P&Z Board Renews Muckle Road Waste Permit

Planning and Zoning · Meeting of September 24, 2026

BLOOMFIELD — The Bloomfield Planning and Zoning Commission renewed a special permit for the Central Recycling waste-transfer facility at 33 Muckle Road, extending approval to May 28, 2034, after engineer Ed Lally said the required annual renewal had lapsed for six years. The commission's director reported the town's bid for a state CIF grant to redevelop Town Center fell short, with officials weighing a fourth application in December as developer-partner RFP responses undergo review. Applicant Paul Butler informally presented a 214-unit Town Center Apartments Phase Four, including a public dog park, bus shelter and a $250,000 crosswalk tied to a $913,000 state grant, plus 12 percent workforce housing.

Property owner Kareem Ambrose and engineer Joe Ren outlined a revised four-unit plan for 34 Tunxis Avenue, down from an original 10 units. "I did enjoy this revisit to Bloomfield," Lally told commissioners.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 2,558 words

Source: the Planning and Zoning meeting of September 24, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

The Full Article

Roll Call and Minutes

Six members sat for the September 24 meeting: Commissioner Stephen Millett, Commissioner Jennifer Marshall Neely, Commissioner Desiree Cotton (seated as a voting member for the evening), Commissioner Bolton, Commissioner James, and the chair, whose name was not stated in the recording. Leon Peters, Kevin Goff, Roger O'Brien and Eunice Medwinter were marked absent at roll call.

The commission approved minutes from three prior sessions: July 23, August 20 and August 27, 2026. The only substantive correction came on the July 23 minutes, where a public-comment reference was changed from "Granby Road" to "Granby Street." Each set of minutes passed by voice vote with abstentions from members who had not attended the corresponding meeting; Commissioner Millett and Commissioner Bolton abstained on the July 23 minutes, and Bolton alone abstained on the August 20 and August 27 minutes. These were purely procedural actions with no further discussion.

Public Hearing: 33 Muckle Road Special Permit Renewal

Central Recycling LLC operates a volume-reduction and recycling facility on a leased portion of the Windsor Sanitation property at 33 Muckle Road under a special permit first approved May 28, 2020. A state law enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic automatically extended many land-use approvals by nine years, pushing this approval's expiration to May 28, 2034. But Zoning Regulations Section 7.6.G.3, which governs bulky-waste volume-reduction and recycling facilities, separately requires the commission to hold an annual public hearing to renew the special permit regardless of that extended expiration date. The question before the commission was whether to grant that overdue annual renewal.

Ed Lally, a licensed professional engineer and land surveyor based in Windsor who represented the applicant, said he mailed certificates of notice to 19 property owners and posted two signs, one at the Muckle Road site and a second visible from Woodland Avenue, because he believed the site's required sign alone did not give the public adequate notice. He said the submitted site plan, though dated several years ago, still reflects conditions at the site; a "phase two" addition to the central recycling building remains unbuilt and would require a separate submission to the commission when pursued. He said there have been no complaints or significant issues at the site in six years, and that the lapse in annual renewals occurred because "the town did not have a mechanism to track approvals of this type and apparently the client did not have one either," attributing it in part to staff turnover and lost "municipal memory" of the original approval.

Lally told the commission he intends to file a separate application to revise the regulations so that, after five years without significant issues, the commission could extend the interval between required renewal hearings up to five years, while retaining authority to revoke a permit at any time for violations. "That does not give the applicant carte blanche," he said. "If they violate any conditions of the program approval, you can withdraw the special permit at any point in time."

Town staff told the commission that its review confirmed all conditions imposed in 2020 had been maintained and that the use met the requirements for a special permit, recommending approval. No commissioners had questions, and the only comments were thanks to the applicant and staff for their work. Lally, in his closing remarks, reflected on decades of local engineering work: "I haven't worked with Linda before, though I worked with this in this town for 60 years. But I did enjoy this revisit to Bloomfield."

The commission voted by voice to close the public hearing, with no recorded opposition or abstention. A commissioner then moved "that we approve the renewal of the May 28th, 2020 referenced special permit and related revised site plan automatically extended to May 28th, 2034 per Section 7.6.G.3 of the zoning regulations and per CGS 8-3k(a)(2)," subject to conditions in the staff report; the motion was seconded and approved unanimously. The facility continues operating under its existing conditions, and the town separately committed, later in the meeting, to building a tracking system for annual special-permit renewals.

Informal Presentation: Town Center Apartments Phase Four

This presentation previewed the fourth phase of a long-running Town Center Apartments development, which received special development district approval roughly three to four years ago. The question before the commission was informal: whether the direction of the phase four plan, as refined over roughly three years of discussions with town staff and committees, merited continued development toward a formal site plan application.

Paul Butler, who gave his address as 717 Bloomfield Avenue, described a 214-unit residential project intended to serve as "the entrance to Bloomfield center." He said the project would add a raised crosswalk near Gab Road, estimated at roughly $250,000, which the town had asked the applicant to help fund, and that the building would be set back at the corner of Gab Road and Bloomfield Avenue with a partially below-grade first story to manage a steep grade change. He said the design draws on architectural elements used at Philly Park at the other end of town, including wood and stone detailing, to create a consistent look entering the center.

Butler said the plan includes a public dog park on a nearby Eversource-owned parcel, under a 20-year lease the applicant has secured, with roughly 20 additional parking spaces for town residents and a bus shelter matching the Philly Park aesthetic. He cited an estimate of roughly 300 dogs currently in Bloomfield's apartment buildings and a projected 8,000 dogs townwide as the basis for the amenity. He also said the project includes streetscaping along the opposite side of Bloomfield Avenue on town-owned land, coordinated with the town's beautification committee, and that the applicant would cover water and landscaping costs for that parcel. On financing, Butler said the town was awarded $913,000 in state funding for the Gab Road work, and that the applicant was willing to help fund portions of it. He estimated roughly $4 million in public improvements overall and said the project would include 12 percent workforce housing or, alternatively, a fee in lieu, pending ongoing discussions with an entity he referred to only as "Goldman in York," the town manager and the mayor's office.

Commissioners questioned specific design details. Commissioner Cotton asked whether apartment residents might use dog-park parking as overflow; Butler said additional parking would be built specifically for the dog park "over and above the required parking in town." Commissioner James asked about sidewalk width and whether a bus stop already existed at the site; Butler said sidewalk width had not been finalized but would likely follow town standards, and that there was no existing bus stop but an arrangement for one was planned. Commissioner Marshall Neely asked whether sidewalks would meet handicap-accessibility standards and whether the dog park would include accessible parking; Butler said yes to both, citing state law. Commissioner Bolton confirmed the project would use surface parking rather than underground parking.

Town staff told the commission they support the direction of the plan, particularly the applicant's willingness to fund the Gab Road crosswalk, the dog park, and streetscaping on town property at Jerome Avenue. No vote was taken, as this was an informal presentation; Butler said a formal site plan application could come before the commission as early as late winter, with construction potentially starting in spring.

Informal Presentation: 34 Tunxis Avenue Zone Change

The application concerns 1.48 acres at 34 Tunxis Avenue, currently zoned R40, which property owner Kareem Ambrose is seeking to rezone to PLR to allow a small multi-family residential project. The question before the commission was whether the revised concept, now scaled back from an original 10-unit proposal, warranted a formal rezoning application.

Ambrose, who said she lives at 15 Haviland Road in Bloomfield, told the commission she and her husband, Ricky, purchased the parcel in February 2026 and hope to create affordable workforce housing consistent with the town's Plan of Conservation and Development. Engineer Joe Ren, identified as a professional engineer with Indigo Land Design, presented the technical details. He said the plan originally called for a triplex and a duplex totaling five units but has been revised to a single four-unit building to ensure compliance with both R40 and PLR setback lines, which the earlier configuration did not meet. The resulting density is 2.7 units per acre, within the PLR zone's allowed range of four to six units per acre. Units would range from 1,500 to 2,000 square feet, above the 1,000-to-1,200-square-foot minimum in Section 5.4F of the regulations.

Ren said the property is not served by sanitary sewer; percolation testing by the local health district's sanitarian found deep sand soil well suited to a subsurface septic system, and public water is available. He said the site sits near the Correct school property to the north, a roughly 45-acre design-development zone to the southeast across Griffin Road North, and single-family neighborhoods to the north and northwest, making the PLR designation a transition use. The plan includes two and a half parking spaces per unit as required, plus additional guest parking, a fire-apparatus turnaround, stormwater management designed for the site's sandy soils, and a 10-foot evergreen buffer under Section 6.1 of the regulations along the property's residential edge, where Ambrose said the neighboring owner is not opposed to the project.

Town staff, addressed in the meeting as John, said the commission had previously approved a similar PLR rezoning on Philly Street and urged consistency with that precedent. "I think the staff is comfortable with what's being proposed," John said. "We think that they're doing a good job trying to meet it." He noted the project's design details, including the building's architecture, had not yet been reviewed. Commissioners asked about septic service, heating fuel type, and existing vegetation buffers; Ren said final utility decisions, including gas, oil or electric heating, had not been made and the applicant would work with the town's preference. Commissioner Millett said he would prefer a different zoning mechanism than PLR for this type of project "internally" but would not discourage the application. No vote was taken; staff indicated support for a formal application to follow.

Draft FEMA-Related Regulation Amendments

The item stems from a state directive, relayed to the town in the spring and reinforced by a reminder letter in late August, requiring municipalities to update local subdivision and zoning regulations to align with new FEMA floodplain maps by a mid-November deadline. The question before the commission was simply to review draft amendment language ahead of formal action.

Staff said the amendments, prepared with the town engineer and wetlands agent Peter Costaldi, are "fairly straightforward" and will be placed on the next meeting's agenda to be set for public hearing, targeted for the commission's October meeting, after which they will be referred to the Capital Region Council of Governments as required. Commissioner James confirmed the timeline would allow the hearing to occur before the November deadline. The chair noted a pagination error in the packet and asked why the town manager, rather than the town engineer, is designated to approve driveways extending past regulatory minimums; staff said that authority stems from a separate town ordinance. No vote was taken.

Director's Report

Staff flagged three items. First, a new application from Duncaster has been received and will come before the commission at its next meeting; staff said the agenda would be structured to avoid an unreasonably long session. Second, staff reported that the town's application for a state CIF grant to help redevelop Town Center was unsuccessful, and said officials are considering whether to reapply a fourth time in December while pursuing other funding options. Staff said the town is also working to address "significant operational issues" at the site affecting current tenants, and that responses to a request for proposals seeking a developer partner have been received, with review and selection expected over the following few weeks. Third, staff said the town will implement a mechanism to track special-permit annual renewals, prompted directly by the gap identified in the Muckle Road case, designed to be "administratively easy to implement" without overloading the commission with permits at any one time.

Commissioner Stephen Millett — present, voting member. Commissioner Jennifer Marshall Neely — present, voting member. Commissioner Desiree Cotton — present, seated as a voting member for this meeting. Commissioner Bolton — present, voting member (full name and spelling not confirmed in available sources). Commissioner James — present, voting member (full name and spelling not confirmed in available sources). The chair — presiding; name not stated in the transcript. Leon Peters — absent. Kevin Goff — absent. Roger O'Brien — absent. Eunice Medwinter — absent. John — town planning staff, referred to during the "director's report" item; likely the commission's director; surname not given. Linda — town staff member referenced alongside John; role and surname not given. Rebecca — staff assisting with virtual/online meeting logistics and presentation slides; role and surname not given. Ed Lally — professional engineer and land surveyor, Windsor, Connecticut; represented applicant Central Recycling LLC for the Muckle Road special permit renewal. Paul Butler — applicant, 717 Bloomfield Avenue, Bloomfield; presented the Town Center Apartments Phase Four informal plan. Kareem Ambrose — property owner, 15 Haviland Road, Bloomfield; applicant for the 34 Tunxis Avenue zone change. Ricky — Kareem Ambrose's husband; attended but did not speak; surname not given. Joe Ren — professional engineer, Indigo Land Design; presented technical details for the 34 Tunxis Avenue proposal. Peter Costaldi — town wetlands agent; named as co-author of the FEMA-related draft regulation amendments; attendance at the meeting itself is not confirmed.

Central Recycling LLC — operator of the volume-reduction and recycling facility at 33 Muckle Road, subject of the special permit renewal. Windsor Sanitation — property owner leasing the Muckle Road site to Central Recycling LLC. Indigo Land Design — engineering firm representing applicant Kareem Ambrose on the 34 Tunxis Avenue rezoning. Capital Region Council of Governments — regional body to which the FEMA-related zoning and subdivision amendments will be referred. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — issued updated floodplain maps prompting the town's regulatory amendments. Duncaster — applicant whose new application was flagged in the director's report as coming before the commission at the next meeting. "Goldman in York" — entity referenced by applicant Paul Butler regarding workforce-housing compliance for Town Center Apartments Phase Four; exact name unclear due to apparent transcription error. Connecticut General Statutes 8-3k(a)(2) — cited as the basis for the automatic nine-year extension of the Muckle Road special permit and site plan to 2034. Zoning Regulations Section 7.6.G.3 — cited as the requirement for annual renewal hearings for bulky-waste volume-reduction and recycling special permits, independent of the extended approval date. Zoning Regulations Section 5.4 — cited governing PLR zone density, unit size minimums and residential use allowances in the 34 Tunxis Avenue discussion. Zoning Regulations Section 6.1 — cited governing buffer requirements for small projects, applied to the 34 Tunxis Avenue buffer plan. Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) — cited by applicant Kareem Ambrose as context for the proposed development's relationship to the adjoining R40 neighborhood. Staff report, Town of Bloomfield — cited as the source of conditions attached to the Muckle Road special permit renewal approval.