Torrington wetlands hearing over Borghese expansion ends; commission delays decision after neighbors object

The Torrington Inland Wetlands Commission closed a public hearing Sept. 9 on an application by Alan Borghese to expand a manufacturing building and construct an adjacent parking lot at the Torringford/Torrington Street property, but postponed a final decision to the commission's next meeting.

The project, listed in the hearing record as a building expansion and parking-lot construction involving a wetlands impact at an address shown in the file (variously spoken as 2651/265120 Fourth/Torringford Street), would add a 36,000-square-foot addition to a roughly 80,000-square-foot building and construct a new parking area immediately over an existing wetland area, the applicant said.

Commissioners and staff focused on whether the parking footprint represented a feasible and prudent alternative to filling wetlands, the adequacy of mitigation, and whether a professional parking study had been performed. The applicant, Alan Borghese, identified himself as chairman of Borghese Building and Engineering Company and a registered civil…