🔒As some towns resist further warehouse construction, builders and developers attempt to be good neighbors

In Enfield, representatives of Massachusetts-based Winstanley Enterprises met with locals months ahead of submitting plans for an 817,000-square-foot distribution center.

The company said it cut the proposed size of the building planned for 35 Bacon Road by about one-fourth, pledged to donate 22 acres to open space, planned dark sky-compliant lighting and heavily-landscaped buffers.

Warehouse builders and municipal officials eager for economic development said many of the companies behind these gigantic developments work to be good neighbors, altering plans to address concerns and even making changes after opening.

Still, Enfield residents worried about potential traffic and environmental impacts from Winstanley’s project launched legal challenges that continue to delay construction.

Adam Winstanley, principal of the busy real estate development firm, said it is standard practice to minimize impacts to neighbors and adjust to concerns whenever feasible.

“There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into making sure projects are right-sized for the neighborhoods, that we receive input about what people like and don’t like about our projects,” Winstanley said. “We don’t do everything, but we try to incorporate a lot of their thoughts into the projects.”

Growing resistance

Warehouse developers are facing increasing resistance, particularly in towns north of Hartford that have been the focus of intense development in recent years.

South Windsor, in early April, adopted a one-year moratorium on logistics development to craft regulations granting locals more control. More recently, Windsor made warehouse and distribution centers subject to special exemptions — meaning the Planning and Zoning Commission has more leeway to consider resident objections and order conditions for development.

At 113 North Maple Street in Enfield, where Winstanley is building a 500,000-square-foot distribution center, the company changed an access road and building location to move further from houses. Berms were added to plans, along with heavy landscaping and a costly sound barrier.

At the 35 Bacon Road site, Winstanley expects to spend $1.5 million in landscaping and another $2.5 million on sound-absorbing walls to suppress truck noise.

Sound walls are expensive, but probably will become the norm, Winstanley predicted.

“Neighborhood groups tend to like them because they are effective at blocking noise,” Winstanley said. “I think in general developers will have to consider sound walls, berms, more landscaping and lenses that are dark-sky compliant.”

Windsor and South Windsor officials who’ve worked with warehouse developers and operators credit the companies with quickly responding to concerns.

Windsor Town Planner Eric Barz said developers building a 3.7 million-square-foot Amazon facility on Kennedy Road recently added two types of shields to further cut glare from parking lot lights that were already designed to be dark sky compliant.

“I suggested they only needed to do one and they did both,” Barz said.

On the opposite side of town, Dollar Tree put out signs asking staff on breaks to be considerate of neighbors after noise complaints, Barz said. The company also handed out flyers to truckers showing direct routes to highways that avoid heavily residential areas, he said.

“For the most part, they have been accommodating,” Barz said of warehouse operators.

In South Windsor, Town Manager Michael Maniscalco said warehouse operators have been willing to meet to hash out concerns. Representatives for discount food retailer Aldi met with Maniscalco in mid-May to address complaints about trucks servicing its 482,000-square-foot warehouse.

Truckers had been parking on roadsides while waiting for their turn to enter the Rye Street facility, creating traffic jams and prompting motorist complaints. Then truckers started parking in some private business parking lots. After the recent talk, the plan is to have trucks stage in commuter lots until they are clear to enter the distribution facility, Maniscalco said.

“They have been very cooperative, very interested in working with us,” Maniscalco said of Aldi’s management. “Nobody wants to be known as a bad neighbor.”

A Coca-Cola distribution center invested tens-of-thousands of dollars per truck to soften backup noises while continuing to meet federal safety requirements, Maniscalco added.

“They have been very responsive, always answering the phone when we call,” he said.

Moratorium dissuades development

Even so, some South Windsor residents found the impacts of logistics development too onerous and successfully pushed for a yearlong moratorium. Adopted in April, the temporary ban on new development applications is intended to give the town enough time to adopt regulations granting local officials more discretion, especially when it comes to demanding conditions to address resident concerns.

Maniscalco said the moratorium has driven away several prospective warehouse deals. Developers didn’t want to continue spending money creating plans with an uncertain approval process lying ahead, Maniscalco said.

The warehouse moratorium came on the heels of a year-long pause on housing development South Windsor adopted in April.

“Both moratoriums have really turned the spigot off in terms of economic development in our community,” Maniscalco said. “I’m seeing a lot of developers and potential businesses that are a bit trigger shy.”

Without anticipated grand list growth, South Windsor taxpayers face the prospect of higher property tax rates in coming years, Maniscalco warned. The town has authorized $75 million in debt to build four schools. The town was counting on continued grand list growth from new development to help cover the debt payments, Maniscalco said.

It will be hard to get grand list growth back on track after the moratoriums are lifted, he said. It takes up to a year to plan a development and gain approval from local land-use boards. With developers shying away, the pipeline of future projects is drying up.

“This isn’t something like a light switch, you don’t turn it off and on,” Maniscalco said.