SEYMOUR – The lawyer representing the owner of a Main Street property destroyed by fire in 2022 said a new redevelopment plan is scheduled to be shown to the town’s planning and zoning commission July 9.
The property is at 141 Main St., known to many in town as the old Rogol’s building. In April 2022, a fire gutted the building, which housed two antiques shops, a spa, and a barber shop.
Property owner Lon Syla and his lawyer, Dominick Thomas, are proposing to build 14 apartments on the site. A new, three-story building will be constructed, with about 2,700 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor and one-bedroom apartments on floors two and three.
The members of the Seymour Planning and Zoning Commission could start reviewing the plans at a meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. July 9 at the Seymour Community Center.
The application does not include parking. Thomas said a new state law effective July 1 doesn’t require a parking plan because there are less than 16 units, unless there is a documented adverse impact on public health.
There’s no word on what rent might be for the apartments..
Property owner Lon Syla previously pitched a plan to the commission in 2023 to build 15 apartments there, with first floor retail and 15 parking spaces. The town’s zoning regulations, however, required more parking spaces than Syla had proposed. As a result, Syla withdrew his application.
Thomas said the new state law no longer requires off-street parking for projects with less than 16 residential units, if there is public parking nearby along with access to train and bus lines.
This proposal has all of that, Thomas said.
Last year town engineer Bryan Nesteriak said there are 598 parking spaces downtown, including 306 public spaces.
Redeveloping a property after a fire isn’t easy.
First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis said the town lost a $686,000 grant to buy the property and get it ready for redevelopment. She said the town offered Syla $350,000 for the property, but he was not interested in selling.
This past January, the town issued a blight violation to Syla, citing safety concerns about the property, which is essentially a hole in the ground surrounded by a fence. Thomas appealed the violation and said the fines were removed as Syla was working on a new proposal for the property.
Drugonis said the apartment proposal addresses Seymour’s housing shortage.
“We all know there’s a housing crisis and it’s not just houses, it’s apartments and it’s workforce housing is needed,” Drugonis said. “This (project) is right on the bus and train line and would be ideal for people living there to take the train and bus to work daily.”