DANBURY — A plan for the city’s west side to build a new Porsche dealership at the site of a current used car lot on Mill Plain Road hinges on a rule change that would allow auto repairs near city drinking water.
“You really have to see one of these new facilities, because you could eat off the floor — literally,” said Neil Marcus, an attorney who wrote the proposed rule change. It would allow the current Porsche dealership on Sugar Hollow Road near the Danbury Municipal Airport to move to a larger site on Mill Plain Road where used cars are sold.
The city of Danbury’s professional planning staff agrees in principle.
“The department agrees with the applicant in that auto repair facilities, specifically those part of a full-service new car dealership, have generally evolved to incorporate modern technologies and coupled with (state) permit requirements, provide improved environmental controls and protections to the water supply and ultimately the watershed,” said Jennifer Emminger, the city’s deputy planning director, in a memo last week.
But Emminger stressed that more work is needed on the proposed rule change about allowing auto repairs near land that protects city drinking water. In this case, it is the Lake Kenosia watershed near Mill Plain Road, where the Porsche dealership wants to develop property.
At issue is some fine print that allows the used car site where Porsche wants to build a “state-of-the-art” full-service dealership to service cars but not repair them. At the used car site, next door to Agriventures Agway, garage technicians can change the radiator fluid but cannot replace the radiator, for example.
The attorney Marcus says the “ambiguity” in the fine print is a distinction without a difference.
“The definition of automotive service, which is allowed, and the definition of auto repair, which is not allowed, is not spelled out,” Marcus says in a rule change request that is scheduled for a public hearing before the Zoning Commission on Sept. 24. “In order to proceed with the application for approval of the facility and to construct the facility, the ambiguity of what type of work can be performed on automobiles inside the new structure needs to be resolved.”
Marcus is referring to a 4.3-acre site at 94-96 Mill Plain Road where Porsche Danbury would build a new showroom and garage with “a self-contained environmentally sealed service area.” If the project is approved, the used car business would move to the Porsche dealership’s current 1.3-acre location at 23 Sugar Hollow Road.
“A more modern upscale state-of-the-art facility for automotive uses on the site … will be designed and constructed to a higher standard than currently exists for those uses on the site,” Marcus wrote in his petition to the Zoning Commission.
What’s at stake depends on which side you ask. For city planners, the priority is the integrity of Danbury’s watershed land that protects city drinking water sources, including Lake Kenosia, Emminger said. For the developer, tax base growth and high-paying jobs are on the line for Danbury, along with the environmental protection assurances the city seeks.
“(This) will provide better environmental controls and protections of the watershed than exist under (current) conditions … which allows automobiles to be serviced on the subject site without any environmental controls over the facility,” Marcus said in his zoning petition. “There is a greater chance of a leak or spill that could affect the environment than would exist if the amendment were enacted.”
In response, the city’s deputy planning director suggested 15 changes to Marcus’ zoning petition to better protect the watershed “and provide the necessary prohibitions and restrictions for an auto repair use.”
Marcus during an interview on Monday with Hearst Connecticut Media said he was willing to consider the suggestions.
“This looks pretty promising, I hope,” he said.
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