Office Spaces Win Wetlands Board Approval

The town Planning and Zoning is now reviewing two office space proposals, including medical instrument manufacturer Scan Tool & Mold Inc., after the Inland Wetland & Watercourse Commission gave them the green light earlier this month.

Scan Tool & Mold Inc., at 2 Trefoil Dr, wants to expand its offices by 12,385 square feet and create a 61-car paved parking area, said Manny Silva, a Civil and Transportation Engineer with Fairfield-based Rose Tiso & Co. The request would make Scan Tool & Mold's building 57,400 square feet, he said.

"They want to hurry up and get it done. They need the space," he said a day after the meeting. The expansion could begin by spring 2011 if approved, according to the engineer.

It is not the first time the company has expanded, Silva added. The town granted the company 11,600 square feet of additional manufacturing space in 2008 and that construction should be complete by the end of the year, he said.

"This is manufacturing, not office, so it's a unique thing," Silva said of the 2008 expansion. "They make the molds there and they inject them also."

Meanwhile, a four-story, 70,000 square-foot medical office building was allowed at 100 Quarry Rd., and must now gain zoning approval.

"It's going to be a state-of-the-art building," said Ray Rizio, a lawyer for the developer, R.D. Scinto, Inc.

The building would be erected on a site that has drainage set up already, Rizio told the panel.

"We are building over a completely [water] impervious surface," Rizio said. "He [Scinto] wants to be in the ground prior to winter condtions."

Part of the site is a lot shared by the Bowtie Cinemas and Sikorsky Aircraft, the attorney added.

Wetlands Vice Chairwoman Arlyne Fox was concerned about the loss of parking spaces for the businesses. But Rizio said the site "never fills up."

"From a wetlands perspective, we're building on a parking lot," he said.