The owner of the Shelton Square shopping center plans to demolish a vacant bank/office building at the site and replace it with a Shop & Stop gas station.
The Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday (May 23) approved the concept for the 1.44-acre site by a 5 – 1 vote.
Now the developer has 180 days to file specific plans to bring the gas station to the site, though they must make some modifications to the proposal before doing so.
Commission Chairman Ruth Parkins told the Valley Indy last month that members of her board want to be sure the new gas station — which would have 10 pumping stations and five pumps — doesn’t cause congestion inside the shopping center.
Also, as part of the approval, the commission said any gas station on the property must be affiliated with a tenant of the shopping center of at least 65,000 square feet.
The Stop & Shop gas program offers customers discounts through a points system based on the amount of groceries they buy.
The building at the site is the former home of the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce and a Wachovia Bank.
Parkins said commissioners want access to the gas station to be exclusively through the northern part of the shopping center, without people using the entrance to a nearby Burger King and causing congestion on Bridgeport Avenue.
“We don’t want to see people backed up blocking traffic getting in,” Parkins said.
The commission’s draft approval of the gas station concept notes there will be a “minimal if any” increase to impervious ground coverage when it becomes a gas station.
“The Conceptual Plan, however, needs to be reexamined and revised to prevent any adverse effects on the overall vehicular circulation in the shopping center,” it says, noting possible congestion in the plaza parallel to Bridgeport Avenue. “This is unacceptable and must be avoided.”
Officials at the company that owns the shopping center, Related Properties, of Old Greenwich, could not be reached for comment.
During public hearings on the proposal, several people spoke out in opposition to the project for various reasons, the most common being concerns about increased traffic at the site.
Click here and here for minutes of the public hearings.
Some questioned the traffic figures provided in the application. One man, Charles Smith, an Orange resident with an accounting practice on Bridgeport Avenue, even tried to hire a traffic engineer on his own to conduct an “independent” study but could not find one in time.