Meriden may soon become the next target for Connecticut’s growing brewery industry.
The city’s planning department has drafted new zoning regulations to allow breweries, brewpubs and brewpub-restaurants in certain areas designated for industrial, commercial and transit-oriented development use.
The new zoning rules are needed because current regulations do not list breweries or brewpubs as a permitted use in those areas, according to Town Planner Renata Bertotti. There are no brewery/taprooms operating in the city.
According to the drafted regulations, breweries would be allowed in several industrial zones; brewpubs and brewpub-restaurants would be authorized in commercial districts; and all three would be permitted in transit-oriented developments.
Breweries are defined as facilities where beer is “manufactured, bottled, stored and sold at wholesale or retailed in sealed containers for consumption off premises or offered for on the premises tastings…” drafted regulations show.
The pro-brewery regulations were drawn up after the city received several recommendations to add brewery and brewpub zones to spur potential development, Bertotti said. The city has not yet received a proposal for a new brewery or brewpub, she added.
On Wednesday, the city’s Planning Commission unanimously voted to add definitions of breweries, brewpubs and brewpub-restaurants to local zoning regulations.
The new rules are now being referred back to Meriden’s Economic Development Housing and Zoning Committee for a public hearing in late November. The city council will then decide whether to give final approval to the changes.
The brewery regulations are being considered in Meriden as many cities and towns across the state have adopted similar zoning rules over the last decade or so. East Hartford is among a handful of towns that has approved brewery and brewpub zones in 2019.
There are 93 breweries operating in Connecticut, according to the Brewers Association.
