20,000 Square Foot Store will be built in Stratford Square
Sources: Zoning Commission notes; Wikipedia
The town’s Zoning Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to grant a special permit for a roughly 20,000-square-foot Aldi store to be built on a section of the parking lot at the shopping center at 411 Barnum Avenue Cutoff, which is owned by Brixmor Property Group.
Aldi already has more than 30 stores in Connecticut, including in Fairfield, Monroe and Milford. Aldi is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when they took over their mother’s store in Essen. Trader Joe’s is a subsidiary of Aldi.
Planning and Zoning Administrator Susmitha Attota said the project is only “somewhat consistent” with Stratford’s Plan of Conservation and Development, but that shouldn’t stop it from moving forward.
The town plan recommends transit-oriented development — with commercial uses on the ground floor and residential units on the floors above — in the area of the shopping center.
“However, this is an extension of an existing commercial plaza, and while we have aspirations to see residential at some point on the top floors, we cannot limit the development that is coming before us today with hopes that something else might come later on,” Attota said.
Planning and Zoning staff also recommended changes to the proposed site plan, including adding landscape islands, relocating light poles and adding bicycle parking.
One concern Attota and commissioners raised was about food waste. “Honestly, the thing we worry about is rodents,” said Chair Harold Watson. “That’s become a huge problem in this town.”
Bruno Lourenco, a director of real estate for Aldi, said the store will have a 10-yard dumpster, and waste will be picked up two to three times per week. As recommended by the town’s Architectural Review Board, the dumpster will be enclosed.
“We prepare no food on site,” Lourenco said. “Everything comes in prepackaged from our distribution center in South Windsor, Connecticut.” He said Aldi also has a contract with a pest control company that includes weekly visits.
Chas Evans, a professional engineer with consulting and design firm Bohler, said about 120 parking spaces in the plaza will be eliminated as part of the development. There will be about 60 parking spots around the grocery store.
“We’re actually reducing impervious coverage overall by about 7,600 square feet,” Evans said. “Currently, the whole center is at 85.7% impervious coverage, and we’re bringing the site down to 84.8%.”
Evans noted that the plans also include installing a system to treat stormwater runoff.
If high traffic grocery store comes to Stratford Square, there had better be better traffic flow for that area and better traffic light turn signals. Right now it is chaos.