More CT residents press their towns to reject mega-warehouse plans

Even though nationwide demand is dipping, separate developers are proposing mega-warehouses in Ashford and Middlebury — and hitting opposition.

The prospects of a 750,000-square-foot distribution center in suburban Middlebury and a million-square-foot one in rural Ashford aren’t going over well with residents in either community.

Instead, following a pattern that’s become familiar in Connecticut, homeowners are using social media, online fundraisers and lawn signs to organize opposition.

In both cases, residents say they fear convoys of tractor-trailers, congested side roads and around-the-clock noise. For many of them, it’s also a question of whether the downside of large-scale business outweighs the potential for jobs and new tax revenue.

“We believe our town has reached a critical decision point: what does our future look like? What kind of a town do we want to be?,” the Middlebury Small Town Alliance wrote on one of its most recent blog posts.

Halfway across the state, residents in Ashford offer similar opposition to a proposed 1 million-square-foot warehouse. They warn of glaring lights from a stadium-sized parking lot, and possible water pollution from the runoff caused by acres and acres of pavement. And they caution neighbors that the lure of big money arriving with a big warehouse is untrue.

“A self-contained distribution warehouse of this kind will do little or nothing to support local businesses or provide opportunities for new business or jobs,” they say on nomegawarehouse.com, one of two opposition websites created since last year.

The battle lines are similar to those in several other Connecticut towns over the past year. Willington and Cromwell residents fiercely opposed mega-warehouses proposed in their communities, and won despite some initial approval from town officials. East Granby successfully pressed local planners to reject a proposal that would have allowed warehouses of up to 800,000 square feet.

In those towns, homeowners were concerned that allowing a huge distribution center would change the nature of their community in exchange for little net financial gain. And many raised the possibility that letting one get built would encourage developers to propose more nearby.

Other communities have been far more receptive. Scannell Properties easily won approval last summer for a million-square-foot warehouse in Plainfield, and East Hartford so far has appeared eager to get twin 1.25-million-square-foot centers that National Development is building there.

Early last year, developers scrambled to propose massive warehouses amidst low interest rates and the remaining surge in online shopping that hit during the pandemic. But Amazon and others scaled back openings in 2023 as interest rates climbed, construction inflation soared and online sales growth pulled back.

The Ashford and Middlebury projects, however, have moved forward. And community opposition has been loud and getting louder.

The Middlebury Small Town Alliance came together in the late fall in response to a new plan to convert part of the sprawling Timex headquarters campus into about 750,000 square feet of warehouse space.

JSD Partners, a company affiliated with Waterbury commercial landlord Norman Drubner and his family, in November asked planners to amend zoning rules on the site to allow that type of project. The company has an option to buy Timex land and already owns an adjoining 19-acre parcel.

But JSD hasn’t publicly said what company or companies would occupy the space, and alliance cofounder Jennifer Mahr said that’s part of the problem.

“They want to raise the maximum height of buildings allowed there from 35 feet to 50 feet, they’re talking about 68 loading bays and space for 106 trailers. But we have no idea what would go in there,” she said Thursday. “We have no idea who the end user would be. We wouldn’t even know what protections to ask for.”

Opponents launched an online fundraiser hoping to generate $50,000 to hire a soil scientist and other engineers to testify against the project as a hazard to nearby wetlands and ponds. So far, they’ve gotten about $27,000.

They also challenged the local conservation commission’s conclusion earlier this winter that the project wouldn’t significantly disturb wetlands — and thus wouldn’t require a public hearing. The commission this week decided that a hearing is necessary after all, and scheduled it for March 28.

“A really big piece of the heartache is that this property is surrounded by a 55-and-over development on the west side and another housing development on the east,” she said. “The town carved out residential zoning there, it made a decision to increase residential density. When those people bought houses, the ‘light industrial’ zoning allowed corporate headquarters, office parks, innocuous things This change would make it heavy industrial.”

Mahr and alliance cofounder Dana Shepard say a warehouse of such size could bring light pollution, damage property values, and flood two-lane Route 188 with heavy truck traffic night and day.

“My husband and I came here from Middletown, this is our dream property. It’s quiet. This is what I searched years and years for,” she said. “I have no intention of laying out by the pool or playing with my kid and listening to the backup ‘beep, beep’ (of tractor trailers).”

In Ashford, opponents have launched two websites — nomegawarehouse.com and keepashfordrural.net — to build support. They’re opposing proposed zoning amendments that would make it easier to build mega-warehouses near I-84 in Ashford.

Campanelli, a Massachusetts-based developer and contractor that owns 120 acres in town, contends that mega-warehouse would be a substantial financial boon for taxpayers. Accepting the zone changes will benefit the town, it says.

“If a project as envisioned had been fully constructed in 2022, the owner of an Ashford home with an appraised value of $324,000 would have paid approximately $1,100 less in real property taxes last year,” the company says.

Opponents disagree, saying the company overstates the financial benefits while the downplaying quality-of-life damage and pollution risks.

“A building of this scale will add water, noise, air, traffic and light pollution,” they argue. “It is in the watershed for Willimantic and UConn drinking water.”

The town’s planning and zoning commission will resume its hearing on the proposed changes March 13.