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Cheshire planning panel approves Central Connecticut Recycling addition with conditions
Summary
The Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to grant a special permit allowing Central Connecticut Recycling and Transfer LLC to build a 55-by-75-foot cardboard compaction building at 22 Burton Drive, with a fire-department Knox Box required and stormwater modifications requested by staff and DEEP.
The Town of Cheshire Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday approved a special permit for Central Connecticut Recycling and Transfer LLC to add a 55-by-75-foot building for cardboard compaction at 22 Burton Drive.
The commission’s unanimous vote followed a presentation by the applicant’s engineer and a staff review that flagged stormwater handling in the town’s aquifer protection area. The permit passed with one explicit condition: the owner must install a Knox Box at a location approved by the fire chief or the chief’s designee.
The applicant, Ryan McAvoy, a licensed professional engineer with SLR, told the commission the new building would house a compactor so cardboard that now arrives and leaves the site loose can be stored, compacted and loaded directly into tractor‑trailers. "Right now, cardboard is brought in loose and is shipped out loose," McAvoy said. "They'll be able to house the compactor in this building, store the cardboard, compact it, and then allow for it to be loaded into a tractor trailer." He described the machine as a standard compactor and said no additives or liquids would be used: "It's other than, you know, squeezing it, there's no there's no other additives."
McAvoy said roof runoff was intended to be collected and routed to dry wells but that the applicant would accept staff and state guidance about where lot runoff is discharged. A town staff member told commissioners that because the site is in the aquifer protection area the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) reviewed the plan and raised concerns about discharging catch-basin water into dry wells. The staff member summarized: "The bigger issue would be that catch basin for the actual parking lot itself, really should ... daylight, basically, so it'll go to grade." The applicant agreed to modify the plan to send paved-surface runoff to grade rather than to infiltration wells if that is the town or DEEP preference.
Commission members asked about current on-site storage and operations. McAvoy said that cardboard is currently stored under a temporary canopy and a hoop-house structure, and that the compactor building would replace that loose storage and improve hauling efficiency. Commissioners also asked whether compacted bales would be wrapped and about employee parking; the applicant said compacted bales would likely be wrapped for transport and that employee counts and parking would not change with the addition.
The commission’s approval was based on the site plans dated and presented at the hearing and included the Knox Box requirement. No additional changes to hours of operation or uses were added in the motion.
The project drew brief public interest and multiple commissioner questions but no public opposition voiced at the hearing. The commission closed the public hearing on the application and moved directly to the vote.
The decision allows the company to proceed with site consolidation and building permitting subject to the condition and to any further building‑permit reviews required by the building department.
