As director of the Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce, Matthew Mandell hears a lot.
He sends regular updates to an email list, from a SaveWestport.com address.
The one that landed in inboxes less than an hour ago is quite interesting. Matthew writes:
I was informed this week that an 8-30g will be coming to 55 Greens Farms Road. (NOTE: That’s the office building next to Assumption Cemetery, opposite I-95 and near Hillspoint Road.)
55 Greens Farms Road
Our old 8-30g lawyer Tim Hollister (Hiawatha) is bringing us another one. Of the 2 buildings at the office park, the front one will become a 70-foot, 250-unit apartment building (175 market, 75 affordable).
The other will remain for office use, at least for now. The Planning & Zoning Commission rezoned this area for medical use, which made a lot of sense, but this is what is coming anyway.
Aerial view of 55 Greens Farms Road. The apartments would be in the front. The rear building would remain offices.
55 is the one closest to the road, and the new apartment building will be much closer to the road. While the folks in the cemetery to the east probably won’t mind much, it’s the poor folks on Gonczy, Lakeview and Medwell who will get this full impact.
This is besides the increase in use of the roads for that area, and the sheer size of it being out of character. And the state Department of Transportation still would like 18-wheelers to come across the Cribari Bridge and be on this road.
Technically the application has not been filed with P&Z. Hollister is coming before the Conservation Commission to do a wetland modification based on new reports. CC pretty much would have to follow the expert analysis, but they don’t have to, nor do they need to do anything quickly.
Once the application arrives formally then we look for cracks in the application, knowing Hollister it will be pretty clean.
This is coming folks. We have not had an 8-30g since we lost the moratorium 2+ years ago. Once Lincoln Street and Hiawatha Lane come on line we will get another moratorium, but until then we are still vulnerable.
(This is a developing story. “06880” will update it, as more information becomes available.)
thanks for the “INCOMING‼️”
‘vulnerable’ to exactly what? Or should I take a shot at a guess?
I’d really like SaveWestport to reply, nut that aint happening.
I apologize if I am lacking some reading comprehension skills, here…
So is the idea that they are going to /convert/ the existing front building into an apartment or /replace/ the existing front building with a /new/ apartment.
And does “70-foot” mean (approximately) seven stories? or is it the width at the front? or something else altogether? or TBD.
TIA for clarification!
This is anti-progress scaremongering from, surprisingly, the head of the local CofC.
I live a stone’s throw from this obsolete suburban office park. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been built in the first place, but that’s history. Apartment dwellers aren’t the enemy. They’ll be a mix of retired empty-nesters, remote or nearby (i.e. Bridgewater) workers, and a few who commute by train or by 95 via exit 18. Maybe even a local cop or teacher or, God forbid, a young family who wants their kid to go to Westport schools.
Do I want a monolith apartment block? Of course not. But rather than see this site devolve into an empty eyesore or fight endlessly with lawsuits, let’s play a positive role in guiding the property’s appropriate development into new homes for new neighbors and, yes, Matthew, new local customers.
Scott, Maybe I’ll even move back.I could even maybe become a substitute teacher in town! I’m certified in Connecticut until I’m age 84 in three areas. I retired from teaching in 2007 and I’m so bored, I might do this! Does the school system need substitute teachers?
The town needs more affordable housing, great news!
The writer sounds like he should move to New Canaan to be closer to others who don’t understand housing—— go Tim
And with a new, wider bridge, we’ll all enjoy a Jr. I95 as we do the Good Works of over building a town, overburdening its infrastructure and ruining what little “town” feeling remains
We are just scratching the surface on what is to come with 8-30g and HB5002!
Remember the words “AS OF RIGHT.”
This one can actually make some sense, the key will be “defining affordable” so the “affordable housing” is actually affordable.
I wish the Democratic Legislature would stop the “one size fits all” zoning laws and concentrate on a formula to use state owned land to create real affordable housing, and allowing local zoning laws to exist.
Local zoning laws actually do take into account “density, traffic, and safety.
I see they minimized the wetlands in order to presumably develop the area – what about other tax-paying westporters who have spent money on soil scientists to prove their property wasn’t wetlands? And if they make more parking to accommodate the property, what happens when that low-lying area devastatingly floods as it has in the past – there will be less land to soak up the flood. Are they going to expand the pavement? And what about dredging pussy willow brook (on the property of 55 greens farms?