FYI, the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission meets at 7 p.m. this evening (Tuesday, Jan. 15).
All meetings are open to the public and include a “public portion” at the start of the meeting.
According to the meeting agenda, The Hops Co. (THC) on Sodom Lane is asking to have the property’s site plan modified so the owner can renovate the upper “event area” of the property.
According to the agenda, the work includes “reconstruction of area of event building to add bathroom to code and indoor bar area, improve former bathroom building and other outbuildings, relocate and reconstruct stand alone outside bar/concession stand,” plus “related landscaping and site improvements.”
The Hops Co.‘s application is categorized as an application being received, which usually means the commission simply acknowledges the paperwork has been filed but does not have a substantive discussion on the issue. The discussions, if required, happen at future meetings.
The Hops Co.‘s filings are public documents under state law and can be viewed by anyone who goes to the building department/land use department on the first floor of Derby City Hall.
The Hops Co. is in a tough position because it is a pre-existing, nonconforming use: a commercial use that has been grandfathered in a residential zone.
Last year The Hops Co., one of the best-reviewed beer gardens in the state, asked the commission to approve a zone-text change that would have made it easier for the owner to ask permission to start a large-scale renovation.
Yes, that was a confusing sentence, so I’ll try again. If the commission had approved the zone-text change, it would have given the business the ability to apply for a more ambitious renovation plan.
But commissioners rejected the application in November.
However, the commission is also scheduled to start talking tonight about adding a “PDD Zone” to Derby zoning regulations.
“Planned development districts” are zoning tools meant to “encourage and accommodate unique and desirable development” in areas “not accommodated by the established conventional zoning,” according to the City of Shelton’s zoning regs. Shelton, the lower Valley’s economic hub, uses PDDs quite frequently (too frequently, according to some).
The Hops Co. had requested a PDD zone be created last year to allow a more expansive renovation plan to be considered by city officials. Hops Co. was eventually looking to provide more parking for the business, and to take down an old building. Neighbors have complained the business gets so busy patrons park on the surrounding residential streets.
While the commission rejected The Hops Co.‘s proposed PDD last year — which as authored by the applicant’s lawyer — the commission’s chairman had said in November Derby would start looking at the PDD issue this year. The commission could decide to work with a consulting firm to write its own PDD regulation.
Tonight’s PDD discussion will be “informal,” according to the agenda.
