Fresh Market Awaits STC Approval for Parking Lot Design

The Planning and Zoning Commission has once again approved the parking lot site plan as part of a proposed Fresh Market in Nod Brook Mall, but the applicants cannot apply for a building permit until the State Traffic Control Commission reviews the design in April at earliest.

Adjustments were proposed that adhere to STC recommendations.

"We made minor geometric changes to the main access drive," David Carson, an engineer from OCC Group, Inc., said.

The changes included making a more decisive righthand turn lane from the entrance into the Fresh Market site.

"We are going to resubmit [the site plan] with the STC tomorrow," Kevin Cornell of Midwood Management Corp. said after his presentation to the commission on Tuesday night. "We hope to be on the STC's calendar for approval in April."

He said that he hopes to have informal meetings with the Avon Building Department to discuss the process before filing an application for a building permit.

Midwood is required to obtain the STC's approval on its Nod Brook Mall parking lot redesign plan before submitting requesting a building permit. The STC is involved in the application process because Route 44, a state highway, runs by Nod Brook Mall and the STC has reviewed the affect a Fresh Market would have on traffic flow.

Exiting traffic from Fresh Market to Route 44 through the Nod Brook Mall parking lot would also be looped around the entire parking lot. Eastbound traffic exiting onto Route 44 would be encouraged to leave via the smaller exit near the former Ninety Nine and westbound traffic from the main exit. An immediate lefthand turn from Fresh Market into the entryway of the Nod Brook lot would be illegal.

Midwood and Fresh Market had initially hoped to break ground in the spring, but now it will be longer as the STC reviews the revised proposal and a building permit application has also not been submitted yet.