Following extensive public meetings and several modifications to the original plan, the owners of 250 North Main St. have the Planning and Zoning Commission's (PZC) go-ahead to develop the site in order to pursue construction of two retail-use buildings on the 14-acre lot.

On July 12, the PZC unanimously approved the site's Special Exception application. The approval allows for "type of use" of the site but requires no information on future tenants, according to Town Planner Harry Smith. Once tenants are determined, further designs will need to be submitted for future PZC review and approval.

Conditions of the July 12 PZC approval call for two phases of development at the site. The first phase will include further infrastructure development (traffic routing, excavation/blasting, installation of parking areas, landscaping and fencing).

The original site plan included construction of a 62,427 square-foot building (about 7,000 square feet larger than Stop & Shop on Leetes Island Road) as well as the construction of another retail building, of approximately 13,200 square feet. Now, the overall building square footage will be reduced by 1,000 square feet, due to the conditions approved by the PZC on July 12. The reduction can either be made to one building or taken over both building footprints, said Smith.

At one point earlier in the application review, Smith had recommended the applicant work to reduce the overall building square footage by 2,500 square feet; but that reduction was instead met by revising the plan to relocate nine parking spaces.

Helping to bring about the 1,000 square-footage reduction was a PZC condition approved on July 12 calling for further reduction to proposed parking in the northwest corner of the property, which also allows for reducing excavation of a large natural knoll. Originally, the parking plan involved developing a rock slope of some 37 feet, at its highest point, above that side of the parking area. Now, both the parking area and the height of the rock slope have been further reduced, explained Smith, by removing an additional four parking spaces. Removing those four spaces will also further reduce the severity of excavation into the knoll, and should reduce the proposed rock slope down to approximately 27 feet at its highest point.

"The additional four spaces, depending on which one are picked, will dictate how much further they can drop the wall," Smith explained.

The site plan application was represented by BL Companies (Meriden) on behalf of 250 North Main St. owner/applicant Jeffery Shapiro and J&J Property LLC (Shaprio and John Klarman, owners of 248 North Main Street). Over the course of the review, the applicant provided two extensions to allow the PZC to best address issues raised by commission members and the public during a multi-part public hearing.

Concerns raised included traffic patterns and safety, the size of the largest building, the unknown future tenants, impacts to the area's natural landscape by removing all or a portion of the knoll, whether the project fit into the guidelines of the town's Plan of Conservation and Development, and how blasting would impact neighboring residents and businesses.