The Hamlet at Saugatuck is dead.
But when Spinnaker Real Estate bought 2 of the properties that had been slated for development — the rectangle anchored by Minute Man Cleaners, and the private parking lot now filled with boats above Luciano Park — Westporters knew that new ideas would be proposed.
Today, we have our first look at Spinnaker’s plans.
The Norwalk-based firm has filed a pre-application with the Planning & Zoning Commission. It includes 157 units of rental apartments, with a mixed-use component, on the 1.5-acre parcel at the corner of Riverside Avenue and Charles Street (the current dry cleaners, locksmith and parking lot). Eighteen — a bit over 10% — of the units would be affordable, based on state definitions.
The view from Riverside Avenue. Charles Street is on the right.
Working with Beinfield Architecture — a firm that has designed many multi-family buildings (including The Mill on Richmondville Avenue), residential homes, restaurants and offices in the area — Spinnaker envisions buildings of varying heights.
Those facing Riverside Avenue would be 3 1/2 stories. Buildings behind it would be taller.
Two levels of screened parking would accommodate 283 vehicles.
The view looking at Railroad Place. The train station is at far left.
Spinnaker’ traffic engineers, AKRF, say that an initial review suggests the plan would generate “substantially fewer vehicle trips than earlier submittals.” A full analysis is underway now.
Construction staging would be done at Spinnaker’s other property, the lot on Franklin Street currently used for boat storage.
The plan also includes environmental remediation of the site (before its current use as a dry cleaners, it was a car dealership), along with right-of-way and pedestrian improvements.
Along with the P&Z pre-app, a preliminary presentation to the Architectural Review Board is planned for later this month.
Click here for a link to a complete summary of the pre-application. Spinnaker has set up a website – 606riverside.com — for the project, though it has no content yet.
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April Fools?
Not at all.
I was kidding. Guess not very funny.
Wow.
Here we go again.
Westport is not Chestnut Hill now, is it Jan?
Let the growth begin.
What’s the difference between this and “The Saugatuck”???
This area CAN NOT handle the traffic which will be generated by 157 units !!!
Not to mention any of the other infrastructure requirements such a complex requires!
STOP TRYING TO SAUGATUCK into the Upper East Side!!’
Yikes! Why do developers hate Saugatuck? The proposed structures are so out of scale with the rest of the area, it would be like building a 90,000 square foot ballroom next to the White House. 🙂
How many residential units in the rejected Hamlet proposal?
I’ll answer my own question since I just pulled the applications.
This is 157 units of rental apartments. No details on bedroom counts. 283 parking spaces though, so you can do the math.
Hamlet was 57 units – 37 one bedroom and 20 two bedroom.
The scale of that little store on the corner compared to the behemoth rising behind it is astonishing. I’m sure the developer will assure all that it “blends in well with the neighborhood”.
Only 11% affordable. Nice.
Very exciting. Rental and affordable housing is perfect for this area of town given how close it is to transit and walkable stores and restaurants. It’s also exactly what Westport needs to provide more flexible opportunities for people and families in all phases of life – seniors looking to downsize or move closer to grandkids, early career folks not yet ready to buy, and families for whom the idea of a “starter home” in a town like Westport is not possible with median sale prices so high and inventory so low. I worked near one of Spinnaker’s other developments, and they moved fast (not leaving empty lots in limbo for years like many other development projects), were respectful of traffic and the neighborhood during construction, and the finished buildings were high quality and more architecturally interesting than the standard fare. This is progress.
Dan Woog!!!! Unbelievable!!! Did my classmate (and the patriarch of Beinfield Architecture) Bruce Beinfield (also SHS ‘70) leave this “stunning” design in his will to be opened the day before my 74th birthday (it’s tomorrow!!! Happy Birthday to me)? I wonder what our classmate Marilyn Briggs (SHS ‘70) would say if she were still here. Guess we’ll have to wait until the next SHS ‘70 reunion. You’ll be there of course.
Most every town on the train line from Mount Vernon to New Haven is dealing with the same issue. Where do you put all the new people (and residents who have sold their homes and are not sure where to go next) who want to move here or stay here? The states most everywhere decided years ago that squeezing them into areas next to trains and highways was the path of least resistance. It was not traditionally desirable for new housing as it is often noisy and on land that has industrial histories. Ditto Saugatuck. We lived in Westport for 20 plus years and I commuted from both train stations for most of those years. Traffic in Saugatuck was and is terrible and this will make it worse. But people need places to live. And as we all know the state is putting the hammer to every town about it. We also lived in Sono for a few years in one of the high end apartment complexes there. The makeup of the place is of two groups: young people who make good money (the rents are steep) and who are moving from one phase of life to another. The other was older people who have sold their houses (like us in Westport) and are waiting to see where their children will land, etc. before they make the next big move. Maybe the Saugatuck complex could be smaller. That is a zoning battle. But it is the right place for it. And it is needed. Despite all the new places going up in Norwalk and Stamford and Darien and Fairfield and Black Rock, the vacancy rate for these new developments is still very low. New people want to live in Connecticut again. And the rest of us just want to find a way to stay without carrying a family house we no longer need but others would love to have.
Fairfield is struggling with development of the Circle Hotel (aka 441 Post Road) due to issues that residents believe should have been more thoroughly considered by p&z. Our p&z folded and gave the developers everything, so we have to go to court because we feel we weren’t fairly represented. Do yourselves a favor and show up for every meeting and speak out. These developments should reasonably fit in with the surrounding area. Maybe you’ll be heard more than we were.
My guess is this project will proceed and be completed. Quite possibly there could be some meaningful tweaking, e.g. increasing the percentage of affordable units and aesthetic changes of a minor nature that do not preclude the economics of this effort. I assume the developer is benefitting by the permanent text changes that were established to accommodate the ill fated and wrong Hamlet project. I ask Danielle Dobin to weigh in. Danielle is now on the BoF but was the key supporter of The Hamlet Project. Danielle predicted an unsightly 8-30g project if The Hamlet was not supported by the text amendments. it is important that people such as Danielle weigh in. We should not be a government of a silo structure, i.e. elected officials only comment about their specific responsibilities. Equally important are the comments of each of our Selectpersons.
You don’t need to build a model for this—just head down Cemetery Street in East Norwalk and see the real thing. The residential units have already tripled, and the boat storage lot isn’t in the pre-app, nor are the button factory and marina. Best guess: after the next 15 years of construction in that area, we’re looking at around 350 units with only 10% “affordable.” A classic example of FAFO.
Diverse and sustainable new housing is good and needed, especially around under-developed transit hubs like East Norwalk and Westport. Enough with the myopic NIMBYism already.
It’s interesting, I like mixed-use, but I’d like to know more about the pedestrian/general non-car infrastructure before I cast judgement. There could be a good opportunity here to try and increase our non-car options for getting to the train station.
Bring back minibuses to avoid traffic!