Milford Residents Can Give Feedback On Downtown Development

MILFORD, CT — The Planning and Zoning Board has ordered that a public hearing be scheduled on a proposed redevelopment of the Smith Funeral Home site in downtown Milford.

The hearing will be held 7 p.m. on Sept. 1 via Zoom and the public can participate, the New Haven Register reports. If you're not familiar with the application, Metro Star, a prominent local developer led by Robert H. Smith Jr. have filed plans to construct a mixed-use development which includes 77 apartments.

The PZB did not need to schedule a public hearing on the proposal but decided to do so by a 6 to 3 vote held earlier this week, the Register reports. On social media, some local residents have raised concerns about the project and zoning members said they simply feel the public needs an opportunity to weigh in on the proposal, the Register reports.

Earlier this month, Metro Star Founder Robert H. Smith Jr. told Patch why he believes his proposed mixed-use development for the former Smith Funeral Home site in downtown Milford is perfect for the area.

Smith has filed plans with the city to construct and renovate five buildings at the site of the former funeral home on Broad Street. The development calls for 11,170 square-feet of commercial space and 77 apartments in the five buildings. Plans call for a fitness center too.

"The site is 2.29 acres adjacent to the Milford train station, just a wonderful opportunity for Transit Oriented Development, on point with the Milford Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD)," Smith told Milford Patch. "The number 1 goal for housing in the Plan of Action section of the POCD is to "Promote more housing density in close proximity to the train station and transit." Our neighbors are all mixed use properties (residential with office or restaurant) with the only exception being the (Cody White Funeral Home.) Given all this, we thought the site was perfect for a mixed-use project."

He said if the project is approved he envisions commercial tenants being "general office types like law firms, insurance agencies, marketing companies, accountants and similar uses."

He said he is proposing to build "3 new 3-story buildings (not one large building) in a Newport Coastal Architecture (mansion style) design."

"The buildings sit behind the former funeral home back from Broad Street so we could maintain the Broad Street frontage substantially the way it has always been," Smith said.

He is said if and when the project is approved it would take 14 months to build and that the property would generate about $300,000 in taxes for the city of Milford. Smith and Metro Star are routinely one of the city's largest taxpayers.

In June, it was revealed that the long-time Smith Funeral Home business had been sold to the owners of the Gregory F. Doyle Funeral Home.

>>>Read the full New Haven Register story here.