The Farmington Historic District Commission does not, as a rule, generate suspense. On Tuesday it generated even less than usual, and that is meant as a compliment.
The commission voted unanimously to approve the final exterior details for the newly built home at 7 Church Street — the gutters and a fence — clearing the last items it needed to sign off on before the project is, at long last, complete.
Town Planner Shannon Rutherford walked through the plans: half-round aluminum gutters and downspouts feeding an underground roof-leader system that discharges to an infiltration system in the side yard, and a western red cedar picket fence running along the Church Street frontage and the shared line with 5 Church Street. The commission issued a certificate of appropriateness on a voice vote, with no one opposed.
This is how 7 Church Street has gone from the start — in stages. The home received a temporary certificate of appropriateness back in March 2025, and the commission has signed off on siding, windows, doors, and exterior lighting as each was settled. A bond was held when the certificate of occupancy was issued, tied to landscaping meant to screen the utilities on the home's west side. The Mercury, true to form, covered the Church Street build and a Mountain Road matter back in November, and is pleased to report the saga is nearly over.
A few things remain unsettled. The property owner told the commission the stretch of fence nearest a steep slope toward the neighbor's yard is still being worked out — likely some combination of fence, evergreens, and stone — and that the fence by the garage would be shifted to the rear corner of the lot to keep the propane delivery accessible and the family dog contained. The cedar, he said, will be left to weather on its own.
Chair Jay Bombara, exercising what he called chairman's discretion, opened the meeting with a civics lesson for a group of Farmington High School students in the room — a rundown of what the commission actually does, and doesn't. One student asked from the podium whether the house had already been built. It had — and he was thanked for being a good sport about asking.
In other business, the commission approved its April 21 minutes and agreed — informally — that a playscape would not require its review. Commissioner Jim Calciano, whose daughter bought his house at 33 Mountain Road, in the district, said she wanted to put up a new one after the old one came down. The town does not issue building permits for playscapes; nobody objected. "Better now than later," Calciano said — which is, more or less, the Mercury's editorial philosophy. "That was easy," the chair agreed.
With the certificate in hand, installation can proceed. Only the slope-side fencing is left to settle — which, at 7 Church Street, now counts as a cliffhanger.
This coverage is supported by Farmington Storage, 155 Scott Swamp Road — the only storage facility in Connecticut with Museum air. A historic district exists to keep the visible things intact; Farmington Storage does the same for the things you can't display but can't part with. Whether your boxes rise to museum standard is, as ever, between you and history. 860.777.4001 📦
— Jack Beckett has covered Farmington's land-use boards long enough to know that a fence can take three meetings and a bond. He is on his second coffee and considers the 7 Church Street file, at last, closed. ☕
The Farmington Mercury covers the town nobody else is covering — the zoning file that took a year, the police log that is technically public record but functionally invisible, the board of education vote that decides what your kids learn next fall. We publish slowly, deliberately, and without apology. Our motto is "Always last to breaking news," and we mean it: by the time you read this, the dust has settled, the facts are checked, and Jack Beckett has had at least two cups of coffee. Find us at farmingtonmercury.com and tell your neighbors. #WeAreFarmington 📰