A Utah developer is seeking approval to bring 420,000 cubic yards of fill to a long-abandoned Berlin brickyard as part of a plan to redevelop the 57-acre property.
The project, slated for 303 New Britain Road, would create a pad site for two commercial buildings totaling 44,000 square feet on about 16.7 acres, along with 90 parking spaces, stormwater basins and a new permanent railroad crossing.
Berlin Industrial Redevelopment LLC, an affiliate of Farr West, Utah-based Industrial Development Advantage LLC, is seeking site plan approval for the project, which would be located on a 56.9-acre property owned by Connecticut Sand & Stone Corp.
Braxton Buckway, the company’s chief financial officer, is listed as the applicant.
The property has been vacant since the early 1980s. From about 1900 into the 1960s, it operated as the Donnelly Brick Co., which mined clay to depths exceeding 30 feet. The resulting pits were filled during the 1970s, including with material generated during construction of Route 9, but the fill was never engineered or compacted.
That uncontrolled fill left the site geotechnically unstable and environmentally contaminated. The developer says the site cannot be redeveloped without massive amounts of fill to stabilize the ground and raise the grade.
Berlin Industrial Redevelopment, or BIR, proposes using up to 420,000 cubic yards of fill to do that.
The project depends on Connecticut’s Large-Scale Beneficial Filling Pilot Program, created under Public Act 21-88. The program allows the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to authorize up to four sites for large-scale placement of qualifying lightly contaminated fill material when needed for redevelopment. Sites must require at least 100,000 cubic yards.
The program was created to provide a lower-cost alternative to purchasing conventional clean fill for projects where large quantities are needed.
BIR says conventional clean fill would make redevelopment at this scale financially impractical. Its principals have worked on the property since 2017 and have spent more than $1 million on environmental investigations, engineering, taxes and interest, according to the project summary.
Under the plan, buildings, pavement and clean cover would form an engineered cap over the property, while groundwater monitoring would continue for up to 30 years.
The volume of truck traffic has emerged as a major concern in the town’s review.
Public Works Director and Town Engineer Michael S. Ahern wrote in a May 28 memo that importing the fill would require about 26,250 truckloads over roughly 250 days, or about 105 trucks entering and exiting the property each day. Peak-hour traffic could reach 17 trucks, he wrote.
The applicant’s traffic study found no significant operational impact on local roads, but Ahern said activity at the site entrance would be significant and noticeable to nearby property owners.
Acting Sgt. Thomas Bobok of the Berlin Police Department’s traffic bureau estimated in a June 14 memo that a truck could arrive every 3.5 to 4 minutes through an unsignalized driveway shared with Prentiss Place, a residential complex of about 90 units. He recommended an engineering review of turning radii and said the volume could frustrate residents and other drivers.
The Conservation Commission has separately raised concerns about fill placement and groundwater protection. Ahern also asked the applicant to show that its stormwater system can handle a 25-year design storm.
The Planning and Zoning Commission opened a public hearing July 23. The applicant has since sought additional time under state extension provisions, and no decision date has been set.
Town approval is required before BIR can apply to DEEP. The developer is targeting state approval by mid-2027, with construction extending into 2030.
