The Tidal Lodge, a brand-new, 33-room boutique hotel, will compliment the Stony Creek Brewery and the area's tidal basin as part of a new Branford River Planned Development District (PDD).

On January 8, the Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC) unanimously approved both a PDD modification and the site plan/coastal site plan for the hotel project, according to meeting minutes. The PDD modification added the hotel site at 4-6 Indian Neck Ave. to an existing Anchor Reef PDD (which already incorporated the brewery but also includes residential properties); then split off the commercial components of the brewery (5 Indian Neck Ave.) and a water-retention/additional parking area (2 Indian Neck Ave.) into a new PDD which also includes 4-6 Indian Neck Ave. The new PDD is called "The Branford River PDD."

Brewery owner and Branford resident Ed Crowley is also the owner of the hotel property. In minutes from the PZC Dec. 21 meeting, he described his plans for the project as being complimentary to the Atlantic Wharf project, which will rise just blocks away in view of the Branford River. MetroStar of Milford is bringing in Atlantic Wharf, a 205-residential unit development to include commercial, retail and restaurant spaces, to be built at the site of the former Atlantic Wire factory property. Atlantic Wharf's seven-acre site includes waterfront views stretching from Meadow Street to Montowese Street.

The Tidal Lodge's 33-room boutique hotel will include waterfront rooms on three floors with customer parking in a garage underneath the hotel building.  The entrance will face the brewery site across the street. Project architect Joseph Sepot of Branford also designed the Stony Creek Brewery facility.

Recently, the commission also was updated on a public boardwalk proposed for the Branford River, as a part of a special environment project with the CT Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). On Dec. 21, PZC commissioner John Lust, who had recused himself from the Branford River PDD and hotel site plan/coastal site plan application, shared details of what's been envisioned to date for the boardwalk. Lust has been working on the concept as a volunteer for the past few years.  The 2,000-foot long boardwalk would stretch along the river from Indian Neck Avenue to Montowese Street as a pedestrian walkway/nature walk.

For his part, Crowley has committed $25,000 for the Town of Branford to use for the boardwalk. If the boardwalk isn't constructed within the next five years, the funds can be used by the town for any other project for coastal access along the Branford River.