After turning back a national developer’s plan for an 800,000-square-foot warehouse, a coalition of residents in rural Connecticut is preparing to challenge the company’s new proposal to construct two buildings with a total of 700,000 square feet.
The New Jersey-based Silverman Group has been trying for several years to develop part of its 130 acres along Rainbow Road in East Granby, less than 2 miles from Bradley International Airport.
Its latest plan is for a pair of warehouses that neighbors warn could bring hundreds of tractor trailers a day onto Rainbow Road, an already busy thoroughfare that runs east through Windsor to I-91.
Residents in the nearby Sanford Ridge condo development have already begun circulating petitions to block the plan, which they fear could mean around-the-clock noise, exhaust fumes and glaring nighttime lights in what has been a quiet neighborhood.
“Folks have moved to East Granby for its small-town farm community quaintness, not to live in a warehouse airport buffer zone riddled with gas stations and shipping facilities,” said Jason Hayes, a spokesman for the opposition and the Democratic candidate for first selectman.
Silverman’s previous plan won some support in town, with proponents saying it would build the tax base in a tiny community that faces rising expenses for education and other services.
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Both sides are expected to turn out if Silverman formally applies for a zoning permit later this year. On Wednesday night, the local wetlands board unanimously approved its proposed access road that infringes on a small section of wetlands.
Silverman asked the town three years ago to change local zoning rules that cap warehouses at 400,000 square feet. The company wanted to build a logistics center of 800,000 square feet, and told East Granby that the market wasn’t going to support 400,000-square-foot centers.
East Granby was one of several communities near the airport that balked at the expansion of enormous distribution centers and warehouses. Some towns passed moratoriums on new ones, and over the past three years the pace of new proposals has slowed dramatically.
Silverman on Wednesday told wetlands officials that it now wants to build the 400,000- and 300,000-square-foot warehouses without a committed tenant yet. The company said it might phase construction, leaving as much as two years between completing the first and starting the second.
Hayes said residents at the nearby Stanford Ridge development of detached condos are especially worried about noise and pollution, particularly because Silverman’s larger building would have 140 docking bays; 70 for receiving and 70 for shipping.
“The cross docking facility has 70 docking bays on each side. This with multiple shifts could be 700 plus trucks a day easily,” he said. “This does not even take into account the second proposed warehouse.
“East Granby already has its share of semi truck traffic coming off I-91 and turning left onto International Drive to service all of those massive warehouses,” Hayes said. “If one of the traffic lights on Rainbow Road/Turkey Hills Road goes out of sync, it can take you 35 minutes to get from Holcomb to the I-91 on-ramp in the morning. We simply cannot take another hit of semi truck traffic.”
Nearby homeowners have begun circulating petitions calling for the state transportation department to conduct an independent traffic study because Rainbow Road, also known as Route 20, is a state roadway.
Crowds of residents complained to town officials in 2022 that Route 20 was already choked with traffic, with some lamenting the conversion of old shade tobacco farms in the region into sprawling, multi-story warehouses.
Dollar Tree and Walgreens each have enormous million-square-foot distribution centers nearby, and Dollar Tree maintains a 300,000-square-foot operation. In Windsor, Amazon’s five-story, 3.8-million-square-foot center is the company’s largest in New England.
Hayes, who has worked in the film and television industries for decades, suggested Silverman consider a less-intensive use on the property: Sound studios. Bradley’s proximity and large, quiet surrounding space for a studio would benefit producers, while homeowners would be assured of a quiet, unobtrusive neighbor, he said.
Hayes said he doubts new warehouses close to residential properties would yield much of a net gain for the tax base.
“What happens to all those properties at Sanford Ridge? Their values will be going down,” he said.
