4-Story, Mixed-Use Building Planned For Downtown Fairfield

FAIRFIELD, CT — A four-story building with retail space, offices and apartments is proposed in the heart of downtown Fairfield.

A hearing on the plan for 15 Unquowa Road began Tuesday before the Town Plan and Zoning Commission, which is considering whether to grant a zoning regulation amendment and special permit for the project.

“It’s consistent with what has been historically developed there,” said attorney Raymond Rizio, who represented the developer, 15 Unquowa Road LLC, and its principal, Lee Forest, whose family has owned the property for over a century.

The land, which neighbors the Sacred Heart University Community Theatre and totals about 21,000 square feet, is the site of a two-story building occupied by Las Vetas Lounge and other retail spaces, as well as two small retail structures, a garage, a house and a building that serves as a doctor’s office.

“We felt the property was very under-served, the property was very undeveloped,” Rizio said.

Proposed to replace those structures is a 55-foot, mixed-use building, which would include 4,000 square feet of retail space on the first floor; 5,000 square feet of offices on the second floor; and apartments on the third and fourth floors. The building would have 28 parking spaces for residents in an underground garage, and another 26 spaces would be behind the ground-floor retail, with a total of 1.25 spaces per apartment.

“How do we know that 1.25 is the right number when we’re talking about a mixed-use building in downtown?” commissioner Lenny Braman asked. “You’re talking about uses that are not complimentary with respect to parking.”

Engineer and planner Neil Olinski replied that similar developments nationally average 1.07 parked cars per unit.

The proposal includes 33 one-bedroom apartments and three two-bedroom units, but commissioner Mark Corcoran questioned what qualified as a bedroom, remarking many of the apartments had dens that appeared to be similar to bedrooms.

“The one-bedrooms are one-bedrooms, the dens really serve as dens,” Rizio said of the 26 dens included within the apartment plans. “The demand for people to have a separate space to work from home has gone through the roof in the last two years.”

Architect John Guedes clarified that the designation of the rooms as dens was dictated by parking shortages and use of the rooms beyond their specified purpose would be considered a violation.

The developer used the town’s transit-oriented development study recommendations when drafting its proposed amendment, according to Rizio.

The hearing, which was remotely attended by about 60 people, will resume at a later commission meeting, when discussions are expected to focus on traffic and drainage.