Out of the Ashes: Skate Time II

Traffic was closed down in both directions on Main Street on Nov. 3, the morning the 40-year-old building that housed Skate Time Roller Rink, Arms and Munitions and Fairfield County Shooting Range to the ground.

The property was reduced to an empty lot, but its owner, John Scianna Sr., plans to rebuild on the site and offer the same uses, with the exception of an that was in back of the old facility.

Todd Genovese, an architect with Rose Tiso & Co. LLC, a Fairfield firm, presented blueprints for a new 17,956-square-foot building at 193 Main Street to the Architectural Review Board at Monroe Town Hall Tuesday night.

"This is just being called a building replacement," Genovese told the board.

However, the configuration of the building would be different. Rather than the businesses being side-by-side, Scianna wants the roller rink to be in the front and the gun range to be in the back.

Genovese said the rink would be approximately 4,800 square feet and the gun range 12,672 square feet.

"We are going more with a traditional gabled roof," he said.

The roof would have architectural shingles, there would be crown molding, a three-foot-high soldier course of brick masonry around the base of the building and vinyl siding which Genovese said would be Hardiplank.

He said earth tones would be used for the color of the building, beige and dark brown for contrast and white trim. The windows and door frames would be a dark, classic bronze.

The building would have a large front entrance with a lot of windows, there would be a window in the shape of a semi-circle at the top, center of the structure, and there would be small three-by-three foot windows to the left and the right sides of the front facade.

There would also be two doors on a side of the building, one of them being the entrance to the gun range.

"The vinyl makes me nervous," said Nancy Steinborn, an Architectural Review Board (ARB) member.

"I'm not crazy about the vinyl," fellow ARB member Michael Vitello agreed.

Genovese said the material is very durable and easy to maintain. He handed the board samples of the vinyl he wants to use.

"It does have more of a texture to it," Steinborn said. "But I'm not 100-percent with this. It doesn't look as authentic to me somehow and there's more of it."

When vinyl siding is used on a house, Steinborn noted how it is broken up by the windows, shutters and other features, adding that is not the case with the large building being proposed for Main Street.

"It gives me the feeling of a big box store with a big entrance," she said.

"The windows look like dots," Vitello said of the windows to the left and the right of the facade.

Genovese said those windows could be widened, but explained how it overlooks lockers and benches and is really meant to provide accent lighting.

"The brick is fine," Vitello said of the base of the building. "I think it should be higher than three feet. It should be 4.8 feet or something like that."

He also recommended making the trim on the upper part of the building bigger and tripling the size of the piers to about 90 inches.

ARB members also want to ensure that the building's mechanicals are hidden.

Steinborn said the owner should add a green buffer on the island that runs along Route 25 in front of the property.

Planning & Zoning Commission Chairman Richard Zini, who attended the meeting, said that would be a zoning issue and something the applicant would need permission from the Connecticut Department of Transportation to do, because Route 25 is a state road.

ARB Chairman John Rosen asked Genovese to address the concerns made by his board and to come back with a revised plan on May 10. The ARB is an advisory board and an application will eventually have to come before the Planning & Zoning Commission.

Chief Building Official James Sandor told Genovese his client must submit an application before the end of April if he wants to have a P&Z hearing in May.

The new building would be visible to those entering town via Main Street. Aside from being popular in Monroe, Joyce Mumm, an ARB member, noted how the roller rink attracted many people from surrounding towns.

"This is going to be a very important project from an aesthetic view," Rosen said.