By TERRENCE S. MCAULIFFE
The Middlebury Conservation Commission (CC) at its Oct. 27 meeting heard plans for a grocery store to be built on Southford Road across from the former Golden Age of Trucking Museum. It also approved an oversize patio that had been constructed without approval, and accepted an application for a holding tank at Tyler Cove.
When Attorney Michael McVerry was discussing Joseph Desantis and Richard Brown’s plans for the Southford Road building, he said it would have loading docks and dumpsters in the rear with parking around the perimeter of the building and had been specifically designed for what he called a “country grocery store.” When asked about the tenant, the developers said they didn’t want to comment, other than to point out the location was perfect for a small store with much commuter traffic and several nearby housing developments.
The grocery store plans lead to immediate speculation on which grocer will go in there. LaBonne’s just closed its Southbury store, which is listed on Vision Appraisal as 14,110 square feet. Could LaBonne’s be planning a Middlebury store? Or perhaps Joe Dinova is planning to open a new store at that location? We will report the grocer’s name as soon as we have it.
To create a parcel for the grocery store, Desantis and Brown of Middlebury, D/B/A Southford Road LLC will take a 2½ acre parcel at 1000 Southford Road and combine it with an acre from the adjoining lot at 984 Southford Road owned by Francis Cipriano of Watertown D/B/A Southford Park, LLC for the new 14,000-square-foot commercial building. The plans were reviewed by civil engineer Paul Szymanski. Szymanski said the combined 3½ acres had about 1½ acres of wetlands, providing room for a centrally located commercial building on the remaining property. Using a set of maps and drawings, he described a mitigation plan to deal with a Connecticut drainage discharge as well as groundwater flowing into the existing wetlands.
In other matters, commissioners unanimously approved a 20-by-40-foot patio with stairs and a retaining wall for the new office building at 891 Straits Turnpike with the stipulation additional winterberry and blueberry bushes be planted. The originally approved plans called for a smaller 20-by-20-foot patio and Wetlands Enforcement Officer Deborah Seavey granted a certificate of occupancy in September if the owners agreed to apply for an after-the-fact modification.
In new business, an application by Antoinette Moore to install an additional 1,000 gallon septic holding tank at 17 Tyler Cove was accepted for commissioner review. McVerry said a permit from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection had been received.
The next regular CC meeting will be Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 7:30 p.m. in Room 26 at Shepardson Community Center.
