The right word can make all the difference.
One word proved particularly important for potential developers in need of a Transit Oriented Development District (TODD) in Orange: commercial.
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The Orange Plan and Zoning Commission voted on Tues., May 3, to change the zoning designation on a TODD overlay zone to an official TODD zone. This will open the way for developers wishing to use the 8.091 acre property, adjacent to a proposed Orange train station, to present a site plan at a future meeting.
As the developers were asking for the zone change they had to provide a site plan that met the commission’s guidelines for a TODD. One of the stringent requirements was that along with parking, the TODD must contain at least 1,000 sq. feet of commercial space for every unit of housing.
The potential developers presented a conceptual site plan that did just that. With 200 residential units, they managed 208,250 sq. feet of commercial space.
What the commission did not expect was that 186,750 sq. feet of that commercial allotment would be for a pay-to-park garage.
“We should have been more exact in our language if we wanted to exclude parking spaces,” Plan and Zoning Chair Walter “Beau” Clark IV said during the public hearing on the zoning change.
Most of the commission had considered the 1,000 sq. feet rule to mean retail and office space. But they couldn’t deny that a paid parking garage was in fact within the definition of commercial.
The commercial garage would allow for 566 spaces.
The zone change would allow for a maximum of 250 units on the 8.091 acre property, located between the Yale West Haven Campus, DiChello Distributors and the proposed train station. That would also require at least 250,000 sq. feet of commercial space.
Though the developers requesting the zone change presented a conceptual site plan to show that they could create something that meets the desired regulations, it might not be the same exact plan they present at a future meeting now that the TODD has been established. The commission only approved the zoning change, not a site plan to utilize it. When requesting a zoning change, a conceptual plan must be presented to show that it is possible.