As a Representative Town Meeting member for District 1, Matthew Mandell has his ear to the Saugatuck ground.
This weekend, he included some stunning news in his regular email to constituents and friends.
He reported that Cathy Walsh has filed an 8-30g application to turn a pair of 2-story homes into a 5-story, 42-unit apartment building. (8-30g projects include up to 30% of housing that is deemed “affordable,” by a state formula. Towns cannot deny an 8-30g proposal unless there is a specific significant health or safety concern.)
This is Very Big News for 3 reasons:
-
- Cathy Walsh is a former Planning & Zoning Commission chair. She is now a land use consultant.
- The property is owned, Mandell says, by Patrizia Zucaro’s family. Last month, she was re-elected as a Republican member of the Planning & Zoning Commission.
- The addresses of the 2 homes are #5 and #7 Hiawatha Lane. That’s a small street filled with some of the most affordable homes in Westport — just a few yards from Hiawatha Lane Extension, where the mammoth 157-unit Summit Saugatuck development has finally been okayed, following nearly 2 decades of litigation.
5 and 7 Hiawatha Lane.
Mandell says:
Yes, Hiawatha is in the gun sight again, even before the full impact of the Summit development has even broken ground. This project will destroy the “middle housing” that the state says is so important to communities in favor of this out of place monstrosity.
And if you can count like I can, this is actually 7-stories with the garage and pitched roof, huge. This is way bigger than what is going up at the intersection of Wilton Road and Kings Highway North.
Quite the turn. Cathy Walsh, while on the P&Z, was one of the more vocal commissioners against 8-30g and overdevelopment. As chair she went so far as to shut down 8-30g applicant Tim Hollister’s (Summit) speech, leading to one of the many lawsuits which ultimately gave us the first Hiawatha debacle.
She was part of the majority that upended the senior housing project slated for Baron’s South which would have brought over 80 units of senior housing, 40% of which would have been affordable. (Note – on appeal to the RTM, a vast majority voted to overturn that decision, but did not achieve the high bar of 2/3s of the body).
Now, I don’t know Ms. Zucaro’s part in this and will not presume, but it is her address, owned by her family and the project is called “Zucaro Apartments.” Clearly she can’t sit on this application.
A rendering of “Zucaro Apartments,” from the Planning & Zoning application.
8-30g has never been about creating affordable housing. It is a blunt instrument under the guise of such to allow developers to bust zones and profiteer from the law. One just has to shake one’s head as to how this is shaping up.
To my constituents in that area: You know you have my support. We have been through this before. I guess we’ll have to do it again.
“06880” emailed Walsh for her reaction to Mandell’s mailing. She said, “Thanks for reaching out. At this point I must say no comment.”
“06880” also emailed Zucaro yesterday. As of 10 p.m last night, she had not responded to a request for comment.
(Hat tip: Dick Lowenstein)
(“06880” is your source for hyper-local news. We rely on reader support. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
Eek. That looks horrible. Enjoy the views….
Way to big
Wow talk about probably unethical and conflict of interests! This is a total land mine.
Optics are certainly poor. I wonder if the participants were not connected to P&Z would there be objections on substance of this application? It’s certainly going to impact rush hour traffic on Saugatauk Ave. Would this reason be enough to deny the application? Any ideas?
This looks and smells like a bag of rotting fish!
These representatives of our town P&Z have and are putting their personal benefit above what should have been their objectivity and honesty.
This is the special interest disease that infects and helps destroy responsible public trust! Shame on them!
⅚
Shameful….
Here’s some hope …
https://ctmirror.org/2023/01/25/ct-affordable-housing-8-30g-deed-restriction-republican-proposal/
This is maddening, depressing and disgusting news. Tawdry details aside, we continue to watch the destruction of one of the few naturally affordable sections of Westport. If this and these other large scale Saugatuck development projects all proceed, the potential consequences could be real – our quality of life and even our home values in Saugatuck are going to be adversely affected.
Why go after the Zucaro family for playing by the rules afforded by the Democratic Lead Legislature who created, and continue to push the flawed 8-30g law?
The Legislature has basically said to all of us, “the need for affordable housing and those providing it, will supersede local zoning laws.”
The town has won in court and lost on appeals. Even back to when “The Coalition” folks ran our Planning and Zoning, denying condominium and apartment projects was the norm.
Now we are paying for it. Cathy Walsh has a right to make living. The Zucaro family has a right to develop their property within the law.
Does 8-30g need modification? Absolutely, as towns like Westport with lack of land, will never be able “to catch up” or stay in compliance with the current law.
The best thing residents can do, and especially those of Democratic Party which runs Hartford, rally us all to help demand modification to 8-30g.
Mr Mandell, it might be time for you to take action and take a bigger lead in garnering support from your Party, Town Residents, and Legislatures to make real changes at the State level.
Here’s a Jimmy Izzo opinion I agree with!
The past few years of positions taken by the Town Attorney, P&Z, RTM sub committees, and the RTM on Hiawatha Lane, the Hamlet and other projects have set the stage for this project and potentially many more.
No one should be shocked, surprised, or expressing feigned outrage.
Happy Holidays Werner! Believe or not, on a lot of issues we are not that far apart!
Happy holidays to you and all in 06880 land… it’s good to witness how far we’ve progressed.
Dragging state party politics into this particular application is immaterial.
What a travesty.
As a former Tammany Hall politico once told a reporter on his retirement (circa 1901-03):
I’d seen me opportunties and I took ’em.
Looks like the ladies are doing the same.
I am sure that Commissioner Zucaro or any other P & Z member will have the common sense to not sit on a zoning application by a family member. It’s unfortunate that Matt Mandell was not of the same mindset when as Executive Director of the chamber of commerce which accepted cash contributions for various sponsorships from the developers of the Hamlet he chaired the P&Z sub-committee where he supported in the committee report and on the floor of the RTM the Hamlet development in Saugatuck.
Wow Mike, your incendiary fictional phrasing while highly dramatic is inaccurate. I accepted NO cash contributions.
The Hamlet, located in Saugatuck, paid to be one of the many sponsors of the Slice of Saugatuck Festival, $300. Sponsorship money covers the cost of running the event.
Even though the Town Attorney said there was no reason to, I recused myself from the Hamlet related votes, just to make sure this nominal fee would not appear to be a conflict of any sort.
I said cash for sponsorship. When positive votes are required a recuse has the effect of a positive vote
Struggling to understand how/why Michael Calise feels it is appropriate to impugn Matt Mandell’s efforts on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce or as a member of the RTM. The slice of Saugatuck is a great event and Matt solicited sponsorship/support from every business located in that area of town. Apparently, Michael Calise doesn’t appreciate Matt Shedding light on Cathy Walsh’s business dealings. As for Matt’s role within the RTM as it pertains to the hearings related to the Hamlet, he acted with extreme impartiality and integrity and I’d challenge anyone to go back and review the hearings so you can see Matt’s impartiality for yourself.
This is typical Westport – pick on the weak and watch the vultures descend.
Put this monstrosity in Old Hill or Greens Farms. Imagine the horror…
With the juxtaposition of the arrogance of locals suggesting that the town spend millions to acquire scandalous property so their niche Burying Hill Beach can be even more special.
The town is broken.
Great work Matt. This is a disturbing development, I hope it can be stopped
everyone should be writing their legislators to abolish the current 830g. tell them they will lose your vote unless something is done.
We wouldn’t have to deal with this if the town met its affordable housing goal. And it’ll get there much faster if the town itself builds 100% affordable housing on town-owned land. Unfortunately, residents inevitably oppose any affordable housing of any kind no matter where it’s proposed. So we are left at the mercy of private developers. 8-30g isn’t going away, so whining about that is totally unproductive. We’ll get to the goal of 10% affordable housing a lot faster if we could see the forest for the trees.
Really appalling in every way.
Westport has to build enough affordable units so we can refuse these applications.
And as for that crooked looking rendering…what is that?? Is it floating? No it’s up on “piloti” ! Deemed a bad idea 100 years ago!