As Bill Doak says, so I do…

Bill Doak, editor of the East Hartford Gazette, once wrote an editorial in the EH Gazette which said, in other words of course, if all we bloggers do is tear things down without offering an idea of how to build things up then we can go to hell because we are useless. You know Bill, you are right. In recognition of this I offer the following to the readers.

I’ve been thinking about the public hearing coming up on the 20th which will be a continued opportunity for residents to speak on the proposed changes to section 503.3 Special Permits which would make Adult Businesses a permitted use for all 177 I-3 zoned properties in town.

What I’ve been thinking is how does this I-3 concept compare to a Roberts Street zone. Conveniently at the last hearing the counsel for the P&Z had not calculated the maximum club density, despite the fact that they had done so for the N. Meadows/Prestige plan. What I found in figuring it out myself is that the current proposed I-3 plan can support up to an estimated 25 new adult businesses based solely on the 1000′ between businesses requirement.

Here is a slightly more zoomed in map of the I-3 zones for more clarity.
I-3 Zones – Large

Now for your viewing pleasure here is the GIS map I threw together to represent a Roberts Street zone.
Roberts St Adult Zone

I’ll guide you through my Roberts St map. First you’ll notice the blue outline, these are 39 I-2/B-3 zoned parcels on Roberts St. Notice that the Masters Club property is not highlighted, though I have labeled it, this is because the GIS information is incorrect and lumps it together with a Church Street parcel. The total size of this adult zone would be 104 acres give or take a bit. You’ll also notice I’ve put labels on some parcels. The labeled parcels are the parcels that an adult business would be required to purchase to achieve the maximum density of 4 clubs. I labeled these parcels based on their current ownership.

Moving left from the Masters Club parcel the first properties that comply with the 1000′ buffer are labeled with their current owner CL&P. I don’t foresee CL&P selling the properties to an adult business.

The labeled property to the far left is the first property that meets the 1000′ requirement from the CL&P cluster. That property is owned by the State of CT. I can’t see the State selling to an adult business either.

To the far right we see two parcels labeled vacant land. These are the first parcels to the right of the existing Masters Club property which meet the 1000′ requirement. I doubt either are buildable for the purpose of an adult business being less than an acre each.

The result is that we’ve allocated 39 parcels of land comprised of 104 acres as permitted use, but due to the location of Masters Club, which is beyond the towns doing, maximum density could likely never be reached.

If we were to combine this zone with the deal that Mr. Chu has referred to previously we could potentially end up with both lawsuits dropped, the adult club use for both the Venus Lounge and Kahoots property being abandoned ending their grandfathering, and no club on Pitkin Street. This may or may not be feasible, but it ought to be investigated.

Well there you go Bill. I provided some nails and hopefully someone else can provide the hammer.