Proposed Zoning Regulation Changes Would Help Make Rocky Hill "More Marketable"

The Economic Development Commission made a recommendation to the Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday night that would allow for changes to the town's zoning regulations to help make Rocky Hill more attractive to possible developers and business owners, according to town officials.

During its meeting, the town's Economic Development Coordinator Ray Carpentino explained to the commission how over the past few years, he has been receiving more requests from developers for smaller parcels of land to develop as well as ones with manufacturing and assembly uses.

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Carpentino made the following recommendations, which were approved by the commission:

• To reduce the minimal lot size in the office park zone from three acres to 1.5 acres or 60,000 square feet. The zone would allow manufacturing, warehouse and assembly uses with approval of a special permit use.
• Create a business park two zone, which would increase the minimum lot requirement to 60,000 square feet and prohibit uses such as contractor’s yards, lumber yards and transportation facilities.
• Change Brook Street/Cromwell Avenue business park area to business park two zone, which would attract larger lot businesses while allowing manufacturing by special permit use. There are more requirements for a special permit use approval than a site plan approval, which is currently needed. The approval process would make it more difficult for manufacturing to be placed in that zone.
• Change the town Business Park Phase II property and its abutting property from office park to business park two

"What we do not want to do is not stipend development in this town, but we want to do it in a reasonable way," said Economic Development Commission Chairman Mike Bocchini in an interview with Patch after the meeting.

With Cromwell expected to develop its own business park in the next few years, Carpentino and the commission wanted to be ahead of surrounding towns and make Rocky Hill "more marketable" to prospective developers and business owners, he said. 

"It makes it easier for me. I don't want to see Cromwell get someone that can just as easily be right up here along I-91," Bocchini said. "There are a lot of places where people could drop a building and I would like to be one of those places."  

Carpentino added there are only a few pieces of properties that are owned by the town available for purchase while several parcels are available for lease, which are mostly zoned for office space. 

In town, there are two business park zones with one of them being in the Brook Street area and the other being on Dividend Road. The Brook Street zone has many large businesses that require access to the highway and can create heavy traffic. The Dividend Road park has several smaller heavy manufacturing businesses, lumber yards and contractors. The proposed regulation changes would not affect the Dividend Road business park zone.

Bocchini said that he wants to help keep the tax rate down by bringing in new businesses. With a low tax rate, the town would be able to afford doing projects such as without burdening Rocky Hill residents.

"I don't want everything to fall on the tax payers' shoulders," Bocchini said. He added that the revenue from businesses is "spread out to everyone" while helping develop a "positive reputation" for the Rocky Hill community. 

The proposed regulation recommendations will be sent to the Planning and Zoning Commission where the members will make the final decision. The new regulations will not be discussed at the next meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission on Aug. 15, however, it could be discussed at the September meeting.

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