The Farmington Town Plan and Zoning Commission voted Monday night to accept Noble Energy Real Estate Holdings, LLC's application for a rezoning at 8261 Fienemann Road and to schedule a public hearing on it for July 27. The 86-acre parcel, at the corner of Fienemann Road and the I-84 ramps, is where Noble Energy has proposed putting a warehouse, a travel center, and fueling stations.

The vote was by voice. No commissioner opposed. No representative for the applicant was present. The motion, made by Commissioner David St. Germain, took less than a minute.

The hearing on July 27 will be the first time the commission takes substantive testimony on the project under its zoning jurisdiction. The same project has been the subject of two contested hearings this spring before the Farmington Conservation and Inland Wetlands Commission, where it is being heard under a different set of regulations, with a different set of objections on the record, and with an intervener petition formally accepted on May 6.

What the Application Asks the Commission to Approve

The motion accepted on Monday is for four regulatory changes and two project approvals tied together as a single filing.

The four changes are amendments to Section 19 of the town's 2007–2016 Plan of Conservation and Development; to Section 10 of the 2018 POCD addendum; to Article 2 Section 12B of the zoning regulations; and a partial rezoning of the parcel from R40, the residential zone that currently covers the site, to B1, the town's general business zone. The two approvals are a special permit and site plan approval for the project itself — described in the motion as warehouse, fueling stations, and convenience store uses.

R40 does not permit warehouse or fueling-station uses. The rezoning is the legal mechanism that would allow the project to proceed; the POCD and zone-text amendments are the planning-level changes that would let that rezoning fit within the town's adopted development framework.

What's Actually Proposed on the Site

The parcel is 86 acres. About seven and a half of those acres are buildable, clustered in the eastern corner where Fienemann Road meets the I-84 ramps. The rest is wetland, wetland buffer, or FEMA-mapped flood zone. The applicant's plan, as presented to the wetlands commission in two rounds this spring, is to put the entire commercial development into the buildable corner and place approximately 75 acres of the rest into a conservation easement — roughly 86 percent of the parcel, including more than 50 acres of wetlands and two vernal pools.

The project itself has shrunk between hearings. The first version, presented to the wetlands commission on April 15, included a 28,000-square-foot warehouse with 34 tractor-trailer spaces, a 10,000-square-foot travel center with five high-speed diesel pumps and sixteen gasoline pumps, and a 4,500-square-foot restaurant. The revised version, presented at the May 6 continuation, kept the same number of fuel pumps but reduced the warehouse to 18,000 square feet, the travel center to roughly 8,400 square feet, and eliminated the restaurant entirely. Total impervious surface is now about four and a half acres, down from above five. Total wetlands impact is under 1,000 square feet, down from about 3,700.

The applicant is Michael Frisbie, who owns both Noble Energy Real Estate Holdings and Noble Gas, Inc. The applicant's counsel is Robert J. Reeve of Scully, Nicksa & Reeve in Unionville. The licensed engineer of record is Taylor Capel of Solli Engineering of Monroe. The ecological consultancy is William Kenny Associates of Fairfield.

Where the Wetlands Track Stands

The Town Plan and Zoning Commission's July 27 hearing will run in parallel to a separate proceeding that has already produced two contested nights of testimony.

At the May 6 wetlands hearing, the commission unanimously accepted an intervener petition filed by Stephanie Roman, an attorney who lives at 1292–1294 Slater Road in New Britain, under Connecticut General Statutes §22a-19 — a provision of the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act that allows any person to intervene in an administrative proceeding alleging conduct likely to pollute, impair, or destroy natural resources. The Conservation Commission, meeting later the same night, accepted the same petition under the parallel §7-131a.

Roman's expert at the May 6 hearing, Sigrun Gadwa of Carya Ecological Services in Cheshire, told the commission that the applicant's own plant inventory of the site lists Saururus cernuus — lizard's tail — a species the State of Connecticut classifies as endangered. Gadwa is a Connecticut-registered soil scientist and professional wetland scientist with about thirty years of field experience.

The wetlands hearing was continued to May 20.

Two Tracks, Two Sets of Questions

The Town Plan and Zoning Commission will not be asked to decide whether the wetlands engineering on the site is sufficient. That question belongs to the Conservation and Inland Wetlands Commission. The questions in front of TPZ on July 27 are different.

A rezoning in Connecticut requires the commission to find that the change is consistent with the town's Plan of Conservation and Development. The applicant has anticipated that question by also requesting amendments to the POCD sections that would govern the answer — both the 2007–2016 plan and the 2018 addendum.

A zone-text amendment to Article 2 Section 12B is also part of the package. An applicant seeking a use that the current zone doesn't allow has two procedural options: ask for a regulation that allows the use, or ask to be in a zone that already does. The application requests both.

The special permit and site plan approval would govern the specifics of how the development is built if the rezoning passes.

Who Has Been Heard So Far

The two wetlands hearings have drawn public comment from residents of New Britain, Hartford, and Farmington. Attorney Jeffrey P. Dressler, dialing in from Hartford, has twice raised the question of the six schools within a half mile of the parcel, the roughly 3,500 students who attend them, and the 20 to 30 school buses that pass through the intersection on a school day. Attorney Neil P. Connors, who sits on the Batterson Park Conservancy, has noted that the wetlands commission has been approving components of the Hartford-owned park's $10 million state-funded restoration downstream — and is now being asked to approve a discharge upstream.

None of those arguments has yet been made to the Town Plan and Zoning Commission. They will need to be re-made at the July 27 hearing if they are to factor into the rezoning decision. The two commissions operate under different statutes, hear different evidence, and make different findings of fact.

What Comes Next

The wetlands commission's continued hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, May 20. The Town Plan and Zoning Commission's next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 25; the Noble Energy public hearing is not on that agenda. The July 27 hearing will be the next time the rezoning is heard in public, and it will be the commission's first substantive consideration of the application.

Hearings are held in the Town Council Chambers in the Town Hall Annex at One Monteith Drive. Public comment is accepted in person and through the online portal that the planning department will post with the public hearing notice.