Design board asks Restaurant Depot to soften massing, applicant to return with entrance alternatives

The Town of Waterford Design Review Board on Feb. 24 reviewed a site-plan application by Larry Cohen/WS Asset Management for a Restaurant Depot at 161 Waterford Parkway North and asked the applicant to return with options to soften the building’s visual mass.

Chaz Evans of Bowler Engineering told the board the project reuses a previously approved retail block and proposes a slightly smaller, roughly 45,000-square-foot Restaurant Depot building with four loading docks on the west side, a south-facing customer entrance, a generator and enclosed compactor, and parking-lot enhancements including new islands and additional trees. "A majority of the parking lot had been constructed... and the lot itself was left as a grass field," Evans said in his presentation, adding the design complies with parking and zoning regulations.

Heather M of ADA Architects reviewed elevations and materials, describing "a 34-foot-high precast concrete building" with Restaurant Depot's white-and-blue stripe, internally illuminated cabinet signage and a pallet/grade loading door for bulk customers. She noted rooftop refrigeration and generator equipment would be contained behind an 8-foot chain-link fence with white vinyl slats and said most of the interior will be high-pile racking and storage with support spaces near the southeast corner.

Board members raised repeated concerns about the building’s large, "big white box" appearance and asked for treatments to break up the façade near the public-facing entrance. One board member suggested lattice with climbing vines; another proposed a painted portal or vertical accents. The applicant said painting or applying textured panels could be possible, but building-mounted plantings that require water raised maintenance concerns for the architect. A representative for the applicant said a canopy was not feasible on this previously approved site because of sight- and parking-constraints.

The project team pointed to an existing 25–30-foot buffer of evergreens and deciduous trees along Waterford Parkway North that will screen the building for many motorists, and they said additional island plantings and replacement trees will strengthen the buffer. "We're utilizing the existing islands; we're adding additional plantings... to enhance the parking lot and kind of bring it back to life," Evans said.

Following discussion, the board agreed to accept the plan while requesting the applicant return with alternative entrance and façade treatments focused on the front and the side visible to the public. The board asked that treatments be limited to changes that can be implemented without redoing previously approved parking layouts. The board's recommendation will be forwarded to the Planning & Zoning Commission for the formal site-plan and zoning review.

The board made a motion to "acceptance with the understanding that they'll be coming back with some alternative design ideas"; the motion was seconded and carried by voice vote. Individual vote tallies were not recorded in the transcript.

Next steps: the applicant will prepare and submit façade/entrance alternatives for the board to review; the Planning & Zoning Commission will take the Design Review Board’s recommendation into account during its March 10 site-plan hearing.