Business & Tech

Municipal Services Committee to Hear Rezoning Request for Celestine Property

Special use permits have allowed businesses to run at 1224 Plainfield Road for decades. City of Darien likely to make it official.

Locals have known for years that two bustling businesses reside in the wooded enclave at 1224 Plainfield Road, just west of Brookhaven Plaza.

Now the city of Darien is on track to rezone the land, home to and boutique. This means it officially will become what it’s been used as for more than three decades: business property.

After a public hearing Wednesday, Darien’s Planning and Zoning Commission approved a recommendation to rezone 1224 Plainfield Road from a R-2 single-family residence to a B-2 community shopping center business district.

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The Municipal Services Committee will hear the request at Monday night’s meeting and send its recommendation to City Council for consideration May 2.

A variety of special-use permits over the past few decades have allowed the salon and later a series of boutiques to occupy the two houses on the property, senior planner Michael Griffith said during Wednesday’s hearing.

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“Rezoning would bring the rules that apply to the property in line with how it’s actually being used,” Griffith said.

He said that designating the property a business district aligns with Darien’s 2002 Comprehensive Plan Update, which envisions that stretch of Plainfield Road as a commercial corridor.

Two residents told Griffith prior to the hearing that they were concerned the land would be redeveloped as a shopping center. Griffith said the size of the property and lack of space for a larger parking lot would prevent the land from becoming too developed, although the rezoning technically would permit a three-story building.

Property owner Erika Zimmerman explained that she doesn’t plan on making any major alterations to the two small houses that occupy the land.

“I don’t want a five-story building there,” she said.

Not much is expected to change at 1224 Plainfield. The freestanding Celestine sign along Plainfield Road, installed after Zimmerman received a special-use permit in 2008, is already at the maximum allowed under B-2 zoning.

It’s possible that the rezoning would allow a slightly larger sign on the side of the buildings, Griffith said.

Both the Municipal Services Committee and City Council are expected to approve the rezoning, Griffith said.


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