Civil & site · Connecticut
Sites that fight back
There's a wetland at the bottom of the slope. The sewer main is too high, or too far away. The zone doesn't allow what you want to build. The commission wants one more study before it votes.
ZUVIC designs the site and takes it through every approval it needs, from the town, the state and the sewer utility. When a problem comes up, we work it until the permits are issued.
ZUVIC Inc. is a Rocky Hill, Connecticut engineering firm. We design sites for developers and site owners, from feasibility and yield studies through site plans, wetlands and zoning approvals, sewer and utility design, and construction support.
A site plan is only as good as the questions it answers before the hearing.
What we do
Before you buy.
Find out what the lot will actually support before you commit to it.
- Feasibility, yield and due diligence studies
- Concept layouts and alternative site plans
- Utility research: water, sewer and septic feasibility
Site design.
Plans that answer the town's questions and hold up in the field.
- Site plans and special permit applications
- Subdivisions, lot-line revisions, and support for zone changes
- Affordable housing applications under CGS §8-30g, Connecticut's affordable housing appeals statute
- Grading, drainage and stormwater management, with hydraulic reports
- Utility design: water mains, gravity sanitary sewer, force mains and storm drainage
- Fire access and truck-turning analysis
- Easement maps
- Fuel system and aboveground tank site design
- Landscape architecture
- Dam safety plans
Approvals.
We prepare the applications, answer the peer reviewers and stand up at the hearing.
- Local commissions: Planning & Zoning, Inland Wetlands, Conservation, Historic District and Zoning Board of Appeals
- Sewer availability, capacity and connection permitting with the Metropolitan District (MDC, the regional water and sewer utility) and other sewer authorities
- CT DEEP individual and general permits
- CTDOT encroachment permits, for work that touches a state road
- Public hearing preparation and testimony, and responses to peer review
Construction.
We stay on the project once the contractor mobilizes.
- Plan clarifications and responses to contractor questions
- CAD files for site contractors
- Construction stakeout and control (see Survey & Scanning)
Credentials
Representative work
Housing on sites with a catch
For developer Patrick Snow, ZUVIC has permitted two multifamily developments in Newington, 40 and 41 units. The first sits on a hillside with a groundwater-fed wetland and needed a new gravity sewer route across a neighboring parcel. The second needed an emergency access lane and a new crosswalk on a busy street. Both were approved.
Knowing before you buy
Before a developer commits to a property, ZUVIC answers the questions that decide whether the deal works: how many units the lot will yield, and whether it can reach sewer or needs septic. It also tells you what the town and the wetlands commission are likely to ask for.
Finishing what someone else approved
A developer wanted to build the last 13 homes of a Naugatuck subdivision approved almost two decades earlier. ZUVIC rebuilt the site plan from the original plans and as-builts, moved buildings out of the wetland buffer, and reworked the drainage and utility layout for the remaining lots. One updated sheet, used with the original approved plans, took the project back through wetlands and planning review in 2025.
A campus parking lot, approval to certificate in five months
For Goodwin University, ZUVIC pinned down groundwater with test pits dug at the Town's direction and modeled the downstream storm system. It then designed, permitted, bid and administered the rebuild of a failed lot and its drainage. The Town issued its Certificate of Zoning Compliance in March 2024, about five months after approval.
Room to grow at an industrial site
For manufacturers and the design-build firms that work for them, ZUVIC has handled the site civil and stormwater design for a 48,900-square-foot plant addition. It has also designed the site work for fuel-tank replacements at a manufacturer's facility.
Questions we hear
Can you tell me what a lot will hold before I buy it?
Yes. A feasibility study looks at yield, access, utilities, wetlands and zoning. It tells you what the site will support, and what the town is likely to ask for, before you're committed.
The sewer utility says the connection won't work. Is that the end of it?
Not necessarily. At Kitts Lane in Newington, the obvious sewer route didn't have the grade. The owner negotiated a route across a neighboring parcel, ZUVIC redesigned the line, and every unit is served by gravity with no pump stations.
The site already has approvals from years ago. Can we use them?
Sometimes. At a Naugatuck subdivision approved in the mid-2000s, ZUVIC rebuilt the plan from the original drawings and as-builts, reworked the drainage and utility layout for the remaining lots, and took one updated sheet back through review instead of starting over.
Do you work with design-build firms?
Yes. We've been the site civil engineer on design-build teams for manufacturers, taking the plans through wetlands and zoning and supporting construction.
Next step
Book a 20-minute call and tell us the address and what you want to build.
We'll tell you what stands in the way and how we'd handle it.
Or, if you'd rather write it down first, tell us about your site in a short form and we'll reply the same business day.