Monroe's Planning and Zoning Commission voted 3-2 Thursday to deny a text amendment that would have cleared a path for an 84-apartment development at 1-15 Main St., near the Trumbull border. The commission gave no formal reason for the denial, leaving developer Gold Coast Properties without the zoning change it needed to move the project forward.
The vote split along familiar lines: Robert Westlund, Ryan Condon and Domenic Paniccia voted against the amendment, while Michael O'Reilly and Bruno Maini supported it, according to The Monroe Sun. The decision caps weeks of debate over a plan that would have brought two three-story buildings with 78 one-bedroom and six two-bedroom units to the site. Thursday's hearing was a continuation of a meeting that began Oct. 15, when Planning and Zoning Administrator Kathleen Gallagher said, as reported by Patch, that the applicant was reviewing community feedback and revising its plans.
What the Zoning Change Would Have Allowed
The proposed amendment would have let multifamily housing go up on qualifying parcels of at least two acres, rather than the 15 acres currently required under Monroe's regulations, as long as the property sat within one mile of the Route 111 and Route 25 Connector intersection. The existing rule also caps standalone multifamily buildings at 30 units, but the amendment would have let the commission approve up to 45 units in a single building under certain conditions, including tighter building-coverage limits. A separate provision in the proposal would have capped two-bedroom units at no more than 10 percent of a building's total, according to the same Monroe Sun report.
Gold Coast Properties president Stephen Shapiro told the commission the current plan would be 90 percent one-bedroom apartments and argued it would generate less traffic than a mixed-use alternative allowed under existing zoning, which already permits residential units above ground-floor commercial space. He pitched the project as, in his words, “a tax win for Monroe,” and asked the commission to approve the amendment while leaving the question of whether 84 units was too many for the site-plan review stage.
Neighbors Raised Septic, Traffic and Scale Concerns
Opposition centered on the scope of the zoning shift itself. Laura Sime, who with her husband Justin owns property bordering the proposed site, said dropping the acreage threshold from 15 to two acres amounted to a fundamental change to Monroe's zoning framework. Attorney John G. Rubino represented the Simes and other Main Street neighbors at the hearing. Katie Tolan told the commission the broadened two-acre eligibility would be catastrophic for Monroe and Trumbull residents alike, while Gurney McClure opposed the application over concerns about septic systems and runoff — a pointed issue in a town that relies entirely on septic systems with no access to sewers.
Attorney Christopher Russo, representing the applicant, proposed clarifying which properties would qualify by measuring the one-mile eligibility radius from the epicenter of the Route 111 and Route 25 Connector intersection. He also argued that projected peak-hour traffic from the 84-unit project would be nearly equal to that generated by the commercial building at 375 Spring Hill Road, home to a Chipotle, Wayback Burger and Jersey Mike's. Under the proposed amendment, developments on sites under 15 acres would have required a traffic impact study prepared by a Connecticut-licensed professional engineer.
Other Main Street Parcels in the Mix
Beyond the applicant's own holdings at 7 and 15 Main St., the hearing touched on other properties that could have potentially qualified under the now-rejected two-acre threshold, including vacant lots at 10 and 36 Main St. already approved for mixed-use development. Nearby parcels mentioned during discussion included 27 Main St., home to a shooting range owned by Mahesh Reddy; the D.R. Charles landscape supply yard at 189 Main St.; and the Aquarion Water Co. building at 200 Monroe Turnpike. Town Line Plaza on Route 111, which includes a Noble gas station, Panera Bread, Aldi's and a self-storage business, was also referenced as part of the broader Main Street corridor.
The amendment's provisions went well beyond acreage and unit counts. Buildings within 200 feet of a state highway would have had to devote at least 50 percent of their ground-floor area facing Main Street or Monroe Turnpike to nonresidential uses, while those outside that 200-foot zone would have needed landscaped buffers on the first 50 feet of the lot. Setback rules would have required at least 40 feet from residential-use lots for specified buildings, at least 20 feet from vacant or nonresidential lots, and as little as 20 feet between multifamily buildings sharing road access within the same development district. Sites combining multiple lots to reach the two-acre threshold would also have needed to record evidence that the parcels had merged into a single lot before a zoning permit could issue.
A Separate Main Street Project Offers Comparison
The 1-15 Main St. proposal isn't the only multifamily plan the town has weighed recently. A separate developer has proposed a three-story mixed-use building at 715 Main St. with 20 one-bedroom apartments above street-level commercial space, according to The Monroe Sun. That project would sit on roughly 1.6 acres, with two of the 20 units set aside to meet state affordable-housing requirements.
The debate over the Main Street text amendment arrives amid broader friction between Monroe and state housing mandates. First Selectman Terry Rooney wrote to Gov. Ned Lamont opposing potential impacts of House Bill 5002, which called for a state mandate permitting housing in commercial areas as of right. Joel Leneker, affiliated with the Save Our Stepney Task Force, has also been active in local zoning discussions. Separately, Monroe is weighing a building project to address overcrowded schools and growing student enrollment, a reminder of the capacity pressures already facing the town as it fields development proposals along its commercial corridors.
