Residents of the small town of Middlebury have filed another lawsuit against another proposed warehouse or distribution center in town following years of political strife and division over the town’s approval of a different distribution center that eventually made statewide news in 2023 when a state budget provision effectively ended the project.
Save Historic Middlebury, Inc., and four residents whose homes are near the proposed warehouse on Straits Turnpike have filed a lawsuit against the Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT), the Office of State Traffic Administration (OSTA), and the landowners – Swamp Brook, LLC, and Straits Industrial LLC, — alleging the OSTA ignored the safety and traffic implications the development will cause on the two-lane road, and negatively affect residents living nearby.
The project was approved by the town’s Conservation Commission and Planning and Zoning Commission in April 2025. That decision was appealed in court by the Middlebury Small Town Alliance (MSTA), an organization comprised of Middlebury residents, who argued the Commission had improperly granted the warehouse permit, but the judge ultimately sided with the Commission. MSTA is seeking to appeal that decision.
However, in the meantime, Save Historic Middlebury, Inc. and the nearby residents claim the DOT and the OSTA didn’t consider all the necessary factors when concluding the proposed warehouse would not adversely impact traffic conditions and safety, and only relied on the concurrence of Middlebury’s Chief of Police, who also acts as the Local Traffic Authority.
According to the Traffic Investigation Report, the project will include widening the road in the vicinity of the warehouse driveway to accommodate increased traffic. The plaintiffs claim the DOT ignored their repeated requests for reconsideration or a public hearing.
Nicholas Stuller, president of Save Historic Middlebury, says the land has historic value and, after learning that a woman had died in a car accident on the road two years ago, joined with those residents living near the proposed site to file the suit.
“We’ve been against this distribution center for a while, we’ve been trying to preserve this land,” Stuller said in an interview. “We’ve learned that the road has always been kind of dangerous, but we didn’t know to what degree.”
“This became an issue greater than good, ole-fashioned historic preservation, it became a citizenship issue,” Stuller continued. “For us, it’s obvious; if you insert one-hundred, two-hundred, three-hundred tractor trailers per day on that stretch of Straits Turnpike, the odds of another major accident fatality are just astronomically higher.”
Both the property owners and the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office have filed motions to dismiss, arguing that neither the nearby residents nor Save Historic Middlebury have standing to appeal the DOT’s decision because they weren’t the applicant, and that they cannot show they will be aggrieved by the decision.
“Desperately seeking to halt a fully-approved development, Plaintiffs seek to overturn the decision of the Office of the State Traffic Administration (“OSTA”) with respect to the major traffic generator application filed by Defendants Swamp Brook, LLC and Straits Industrial, LLC (collectively “Swamp Brook”),” attorney for Swamp Brook, LLC, and Straits Industrial, LLC Amy E. Souchuns, wrote. “However, Plaintiffs are not among the persons or entities authorized to appeal under Conn. Gen. Stat. §14-311(e) because they were not the applicant to OSTA.”
The proposed warehouse on Straits Turnpike would accommodate parking for seventy-five vehicles and twenty-four loading docks, and would construct an “unsignalized driveway,” according to the Traffic Investigation Report. The site, which is part of the much-fought-over Timex Corporation property, would accommodate a 171,600 square foot warehouse; the adjacent lot already has 105,000 square feet of office space and parking for 425.
It’s the latest in a multi-year battle between a vocal and active group of residents in Middlebury and developers looking to utilize the former Timex property. There have been four warehouse/distribution center proposals and two, including the development on Straits Turnpike, that have been approved by the town’s relevant commissions. Those approvals, however, have faced heavy legal pushback by residents that spilled over into town politics.
The 2022 approval of a massive distribution center proposal by Southford Park, LLC, a company that lists David Drubner as its principal, was appealed in court by the Middlebury Small Town Alliance. A last-minute provision put into the state budget in 2023 created a law restricting that development in Middlebury and handed MSTA a victory in court, although that court decision is currently being appealed by Southford Park.
According to state business registrations, the proposed project on Straits Turnpike is also co-owned by David Drubner who, along with a partner, formed Straits Industrial, LLC in 2025.
The furor over the distribution center propelled one of its founders – Jennifer Mahr – to unseat long-time First Selectman Edward St. John in the 2025 municipal elections. The various legal and political battles over the warehouse proposals have divided the town ever since.
At the January 2025 public hearing on the proposed project before the Middlebury Planning and Zoning Commission, owner of Swamp Brook, LLC, Edward Fitzpatrick, presented the proposal and disputed “misinformation,” that the project would be a distribution center, according to meeting minutes.
“It is for warehousing use and not a distribution center,” Fitzpatrick said, according to meeting minutes. “This cannot and will not ever be a distribution facility.”
The January and February Planning and Zoning Commission meetings saw numerous residents speak out against the proposal, citing traffic safety concerns, according to the meeting minutes. The zoning application was approved unanimously on April 3, 2025.
Stuller says he believes there’s enough evidence that OSTA should reverse its decision and conduct a more thorough investigation of the road and potential traffic implications.
“For us, there’s more than enough evidence for OSTA to stop, reverse their decision, and do further investigation,” Stuller said. “Because they refuse to do any of that, we felt compelled to file a suit.”
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