Once again last night, ROAN Ventures showed town officials revisions to their Hamlet at Saugatuck plan.
Once again, those officials had more questions.
Last night’s virtual Planning & Zoning Commission meeting — another 6-hour marathon — was intended to bring the residential/retail/hotel proposal closer to a vote.
On Tuesday, the Flood & Erosion Control Board approved the plan. Yesterday, the Board of Selectwomen tabled a vote on the traffic portion — pending the P&Z’s decision.
That may come soon. Or — in a procedural move to allow more time, because state law mandates 65 days of deliberations beginning June 18 — the application may be withdrawn, and immediately resubmitted.
ROAN — the developers of the project — addressed some of the thorniest issues last night. They addressed changes made, based on previous feedback, to parking, building heights, floor area and sightlines.
Primary peer reviewer Dave Ginter noted that the application complies fully with regulations and the P&Z’s text amendment, which paved the way for the project.
The town’s traffic consultant called the plan workable, but asked if ROAN had any other locations for the entrance/exit to the waterside parking garage.
ROAN’s traffic consultant said they did not believe there was any other suitable location, due to the need for river view access, and the limited area they own on Riverside Avenue.
The Hamlet plan. New buildings are shaded. Railroad Place is at the bottom; Charles Street is at top. The Saugatuck River is on the right.
Commissioners questioned contractor parking, loading zones and truck traffic. ROAN offered assurances for on-site management of deliveries, and said they removed a tunnel to create more commercial loading zones.
They reiterated traffic studies — noting that it did not include COVID data — and said that their proposed improvements would save time.
A great deal of time was spent on traffic flow, particularly where Riverside Avenue meets Railroad Place. “Calming measures” like raised pedestrian crossings and blinking signs are among the items planned by ROAN.
Traffic plans, for the area around Ferry Lane, under the train tracksk and toward the parking garage at Riverside Avenue.
One unknown factor is how any state Department of Transportation Cribari Bridge reconstruction project would impact traffic throughout Saugatuck.
ROAN also addressed the construction timetable. The project would be broken into phases, though there might be overlaps between them.
When the public finally spoke, many addressed items like traffic and building density.
The Hamlet got a boost from Roger Leifer, who called the Hamlet “good for Westport.”
Bill Kutik was not so sure. Noting the lack of a scale model, he warned of “towers as high as the I-95 overpass,” high-rises that “block the sun,” and gridlocked traffic.
The next P&Z meeting is Monday (June 16, 6 p.m., Zoom).
(Reporting by Catherine Campognino)
I wish to applaud the entire p&z board for articulating all of the concerns expressed by their constituents . And , for giving team ROAN specific guidance on overcoming many of the issues raised
I especially want to compliment Paul Liebowitz for exhibiting the wisdom of Solomon in managing the process.
Finally, Roger Leifer (whose opinion matters) was spot on , the Hamlet is good for Westport!
I beg to vehemently disagree, and Roger Leifer ( whose opinion matters no more than anyone else’s, was not even remotely spot on.
He displayed a cluelessness about parking needs and god knows he is around long enough to know better.
His fallacy about commuters and robo cars was a desperate attempt to try and justify how this build might ever succeed.
It cannot succeed because staff and patrons will be sharing zero parking.
It is doomed from the get go.
In fact even if they lop off 2 floors of every building it is still doomed.
As for the OUTRIGHT LIES, about staff numbers.
Their staff parking need is 600-1000 and patrons if it were to be successful will be 2000 plus.
The only time this development works is Saturday or Sunday and even then it is questionable.
They could build 4 high stacker parking underground and it still won’t accommodate the patrons a successful build would need to attract.
Maybe Roger is hoping to swoop in when this fails dismally and buy the real estate for 10 cents on the dollar.
This is looking more and more like a flip – investors can then walk away with a profit when some sucker buys it.
There’s a TBD on affordable housing which does not pass any sniff test.
There’s no marina.. my guess there never will be unless the “brand” this is flipped to decides they want to create one. Even if they do it will be years from now.
This is an unmitigated disaster ! And 90% of the town knows it.
As a resident of Saugatuck only a five minute walk to the train station, PLEASE pass this project. Something is one day going to be built in this area and this project at least creates an environment suitable to shop, dine, stroll and enjoy the river view. if not The Hamlet, what then?
Roan should be required to make a scale model of the building they want to build and the streets and parking lots they’ll effect. A scale model is really needed. Why is Roan so resistant?
Right on…the scale model will show the immense sizes of the Hamlet…P&Z should “subject to seeing and approving a scale model.”
Can data be used to model the current state (as stands today with and without train arrivals, issues with 95, etc) and future state of traffic (including proposed adjustments and increased traffic)? Can this both be done by ROAN and also independent testing paid for by the town? I would think given technology and AI that is possible by now. Also, agree scale model please! If these two big hurdles can be overcome, I foresee smoother waters for ROAN. Its mind boggling why these have not yet been addressed.
I was so impressed during the endless meeting how members of the commission steadfastly dug into every detail and did not flag during any part of the session. They have worked so hard to make The Hamlet acceptable to Westport.
But here the Devil is not in the details. A nip here and a tuck there does not solve the fundamental problem of the quarter-billion dollar development being much too large for Westport. A development that will turn Westport into a miniature Stamford and will change the character of our town forever.
The architectural review board said much the same thing in a letter released just before the hearing. It said that all the changes made since the architecture board first denied the application a permit have “largely persisted – size, scale and traffic impact.“
The letter continued,“This isn’t just about a large scale development in the heart of Saugatuck; it’s about setting a crucial precedent for Westport’s future.“
If you want to have your say in the future of Westport not becoming a Stamford the best avenue still open is signing the online petition already signed by more than 1300 of your neighbors, that demands the commission deny the application until the project is reduced by 40% in size. Click here to take control of your Town‘s future: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Say-no-to-the-current-Saugatuck-hamlet-plan
last time i saw a petition i was in grade school. they don’t serve any real purpose in real life imo. if you think a petition allows people to take control, i think that is a pipe dream.
You’re right: pitchforks and burning torches would work much better right now. But since we still have a democracy, only the tools assigned to our form of government are available. In the absence of an election election when trying to influence responsible government officials, who by law have to stop listening to the public in one week, it could be a powerful tool.
Not as good as making the developer answer the hard questions months ago; produce a scale model, and submit thorough reports on traffic and parking. None of that has happened up until now. So petition is all we are left with. Call me a mindless Midwestern optimist, but I’m hopeful that it can win the day. Especially if everyone reading this goes up to my first comment and clicke on the link and signs the petition. I think 3,000 signatures are likely before the deadline of. June 18.
I’m not saying you should, but ..,
With 20 resident signatures you can petition the RTM to overturn FECB and Conservation Commission decisions. This may get their attention.
In a week you’ll claim that you never suggested this tactic be used, that all you did was inform residents of their rights, just like you did with LLS. You are something else.
A professional independent traffic study (company selected by the town) should be done and Roan should pay for it. The P&Z is not equipped to take it on. This is in no way a criticism of the P&Z, they are doing their best but not traffic experts and shouldn’t be put in that position. Rick Smilow was correct in recommending that in his June 10 opinion posted on WJ. Why are we depending on a traffic study from a company that has everything to gain and the town of Westport has to loose?
I just sat in traffic on Riverside Ave. for 35 minutes due to a a water main installation that currently is well north of the VFW. Can you imagine the nightmare of Saugatuck traffic if they are allowed to build The Scamlet? The 3-5 year buildout will CRUSH the existing businesses in that area. This project is so not needed. Let the area develop gradually.
That’s correct Dave.
We’ve had 8-30g since Felix started looking at Haiwatha years ago. Nobody was beating down the Saugatuck doors.
There’s no 8-30g developer coming for those buildings, especially now that they have become so expensive thanks to the text ammendment which gave them their entire wish list.
Developers no longer need the 8-30g cudgel. Not in Saugatuck.
So whatever gets built there, it won’t be affordable housing.
The traffic is going to be tragic. During and after construction. A nightmare.
The idea that roan thinks they can use the parking at metro north is naive and foolish. The lack of parking will bankrupt their build.
But what is far more concerning are the outright lies such as 80 staff…
What else is a lie.
What else are we not being told.
Marina, offsite affordable housing TBD.
A constant barrage of trucks making deliveries beside our main transportation hub.
And valets scrambling to receive cars which they will duly move immediately out of their garage to dump at the railroad lots, in a constant merry go round of trying to stay ahead of parking. Trying to maintain and empty garage. They already admitted 500-600 cars in and out at rush hour.
This is because they will have to try and find parking in the lots.
I’m not sure how many times this has been stressed and ignored.
It simply does not work and that’s why I think it is a flip…
Investors make money and pass the problem onto a brand.
That busy ferry lane bend will become known as rear end lane.
I laughed when I read at rush hour they expect 2 cars at the dangerous stop sign.
More like 10 cars. And then wait til there’s an accident.
The town will need to add a small police precinct there, and a new firehouse to house a ladder truck.
All at the tax payers expense.
It’s like a public private partnership where the public gets to contribute and see no return.
SMH.
“Our (Cribari) Bridge is right in the crosshairs of this development, and we want to know how a future build will affect traffic,” P&Z Chair Paul Lebowitz observed in the latest hearing on The Hamlet.
Part of Attorney Bernheim’s response: “I think it’s unreasonable to ask us to have a Plan B for something that may happen in 3 years.”
The First Selectwoman has been walking the two projects in tandem since the February 2024 WestCOG meeting when she released the $4.1 million to CTDOT for a replacement to the Cribari Bridge and okayed $12 million dollars worth of brownfields applications to Roan. Chairman Lebowitz rightly points out how each will impact the other and his insight should not be so lightly dismissed.
The people of Westport deserve better than a blind march toward the disaster that these two major changes combined will produce.
As plans move forward to replace the historic William F. Cribari Bridge with a span that can accommodate 18-wheelers, we are careening toward a future that will irreparably damage the character and safety of the surrounding neighborhoods—especially the residential and commercial areas impacted by the proposed Hamlet development.
This is not idle speculation. This is brutal cause and effect.
A wider, higher, stronger bridge means trucks will come. Not “might”—will. No amount of signage or wishful thinking will stop GPS-based routing apps from directing tractor-trailers through the heart of Saugatuck. Enforcement? Right now, every morning overflow I-95 train clogs Greens Farms Road and Bridge St. I witnessed the line of traffic ignore the red blinking lights of a school bus picking up middle schoolers. We know it is already too difficult for Westport to protect its school children. The Hamlet will draw delivery trucks; a replacement bridge will allow them. Our children will wait for the busses in air polluted by idling diesle trucks and dodge them when they try to cross. The floodgates won’t close.
Increased congestion. Greater safety risks for pedestrians and cyclists. Air and noise pollution. A complete erosion of the very atmosphere Roan is marketing and Westporters have worked so hard to preserve.
We are not saying: it is reasonable to have a plan. We are saying: there should be no approval without a plan. The Planning and Zoning Commission has a duty—not a suggestion, a duty—to require the following before any approvals are granted:
An independent traffic impact study, specific to truck routing and Hamlet-related development pressures as well as the impact on the residential east bank.
A GPS-routing mitigation plan, in partnership with state officials and navigation providers.
Legally binding truck exclusion mechanisms—not vague intentions, but actual enforceable regulations with teeth.
Public disclosure and opportunity for comment—too much has happened behind closed doors.
To proceed without these is to betray the very people who live, work, and walk in this community every day. Once lost, the character and livability of this area will not return.
The amount of misinformation that abounds in this matter is staggering.
As an example:
FICTION:
Petitions are pointless and a waste of civic energy. There is neither law nor legal requirement in CT that compels the P&Z Commission to give a featherweight of consideration to public opinion during the application review process.
The time for that type of opposition to have an effect on the Commission’s decision was during the public hearing forum for the infamous zoning amendment. Not now. It’s too late.
FACT:
The Town has hired independent professionals to conduct peer reviews, submit reports, and provide comments at public hearings.
FICTION:
Constructing a scale model takes many months and costs a fortune. More importantly, nothing in the zoning regulations or CT General Statutes requires an applicant to include this as a submission requirement.
FACT:
Daily and seasonal daylight shadow patterns can be generated quickly, efficiently, and accurately using a computer app or CAD program at a minimal cost. ASK!
FICTION:
Railroad parking spaces can be relied upon for afternoon and nighttime parking.
FALSE.
1. Nothing in the Railroad Parking lease allows this.
2. The current lease can be amended, withdrawn, or canceled at any time during its term, without reason from DOT.
3. The current lease expires in about 5 years.
FACT:
The project violates the imperative of the Saugatuck zoning amendment, as it provides no immediate or significant public use and/or access to the waterfront, specifically a public marina.
In commenting on the pending CAM Site Plan application, DEEP Environmental Analyst John Gaucher notes that the requisite water-dependent use is largely limited to “general public access to the riverfront, primarily in the form of large areas of elevated decking between the hotel buildings and the Saugatuck River.”.
WHERE’S THE PUBLIC MARINA?
Gloria Gouveia
So far I’m sitting about 20 minutes of traffic to get one of from one side of the train station to the other. On a normal day. It’s maybe 5 to 10 minutes and off peak. It’s less than a minute. Absolutely insane.
Don’t you always post this same story? You’re great at identifying problems, never solutions.
Not a good trait for all your LI Sound only boating.
its not my job to find a solution here. it is my job to point out time is money and time is precious time away from family having to sit in traffic that will only get worse. i don’t know what your attempted diss is at the end of your post but ok.
Time and Time again, what a waste of town resources
devoting all of this time for a project that does NOT have
enough parking.
Has Roan provided a very detailed estimate of how many
parking spaces the garage will provide, less the number
of parking spaces lost.
How many parking spaces for employees,
retail customers ,restaurant customers,
hotel guests, Hamlet residents,
marina guests, et al.
This entire project is pure fantasy.
How about it Roan, where is everybody going to park?
I’m a simple girl. I trust my eyes and ears more than fudgeable numbers and reports. When I look at the ‘”artist’s renderings'” of public space btwn Riverside and the river, it is no wonder ROAN is hesitant to give us a SCALE model because something is “off”. If they did, it also might include the Bridge st roundabout which may be hard put to take a giant SUV, let alone an18 wheeler (Oooh! There’s our solution to I-95 truck detours).
When I sit in traffic, staring at the I-95 bridge waaaay above me for 18mins in non peak, I cannot imagine “unimposing” buildings even higher.
And, speaking of traffic, is any of the traffic that will be generated by the Hiawatha housing considered in all these unbiased traffic studies?
Of course it has not been considered Catherine. Haiwhat ?
And good catch on the 18 wheelers. They too will be using the roundabouts.
And the syncing of traffic lights is not for us. It is so they can manipulate the flow to get people into their parking garages.
It’s not for our benefit and it will NOT benefit us. Traffic will be catastrophic. And they do not care about your nightmarish commute home.
Just wait til their valets are driving around under pressure moving cars out into commuter spots, endangering cyclists and pedestrians.
Let’s see how drivers manage with the rules of roundabouts. The roundabout that is 100% to convenience movement into their parking garage.
Wait til lot 7 and 8 have affordable housing built on them, because the state is sick to the teeth of developers like roan using the metro north commuter parking for their non commuter staff and patrons. The state is also tired of towns like Westport with an elitist affordable housing attitude problem.
The state may also be unaware thus far that PZ is allowing off site affordable housing,often replacing housing that is already affordable. Just so contractors can profit by ghettoizing the affordable housing component. It’s also called “segregation”.
This whole project is a scam !
Driven only by profit and greed. With investors who are your neighbors and friends.
Roan for all their arrogant big words and nouveau riche statements reeking of affectation don’t have the first clue how to make this project work without railroad parking. Because It doesn’t.
I’ve watched the applicant throw tantrums at meetings when they state they were told that they could use railroad parking.
This was one of the most discussed and scandalous topics, back 2 plus years ago, when petitioners brought this to the RTM, in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn the PZ text ammendment.
An RTM member was told by a commissioner that the police chief who was managing railroad parking, had promised roan the use of 100 parking spots.
When that got out, all hell broke loose and that rtm member was disparaged ( and called a liar) in no uncertain terms, including by many of his fellow RTM no less.
So basically the public were being told Hamlet would not be getting our railroad parking, all the while behind our backs, the applicant was obviously being told they could still have it.
Thus the tantrums of late.
It could be that the vote of the rtm back then was cast based upon lies, and if litigated might require a redo.
Now that they cannot have lot 7, suddenly they state they have only 80 staff and they will be required under contract to not drive to work.
I don’t believe that is even legal.
It’s certainly not enforceable and we, they and PZ know it.
And for the record this development will have far in excess of 650 staff.
Another fact that we, they and PZ are patently aware of.
This project required an FAR of 1000 – 30.