The sign from January declaring 141 Main St. blighted.
SEYMOUR – It’s been nearly three years since a fire gutted four businesses downtown, and the vacant property at 141 Main St. remains a hole in the ground, surrounded by a temporary fence.
The April 2022 fire at the old Rogol’s building gutted two antiques stores, a barber shop and a spa. Three of the businesses have since relocated to other areas of town.
In January the town, citing safety concerns, issued a blight violation to the property owner, Lon Syla. Blight fines are $100 a day, but the town and the Syla are trying to come to an agreement.
“A lot of people have called my office to complain and ask about what’s going on with that property – it’s an eyesore,” First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis said. “Other businesses are complaining that this eyesore is not bringing people downtown. Something needs to be done.”
To remediate the blight violation, Drugonis said the town has asked Syla to install a permanent fence. Syla’s attorney, Dominick Thomas, appealed the violation in February.
Owner Reaction
Syla told The Valley Indy he’s been working on a plan to rebuild the site with apartments. Installing a permanent fence would be expensive, he said, and would further delay his plans to bring a new site plan to town zoning officials for consideration.
Syla said his new proposal calls for 15 studio and one-bedroom apartments, along with 15 parking spaces underneath, similar to the senior apartment complex nearby on Columbus Street.
Syla previously submitted a site plan in August 2023 to the Seymour Planning and Zoning Commission that called for construction of a 5,000-square-foot, three-story building with two retail spaces and 15 apartments.
141 Main St. in downtown Seymour.
The commission had issues with Syla’s plan, saying he didn’t have adequate parking for the amount of apartments proposed. The town’s current parking regulations for downtown require two parking spaces per dwelling, no matter if it’s a studio, one, two or three- bedroom apartment. Syla’s original plan would have required 30 parking spaces for 15 apartments.
Syla ultimately withdrew his application in October 2023. Thomas told the commission via a letter that he would be submitting a zone text change to revise the current parking regulations.
To date, Thomas has yet to submit a zone text change to the commission. Syla said he wants to include one parking space per unit.
Syla said tenants would likely take advantage of the public transportation available right downtown, or walk.He said ideally he’d like to bring a retail element to the property, but that banks and investors he’s been talking to aren’t interested in investing in retail. He said his modified plan only includes apartments.
Parking Under Debate
Syla said he and Thomas met with Drugonis and other town officials in late January to discuss the future of the property.
“We’re trying to work with the town,” Syla said. “We want them to say whether or not this (zone change) would have a chance of getting approved.”
Thomas said it’s not uncommon for clients to meet with town officials to float some draft regulations prior to going before zoning, to gauge whether there’s any interest in it.
“We’d have to amend the parking regulations (for downtown) and want to feel comfortable that the town would support it,” Thomas said. “We’re not asking town officials to endorse our plans, but for a change to the downtown parking regulations. I don’t want to waste my client’s time or money if the town doesn’t support it.”
Drugonis said she’s all for downtown development, but cannot throw her support behind a project before it goes through an official zoning process.
“We told Lon he’d have to go in front of the commission and ask for a zone text change,” Drugonis said.
Drugonis said the town lost a $600,000 state grant to buy and redevelop Syla’s property. She said the town offered Syla $350,000 for the property but he was not interested in selling.
Thomas said the conversation is ongoing.
“In order for that property to be developed appropriately it doesn’t mean returning empty stores to it. Apartments are needed downtown and in order to do that there needs to be a text change downtown to address the parking,” Thomas said. “We’re working on a path to resolve this.”
