Highway to the Danger Zone
The battle over River Oaks, a big-box
development in
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Monday night, there was an elephant in the
room at a special meeting of the Simsbury Zoning Commission.
That elephant was the pending creation of River Oaks, a mixed-use, big-box
development planned by Konover Development Corporation on land off
A large, vocal citizens group, Simsbury Homeowners Advocating Responsible
Expansion (SHARE), opposes the development and, on Monday, they joined Zoning
Commission members, a handful of other town officials and one devilishly handsome
reporter to fill a conference room.
The words ¨river¨ and ¨oaks¨ were never uttered in the same breath. Instead,
the purpose of the meeting was to discuss possible amendments to the town´s
zoning regulations, many suggested by the new Town Planner, Hiram Peck. During
the meeting, Austin D. Barney, chairman of the Zoning Commission, explained
that Peck provided a new set of eyes to look over the regulations for possible
discrepancies. He also said that no specific future project prompted the special
meeting.
¨We´ve been wanting to do this for a long time,¨ Barney told the Advocate
.
Still, there is no doubt that River Oaks was why around 40 town citizens
decided to spend their Monday night at a Zoning Commission meeting that largely
dealt with such hot-button topics as: ¨How exactly should we measure the height
of a house, for the purposes of building height regulations?¨
They were there because of Konover. The corporation needs a zoning change
before they can start on River Oaks, a project that would include housing,
restaurants and smaller stores anchored by a big-box tenant like Target or
Lowes.
Of course, the term ¨zone change¨ doesn´t really do the situation justice.
Not only would Konover need the Zoning Commission to change how the property is
currently zoned, but they´d need to create an entirely new zone to fit the
needs of the project. Currently, no zone category on the books in
What all that means is this: at some point, in some way, Konover will need
the approval of the Zoning Commission if they ever want River Oaks and its
big-box anchor tenant to become a reality.
That´s why Monday´s meeting was so important. Among the amendments discussed
by commission members was a suggestion to allow for Planned Development
Districts (PDDs) which would allow an applicant to propose their own zoning
category for a particular property. For all intents and purposes, it´d allow
Konover to conjure up a mixed-use zone for the River Oaks property.
Of course, whether such a zone change would be approved would be up to the
commission. Like current zone changes, it´d be subject to a public hearing and
input from other pertinent town boards.
Nothing permanent came out of the Monday´s gathering. However, at future
meetings, it´s possible that PDDs could become a part of Simsbury´s Zoning
regulations. The Zoning Commission would still have the power to reject or
request changes to Konover´s proposal, which could be formally submitted in the
fall.
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