Curtiss Parcel Zone Change Denied, Proposed Development Halted

The members of Planning and Zoning listen as Chair Steve Walowski reads a statement opposing the petition for the zone change TOWN OF SOUTHINGTON VIDEO SCREENSHOT

Southington’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-1 Tuesday evening to deny an application to change the zoning for 682 Curtiss Street and a part of 115 Summit Farms Road from ‘industrial’ to ‘business.' If this change had been approved, it would have effectively given the developer, Southington 2 LLC, a green light to move forward with an ambitious project involving the construction of a frontage road along I-84 and several large commercial buildings.

The evening got off to a rocky start for the applicant’s team as engineer Kevin Solli spent 15 minutes trying to get his powerpoint slides to display on Southington's video projector. Once that issue was resolved, he and attorney Bob Knuff laid stress on certain points they made at the last public hearing on the application. Among other things, they sought to assure residents of the Summit Farms Road neighborhood that a buffer of forest and power lines about 700 feet wide would separate them from the new construction.

As at the previous meeting, Commissioners Justin McGuire and Caleb Cowles took the lead in asking questions of the petitioners, eliciting from Knuff a detailed timeline for how the project would proceed and verified that all the necessary preliminaries had been taken care of.

During public comment, the proposal found three voices of support. Town Councilor Jim Morelli and two members of the business community both stressed what a good deal it would be for the town in terms of tax revenue and infrastructure upgrades in the area.

Three other residents came to the podium to speak against the project, stressing the risks and burdens of the added traffic it would bring. Cody Fongemie brought up what he said was a trend of increased crime in large commercial areas that are built in close proximity to interstate exits.

Once the public had spoken, the Commission made its decision. Commissioner Todd Chaplinsky made a motion to deny to the application, which was seconded by Cowles. Chaplinsky then outlined his concerns, which included the burden that would be placed on the town to maintain the new roadway, and the fact that a new development corridor was being created before the corridors on Queen Street and West Street had been fully developed.

The Chair of the Commission, Steve Walowski, spoke next, reading out section 8.F.3 of the zoning regulations. This text says that before deciding on a zone-change application, “the Commission shall determine (a) that the proposed zone change is in accordance with the Plan of Conservation of Development; (b) that it is suitable for the intended location, and (c) that it will aid in protecting the public health, safety, and welfare.”

He then added, “I find this application lacking in those three areas.” He observed that there is no B-zone in the vicinity of the development area, and that Curtiss Street, which is currently classified by the DOT as a ‘local roadway’ and a ‘minor collector,' would have its nature changed by the new traffic. Finally he noted that the 2016 Plan of Conservation and Development prioritizes the use of existing structures in existing zones, and the placement of retail on existing roadways.

When the roll was taken, Commissioners McGuire, Chaplinsky, Cowles, Walowski, Robert Britton, and Michael Goodrich voted for the denial of the petion, while Commissioner Susan Locks voted against, meaning that the petition failed by a vote of 6-1.

P&Z to Hold Second Hearing on Curtiss Street Development Tonight

Developer's attorney John Knuff presenting at the April 7 P&Z meeting. TOWN OF SOUTHINGTON VIDEO SCREENSHOT

When it convenes this evening, Southington’s Planning and Zoning Commission will continue its public hearing on a proposed retail and industrial development that will stretch along I-84 between Curtiss Street and Smoron Drive. At its previous meeting on April 7, representatives from the developer gave a public presentation on the proposal. The Commission then took comments from residents, with most opposing the plan, and none in favor of it.

Here are a few of the things that are known about the plan so far.

The formal request sent to the town lists the applicant as ‘Southington 2 LLC,’ whose principal is given on the CT Secretary of State’s website as another LLC, Southington 1, that was incorporated in Dover, Delaware, in May of 2025.

The principal of Southington 1 is Domenic Carpionato. Carpionato is the Senior Vice President of the Carpionato Group, a Rhode Island-based developer with a large portfolio of commercial and residential projects. The company recently expanded into the Connecticut market, and was the driving force behind Avon Village Center, a high-end strip mall in Avon.

The development plan drawn up by Solli Engineering envisions the construction of a new road approximately one-mile long running from Curtiss Street to Smoron Drive. Although the road would cut through the 115 Summit Farms Road parcel, the developer’s representatives and town officials have both stated that no road can or would be built connecting the development to the Summit Farms neighborhood.

The developer's application offers two slightly different descriptions of the number and size of the buildings that would be constructed along the road. According to the Zone Change Petition submitted by Solli Engineering and dated March 11, 2026, the overall development program will, when complete, include:

• one 171,236 square-foot retail building with 835 parking spaces (parcel A)

• one 1,600 square-foot gas service station with 10 parking spaces (parcel A)

• one 14,820 square-foot hotel with 114 guest rooms and 158 parking spaces (parcel B)

• one 100,000 square-foot industrial facility with 4 loading docks and 225 parking spaces (parcel C)

• one 20,000 square-foot industrial building (parcel E)

• one 283,800 square-foot industrial building, already approved, with 63 loading docks, 76 trailer spaces, and 202 parking spaces (parcel Da)

The proposed new road and six buildings. SOLLI ENGINEERING SCREENSHOT

However, according to the Municipal Fiscal & Economic Impact Analysis prepared by Donald Poland from the firm Goman+York, and dated March 2, 2026, the final development would consist of the following:

• 201,002 square-feet for retail/gas (parcel A)

• one 79,800 square-foot hotel (parcel B)

• one 70,000 square-foot industrial building (parcel C)

• one 20,000 square-foot industrial building (parcel E)

• one 283,800 square foot industrial building, already approved (parcel Da)

• one 10,780 square-foot retail building (parcel F)

Goman+York’s economic impact estimate claims that the town would take in $2,717,976 in net revenue from these properties once the project is complete.

The Connecticut Scoop has pointed out that in Solli’s presentation the footprint for the big-box store on parcel A bears a close resemblance to the footprint for a new Walmart store. It also observes that the current Southington Walmart is undersized relative to other locations. However, the Scoop did not confirm that a Walmart would go into the space.

Two of the parcels, 682 Curtiss Street and 115 Summit Farms Road, are owned by former Town Council member Jack Perry and his father, Kurt Holyst. The third parcel, 99 Smoron Drive, is co-owned by local developer Mark Lovley and Jason Manafort. Manafort is one of the principals of Plainville-based trash hauler CWPM, which bought out Perry and Holyst's HQ Dumpster and Recycling in 2024.

Strictly speaking, the four Republicans and three Democrats who make up Planning and Zoning are only voting on the developer’s request to change the zoning on two pieces of property from I-2 (industrial) to B (business). Before the proposed project receives its final approvals, the developer would need to submit numerous other documents, including traffic and stormwater runoff remediation studies.

The developer is only seeking approval for part of the project because such studies are expensive and time-consuming to produce. While a vote in favor of the zoning change would not guarantee approval of the full project, it would be taken as a sign that the commission would be likely to support the entire package, provided that no unexpected changes were made along the way.

The meeting will be held in the Assembly Room of the John Weichsel Municipal Center tonight at 7pm. For the full agenda, click here. To see all the documents associated with the application, click here.

High-Tech Survey Helps Town Get Most Value for its Paving Dollars

BETA GROUP SLIDES

Maintaining the town of Southington’s road network requires short-term interventions and long-term planning. On the short-term side, whenever the town hears about an issue with a pothole or a damaged curb, the problem is added to a list and a crew dispatched to fix it once scheduling permits.

Then there is systematic maintenance. This long-term process involves mapping out deterioration, creating a ‘road list’ that describes the condition of every town road, then deciding what the most cost-effective treatment would be.

As recently as 2018 most of this assessment work was done in-house, with town employees surveying Southington’s roads and compiling a master list based on their inspections. The next year, however, Southington hired a vendor, City Logix, to do the job using car-mounted scanners and various automations.

Last year, Southington brought on a new firm, Hartford-based BETA Group, to perform this work. At the April 1 meeting of the Public Works Committee, BETA Senior Vice-President Anthony Garro gave a presentation on the technology and techniques his firm uses to assess Southington’s roads.

There are 314 miles of road in Southington: 209 miles of town road, and 105 miles that are either private or belong to the state. Last fall, BETA sent out vehicles to scan every square foot of the town’s network.

BETA’s distinctive blue vehicles, which are shown in the headline photo, resemble Google Street View cars and are equipped with video cameras that take a snapshot of the road every 20 feet. In addition, LIDAR devices measure the shape of the road’s surface, identifing cracks and depressions. LIDAR, which stands for ‘Light Detection and Ranging,’ is a technology that uses a laser to measure the distance between the detector and the road with centimeter-level precision, and a computer to turn those measurements into a surface map.

Once combined, the video and the LIDAR data are employed to assign a grade to the condition of every 20-foot stretch of road. BETA’s grading system runs from 0 to 100, ‘failed’ to ‘good’. To ensure quality control, human evaluators are send out to double-check selected spots. Garro said that machine evaluations agree with human evaluations 85% of the time.

Garro showed the committee some illustrations of different grade ranges. White Oak Drive and Franklin Street were rated ‘good’ with scores of 99 and 90, respectively:

Patridge Drive and Merrell Avenue were ‘fair’ (77 and 57):

while a section of Atwater Street and Vermont Court were graded ‘poor’ (48 and 17):

Garro said that the overall grade for Southington’s entire road network, 72.78, is above average for towns in the area, which means that it has a handle on its problems and is not seeing deterioration run ahead of repair efforts.

These grades are made available to the town through a dashboard called Manage My Roads. The dashboard also presents a range of remediation options which vary in cost and durability – everything from crack sealing to full-depth reclamation. Different situations call for different approaches: it would, for example, make no sense to tear up and reconstruct an entire road just because it had a single small crack, or to spot-treat a road with tar that was heavily potholed. For each problem, there are one or treatments that make the best sense in terms of cost and effectiveness. BETA software does cost-benefit analyses for each stretch of road to show which technique makes the most economic sense.

How does this benefit residents? Road fixes are slow and expensive, and the budget for them is limited. According to BETA’s report, it would cost $38,350,000.00 to fix all of the town’s roads. The town’s actual plan this year is to spend about one-tenth of that, $4,197,457.32, on remediation from a pot of capital improvement funds. This sort of prioritization ensures that the town gets the most value for its money.

The town plans to target 8.91 miles worth of roads with systematic fixes this year. The stretches of road are shown in green in the following images. One cluster of roads is in the southwest corner of town near the intersection of I-84 and Rt. 322:

There is a second cluster just east of downtown, and a third cluster east of Hatton School: 

To see which roads the town plans to repair in the next two years, click on this link and scroll down to the last page. Note that all plans are preliminary and may be subject to adjustments.

To look up the grade or ‘PCI score’ for a given town road, click on this link and scroll through the alphabetized list.

Special thanks to town engineer David Nourse for sharing BETA’s slide presentation.