issues are mainly outside of the commission’s jurisdiction, and that the stormwater controls the developer proposed would help.

Rhode Island-based developer Carpionato Group has proposed turning the old Benny’s plaza at 1654 Boston Post Road into a 40,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market, with another 25,365 square feet of space for retail or medical offices.

The developer said that because of Whole Foods’ strict parking requirements, an additional 0.4 acres will need to be paved to fit 395 spaces.

Commissioner Jay Kulowiec said the new parking lot would increase the paved surface by about 5 percent but that Carpionato made up for the increase through a dual plan to build stormwater controls for both property runoff and an offsite DOT drainage pipe that runs water from Boston Post Road to the wetlands.

“For all this time up until now, it’s basically been discharged uncontrolled,” Kulowiec said of the DOT pipe. “I don’t necessarily know the motivations of the applicant, but they decided to put controls on that discharge even though it’s not coming from their property, so I found that to be a very positive sign.”

Commissioner Laura Parker Gray said she was concerned about whether the area was suitable for a septic system Carpionato Group was proposing.

At the last public hearing in September, engineer Steven Trinkhaus – hired by Chalker Beach residents to provide expert testimony on their behalf – told the commission that the proposed drainage system doesn’t do enough to clean the runoff it collects.

Trinkhaus also said commission members needed to consider the “elephant in the room,” specifically that they didn’t have enough information about the proposed new septic system to determine that it won’t pollute the wetlands. He said he was concerned that putting the septic under a paved lot would hurt the system’s ability to dilute nitrogen, putting the wetlands more at risk.

‘I’m generally on the pro-development side of the coin, but to come in with a plan that has absolutely no provisions for how to handle the wastewater, you can’t act on that plan,” Trinkhaus said. “You’re approving a building use here, and you don’t know if you can even make it work from a septic standpoint. Whether it’s under your jurisdiction or not, it has to be in the plans, and it has to be demonstrated it will function.”

First Selectman Carl Fortuna, attending Thursday’s meeting as a non-voting member of the commission, said the septic system will be reviewed by the Connecticut River Area Health District. He said any leaching from the septic system would end up in the marsh, but the health district would only approve a system if it meets their standards.

“I assume the professionals at CRAHD will handle that issue, but I see it as a huge improvement to the site, from a drainage point of view and from many other points of view,” Fortuna said.

Commission Chair Colin Heffernan said the public hearing brought out concerns from neighbors who have issues with an old tide gate that wasn’t working, seasonal flooding and other legitimate concerns that would have to be addressed. But those issues are outside the commission’s jurisdiction, which is the impact on the wetlands next to the plaza, he said.

“Our experts have stated on the record that there would not be a negative impact on the wetlands, and that is largely where our jurisdiction, as far as I’m concerned, kind of begins and ends,” Heffernan said. “That is not to say that the neighborhoods that are affected by sea level rise, and by a floodgate that may or may not be operating, and by runoff, shouldn’t be listened to.”

At the public hearing last month, Louis Treschitta, a Chalker Beach resident, said the upland development around Spencer Plain Road had been snowballing and worsening flooding, and that the Carpionato proposal would add to the negative effects on the beach community.

He said he had already raised concerns about the impact runoff from a proposed new shopping center just south of I-95 on Spencer Plain Road would have on the downstream coastal area, and he was told then to bring expert testimony, which is why the residents hired Trinkhaus to show the impact.

“You’re going to ruin everybody’s septic system in the area. You already have a water test that has high E. coli in it,” Treschitta said. “Now this drain water is going to go over other people’s properties, and you’re going to put E. coli in the streets and in people’s yards.”

Geoff Fitzgerald, the engineer working with Carpionato, said that the development on Spencer Plain was different because it involved cutting down a wooded area to build a new plaza, rather than making a “minor increase” in parking to an existing one. And he said the E. coli issue was because of high groundwater in Chalker Beach and other beach communities, not with development upstream.

But Steve Sheehan, an attorney representing the Chalker Beach Improvement Association, said that beach residents were concerned about a higher volume of water flowing from the development area to the beach neighborhood. He said Carpionato could have chosen to build less retail space with a smaller parking lot but the developer wanted the additional retail spaces and potential medical offices, which require extra parking on top of the already high parking demand that Whole Foods brings.

“If they just wanted to put in Whole Foods and they did not need to add these other spaces, they wouldn’t be increasing the [paved] surface area,” Sheehan said. “There’s ways this thing can be done.”

Town Engineer Geoffrey Jacobson had offered two alternatives to lower the impacts of the development – either reducing the size of the building or removing 37 parking spaces from the rear of the building.

But Carpionato’s attorney Ed Cassella said they had already been incorporating alternatives to limit the impact, including a larger detention basin and removing a portion of the building to keep the pavement further from the wetlands. Any further changes wouldn’t be “prudent or feasible,” for the project, he said.

“Attorney Sheehan made the comment that the design of the site is our choice, which is absolutely correct,” Cassella said. “It could be a park, and there would be no stormwater impact. But the site exists as it does today, and from all accounts… the stormwater measures will be beneficial to the wetlands.”

Heffernan asked how Carpionato drew the line between what changes were acceptable and what moved beyond “economically reasonable.”

Cassella said it depends on how much work is being done – in this case, a “full facelift” of the Benny’s plaza. But it comes down to how much the developer is willing to spend for the return they expect to get, he said.

Treschitta questioned why the developer’s profit was a wetlands consideration.

“I didn’t know profit was part of the reasoning to get through wetlands,” Treschitta said. “Are you going to open up Pandora’s Box for other developers to come and say, ‘Hey, it doesn’t meet my profit range, so I want to build bigger.’”

Brendan Crowley covers energy and the environment for CT Examiner. T: 860 598-0050

[email protected]

OLD SAYBROOK – It’s been nearly a decade since Old Saybrook dubbed Route 1 East, “Mariner’s Way,” as part of a push to attract development, but little has changed on the stretch of road connecting Interstate 95 to the town’s Main Street business district.

But First Selectman Carl Fortuna said a lot has changed in the last few years, providing the town with new opportunities to attract developers to the section of Boston Post Road characterized by mismatched businesses and blighted properties.

“Pre-pandemic, we had a bit of a sluggish housing market,” Fortuna said. “It wasn’t the case four years ago, and it wasn’t the case nine years ago, but it is the case now that there’s more of a desire to live on the shoreline and work on the shoreline. So there just may be a better opportunity now than has existed, not only in the last nine years, but maybe 20 years.”

The town is putting aside $89,910 to develop a new strategic plan for Mariner’s Way, selecting a bid from economic development consultants Camoin Associates to refresh the vision for the area that the town can pitch to interested developers.

“We shouldn’t just sit and wait,” Fortuna said. “If investing $80,000 gives us a return in tax dollars over three to five years, we have to try. It’s an underutilized area of town that I think the townspeople would like to look better, and maybe have some attractions that will give them a reason to go there.”

A vision for “Mariner’s Way”

In 2014, the town adopted a plan to revitalize the stretch of Route 1 between Saybrook Junction and Ferry Point, calling the collection of businesses and former industrial sites “Mariner’s Way.” Consulting group CivicMoxie out of Massachusetts was brought in to come up with a vision to put underutilized properties back into use – particularly a 17.84-acre section near the I-95 off ramp that was home to Custom Marine until 2000.

But Selectman Matt Pugliese, who previously served as chair of the town Economic Development Commission, said the 2014 plan focused on marine industrial uses because that’s historically what’s been in the area.

That plan called for a new Marine Recreation Business zone, which would incorporate the existing businesses oriented towards recreation on the Connecticut River, while allowing larger developments like hotels, college or university buildings, large-scale retail or a sports complex.

Pugliese said a historic use isn’t necessarily the best use, and the area seems to be ripe for housing development. The west end of Mariner’s Way is a stone’s throw away from the train station at Saybrook Junction, and both said there could be opportunity for housing there – especially with the state government’s focus on transit-oriented development.

Both also said the area could be a fit for light industrial uses, potentially for subcontractors of Electric Boat in Groton. There’s a need to house Electric Boat workers as well, Fortuna said, in addition to the already increased demand for housing in Old Saybrook.

Old Saybrook Economic Development Coordinator Jennifer Donahue said the new study would have a market analysis and economic opportunity study to look at how much housing is needed and what kinds of development is realistic.

Pugliese said the town needs that data to know what the market will support, and know what developers to talk to.

“It doesn’t make sense for us as a town to go out and spend our time trying to talk to somebody and build housing if we don’t have any information from our side to show why housing makes sense,” he said.

Challenges and opportunities

The former Custom Marine industrial property is contaminated with petroleum, hydrocarbons and other pollutants, which environmental consultants Tighe and Bond estimated in 2017 would cost about $1.72 million to remediate. Other former industrial properties in the area would also need cleanup before development.

Fortuna said he doesn’t believe the need for environmental cleanup is scaring away developers. The main problem before, according to Fortuna, was a lack of sewers and a sluggish housing market. There are still no sewers, but there’s more opportunity for housing, he said.

If there is a developer interested in a contaminated site, the town can help them connect to grants for cleanup, he said. But the developer has to come first.

“We’re not here to just assist the property owner to drive up the price of the property. That may scare off developers,” Fortuna said. “The idea would be to partner and say, ‘Look, you guys come to your price, then we will work with the developer in getting remediation.’”

Donahue said getting all sides to buy into a vision is key. The land is all privately owned, so the owner and a new developer have to come to an agreement independent of what the town wants. But it also means getting boards and commissions to agree on any changes, like zoning regulations that may need to be revised to allow a development.

“In past efforts, a lot of work was done by a lot of different people, but everybody wasn’t always in alignment with each other,” Donahue said.

Fortuna said they know some of the property owners are willing to sell, and some are actively looking for a buyer. But the town’s role isn’t to force anyone to do anything, Fortuna said. Pugliese said the town’s role is to let the owners know what might be possible so they can talk to the right developers.

“If there’s an opportunity, I think the residents of this town would like us to investigate that and see if we can make something happen,” Fortuna said.

Pugliese said Mariner’s Way is one of the largest pieces of town available for development. Cleaning up brownfields for development is better than clearing green space for it, he said. It’s also a central thoroughfare for the town, and connects to I-95, Route 9 and the Amtrak station, he said.

“Heading south, you get off I-95 and you’re right into Mariner’s Way,” Pugliese said. “So there’s a lot of value in making sure it greets and welcomes residents and visitors to the community.”

Brendan Crowley covers energy and the environment for CT Examiner. T: 860 598-0050

[email protected]