Industrial Distribution Center Approved Despite Public Opposition

ENFIELD, CT — A marathon virtual public hearing lasting nearly five and a half hours ended in the wee hours of Friday morning, resulting in a controversial approval by the Enfield Planning and Zoning Commission of a 501,500 square foot industrial distribution center to be constructed adjacent to a high-end neighborhood.

Shortly before 12:30 a.m., the commission voted unanimously to approve the site plan application of Winstanley Enterprises, which intends to build the center on a 71-acre parcel of land at 113 North Maple Street. The property would extend to the northern boundary of homes on Winter Way in the Misty Meadow subdivision.

Just over half of the new facility would house Agri-Mark, which plans to consolidate its five Massachusetts-based warehouses into the single Enfield location. Agri-Mark is the premier dairy farmer cooperative in the Northeast, encompassing Cabot Creamery among others. Plans are for the remainder of the building to be leased to an as-yet unnamed tenant.

The public hearing came about during the June 25 PZC meeting, when commissioner Richard Szewczak suggested conducting one, though not required, in order to allow area residents the opportunity to weigh in on a project of this magnitude literally in their backyards. Despite the reluctance of some commissioners, the hearing was scheduled for the earliest possible date.

Adam Winstanley, principal owner of Winstanley Enterprises, expressed disdain at the notion of a public hearing.

"A public hearing will tremendously hurt our schedule," Winstanley said, noting his firm plans to begin construction in August.

Following a 65-minute presentation by project manager Val Ferro and other Winstanley consultants, public communication began at 8:38 p.m. About three dozen residents of the neighborhood spoke in opposition to the plan, as did an attorney representing six of the homeowners. Just two residents spoke in favor of the proposal: Stephen Jarmoc and his son, Owen. The main portion of the acreage was acquired by Winstanley from Jarmoc Farms in April 2017 for $2.9 million, according to Enfield land records.

Among the numerous concerns brought out during the 132 minutes of public input were:

• approving a plan without knowing any information about a second tenant;
• validity of a traffic study conducted during times when schools were not in session and non-essential employees were working from home during the coronavirus pandemic;
• truck noise and traffic safety, particularly in relation to the nearby Hazardville Memorial School and a lone crosswalk at North Maple Street and Winter Way;
• no analysis of the possible effect on neighboring property values;
• the height and aesthetics of a berm at the southern boundary abutting Winter Way;
• possible soil contamination similar to that found during the Enrico Fermi High School field construction project in 2008.

Ferro and other Winstanley associates were given the opportunity to address many of the concerns, despite several participants wishing to speak left waiting in the queue. Public input was not resumed at any point prior to the vote.

Questions abound whether the vote may have been taken in violation of the commission's own by-laws. Assistant town planner Jennifer Pacacha, reading directly from the by-laws, said, "No meeting may extend beyond midnight except to open and continue any public hearing items and to act on any remaining business items having mandatory action dates before the next meeting."

Commissioner Frank Alaimo moved to continue the hearing, but no other commissioner seconded the motion, and chairman Ken Nelson said, "Frank, your motion's no good." Szewczak then made a motion to continue the hearing to the next meeting date, but before that motion could be seconded, Alaimo began asking questions about a traffic study which had been discussed earlier in the hearing.

Town attorney James Tallberg then interjected himself into the meeting.

"I just want to remind the commission that this application does not require a public hearing," he said. "This was something that the commission decided to do to go above and beyond to try to allay some concerns, legitimate concerns that were expressed here tonight. You allowed the public to speak and ask questions, but for that reason, I would counsel against interminably delaying the public hearing that you didn't need to have in the first place. The hour is late, and you are past midnight at this point. I think what the commission ought to do is find a sensible way to move forward without too much further delay."

Nelson asked Tallberg, "Because it's really not a public hearing, do we open it up again for a first, second, third time?" Tallberg responded, "What I'm suggesting is at this point, having spent five hours that brings us into the next day past midnight, the commission ought to find a way to bring this to a close sooner rather than later."

Alaimo moved to close the hearing; the motion passed 5-1 with Szewczak opposed, his prior motion to continue the hearing being disregarded. Szewczak then made a motion to approve the application with 31 conditions added, including signage directing truckers to Interstate 91 and sidewalk construction on both North Maple Street and Moody Road.

At the meeting's conclusion, Nelson said, "By allowing a public hearing on this, you gave these people false hope, when you knew we were bound by the regulations. They didn't like it, we didn't like it, but we had no choice. I don't like the way it went down tonight."

Area homeowners were less than pleased with the outcome. Many took exception to a comment made by Matthew Skelly of Fuss & O’Neill while discussing traffic analysis near the elementary school:

"I haven't found any patterns of crashes or dangerous behavior that is going to be exacerbated. I know near-misses are a thing."

Sherri Lessard said, "I’m more pissed that the commissioner ended the 5.5 hour meeting by admitting he’d be pissed if it was in his neighborhood, but that he knew before the meeting even started that nothing we said was going to change the outcome. That was just a slap in the face to all of the taxpayers and really shows the community where the priorities of this town fall."

"I don’t believe that the developer and the PZC ever expected that any of its residents would have the ability to gather to present and push back in the 11th hour," Steve Meade said. "They did appear to be aggrieved to be forced on some points to concede to some changes. The outcome of this doesn’t affect just the immediately abutting neighborhoods. There is a lot more industrial zoned land in Enfield that abuts residential neighborhoods. The present zoning laws allowed for this to happen. It is my opinion that the zoning laws in this town are in need of change, especially in regards to land that is zoned industrial."

"As a former police officer and resident of Winter Way, I can unequivocally say that the intersection of Winter Way/Ryefield and North Maple is extremely dangerous as is," Pat Droney said. "I speak from experience. My wife got into an accident there with my daughter and two of her friends in the van. Add truck traffic to an already busy roadway and it’s a recipe for disaster."

The full hearing, which lasted 5 hours, 27 minutes and was broadcast on E-TV and YouTube, may be viewed below.

To register for free Enfield news alerts and more, click here.