Plans to expand the retail convenience sales area into the two former repair bays at Ridgefield Mobil on Danbury Road have been reviewed by the town’s Architectural Advisory Committee. ‘They liked it,’ said Todd Schoenherr, one of the station’s new owners. ‘The garage doors are gone, replaced with a similar quantity of windows. They liked the columns.’
With new owners eager to improve on their investment in the town they live in, a larger convenience store is planned at the site of the Mobil gas station at 31 Danbury Road, Route 35, across from the intersection of Grove Street.
The eight vehicle fueling stations would remain, under plans submitted to the town. The building would not be enlarged, but the two service bays would be converted to a convenience retail area.
New owners — Todd Schoenherr of Florida Hill Road and Seth Evans of Ivy Hill Road — have acquired the property under the name Two Hills LLC.
“I didn’t realize the Ridgefield Mobil was the center of Ridgefield, until now,” Mr. Schoenherr said with a laugh.
“Todd’s lived here 10 years. I’ve lived here seven years,” Mr. Evans said. “And we’ve met a side of Ridgefield I didn’t even know existed. I know twice as many people as I did before.”
They’re continuing to operate the station, which they purchased in October, but hope to move ahead with the planned renovation.
“We’d like to have this up and running by the end of March,” Mr. Schoenherr said last week. “We’re on a pretty fast time line, as much as we can be.”
“Our hope is we’re going to make downtown look a little bit better,” Mr. Evans said. “We both live here. Our wives live here — they’d kill us if we didn’t.”
The two investors both have corporate jobs, with families in town, and kids at Farmingville School. They met playing on the same softball team in the town’s men’s league, and shared an interest in investing locally.
“We looked at a lot of places,” Mr. Evans said.
A lot of what sold them on the Mobil station was the commitment of the employees — all of whom they retained.
“The employees were tremendously engaged,” Mr. Evans said.
“It became obvious that the employees that are working here — the people that come in have a connection,” Mr. Schoenherr said.
Plans for the enlarged convenience store have been filed with the town planning office and were scheduled to be presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission as part of an administrative review process under which Town Planner Betty Brosius would approve the plans.
A small convenience store of about 240 square feet is currently part of the station’s office and cashier area. Under the proposal, that would be expanded to encompass 1,460 square feet of floor space in the 1,930-square-foot building.
The owners are also exploring an alternative plan, in which 300 square feet of the new area would be devoted to a small deli counter.
“They may or may not add a small deli counter,” Ms. Brosius said, “but will at least have the coffee service and pre-prepared food available in the store.”
“Our goal is there would be a food service component,” Mr. Schoenherr said.
Danbury Road’s intersection with Grove Street is a high-traffic area, and the plan’s effect on traffic in the area would likely be the greatest concern of planning and zoning officials.
In a memorandum to the commission Ms. Brosius wrote: “The property is contiguous to a busy intersection where there are a variety of turning movements and potential conflict points from through-traffic as well as from the access and egress driveways of several business properties.”
A traffic study was prepared by Michael Galante of Frederick P. Clark Associates, and a four-page analysis is part of the file. Standard “site traffic generation data” suggests that adding a convenience store will generate more traffic than a couple of auto repair bays, Mr. Galante says. But he argues that the facility will mostly be drawing on the already high volume of traffic that passes by the site, not inducing people to drive there from far off to buy convenience items — especially during the high-traffic times, such as commuter hours.
“The current volume of traffic on Danbury Road is over 1,600 vehicles (two-way) during peak hours,” Mr. Galante wrote. “However, it is our opinion that the convenience market would draw from this existing traffic and not create new traffic.”
Ms. Brosius’s memo told the commission that in the site plan review process, there was little room for discretion.
“It is important to note that, since this is a site plan application and not a special permit, the application must be approved provided that it meets the standards in the zoning regulations,” Ms. Brosius wrote.