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12/09/2019 11:00 PMThe Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) has continued a public hearing over proposed amendments to the town’s zoning regulations that, if adopted, could pave the way for formal site plan at the former Unilever property. The hearing, which opened on Dec. 2, will resume on Monday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
The proposed amendments have to do with changes to the town’s Transit Oriented Development Overlay Zone (TODO). As defined in the town’s zoning regulations, “The purpose of the Clinton Station TODO is to create a new, mixed-use, transit-friendly, walkable, concentrated development that adds both residential and commercial vitality to Clinton Center, connects to surrounding neighborhoods and historic areas, and leverages both the presence of the Clinton Train Station and the existing Unilever structures as focal points.” The zone can be applied only to properties of more than 10 acres and that are located within a quarter mile of the train station.
Consultant planner John Guszkowski explained why the TODO is useful to developers.
“The benefit to the developer is that the variety of uses, and the opportunity to flexibly mix different uses, within the TODO zone is far beyond anything that would be available within the current I-1 industrial zone,” he said.
The TODO was added to the town’s zoning regulations in early 2018. Now, the developers of the former Unilever property want to change some of the language of the TODO to allow for an arcade to be allowed as part of the property, to change the maximum allowed height of new structures from four stories or 50 feet to five stories or 60 feet, to reduce the minimum square foot of any dwelling to 350 square feet from 500 square feet, and to allow the maximum building coverage to be 50 percent of the property as opposed to percent.
Another proposed change to the TODO is the elimination of a 50-foot setback from all the property boundaries. The application for the change notes that the “proposed text amendment will allow proposed lots to be created via subdivision within this zone to have the same configuration as is currently present on the property.”
The application was received at a PZC meeting on Nov. 18 and the public hearing was opened on Dec. 2. At that meeting the developer 1 John Street Clinton, LLC, presented its case to the PZC. The PZC asked the developer to provide more information at a continuation of the public hearing on Jan. 6. The public will be able to comment on any new information that is presented. Only one member of the public questioned the applicant about the proposed revisions to the boundary line on Dec. 2.
The most interesting part of the public hearing was when Michael Massimino, the property owner, shared more information about the potential future uses of the property. Both Massimino and agent Chris Gagnon, a representative of engineering firm BL Companies LLC, stressed that they were only at the meeting to discuss the amendments to the zoning regulations and that they did not have formal applications yet for potential uses from specific tenants.
However, they displayed renderings of what the property could potentially look like if they are able to develop the property according to their intentions.
“We thought it was appropriate to produce a picture of what is in our minds,” Gagnon told the PZC.
The renderings depicted space for a potential brewery or restaurant, a recreational sports field, a residential component, and parking spaces.
Massimino said that a company interested in putting in an indoor turf field for sports is “for sure” going into the building. He said that he has a letter of intent for a brewery to go into the property and that he hopes to soon have more information related to an application for that use.
At the public hearing, PZC Chair Mary Ellen Dahlgren outlined the multiple next steps for developing the property. First the changes must be approved to the TODO, then that overlay must be applied to the property, and the property must be subdivided for septic reasons. Once those steps are taken, the developer must then come before the PZC with special exception applications for the different uses and tenants intended to go into the property.
In summer 2019, the sale of several parcels on the Unilever property excited Clinton residents who had been waiting for a development to come to the property since the plant shut down in 2012. The news of the sale was followed in the fall by an application for a change in the zoning regulations to allow for a commercial indoor recreation use at the property. The PZC did approve that amendment in September. Originally there was talk of opening the indoor recreation portion of the building in the fall, though that has yet to happen.