Norwich ― After hearing two hours of comments from residents ― mostly opposed to plans for a second business park in Occum ― the City Council-zoning board on Monday continued the public hearing to Dec. 19 on the proposed Business Master Plan District.

The Norwich Community Development Corp., though, is expected to vote at a special meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday to go ahead with the purchase of 384 acres of former farmland, woodland on Canterbury Turnpike, Scotland Road, Lawler Lane and Route 97 that abuts Interstate 395.

NCDC has an agreement to purchase the property for $3.55 million and will finalize a loan agreement for $3.1 million with New York-based Braavos Lending LLC.

The project also is slated to receive a $500,000 planning grant at the state Bond Commission Thursday. NCDC plans to apply for other state and federal grants in 2023 for what is being called Business Park North.

But on Monday, neighbors urged the City Council, which serves as the zoning board in Norwich, to delay or reject the plan as inappropriate for the quiet, rural residential Occum area. The public hearing will continue at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 19 at Kelly Middle School auditorium.

NCDC Attorney Mark Block called the property the largest undeveloped assemblage in the city and it provides an opportunity for future development, creation of jobs and increased tax and utility revenues.

Block called the master plan “a concept plan,” with a request to approve the proposed 7,700-foot-long access road off I-395 Exit 18, with roundabouts designed to keep traffic off local residential streets.

The Commission on the City Plan recommended the City Council address six specific conditions: building height, minimum setbacks for buildings from property lines, signage, parking standards, perimeter buffer zones and lighting.

Project engineer Jeff Bord, of Bohler Engineering of West Hartford, said NCDC is asking for maximum building heights of 80 feet, minimum building setbacks from property lines of 20 feet and landscaped buffer zones from residential properties of at least 20 feet with a 4-foot-high berm with a six-foot privacy fence.

Residents said no buffers would block the views of an 80-foot-tall building. Neighbors objected to construction traffic and noise, business park traffic and disruptions to wildlife with the loss of natural habitat. Several speakers doubted the dedicated road could keep traffic off local roads.

Margee Charron, owner of Bubbles to Butterfly Swim School on Route 97 in Occum, which would abut the project, said when the project expands narrow School Street at her site, it will become unsafe for parents of “thousands and thousands” of children coming for swimming lessons.

Charron said she lives on Plain Hill Road, and there is constant Norwich Business Park traffic, including large trucks, using that narrow residential road to get to Stott Avenue into the current business park.

“This is a travesty to the residents,” Charron said. She said she is not opposed to businesses but said the industrial scale of the proposed business park would ruin the rural character of Occum.

Leon Baldwin of Old Canterbury Turnpike said the project should be put to a referendum for Norwich voters to decide. “I am highly against this,” he said.

Several speakers questioned NCDC’s claims that the current business park is nearly full. Some said they drove through the park and saw few cars at some businesses, and vacant buildings. Scotland Road resident and former Alderman Samuel Browning repeated his call to demolish the Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium to provide 50 acres of flat developable land.

Lawler Lane resident Sue Jacobson expressed concerns ranging from displacement of wildlife to education costs if more residents move to Norwich to work in the park.

Jacobson also questioned whether the business park would improve the city’s tax base. If the road is built first, as proposed, and no development comes, the city would be left to maintain the road.

“My biggest concern is my taxes,” Jacobson said. “At the last meeting, they said there would be tax breaks that would go over a matter of years for someone that came in here. So really, it will be years in the future before we feel any benefits from this. Hopefully our children will feel the benefit from this, but it’s going to be very difficult for us.”

On Wednesday, NCDC President Kevin Brown said the agency is listening to the concerns of neighbors expressed at the zoning hearing and at a Nov. 9 neighborhood meeting.

“We listened, and we will continue to do everything we can to integrate and solve for these quality of life concerns,” Brown said in a statement, “while we simultaneously make sure that we put Norwich in an advantageous position to attract the type of economic development this city desperately needs.”

c.bessette@theday.com