Planning Board Frustrated by Pace of Platinum Park

The Planning Board last night extended a deadline for developers of Platinum Park, a planned office park near I-495, but not without expressing frustration over the project's widening timeline.

Developers are contemplating a 150,000-square-foot office complex on the site, an approximately 12-acre parcel along Interstate 495 between the two Milford exits, accessed from East Main Street. 

A representative for Milford 495 Real Estate LLC, the owners of the industrial-zoned parcel, said the only remaining outstanding item is what the Board of Sewer Commissioners will require in sewer infrastructure improvements. 

The Sewer Board has said it wants improvements to an existing pump station and wet well in the East Main Street area, but has not detailed what those upgrades will be, the applicant's representative said. That, in turn, means developers cannot assess whether the costs of making the changes will render the entire project economically infeasible.

According to a sale listing on the Fafard Commercial Real Estate site, the property has almost a mile of frontage on the highway, giving it high visibility to passing traffic. The firm says the property would be ideal for a corporate campus. The property has been on the market for several years and for a time was considered well-situated to become part of a larger piece of land that could be suitable for a resort casino when a developer was weighing that idea. 

The Planning Board continued the hearing to its Nov. 16 meeting, but some members warned that they were unlikely to vote to keep it open any longer if the outstanding issues weren't addressed.

"This has gone on long enough," said member Joseph A. Calagione. "The owner has had close to two years to make all these decisions. (We'll give it) another month, but that's it."

Town Planner Larry Dunkin said the preliminary plan for Platinum Park was filed in April 2009 and the hearing on the current plan opened in October 2009. "Here we are a year later, with this issue still outstanding," he said.

In other business, the Planning Board had an informal discussion with Taniel Bedrosian and his representative, attorney Joseph Antonellis, to discuss a potential one-lot subdivision on Purchase Street.

Antonellis said his client wanted feedback from the board before deciding how best to proceed, adding that with several waivers from the board, the parcel could become a legal single-lot subdivision. Instead, the Planning Board said a variance from the Zoning of Board of Appeals would be a more suitable route for the project to pursue. 

"We came here for your guidance before we got too far along in the process," Antonellis said. "Mr. Bedrosian and his father have built a lot of homes in Milford and he wants to do things right."