“Parents for a New LLS” is a grassroots campaign founded by Westporters and Long Lots Elementary School mothers Sarah Morrison and Veronica Tysseland. Their goal is to get a new school built for the children of Longs Lots ASAP.
The group is not affiliated with any political party. Anyone who shares their mission is welcome to join.
The revised 8-24 submitted yesterday by our First Selectwoman represents a compromise, and should be unanimously approved by the Planning and Zoning Commissioners.
Based on our conversations with various members of town boards, we feel that this newly designed proposal takes into account their feedback and makes the appropriate adjustments to the prior submitted 8-24. Furthermore, it satisfies all requests from affected parties, while also taking into account the topographical limitations of 13 Hyde Lane.
All elements of the property are retained on site, with the exception of an existing substandard baseball field which is eliminated.
Given that we are in the 8-24 stage of the process, final size determinations of each element have not been presented, and it is not our place to speculate on them. They are subject to change based on the necessary size of the new school and the adjoining “shooter safe” parking lot, which remain the priorities.
As it pertains to the parking lot, the proposed site plan currently shows 175 to 195 spaces. The existing lot today has 195 spaces. Any parent will tell you it is not even sufficient for daily pickup needs.
Add Stepping Stones Preschool there, with our most fragile under-5population, and it becomes obvious that more parking will be required.
In short, the parking lot will inevitably change, which will have a domino effect on the size of the fields and gardens. This parking lot must also be designed to include “shooter safe” features in keeping with today’s standards, which may further dictate the size and layout of the subsequent field and gardens.
The current Long Lots School parking lot. (Photo/Dan Woog)
The most critical elements that we believe should be highlighted in the 8-24 include:
- Rebuilding of the multipurpose field and gardens will allow proper drainage to be installed on Terrace 1.
- The gardens will be rebuilt to maintain the requested buffer between the neighbors and the relocated field.
- The proposed field space shrinks to accommodate the gardens; final size TBD based on the aforementioned size of the new school and adjoining parking lot.
- 13 Hyde Lane currently houses a school, fields and a community garden. The modified plan submitted houses a school, fields and a community garden. Again, the size of each of these is yet to be determined.
As parents, we feel this plan represents the requested compromises to appease all critical constituents. We urge P&Z to pass this plan unanimously, so that professionals can get to work on the details to be presented at the site plan stage.
Any further delays on this project is unacceptable; attempts at compromise were made and denied many months ago. We urge our fellow community members to accept this updated plan, which does satisfy the specific wishes of different factions of our community.
The political machinations of the past several months have not gone unnoticed, and are inappropriate in this context. Long Lots parents and all of our supporters in the community will no longer accept the finger pointing and unproductive diatribe that has overtaken this project.
We trust in our elected officials and our volunteer working committees and sincerely believe you should do the same. It is the only way forward.
