New Homes

Foreign students and a local doctor both have gifts of new homes.

Both buildings were unanimously approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission recently.

Dr. Robert Patrignelli, a dermatologist, wants to renovate the Former Bank of America building at 17 Church Hill Road into a two-story structure for his new practice, which he is moving from an office building at 965 White Plains Road.

"We did a lot of neighborhood outreach and we're very, very pleased how it was received," said John Fallon, Patrignelli's lawyer.

Patrignelli will use the first floor and rent out the second, Fallon said.

"It is substantially in the same footprint," said Jim Swift, a landscaper designer and engineer.

Architect Joe Mingolello said the building will have shingles on the upper floor and brick on the lower floor.

"We think it fits in very nicely with the other structures," he said.

"It's going to have an attractive streetscape," Fallon said, adding that no parking will be visible from the street.

He called Patrignelli, who's practiced here since 2003, an "established Trumbull physician."

Town Planner Bill Levin asked the developer for separation from surrounding properties and a landscape site bond, among other approval requirements.

Commission member Arlyne Fox asked if there would be a sign, but Fallon said no.

Town Economic Development Director Deborah Cox also"wholeheartedly" supported the doctor's office.

Meanwhile, Ray Rizio, a lawyer representing St. Joseph High School, 2320 Huntington Tpke., asked to use a 40-year-old convent building to house its foreign students.

"Currently the children stay in homestays throughout the town," Rizio said.

The convent originally housed priests and nuns who worked at the school, but now the private Catholic School's staff is 98 percent laypeople, he said.

"It was built for residential purposes. It was approved for residential purposes," he said.

He added that it would be well-buffered, and that the school's student population now encompasses 30 different towns and "a number of different countries."

Students would be supervised by adults.

School President William Fitzgerald, sporting a tie with the school's maroon and gold colors, said housing "is a perfect use for this."

"Students, they are well-cared for generally by families in Trumbull but there are exceptions to that," he said, without elaborating.

The building would house 18 students and have its own kitchen and study hall.

The commission approved a rule change that allows visiting students to be housed on campus near the school they attend as long as the housing is on school property.

Rizio said his two daughters attended St. Joseph.

"The commission has been a gem to this school," he added. "You've allowed us to become a state-of-the-art facility," he said.