Zoning Commission Holds Public Hearing on Three-Story Buildings in Town Center District

The Brookfield Zoning Commission held a public hearing Thursday night on changing the regulations for the Town Center District (TCD) to allow for three story buildings. The regulations currently allow for two-story, mixed-use buildings, meant to encourage second floor residences and office space. Pending comments from the Planning Commission, the Zoning Commission declined to make a decision on Thursday night, however they engaged in an interesting discussion about promoting economic development in the now less-trafficked Four Corners area.

"The application, the concept of three stories, is to help encourage growth, smart growth," Commission Secretary Christopher Lynch explained by way of presenting the application. "Hopefully it will work as a catalyst to some of the landowners to make improvements and a third story will help them in making their applications more economically feasible."

Voting alternate Richard Amorossi agreed with the idea of increasing the limit from two stories, however he went further to suggest that developers should propose the number of stories that would make building economically feasible.

Amorossi also noted that existing structures in the district would be non-conforming with a two or three story limit. "We're not going to ask them to tear down a story," he said, "but the fact that they get pre-existing, non-conforming status is a detriment," as the buildings would have to be brought up to regulation before any renovations could be done.

"There's a very strong precedent for three stories" in New England towns, according to Commission member Fred Weisman, who noted that surrounding towns have recently erected three story buildings in their town centers.

Seven members of the public spoke in favor of changing the two-story limit to three, including Economic Development Commission (EDC) Chairman Hal Kurfehs and EDC Vice-Chair James Fisher, Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Board member Valerie Maitland-Smith and Chair of the Historic District Commission Jacqueline Salame.

Brookfield resident John Berger, a former New York City firefighter, was in opposition to multi-story buildings in the business district, as residences and office space above storefronts can pose problems for emergency responders in the event of a fire. "Adding a third story to this type of building will exponentially increase all the dangers and problems to the building and the first responders," he said, asserting that "they are prone to collapse."

Zoning Commission members assured Berger that the buildings would be built to modern fire codes, including fire escapes.

Commission Chairman Stanley Parker stated that he believes "we're wasting our time doing this. Why is three stories the magic number? Maybe it should be more," he suggested. "This is why I feel that we should hold off making a decision until we have a developer come in" with an application, "rather than making it arbitrary and having to change it later."

"If you were a developer, would you spend hundreds of dollars on a maybe?" Lynch asked, contending that builders would be less likely to propose new construction if they thought they may be limited to only two stories.

"You think I don't want more than one story or two stories," Parker clarified, "I just want to make one change when somebody show us, 'Hey, here's what we want to do.'"

"The comments of the EDC, the developers, the chamber and the selectmen want us to take action now," Weisman said.

Commission member William Mercer suggested removing the story limit altogether. "I agree with making it three stories," he said, alluding to Weisman's comments about New England architecture, "but how about this, why don't we take out the height restriction completely," and analyze each application individually.

Earlier in the meeting, Zoning Enforcement Officer Bill Schappert pointed out an interesting discrepancy in the TCD code. "The town center district is the only district in the regulations that specifies the number of stories," Schappert noted, "All other districts in town describe it as the height of the structure."

Picking up on this later in the meeting, Amorossi suggested the Commission "get a little more creative and put a height restriction, say nothing about stories."

"I can't say I wouldn't go higher than three stories — we're trying to encourage smart growth that would benefit the community of Brookfield," Lynch said of his position by the end of the night, "We need a catalyst, we need something to happen. When you're in that area at night, it's concerning. You look at the parking lots at night and there's only a few cars and with the right development you'd start to see some positive changes."

"I'm not opposed to the change of three stories," non-voting alternate Matthew Grimes said, "I think Mr. Mercer's point of putting no restrictions in has merit, but I'm not convinced yet this is going to be the catalyst in and of itself."

The Commission moved to table discussion until their July 8 meeting in order to receive comments from Planning. The Zoning Commission would normally have 65 days to render a decision, however as they are the applicant, the Commission has chosen to waive the time limit.

After the meeting, Kurfehs stated that he, and likely the other members of the EDC, would be in favor of height restrictions rather than a specific story limit, "So long as it's more than 20 feet [two stories]." Anything to encourage more developers to look at the area, he said.