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Norm Cummings/Spectrum The view looking south on Railroad Street in New Milford would change if the Zoning Commission approves a mixed-use, energy-independent building proposed for the vacant lot on the left. Zoners will hold a hearing Tuesday at 7 p.m. on the plans.

New Milford could be getting a new “energy independent building” in the village center by year’s end.
Stephen Schappert, the developer and project manager, is proposing a mixed use retail/office/residential building at 72 Railroad St. on a vacant strip of property just south of Tommy’s Cleaners and across from Dolly’s Wine Boutique.
The Zoning Commission has scheduled a hearing on his proposal for Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the town hall.
“I am one person trying to change the world... trying to change the way people live,” Mr. Schappert said Tuesday. “This is my dream.”
He said he could put 20 units of affordable housing on the site and double his profit, but his goal is to build an energy-efficient building where people can take the elevator to work.
It’s not often you can please the business community, environmentalists and historic preservationists, Mr. Schappert said.
“The building will complement other uses in the area and will be a model of efficient energy design and compatible architecture,” he stated in an overview of the project. “The views from the upper floors are magnificent.”
Mr. Schappert is a member of the Buyer’s Trust Waterbury, LLC, that owns the property and is the managing member of Bios Building Technologies, which would have an office in the building.
A Bios building is defined by Mr. Schappert as one “that uses only clean, renewable energy for heating, cooling and electricity.”
“It’s powered completely by the earth and sun,” Mr. Schappert said, explaining that geothermal heat pumps would be connected to photovoltaic cells on the roof. There would be no gas hookups or oil tanks and no impact from foreign fuel prices.
He said he believes the building will generate more electricity than needed and will be selling power to the electric company.
The web site for Bios Building Technologies promotes the project as “Now you can live, work and play in the historic district of New Milford, half a block from where Adam Sandler filmed Mr. Deeds!”
Plans call for a 25-by-100-foot building that would showcase “the best of building and design technologies.” It would be set back four feet from the sidewalk with planters in front (see related story, Page S2).
Three and a half stories of the 14,280-square-foot building Mr. Schappert designed would be above ground level.
The proposed height of the building is approximately 50 feet to the peak, twice the height of the adjacent building, according to Zoning Enforcement Officer Kathy Castagnetta.
If approved, it would become the tallest building on the street. The ZEO said the tallest building – 47 feet in overall height – is at 22 Railroad St., the building that houses the Home Buffet restaurant.
Ms. Castagnetta has several concerns about the project outlined in her report to the commission, including a lack of site plans prepared by a licensed engineer, lack of an A-2 survey and lack of details regarding plantings, the amount of excavation required, dumpster locations, and the need for blasting.
“The plan appears to be very conceptual,” the ZEO stated in her report to zoners. “I strongly recommend the commission not approve this plan without the submission of an engineered site plan based on a class A-2 survey.”
Mr. Schappert, a custom home builder from Brookfield, said Tuesday he expects to have an A-2 survey by Tuesday’s hearing and that engineered plans would be coming as well through his Panelized Building Systems Home dealership.
The Railroad Street site once housed the Bostwick Button Factory that burned in 1889. Mr. Schappert modeled the architecture of the façade to replicate features of the button factory, with period styled store front windows on the ground level and colonial casements on the upper stories.
A dormer/balcony replicates a warehouse loft opening as recommended by the New Milford Trust for Historic Preservation members, he said.
The proposal calls for the basement to be used for utilities and storage, the lower ground level – half below grade – and main levels for office and retail use and the top story and a half for three apartments or condominiums