Taller & Closer: Wilton’s Biggest Proposed Apt. Complex Encouraged to Skirt New Zoning Limits

Toll Brothers headed back to the Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday, Sept. 9 for a fourth round of pre-application discussion and a new design for a 208-unit apartment complex at 15 Old Danbury Rd. The site is across the street from the Wilton train station and falls within the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) zoning overlay passed by P&Z last fall.

“This is probably the most dense [project] you’re going to see in town,” Town Planner Michael Wrinn said. “It’s a TOD area, and if you’re going to have a high density development, this is the place to do it.”

The project’s history with P&Z has been a story of ups and downs, beginning with an October 2023 pre-application hearing in which the Commission expressed support for the project but encouraged a more broken up, less institutional layout and a more modern design. The team returned in March 2024 with an overhauled proposal that split the project into two wings connected by a glass amenity building. Architect Seelan Pather said the new design was inspired by the idea of an old Connecticut mill, adaptively reused as a residential structure. The center structure, he said, was meant to evoke a train hall, in a nod to the Metro North Station across the street.

After initialing hearing positive reactions in that March pre-application (round #2), the team then came back in May 2024 for a third pre-app with what seemed like final details ahead of submitting a formal application. However, the Commissioners and their counterparts at the Architectural Review Board expressed emerging doubts about the mill-inspired direction, especially its expansive flat roof.

P&Z Chair Rick Tomasetti cautioned that he thought the iterative design process was leading toward a building that was “generic.” In a parallel review at ARB, one rendering showing how the building would appear to drivers along Danbury Rd. led to a memorable quote from ARB member Kathy Poirier.

“This is a big, ugly box that we’re just going to see the top of,” she said.

Several commissioners also flagged that the flat roof was being depicted empty in renderings but would in reality house a substantial amount of mechanical equipment to service the buildings.

In his most presentation on Monday, Sept. 9, Pather shared new renderings that he said were inspired by feedback from the Commission last time that, “if it wants to be a mill building, make it a mill building.” This comment led the team, in his words, “to move from a very abstracted, modern and simplified façade to a more traditional, detailed façade.”

This time around, the Toll Brothers’s team seems to have hit upon a design that may work for the Commission. The Mansard-style roof won praise from the architects and non-architects alike. Commissioner Chris Pagliaro suggested possibly painting the letters WILTON down the side of one of the tower features, a reimagining of the rooftop “Wilton” sign that appeared in the prior iteration.

The only real note of overall critique came from Commissioner Mark Ahasic, who said he preferred the modern architecture of the earlier version.

“I think this is a little too busy and a little too cute,” he said.

Vice Chair Melissa-Jean Rotini was positive about the design overall but brought attention to a shed dormer feature at one end that seemed out of place and under designed.

One element that seems clear is that despite being one of the only sites in town eligible for the TOD zoning overlay passed just last fall, the project will require some combination of waivers and text amendments to tweak the new rules. Over the course of the last year of pre-application discussion, the two groups have discussed issues that will need to be resolved related to parking allotments, setback requirements, and height limits. This practice of spot zoning (creating custom zoning rules that apply to just one parcel or building lot) was one of the activities the Commission hoped to avoid in overhauling and modernizing the area’s zoning rules.

The fact that the very first (and possibly only) project to use the new TOD overlay is being designed in a way that will require the town to bend its own, brand new rules seemed to initially give the Commission pause.

“We are wondering what your appetite is for a text amendment?” asked attorney Lisa Feinberg in March.

“I don’t know how I feel about that,” Tomasetti answered. “We’ve just gone through our process that talks about this… this would be literally the tallest building in Wilton and I’ve got a little concern about tinkering too much with a text change.”

However, he added, “We tend to be pragmatic and realistic about things and that’s how we want to be seen. We don’t want to dictate a bunch of things.”

Any such concern appears to have faded over the last year, with Tomasetti himself seeming to encourage the applicant to explore building both taller (Sept. 9) and closer to the property line (Mar. 11) than the overlay allows.

“You’re probably feeling constrained by our heights, thinking that it needs to be constrained,” he said this week, in a discussion about the squatness of a tower structure at the roofline. “I would urge attorney Feinberg to look at that… you know, it’s an overlay. There’s some discretion in this overlay.”

Pather then interjected. “Sorry, can I just ask the question: you can clearly see that we’re up against the max building height. So are we saying that we could maybe… go above it?”

“I’m thinking that there’s always a rationale for an architectural feature that’s a certain de minimis area of a roof plan that has some… I don’t know, the lawyers have to design for us.”

Wrinn agreed to work with Feinberg to craft language that would allow the towers on the site to extend above the overlay’s height limit.

Back in March, Tomasetti brought up the zoning overlay’s setback requirements, which state that buildings to leave 50 feet of unbuilt space between the building edge and the property line. He asked whether this requirement was “handcuffing” the team in terms of site layout. 

“Part of me looks at a site like this and wonders, ‘would it be the end of the world if you had a 30-foot setback somewhere that improves the site?” he said.

The Greater Wilton Center Master Plan project had initially sought to reign in and rationalize the zoning map for Wilton Center and nearby Danbury Rd. which were then governed by a patchwork of seven different zoning codes. However, in opting for a series of zoning overlays instead of rewriting the code itself, the subcommittee process in fact added four more zoning districts to the area. There are now 11 sets of zoning rules operating in a 0.64 square mile area. This includes the TOD overlay, which is unlikely to be used for any project other than the Toll Brothers development, and still itself may need to be tweaked with text amendments.

Looking Ahead

What happens next is up to the applicant. In March, Feinberg had asked if the project could proceed to a formal application and public review and at that point she was told that it would be better to resolve any zoning questions before submitting the project. With direction from the Commission after this fourth pre-application hearing, the team could either work with staff and submit the proposal formally, or return to the Commission for a fifth pre-application hearing.

As with all pre-apps, no public comment is allowed at this stage. Once the project is officially submitted, it would enter the public review process, at which point written comments can be sent to the Planning and Zoning Commission or staff. Once all presentations by the applicant have been completed and P&Z has finished its own question and answer period, the public is permitted to speak.