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Applicant says Backus Avenue fast‑food tenant will not increase traffic; Planning Commission closes hearing
Summary
The Danbury Planning Commission closed a public hearing on 06/03/2026 for UB Danbury LLC's revised site plan at 20–28 Backus Avenue and moved the item to Old Business after staff and the traffic engineer signed off. Applicant Jason Montagno said the change of tenant generates fewer daily trips than the 2010 approval and that parking (275 spaces provided) exceeds the 249‑space requirement.
The Danbury Planning Commission closed the public hearing on a revised site plan for UB Danbury LLC at 20–28 Backus Avenue on June 3 and moved the application to Old Business for further consideration.
Jason Montagno of Soley Engineering, the applicant’s representative, told the commission the property is about 2.75 acres and improved with a 33,580‑square‑foot building. He said the proposed change is an interior tenant renovation (a roughly 1,200‑square‑foot unit for a new fast‑food tenant) and does not alter the building footprint or height. "After we calculate all the retail and different restaurant uses, we come out with a required parking count of 249 spaces. There are 275 provided spaces, and we were also adequately parked a code for handicap or ADA accessible spaces with 7," Montagno said.
On trip generation, Montagno said the 2010 approval estimated approximately 1,955 daily trips but that using recent Institute of Transportation Engineers empirical data produces a higher baseline (about 3,076 trips for the 2010 uses). Using current uses plus the proposed Jersey Mike’s, he said the site would generate about 2,468 trips per day — "608 fewer trips" than the 2010 approval.
Commissioners asked site‑specific questions about the internal layout and how prior tenant changes were handled in the baseline. Montagno said staff used existing approvals and more recent empirical trip data to establish a baseline and offered to provide internal floor plans for the new tenant. Planning staff confirmed sign‑offs were received from planning and zoning and the traffic engineer.
Commissioners described the application as straightforward and without major site changes. Helen, a commissioner, said "All the departments signed off... Internal changes only, pretty simple." The commission closed the public hearing by voice vote and voted to place the matter as item 1 under Old Business for discussion and possible action.
Next steps: the commission moved the item for further action under Old Business; no final site‑plan approval was recorded in the meeting minutes on June 3.
