Zoning board approves most variances for 85 Mill Plain Road but drops driveway-width request for traffic review

Danbury's Zoning Board of Appeals voted April 24 to grant several zoning variances for a plan to convert the longtime gas and repair facility at 85 Mill Plain Road into a modern gas station with a convenience store, but the board omitted a requested driveway-width variance and encouraged further review by traffic engineers.

Attorney Neil Marcus, representing Danbury Mill Plain Realty LLC, told the board the property is severely nonconforming in the CA-80 zone (the parcel is roughly 31,000 square feet versus an 80,000-square-foot requirement) and said the renovation will bring environmental and site improvements. "We're going to convert it ... to a gasoline convenience store," Marcus said, and added the project includes modern containment grooves and a slightly larger canopy "to protect the environment" in the Lake Kenosha Class 2 watershed.

The application listed seven variance requests: reduce the front-yard setback for a canopy to about 20.5 feet (from the required 25 feet), allow two parking spaces and pump-island parking within the front yard, reduce or omit landscape-perimeter planting along some frontages, relocate and formalize parking behind the building after removing an unpermitted body-shop structure, and a limited reduction in one narrow driveway width segment (from 24 feet to about 20.4 feet). Marcus argued that some variances reduce overall nonconformity because the project removes an automobile-repair use that would no longer be permitted in the watershed while upgrading fueling equipment to modern spill containment standards.

Board members raised safety and technical questions. One member asked whether expanding the canopy would merely increase nonconformity; Marcus responded that the canopy reduction was narrowly tailored to cover containment grooves that protect against pump spills. Engineering consultant Greg Lochchik told the board that a retaining wall near the northern parking could reach about 8 feet at its highest point and that underdrains and slope work will address drainage concerns.

Several commissioners focused on traffic safety at the Mill Plain Road intersection. A member urged caution about approving a two-way driveway where state Route 6 and a signalized intersection are nearby, saying a granted variance remains with the land and could expose future owners to safety risks. Marcus said the city traffic engineer and state Department of Transportation are better positioned to decide curb-cut and circulation details; after discussion he offered to withdraw the driveway-width variance rather than delay the whole application.

The board accepted that approach. The motion that carried authorized the variances listed in the application except for the variance to section 8 b 1 b 4 (the required driveway width), which the applicant voluntarily withdrew so traffic and engineering review can proceed in planning and DOT reviews. The record shows the motion passed on those items with recorded ayes; individual member-by-member votes were not transcribed in the hearing text.

The approval requires the applicant to obtain subsequent site-plan and special-exception sign-offs from planning and engineering departments before construction, and the health department will continue to oversee any required environmental remediation for a former auto-repair site. Marcus said the applicant has already performed transfer-act testing and "the site's pretty clean," and that final approvals depend on subsequent technical sign-offs.

The board closed the public hearing on application 25-05 and the applicant will submit revised site plans reflecting the withdrawn driveway variance and the board's conditions.