Farmington to decide if former gas station becomes convenience store
Developer proposes 3,300-square-foot shop with pumps, EV stations
A developer wants to reconstruct a long-vacant gas station and service shop along busy Plainville Avenue in Farmington into a bigger gas station with a convenience store, but some neighbors are balking.
BB Development LLC is asking the plan and zoning commission for permission to tear down the existing building and replace it with a roughly 3,300-squarefoot convenience store with five outdoor gas pumps and four EV recharging stations.
For many years, homeowners have been eager to see a cleanup of the property at Plainville Avenue and Burlington Road, a busy corner along a primary north-south route that connects Canton and western Farmington to Plainville and I-84. The gas station shut down in the 1980s,
and since then the parking lot entrances have been chained off and marked “no trespassing.”
But a small contingent of neighbors is telling planners that the site is badly situated for business because drivers go by too fast and the intersection already has frequent backups.
Several homeowners are also concerned about possible environmental hazards, because in 1983 an underground tank at the former Texaco station leaked. Chevron, which acquired Texaco in 2001, performed initial remediation of some of the land, and has kept the 66,000-squarefoot property under watch with annual well tests since then.
But James Ziogas, attorney for BB Development, said that a teardown of the existing building would advance the effort to clean up the land. He said BB Development met with town staff, state environmental engineers and a Chevron representative recently.
“Chevron indicated that if this plan is approved, they would have an opportunity to excavate in an area where the building and canopy currently exist. This is an area they have not been able to get to yet. So if we do take this building down and take out the
concrete where the pumps are located, they they would be able to dig down to determine if there’s more contaminated soil,” Ziogas told the commission.
Any contaminated soil would be dug out and removed by Chevron and its consultants with approval by the state department of energy and environmental protection.
Neighbors weren’t entirely satisfied with BB’S proposal, however, even after it made modifications in early March to address criticisms that arose at hearing in late February. The company added extra buffer between the property and nearby residents and reduced the square footage of the proposed building from the initial 3,800 square feet.
At the hearing, Plainville Avenue resident Ksawera Usman asked who would be responsible for local well water if a fuel spill occurs. Town Planner Shannon Rutherford told her the first agency to be notified would be the Farmington Valley Health District.
Ziogas said it has taken years of work to refine the first version of the initial plan.
“In the past three years we’ve met with town staff on a number of a occasions to develop a plan that is suitable to the neighborhood and consistent with zoning regulations,” he said.
Jaymin Mehta, BB Development’s principal, told planners that he wants the new station to have enough EV spots and gas pumps to accommodate whatever transitions are ahead in the energy field. He envisions an upscale convenience store with some level of food service, saying “We want to do something a little nicer” than a standard gas mart.
Municipal and business records indicate Mehta operates at least one other gas station in Connecticut under the Go Happy brand.
Ziogas told planners on March 13 that the newest version of Mehta’s plan included the wider landscape buffer. The building was redesigned to be seven feet lower, and engineers designed a short turnoff lane to Plainville Avenue northbound so through traffic wouldn’t have to wait for drivers making left turns into the new station.
Mehta said the station would operate from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. At the hearing, Plainville Avenue resident Deb Woodhall asked if the lights from the station would shine across the road. Mehta assured her that they wouldn’t, and said he plans to add a buffer along Plainville Avenue including dogwood trees and holly bushes.
The commission will meet March 27 and could vote then, or postpone a decision until one of its April meetings.