P&Z hears updates

WINSTED — The Board of Selectmen is scheduled to review proposals for the Lambert Kay building during its meeting on Monday, June 16.The former pet food factory building at 32 Lake St. has been vacant since 2002, when operations were shut down.The town purchased the property for $1 at a town meeting in October 2002.At the regular Planning and Zoning meeting on Monday, June 9, Town Manager Dale Martin said all proposals for the building were due to the town on Thursday, June 12.“Basically, the process is that [developers] have to submit proposals that include a purchase offer,” Martin said. “The offer would include a price of purchase, what their proposed use is, what their proposed timeline [for construction] is, how much they propose to invest in the building and how many jobs will be created by the project.”Martin said the selectmen would review all proposals submitted at Monday’s meeting.From there, Martin said the selectmen will have a chance to approve a proposal and send it to a special town meeting to see if residents approve it.“The town meeting would be scheduled to be held in 30 to 45 days, so it would be held by the end of July,” Martin said. “If the residents come out to say that they approve the proposal then it would be contingent upon the Town Manager and the Town Attorney [Kevin Nelligan] to consummate a purchase agreement within 30 days. The purchase agreement would have to be approved by the selectmen.”Commission member Barbara Wilkes asked Martin how many proposals the town received for the building.“Five or six individuals talked to me about it, but as of right now no one has submitted anything to me yet,” Martin said. “I talked to two or three people a day about it.”“Boy, that would be beautiful if this works,” Wilkes said. “It would be an albatross off of our neck.”One developer who will not be submitting a proposal to Martin is Michael Renzullo, who owns the nonprofit development corporation Laurel City Revamp.Through the organization, Renzullo owns the former Capitol Products building on 35 Willow St.Renzullo is also an alternate on the Planning and Zoning Commission and was seated at the meeting on June 9 due to the absence of member Susan Closson.Board member Art Melycher asked Renzullo if he would be submitting a proposal to Martin for Lambert Kay.“Not for that one,” Renzullo said. “I would love to do it, but it’s a big building. I can’t. I’m just working on what I have right now.”A year ago Renzullo announced plans to have Willow Tree Bakery to be the first tenants to move into the building.In November, the commission approved, with conditions, plans for the bakery to move into the building.The co-owners of the bakery are Janet Sosnicki and her daughter, Katie Sosnicki.Wilkes asked Renzullo how plans for both the building and the bakery are coming along.“Right now we are finishing architectural drawings for the whole building,” Renzullo said. “The engineers need to make a couple changes for the plan that is going to be submitted to the commission. We are going to [construct] the sidewalk as soon as possible. That is going to go in right away.”Renzullo said the Sosnickis had to redraw some of their proposed plans because of a change in their equipment.“They were going to go with electric baking equipment, but they changed it over to gas,” he said. “In the summer you will start to see things happen at the building.”