Impervious Surface a Hurdle for AJ Letizio Expansion

Town planners saw a preliminary site application for an expansion of A.J. Letizio Sales & Marketing on July 19, with the big issue discussed being the impervious surface on the property.

According to the town's commercial zoning regulations, impervious area of any building lot is limited to 30 percent. Impervious surfaces include mainly artificial structures, such as pavement for parking lots or driveways.

According to Peter Zohdi, who is the engineer for the project, the plan currently exceeds that limit.

As part of the construction, Al Letizio Jr., president of A.J. Letizio Sales & Marketing, plans to fund the removal of paved land that is on state-owned property just above his own property. Zohdi asked if the board would include that removal in the impervious surface percentage.

The state recently completed a land swap with Letizio, and up until two weeks ago, that piece of property now owned by the state was actually owned by Letizio.

Zohdi said that they do not know if the state plans to remove the pavement themselves.

Many board members took issue with offering leeway to the ordiance.

Jonathan Sycamore said that he was worried that other applicants might try to get the same flexibility from the board in the future.

Zohdi said that he is of the understanding that the board takes every application "on its own merits."

Board member Sycamore did add that he thinks some sort of resolution can come on the issue.

"I think we can work to get there," he said.

Sycamore also did not like the idea of having pavement just sitting on the state property.

Board Vice Chair Ruth-Ellen Post said that she thought it went "against the spirit of the ordinance."

Another board member, Kristi St. Laurent, came up with the suggestion to add landscaping in the parking lot to meet the impervious requirements, adding that it was a strategy used during parking lot construction at The Common Man.

The facility expansion calls for twice as many parking spaces and over 9,000 square feet of additional building space spread out over three floors.

of the expansion proposal on July 19.

Letizio will have 12 months to submit a final application to the board, but indicated that he plans to have that application before the board hopefully by late August.