On Thursday, January 18, 2024, the Stafford Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC) made quick work of issuing a special use permit for Skyline Quarry owner Wayne C. Williams. Every three years, the town’s quarry owners have to come back to the PZC to renew their permits, and after a brief discussion about where they would be blasting over the next few years, the PZC approved the special use permit before moving on to a more novel issue that may come before the commission: a request to put in a helipad.
Though the issue was not formally before the PZC yet, Chair Dave Palmberg informed the rest of the commission that someone at 14 Bradway Pond Road had submitted a packet to the zoning office, including a letter from an attorney asking to put in a private helipad. According to Zillow, the house is on over eight acres of land.
Palmberg said the property owner’s attorney thinks all they need is zoning permission to put in the helipad and that there was an FAA application and an acoustics study in the packet. For now, the matter is with the town attorney for review, but Palmberg thought a public hearing would likely be required as the town’s schedule of uses does not include helipads.
Side note: There are a surprising number of heliports in Connecticut; though most of them belong to hospitals or companies, there are some in residential areas.
While the PZC waits for answers from the town attorney on the helipad issue, they are turning their attention back to the Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD). With new Zoning Enforcement Officer (ZEO) Andrew Marchese in place, the commission is looking to return to some of the issues they would like to tackle through zoning.
At the top of that list is housing. In order to encourage the development of more affordable housing — whether that be by the legal definition or simply reasonably priced, entry-level housing — the commission is toying with the idea of changing zoning regulations to allow duplexes or clustered housing on smaller parcels.
While there are questions about where that kind of development might be appropriate, Palmberg pointed out, “Something has to be done for young people to be able to stay in town.”
Stay tuned for further developments on the helipad and housing fronts!
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