🔒1 new warehouse approved, 3 more under consideration in Wallingford

Four warehouses have been proposed in Wallingford, with one recently receiving site plan approval and three more — proposed together in one project — still under consideration. The Wallingford Planing & Zoning Commission on July 14 approved the smaller of the four warehouses, a 62,500-square-foot building that will be erected on the southwest corner of 15 Sterling Drive. That 22.38-acre lot also contains an existing 174,000-square-foot building that is home to the Connecticut Lottery. The lot and existing building are owned by New Jersey-based Sapphire Group I51 LLC, which acquired the property in 2018 for $5.65 million, according to town property records. The new warehouse building will be constructed in a corner of a parking lot and wooded area near Sterling Road, close to the property line of 5 Sterling Drive, which is home to Thyssenkrupp, a metals supplier. The existing parking lot for the Connecticut Lottery building has 164 spaces; the new building will eliminate one section of that lot. It will have two loading docks and parking for employees. Bryan Panico, an engineer with Cole Civil + Survey of Plantsville, represented the applicant, Timothy Mulcahy, during a public hearing on the proposal. He said that in addition to warehouse space, the proposed building will include a small mezzanine level for offices. Panico did not identify a potential tenant for the building. The proposal, which previously was approved by the Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Commission, includes a plan to handle stormwater and runoff. Scott Hesketh, a traffic engineer with F.A. Hesketh & Associates of East Granby, said the warehouse is projected to create additional truck and employee vehicle traffic of 56 trips during the morning peak and 61 trips during the evening peak, with 80% of it traveling east and west along Route 68. After closing the public hearing, the commission unanimously approved the site plan application for the warehouse. Three other warehouses proposed on a combined 47 acres at 1000, 1020, 1030, 1044 and 1080 Barnes Road remain under consideration. The commission on July 14 reconvened a public hearing on the proposal that was opened in June. All of the parcels included in the project have been owned for decades by Midwood Management Corp., which has proposed various projects for the site in the past. Under the latest special permit application, the project would construct three buildings in three phases — two 157,000-square-foot warehouses and a 100,000-square-foot warehouse. While sharing the same property, the three buildings are separate and could each have different tenants. David Carson, a managing principal with Cheshire-based OCC Design Consortium who spoke on behalf of the applicant, said the developers understand the concerns about wetlands that run through the center of the property and worked with the Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Commission to address those issues. To limit the impact of the truck traffic on the property, the developers propose two entrances specifically for trucks and three just for passenger cars. Two of the car entrances would be off of Northrop Road, including one utilizing a right-of-way through 777 Northrop Road, which is also owned by the applicant, and a third off of Old Barnes Road. The two truck entrances include one off of Northrop Road and one off Legius Road, both of which will lead to Route 68 and an intersection with a traffic light. The result of the separate entrances is it separates the truck traffic from the passenger car traffic, he said. Carson said each of the three phases of construction would be completely independent, with the first being completed before the next phase is begun. The public hearing on the project was held open and will continue during the commission’s next regular meeting in August.