Heavy Equipment Sets Up Shop At Vernon Commercial Property

VERNON, CT — Demolition work is back in progress on a dual parcel along the 200 block of Talcottville Road that is planned for a small strip plaza.

The work began this week and, on Wednesday morning, all that was left were signs for the former Pancho Loco restaurant and Lazy Liquor package store.

A former single-family was still standing to the rear of the Lazy Liquor Parcel, but its days are also numbered.

It has been about a year since the former Pancho Loco restaurant at 218 Talcottville Road was reduced to a pile of rubble. The razing of the Lazy Liquor building just to the west was supposed to follow soon, but the the project became mired in a paperwork nightmare that took until this fall to resolve.

For about the past six years, town officials thought the entire parcel sat in a strictly commercial zone, but, it turns out, that was a mistake created on the town land records when they were converted over to the current electronic system, according top municipal officials.

A bit of research after a protest by an abutting property owner uncovered two separate zones that put the front two-thirds in a commercial zone and the back end of the property in a special residential zone, Vernon Economic Development Director Shaun Gately said. The courts decided the most practical thing to do was to re-visit the regulatory process, since it was advertised erroneously, he added.

The plans thus have been approved with some buffer added to the rear of the parcel. A special permit has been issued for the project as well as the zone change to commercial, Gately said.

The plans are to put a strip plaza that could accommodate stores measuring between 2,000 square feet and 14,000 square feet in place of the former restaurant and liquor store. In itself, the strip plaza will measure 20,500 square feet once completed, according to the plans.

The property is owned by South Windsor-based entrepreneur Jagdev Toor, who owns several parcels along that stretch of Talcottville Road, also known as state Route 83. ON that side of the road, Toor ownes the cannabis shop property, the former Pancho and Lazy Liquor land and the strip parcel that houses a medical practice.