A screen shot from Monday’s Ansonia Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.
ANSONIA — In addition to widespread opposition from local elected officials and the public, plans to build a mini-rest stop for Route 8 on Wakelee Avenue are being questioned in a memo drafted by the Ansonia city planner.
Aijaz Ahmen, of New York, has an application in front of the Ansonia Planning and Zoning Commission to build a 25-room motel, gas station, bar, and food kiosks at 557 Wakelee Ave., off exit 19 north of Route 8. The property formerly housed restaurant-catering hall Molto Bene and, before that, John J. Sullivan’s.
At two prior planning and zoning meetings, neighbors, Mayor David Cassetti and members of the Ansonia Board of Aldermen raised concerns about crime and safety, and the wisdom of putting a motel close to a playground and the Nolan Field Athletic complex. Click here for a previous story on a public hearing on the application.
Residents have also questioned Ahmen’s management and track record at the Big Apple Motel in Waterbury, which he also owns.
At an Ansonia Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Monday (May 24), members of the commission accepted a two-page memo written by Ansonia City Planner David Elder.
The commission ultimately decides whether to approve or reject applications. Elder is part of the professional staff who weighs in on applications — an expert who gets into the grit of an application whose comments can help the commission make an informed decision.
In the memo, Elder questions whether a motel can be placed near residential houses and Nolan Field.
Elder notes that motels are allowed in Ansonia’s commercial zone — and 557 Wakelee Ave. is a commercial zone. But then Elder points out that zoning regulations are supposed to “preserve, protect, and promote the most beneficial relationship among uses through development of land.”
He then writes that the motel could create a safety issue on Wakelee Avenue.
“Given this commercial site is relatively isolated from any other developed commercial uses and is situated among residential properties and municipal uses frequented by community youths, the motel use submitted with this site plan creates potential risk of exposure to crime and nuisance behavior exhibited at similar motel uses along the Route 8 corridor and central Connecticut.”
Elder calls the proposed motel use and the uses at nearby properties “incompatible.”
Earlier in his memo Elder notes that while motels, restaurants, retail and gas stations are all allowed in Ansonia’s commercial zones, he points out the zoning regulations “do not expressly permit these uses to occur simultaneously, as principal uses on a single site.”
Neither Ahmen nor his lawyer, prominent Valley land-use attorney Dominick J. Thomas Jr., were present during Monday’s commission meeting, which was held on Zoom.
The commission simply accepted Elder’s memo but did not comment on it.
The public hearing on the motel/gas station is set to resume again during a meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 16.
At that time Thomas will have the opportunity to counter Elder’s memo, and members of the public will have another opportunity to share thoughts on the plans.
