“Colonial Tymes” to Become Day Care

A day care center will soon occupy the nearly 200-year-old building that was most recently home to the Colonial Tymes (briefly just “The Tymes”) restaurant.

Tuesday night, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved a site plan that will allow Alphabet Academy owner Amy Small to open a second location at 2389 Dixwell Ave.

Small told commission members she plans to “rejuvenate the building to the beautiful building it once was,” and will be “making the parking lot into a beautiful, natural playscape and garden.” She added that a second Alphabet Academy will let her clients, mainly citizens of Hamden, take their children off a two- or three-year waiting list.

Architect Erin Delohery said the site plan includes converting the former dining roomsinto separate areas for infants, toddlers, two-year-olds and pre-K students. The second floor of the two-story building will be used as offices, similar to when it was a restaurant.

The site will have 15 staff parking spaces; five parent drop-off spaces, and eight other spaces for up to 104 clients. The former Colonial Tymes function room may be used as a “gross motor” room, a large playroom-type space for older students.

Before opening, Alphabet Academy will have to have a lead inspection done on the building and get all required permits and licenses from state and regional authorities.

The Commission also approved:

• A site plan for a former manufacturing building at 850 Sherman Avenue to be used as a gym and personal training center, True Athletics;
• A special permit and site plan that will allow temporary storage containers, or “pods,” to be stored on the premises of an existing self-storage business at 785 Sherman Avenue;
• Re-subdivision of the “Center One” property at 2361 Whitney/ 2989 Dixwell Avenues.This will allow owner Hamden Realty to sell one piece of the property, a two- story white building on the Whitney Avenue side, as a separate entity.
• Commission members unanimously issued a favorable recommendation for an All Abilities Playground at Town Center Park. The town recently received a $400,000 state grant for construction of the playground. Detailed plans, and a specific location, will go before the Commission again after proposals are received.

Concerns about Quinnipiac

The annual review of parking at Quinnipiac University had been on the agenda for the Oct. 25 meeting but was postponed at the university’s request.

Austen Road resident George Mudry addressed the commission and repeated what he’d said in arecent e-mail to town officials, that “I didn’t realize Quinnipiac ran the Hamden Zoning Board.”

Mudry also mentioned what he called an “urban legend” that it isn’t possibleto regulate student housing. He submitted a package of information he’s gathered about zoning laws in other communities.

Chairman Joe McDonagh emphasized that “Quinnipiac doesn’t set our timetable,” and told Mudry the town Planning Department is reviewing Hamden’s zoning codes that apply to students.

The Quinnipiac parking item is expected to be on the agenda for the next Commission meeting,