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Bee Intelligencer Informing the towns of Middlebury, Southbury, Woodbury, Naugatuck, Oxford and Watertown AN INDEPENDENTLY OWNED FREE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Volume IX, No. 44
Friday, December 13, 2013
Winter to bring swimming Holiday decorating! pool applications By TERRENCE S. MCAULIFFE The Middlebury Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) at its Dec. 4 meeting accepted two outdoor swimming-pool-related applications for January public hearings. It also set 2014 meeting dates and approved the 2014-2015 budget request. “You’ll probably never have to use it. I hope you’ll never have to use it, but I think it will be in good hands,” Chairman David Alley said as he held up a fine wooden gavel. He told fellow commissioners his father said those words when he presented the gavel to him on Thanksgiving. Alley said his father was a commissioner who chaired countless meetings in many years of public service in Dutchess County, New York, and he remembered the gavel from the time he was a youth. Scott Tedesco of 64 Janet Drive told commissioners his plans for an in-ground swimming pool would exceed the maximum 10 percent lot coverage allowed in the R-40 zone by 1 percent. Tedesco said additional coverage of 409 square feet was allowed after coverage from his house and porch was subtracted. The pool would exceed that by 236 square feet, and a proposed 12-foot-by12-foot shed would add another 144 square feet for lot coverage of
11.17 percent. A nonconforming smaller legal lot in the R-40 zone was cited as the hardship. His application for the pool and shed was accepted for a Jan. 7 public hearing. A sideline variance application for a 10-foot-by-10-foot swimming pool storage shed for Susan Tracy of 294 Porter Ave. also was accepted for a Jan. 7 public hearing. Tracy, who had been granted a pool fence variance Nov. 6, joked with commissioners she could have saved time and money if she had included it then. She said the proposed location is about 28 feet from the house and in the only reasonable place on her nonconforming lot. In other matters, commissioners set the 2014 regular meeting schedule for the first Wednesday of every month except January, when the meeting will be Tuesday, Jan 7, due to New Year’s Day and scheduling conflicts. A proposed 2014-2015 budget of $5,805 was approved. Spending thus far for 2013-2014 has been $1,018, but commissioners agreed construction activity would likely increase in the new year, leading to more variances and more expenses. The next ZBA meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the town hall conference room.
Holiday ornaments This year’s Middlebury pewter ornament, top, depicts Santa running on the Greenway. Made by Woodbury Pewterers, it is available in the Parks and Recreation Department, the town clerk’s office and Sullivan’s Jewelers. The cost is $8. The 2013 Middlebury Lions Club ornament, bottom, is dedicated to the memory of Gus Dinova and features his original Four Corners Grocery Store, a Middlebury institution fondly remembered by everyone in the area, as is its owner, Gus. Ornaments with a ribbon for hanging cost $20 each; ornaments with a stand cost $25. Find it at Sullivan’s Jewelers, Larry’s Package Store, the Middlebury tax collector’s office at Town Hall and at the Parks and Recreation Department at Shepardson Community Center. The hand-painted acrylic ornaments were produced by Hestia Creations of Marblehead, Mass. Proceeds from ornament sales support many local as well as national Lions Club’s causes.
Dec. 14, 2013
Remembering the tragedy at Sandy Hook Gov. Malloy has asked houses of worship and other organizations to ring their bells 26 times at 9:30 in the morning Dec. 14 as a way to honor each life lost at Sandy Hook Dec. 14, 2012. We ask you to honor the victims by performing an act of kindness.
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Upcoming Events
Nuggets for Life.............. 6 Obituaries..............................5 Region 15 School Calendar....2 Senior Center News......... 3 Sports Quiz..................... 7 Varsity Sports Calendar.... 7
P&Z discusses development, Post University sign By TERRENCE S. MCAULIFFE The Middlebury Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) at its Dec. 5 meeting informally discussed possible alternatives to Benson Road industrial zone development and a Post University sign request, approved a tenant fit-up on Southford Road, authorized the Board of Selectmen to pull a Long Meadow Farm bond if it was not renewed, approved the new zoning map and set meeting dates for 2014. A discussion of development possibilities for 104 acres of industrial-zoned property on Benson Road offered support for possible commercial and retail use, but no support for zoning changes to allow residences. Norman Feinstein, vice chairman of the Morristown, N.J.-based Hampshire Real Estate Co., told commissioners his company purchased the property in 2004 with 40 acres containing what is now the 313,000-square-foot Chemtura campus of leased office and industrial space. He said Chemtura has since downsized to 200,000 square feet and is expected to be gone when its lease expires in 2019. Feinstein said the other 64 acres of ideal commercial property attracted no interest due to the economic downturn. Feinstein introduced Mark Hoffman, vice president of the Short Hills, N.J.based Garden Homes, a company managing 25 million square feet of retail and commercial space. Feinstein and Hoffman walked commissioners through two property maps to illustrate possibilities for mixed commercial and residential development of the remaining acres. Commissioners were open to discussion on a change in the LI-200 zone to permit retail and mixed uses, as was done along Southford Road in the Gateway Industrial
Design District, but Chairman Terry Smith said residential use couldn’t be part of the mix. “This town has given a lot of its commercial and industrial to residential years ago, and we’re still hearing about it. We’ve done our part in residential,” Smith said. Commissioner Ronald Kulpa said the Middlebury grand list was 80 percent residential, which he said was very high. Commissioner Paul Babarik agreed, noting several large residential projects with languishing sales. Town planner Brian Miller agreed with both of them, saying it was not sensible to substitute poor-selling residential space for poorselling industrial and office space. Feinstein pointed out the visibility of the property from I-84 and the proximity to Exit 16. He asked whether the location of the property was separate enough from the rest of Middlebury to allow more regional uses, such as outlet stores. Miller asked commissioners to consider a creative mix of office space and retail that served the office workers, and Smith noted the newly designated Oxford Airport Enterprise Zone, which added incentives to investment in the area. Attorney Michael McVerry, representing Hampshire Real Estate, asked Smith to focus on these additional types of uses in the evolving Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD). Scott Allen, Post University vice president of finance and administration, was instructed to submit a special exception application so a public hearing could be set for what he termed an “Ivy League-style” stone pillar sign along a rock wall on Army Corps of Engineers property at Country Club Road and Straits Turnpike. The purpose of the sign, Allen said, was to help people find the university, which is far back from the road
and difficult for visitors to find. A 5-by-30foot sign had been proposed and mocked up for review in July 2010, but the application was withdrawn after commissioners complained the sign was too large. Allen showed commissioners four conceptual design variations of the proposed sign and acknowledged the university might need to dig it up if work needed to be performed on water and sewer lines running underneath it. A tenant fit-up for Thomas P. Palomba for a sports and fitness business in existing space at 950 Southford Road was unanimously approved. Palomba told commissioners he will be occupying the 7,500-square-foot unit previously used by Fun Factor in the rear of the 55,000-square-foot Middlebury Racquet Club building. He said no major renovations were needed to install two batting cages, conditioning and fitness area, pro shop, and seating area. In added new business, a unanimous P&Z vote gave the Board of Selectmen authority to pull the bond of the Long Meadow Farm section known as “The Ridge” if the bond is not renewed before its Dec. 31, 2013, expiration date. Remarking on the Nov. 25 public hearing on updates to the 2001 POCD, Smith said he was disappointed members of the Economic and Industrial Development Commission (EIDC) did not attend. Smith said he had been invited to the Nov. 19 EIDC meeting, but it was canceled. In procedural matters, members voted to accept the Oct. 28, 2013, zoning map presented to them Nov. 7 and to continue meeting the first Thursday of every month at Shepardson Community Center in 2014. The next regular P&Z meeting will be Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014, at 7:30 p.m. at Shepardson Community Center.
Middlebury Lions sell luminaries at transfer station
Inside this Issue Adoptable Pets................ 8 Book Review................... 2 Classifieds....................... 7 Community Calendar....... 2 Fire Log........................... 2 In Brief............................ 4 Library Happenings.......... 2
Middlebury Garden Club members and helpers, left to right, Mary Anne McCormack, Corrina Flanagan, Beth Small, Cian Flanagan, Michele Rowell Finn and Karen Capodanno display the wreath and swag they decorated for the Middlebury Public Library and Town Hall as part of the club’s annual tradition of providing holiday decorations for the town. The club’s purpose is to stimulate knowledge and interest in horticulture, foster conservation and ecology, and encourage civic planning and planting. To learn more, visit www.middleburygardenclub.blogspot.com. (Submitted photo)
What: When: Where: Cost:
saturday
Dec. 14
Fundraiser to sell luminaries for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Middlebury transfer station on Route 63 by Maggie McFly’s. $6 for a kit with 12 white bags and 12 10-hour candles.
Lady Panthers continue to raise the bar
Middlebury Volunteer Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary Cookie Walk
Page 6
What: This fundraiser offers dozens of homemade holiday cookies at $6 a pound. When: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Where: Fire house on Tucker Hill Road in Middlebury
Last day for St. George’s Gingerbread Village and Holiday Bazaar What: Gingerbread Village, decorate-a-cookie room, crafts and sweet shop! When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Where: St. George’s Episcopal Church on Tucker Hill Road in Middlebury
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