Residents rally against 24-hour gas station

BLOOMFIELD— Agroup of Bloomfield residents who live adjacent to a proposed 24-hour gas station that will also feature an EV charging station, car wash, deli, coffee shop and ice cream shop have banded together to try to head off the project.

The Noble Gas project, which could include housing in the future, would be built onthe current site of the BloomHill Farmice cream stand at 696 Cottage Grove Road, just east of the Prospect Street neighborhood.

In order for the project to move forward, the Town Planning and Zoning Commission will have to vote to change the zoning of the area from professional to commercial. The commission is holding a virtual special meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. to consider the proposed zone change.

Residents of the neighborhood plan to attend that meeting to convince the commission that the zone change and the project are not appropriate for the area.

“This type of development I just don’t think is good for the town,” said Prospect Street resident and Bloomfield native Maura Riley. “Having a gas station sitting right next to an old neighborhood is not right.”

The residents, who have formed a Facebook group called Preserve Prospect Street, argue that the development would harm property values and bring noise and light pollution, increase traffic and speeding on the street motorists use as a cut-through to the town center and likely increase crime.

They say that the project also does not fit into the town’s plan for conservation and development.

“If something is going to negatively impact property values or hurt the character of a neighborhood it wouldn’t be approved,” said Prospect Street resident Tyson Boisvert, whoalso pointed out that the town has three 24-hour gas stations two miles east on Blue Hills Avenue, plus the Stop and Shop gas station and a station in the center of town.

“I don’t feel there is a need for another one,” he said.

Boisvert, who moved to Bloomfield in 2013, said that he and others have been going door to door in the neighborhood to get petition signatures to force a super-majority vote by the commission in order to adopt the zoning change.

If they are successful in getting the signatures of 20% of the residents within 500 feet of the proposed project, the commission would have to vote 4 to 1 instead of 3 to 2 in order for it to pass, according to Boisvert.

“We’re close to that number,” he said. “It could potentially influence some people.”

Carol Noyes, a Trinity Circle resident since 1989 who was collecting signatures Tuesday, said she was troubled by the continued loss of farmland in town. Noyes also said a familiar remark she heard from people she spoke to was “Is this Niagara all over again?”

That comment refers to the Niagara Bottling Plant, which three members of the current Democratic majority on the town council used as an issue three years ago to launch a successful primary campaign and oust the endorsed slate.

The developer, Michael Frisbie, who has built similar projects in Hartford and New Britain, presented his plan to the Bloomfield Economic Development Committee last month, where it was well received.

Town Planning Director Jose Giner has also expressed support for the proposed zone change.