Commission Considers Proposal for Town's Only Gas Station

A proposal to build a gas station and convenience store is fueling a debate that cuts into the very fabric of a community whose slogan is “rural is beautiful.”

If built, the town’s only gas station would be located on a 1.72-acre parcel on the corner of Amity Road and Sargent Drive. The proposal was vetted at a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting last night, during a public hearing that was continued from two previous dates in May.

As presented, the applicant, Mukesh Patel of Wallingford, would construct a 3,600-square-foot convenience store to serve as the anchor of a six-pump gas station. The drawings call for a drive-thru window for a potential food service business, though that element of the project is not part of the application; it would become the subject of a separate application to the ZBA pending a P&Z approval.

The applicant is represented by John Paul Garcia, a land surveyor and civil and structural engineer with offices in Bethany.

“This is an essential service,” Garcia said. “We don’t have a gas station or convenience store in town. This is a revenue generator. This does not include any town services.”

“It’s not only allowed by zoning, which it is, it meets the provisions of the Town Plan of Conservation and Development and we’re still giving the commission the right to make changes,” Garcia added.

Indeed, Garcia stressed his client’s willingness to accommodate commission members’ aesthetic requests pertaining to the look and lighting of the canopy, which will provide cover to the six pumps.

“I think there’s a lot of concern about the aesthetics of the project,” said P&Z member Mary Shurtleff. “We want to keep our rural character, and the examples shown (photos of other canopies) don’t show that.”

If the commission and applicant can come to a compromise to build a canopy that fits in with the existing style and character, Shurtleff said, “There is certainly a good opportunity here to be a leader.”

Each pump at the station would offer regular gas and diesel, the latter being particularly important in a town like Bethany where many residents own diesel-operating machinery like horse trailers, Garcia said. As it stands now, residents must drive at least 10 minutes out of town, to Woodbridge, Naugatuck or Cheshire, for gas.

“It’s a problem,” said Huxley, who has served on the commission since 1986. “If you’re in town and need gas, you have to leave town.”

According to the applicant’s statement of use, the business would employ four people and be open 24 hours, seven days a week – something commissioners were not too keen on.

“This town needs a gas station,” said P&Z Chairman Sharon Huxley. “Twenty-four hours is a different question.”

“We do need the service,” Garcia said. “I’m going to beat that one to death.”

Huxley agreed. “There’s no question that a facility of this type would be welcome by many in this town.”

But not everyone. Oakridge Drive residents Ann Klatskin and Pamela Fein do not want the gas station and convenience store.

“I have never seen an attractive gasoline station,” Fein said. “I cringe at the pictures [of the canopy]. That is not Bethany. It hurts me to the core to think of something like that on Amity Road.”

Asked by Huxley what exactly bothers her, Fein replied, “It’s the lighting. The gas pumps. The traffic.”

As for the lighting, the commission doesn’t want it to look like the ”bottom of a spaceship that landed at the top of the hill,” said Hiram W. Peck III of Plan Three, LLC, a planning consultant to the commission.

“We’d be more than happy to sit with conservation to go over landscaping and lighting,” Garcia said.

Following the hearing, the commission picked apart the various components of the project, in preparation for its next meeting at Town Hall on June 21, at 7 p.m. They discussed lighting, parking space locations, the number of gas pumps and the look of the canopy, among other items.

Commissioners can now do one of three things with the project: approve it as is; deny it outright; or approve it with conditions or modifications. If it goes with the latter, any changes to the project considered “substantiative” would necessitate another public hearing.