Storrs Center progress to be detailed in public meetings

The Mansfield Downtown Partnership Inc. and Leyland Alliance, developers of the Storrs Center project, will begin holding a series of open houses on Thursday, Feb. 2, starting at 5:30 p.m.

The public meetings are designed to keeps lines of communication open between developers of the 15-acre retail and housing development and area residents as the project moves forward, says Cynthia van Zelm, executive director of the Mansfield Downtown Partnership.

“I think we’ve established a good rapport with the area’s residents, and we certainly want to continue working on that relationship,” she says. “We’d like to continue these monthly meetings right up to the time construction begins, and probably beyond.”

The meetings, scheduled for the first Thursday of every month, will be held at the Partnership’s offices, located behind People’s Bank and Starbucks.

During the fall, the Partnership received a series of approvals – all unanimous – for the project’s Municipal Development Plan, which lays out a vision for the project. Now, the group must return to the Mansfield Planning and Zoning Commission to discuss creation of a Special Design District (SDD), which would apply to a mixed-use area such as Storrs Center.