With Snafu Solved, Demo Work To Resume At Parcels In Vernon

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With Snafu Solved, Demo Work To Resume At Parcels In Vernon The former Lazy Liquor lot will soon be joining the former Pancho Loco property as an empty lot to make way for a strip plaza.

VERNON, CT — With a regulatory snafu resolved, demolition work may now resume on a dual parcel along the 200 block of Talcottville Road that is planned for a small strip plaza.

It has been about 11 months since the former Pancho Loco restaurant at 218 Talcottville Road was reduced to a pile of rubble. The razing of the Lazy Liquor building just to the west was supposed to follow soon.

Well ...

The project became mired in a paperwork nightmare that took until this month to resolve.

For about the past six years, town officials thought the entire parcel sat in a strictly commercial zone, but, it turns out, that was a mistake created on the town land records when they were converted over to the current electronic system.

A bit of research after a protest by an abutting property owner uncovered two separate zones that put the front two-thirds in a commercial zone and the back end of the property in a special residential zone, Vernon Economic Development Director Shaun Gately said.

The courts decided the most practical thing to do was to re-visit the regulatory process, since it was advertised erroneously, he added.

The plans thus have been approved with some buffer added to the rear of the parcel. A special permit has been issued for the project as well as the zone change to commercial, Gately said. There is a 15-day challenge period.

The small, single-family house behind the Lazy Liquor building will be taken down as well, Gately said.

The plans are to put a strip plaza that could accommodate stores measuring between 2,000 square feet and 14,000 square feet in place of the former restaurant and liquor store. In itself, the strip plaza will measure 20,500 square feet once completed, according to the plans.

The property is owned by South Windsor-based entrepreneur Jagdev Toor, who owns several parcels along that stretch of Talcottville Road, also known as state Route 83.