A Trumbull-based developer has put in an application to the Town Planning and Zoning office — the first step to building a pharmacy at the corner of Mill Street and Route 177 in Unionville.
The company, Sound Development, applied June 7 for an amendment to the zoning regulations for the parcel, asking for permission to build up to a 15,000 square-foot building. The zone currently limits any development to 5,000 square feet.
The parcel, now covered by a heap of rubble, was approved in May 2004 for a three-story building with mixed retail and residential use but was not developed due to economic and other factors, according to Town Planner Jeffrey Ollendorf.
The area was slated for a major development project but contamination was discovered beneath the newly stripped brick building and its owner returned to the zoning commission repeatedly to request extensions and alterations to the plan. According to Ollendorf, Sound Development would purchase the corner parcel.
With a new plan, the developer will face the application process and seek approval from Farmington's Inland Wetlands Watercourse Conservation Commission and the Town Plan and Zoning Commission, and get input from the Unionville Village Architectural Review Design Committee and the State of Connecticut.
"There was always a plan to put a design on that corner to compliment Unionville center. It's a balance of how big, how many parking spaces, etc.," Ollendorf said.
The Town Council recently approved changes to the intersection of Mill Street and South Main Street to improve traffic flow but the volume of cars in the area is still a subject of concern for many residents. Ollendorf said he doesn't think the proposed pharmacy would worsen the congestion significantly.
"We don't think it would make things appreciably worse," he said. "Most of the traffic is already there. It would not be a magnet for new traffic coming to town."
A formal application has not been submitted to the planning office but Ollendorf said he expected one would follow shortly. The Town Plan and Zoning Commission will consider the zoning amendment for the Mill Street property at its meeting on June 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at .
