Old Burlington Site in Enfield To Be Storage Facility

ENFIELD, CT — A vacant Burlington Coat Factory site literally on the Enfield-East Windsor town line is close to garnering necessary zoning board approvals to become a self-storage site.

Thursday night, the Enfield Planning and Zoning Commission did its part by unanimously voting 7-0 to approve a change-of-use permit at 1706 King St. (Route 5).

In doing so, the PZC gave the go-ahead for applicant Josh Sullivan to convert his now-empty site, once home to a Burlington Coat Factory store, to True Storage, a self-storage facility where units would be rented out.

Attorney Thomas Fahey, who was representing the applicant, was before the PZC Thursday to address any questions or issues.

At the prior PZC meeting May 26, the commission unanimously closed the public hearing and voted 7-0 to change the zoning at the parcel from "business-general" to "industrial-1."

At that meeting, PZC members said the switch was in line with the town's plan of conservation and development.

Thursday's 7-0 vote was to officially allow the former retail establishment to become a self-storage operation.

Fahey said the site would be less than 100,000 square feet and require 56 parking spaces, far less than what the former retail store utilized.

He said additional actions might be necessary to eliminate some of the parking spaces, either by fencing a portion of the parking lot off or, simply, eliminating the parking space lines.

According to Fahey, when complete, the establishment would offer air-controlled, indoor storage to clients.

While Enfield's land use approvals are now finalized, the final approval to actually build the self-storage facility isn't yet done.

That's because, Fahey said, one third of the site is in Enfield, while two-thirds are in East Windsor.

In fact, the building's footprint is in both towns.

"The town line runs right through the building," Fahey said.

He said East Windsor's PZC is expected to take up the issue at its Tuesday, June 14, meeting.

There were no public comments at last month's Enfield PZC public hearing or Thursday's meeting.

To view the minutes of the May 26 Enfield PZC meeting, click on this link.

To watch the full June 9 Enfield PZC meeting on Youtube, click on this link.