The Glastonbury Town Plan and Zoning Commission voted, 4-2, on Tuesday to approve a plan for a “specialty grocery store,” widely rumored to be a Trader Joe’s, in a mostly vacant building on Hebron Avenue, between Sycamore and Linden streets.
The building was originally envisioned as a home for restaurants, but the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on the restaurant industry led to the change in the plan.
The TPZ approved the plan despite opposition from the town’s new Architectural and Site Design Review Committee and lack of support from Town Engineer Daniel Pennington, who wanted more information on the adequacy of the building’s parking lot.
But the plan enjoyed strong support from a number of neighbors. “How often do you see that?” commission Chairman Robert Zanlungo Jr. asked rhetorically.
Another major issue the TPZ had been scheduled to take up Tuesday – a proposal for a five-story, 74-unit apartment building at Hebron Avenue and Manchester Road – was postponed until July 19 at the developer’s request.
Supporting the grocery store plan were Zanlungo, TPZ members Corey Turner and Emilio Flores, and alternate member Alice Sexton. Voting in opposition were Vice Chairwoman Sharon Purtill and Secretary Michael Botelho. Member Raymond Hassett and alternate Laura Cahill were absent.
Purtill said the design review committee recommended an “outright denial” of the application and that the developer, a limited liability company associated with Schwartz Realty, didn’t try to go back and work with the committee. The developer did, however, modify the plan in some respects in response to the committee’s objections, eliminating an “industrial-style gate” that had been proposed for the building’s truck loading area, for example.
Purtill also cited the town engineer’s position as a reason for her vote, expressing the view that the store will be “a traffic nightmare.”
Pennington said he had asked the developer for “real world data” on the number of trips generated by stores like the one proposed – and that the result was “almost exactly double” what would be expected based on an Institute of Transportation Engineers manual used in projecting traffic volumes.
As to parking, the developers’ traffic engineer, Mark Vertucci of Fuss & O’Neill, said comparable stores have fewer parking spaces. But Pennington wasn’t satisfied with that, saying he wanted real-world information on the adequacy of those stores’ parking lots.
Vertucci argued, however, that no one wants adequate parking more than the grocery chain. He also said the building’s 131 parking spaces exceed by 25 what the town’s zoning regulations require for the three tenants, the grocer, the Hartford Baking Co., and a furniture store identified publicly for the first time Tuesday as Saybrook Home.
The development proposal includes adding a second northbound lane to Sycamore Street at its intersection with Hebron Avenue.
Turner called that intersection “a nightmare already” and thanked the developer for the planned changes, saying the project will “actually improve the site.”
The plan also calls for construction of an addition on the west side of the building to accommodate deliveries and garbage. Turner said that would add less than 4% to the building’s floor area.
The plan calls for building a parking lot for employees on that side of the building and removing houses at 7 Linden St. and 366 Hebron Ave. The latter is the former home of the Polka Dot Girls spa and party venue.
At a previous session of the public hearing, resident Roger Emerick said demolition objections will be filed, which delay plans to demolish historic building so that officials can work to save them.
