By Kerri Williams
WESTPORT — Developers of the proposed “Hamlet at Saugatuck” development told Conservation Commission members Wednesday the project will exceed standards required by environmental regulations.
But several speakers from the public told the Town Hall meeting they are concerned about the possible environmental impacts of the sweeping riverfront project that could transform the area.
After a four-hour session, the commission voted to continue its public hearing to May 14, with another hearing tentatively set for June 12. On May 9, members of the Conservation Commission and the Flood and Erosion Control Board will visit the 3.4-acre site of the ROAN Ventures proposal.
The Planning and Zoning Commission is concurrently holding meetings on the complex Hamlet application, most recently at a packed public hearing Monday in Town Hall’s auditorium. Its deliberations are likely to extend to July.
The Hamlet, as currently proposed, would consist of a multi-use development of 11 buildings, including retail, hotel and residential buildings between the Saugatuck River, Charles Street, Franklin Street and Railroad Place. The project also includes two underground parking garages.
Developers: Contaminated soil removed, green space added
Environmental measures detailed by Loureiro Engineering on Wednesday include hauling out 40,000 tons, or 2,000 truckloads, of contaminated soil from the site during the construction process.
Some members of the public expressed concern about the volume of soil to be excavated from the site, carted away by trucks adding to traffic in an already-congested area.
Plans also include treating stormwater through a hydrodynamic separator before it is discharged into the river. Currently, stormwater on the site goes into the river untreated.
On Wednesday, the developers’ representatives also discussed plans to add greenery to the site, with about 100 trees and other plantings incorporated in a landscape plan.
For Robbie Guimond, of Riverside Avenue, the project offers an effective way to clean up what he calls “the ghetto of Westport.”
“I have a big interest in the river and its health,” he said, adding that he is raising three daughters in Saugatuck Center.
Guimond added he is impressed with how ROAN has addressed concerns expressed about the project. “On every turn, when they have been asked to do it, they have,” he said.
Other members of the public, however, were concerned about the development’s potential flooding threat and its impact on wildlife and wetlands.
“I am very concerned about the ecological vitality of the Saugatuck River,” said Charles Tirreno, who resides on Riverside Avenue. He was one of eight public speakers to cite concerns about the project.
Tirreno said he was “scratching his head” when the developer mentioned adding green space to the area. “I see lollipop trees,” he said. “I see very tall buildings with narrow alleyways.”
In response, ROAN representatives said that most buildings in the proposed plan are 35 to 40 feet apart. The trees in question are large, at 45-inch caliper, not “lollipop trees,” they said.
In his presentation, Brian Cutler, with Loureiro Associates, praised ROAN for removing the contaminated soil from the site, which he said is “the most extreme approach” to remediating a contaminated property. The “dirty dirt” comes from a long history of industrial uses on the property, including oil storage and coal use at 601 and 609 Riverside Ave., a dry-cleaning operation at Railroad Place, and a former coal shed at 96 Franklin St.
The stormwater treatment proposed for the project is four times the standards required by the state Department of Environmental Protection, according to ROAN.
Plus, the developer says, more than 20,000 square feet of landscaped area will be added to the site, which is currently covered by concrete.
Wendy Batteau, a District 8 member of the Representative Town Meeting, reacted to the volume of information presented by the developers. “You have dazzled us with a lot of information,” she said. “Charts and numbers sometimes hide the point.”
Linda Prestegaard, who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, said that she believes a smaller project could have the same benefits, such as remediating the soil, while have a “lesser impact on the waterways” and an opportunity to be “truly green.”
“This is a delicate area — right on the Saugatuck River,” she said.
Kerri Williams is a freelance writer who has worked in journalism for years, including as a reporter for the Norwalk Hour and managing editor of the Norwalk Citizen-News.
Proponents of this development have been asked to disclose any special or financial interest. I appreciated the several proponents who recently disclosed their financial interests in the project at a recent PZC hearing.. It is natural for them to want it to proceed and they have every right to say so.
Why do others refuse to disclose?
Westport Journal has quoted Mr. Guimond extensively here and he has spoken publicly several times. I believe Mr. Guimond has an additional undisclosed interest in supporting The Hamlet development. His property at 471 Riverside appears to be listed as a “Waterfront Development Opportunity” with 200 feet of waterfront. Good for him. Just be honest about the reasons for advocacy. https://www.471riverside.com/
This lady has a lot to say about transparency.
This Hamlet project continues to morph into a Fellini movie.
The initial architectural palette presented for our small New England town was “Southeast Asia Resort”.
The current round of renderings have morphed into a 19th century, “NYC Meatpacking District” replica with what appears to be a faux cast iron ground floor base, a brick facade body and arched windows identifying the top floor terminating with a cornice.
Henry-Russell Hitchcock must be rolling in his grave with laughter. In a nod to the former NY Mets manager Casey Stengel’s famous quote during their painful debut season in 1962; “Can’t anybody here design an authentic building?”
Which architectural genre will be presented next; a Frank Gehry Bilbao Hamlet concept ?
As I said above, a Fellini movie. This is painful to witness.
Good morning Tony,
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the gardens, which the taxpayers lent you, maybe a thank you is an order.
Yes, my property’s been for sale. thank you for advertising it, it’s been for sale since 90s and I’ve floated development since early 2000, which isn’t a mystery as my goal is Survival.
Not everybody is as privileged as you to have a property on 72nd and 2nd in Manhattan and a weekend home in Westport, must be nice.
Some of us have to protect what we own, work hard to maintain and try to survive in this community. Saugatuck proper is not just a parking lot, we live here and are raising families. Most against this development live outside the “slice” which I find interesting.
Is the project perfect? no, but have we resorted to smear campaigns on blogs (like you attempted here) or hiring attorneys to try to manipulate P+Z meetings and stack the speakers to block town folk from speaking early in the meeting like was done on Monday… no.
we just speak the truth, lay the cards where they may and work towards a project that we all love.
The work that was done for the up zone in 2022 was extensive and everyone in town had plenty opportunity to speak on it. P and Z held the developer to the fire to reduce the size of what they wanted to do, ROAN did this, you might not like the design, you might want something like Saugatuck center, but it’s not your money, you don’t own those properties, regular hard-working people do.
I find it insulting that you and your anonymous alliance try to smear locals and buy ad space and spin social media to instill fear in the community by misrepresenting what’s the developers trying to do, all because you want to be able to cut through to go to Trader Joe’s or park your car close to the platform.
If these properties were next to your home or on the island or on stony point, I wonder what the timeline to clean it up would be?
To anyone late to the game I urge you to go on westportct.gov, look in P+Z archives on 11-21-22 at about 1 hour and 7 mins in and watch the short PowerPoint.
I am transparent and honest about my advocacy for various public matters. That is my point. And, Though my private life is just that, I think you need to check your facts.
My Westport home, for which I have paid taxes on since 2000, is my primary residence and not my “second home.” My husband and I worked hard for 30 years or more before retiring some years ago.
Yes, we are among your dreaded the “over 50” crowd and our challenges are more along the lines of staying healthy and keeping our property taxes paid. You’ll understand that better when you’ve get a few more years in.
We live on a fixed income and our investments, and use a part of that to retain my NYC coop, which I purchased in 1992 at 1992 prices. Yes, it’s done well in terms of market value.
I would call our lifestyle comfortable, but aging in place in Westport is not easy. We, too, are “surviving.”
My property taxes pay for the amenities we enjoy in Westport as well as the schools you send YOUR children to. AND, we pay extra to use the beaches, the community gardens, and railroad parking, to name a few.
Yes I am extremely fortunate to live in a place like Westport, just as you are. Because we are older and in a different lifecycle place than you doesn’t make your needs more important than ours or anyone else’s.
In fairness Robbie, the text ammendment change should have NEVER been granted. It was as outrageous and utterly unrealistic then as it is now.
I was a very vocal dissenter in 2022 and still am.
This DOES NOT WORK.
It is monstrous, will add nothing but sheer misery to saugatuck and half of the town, as well as to existing businesses down there in denial.
People who favored it back then or who just woke up are all shaking their heads.
They do not like it.
I’d hazard a guess the vast vast majority of the town outside of friends n family or direct beneficiaries financially from this think it stinks.
I suggest PZ goes back to the drawing board and write a new text ammendment.
One closer to the Gault build. BUT with enough parking to sustain its residents, hotel guests, staff and all the patrons who will visit their city sized retail and restaurants as well as the 19 existing restaurants and lord knows how many offices and retail. Unless of course the plan is as it appears to be shutting those down albeit by default.
That will likely win support and is plenty huge.
And if you want to argue I’m biased- because of having businesses on Main Street, I beg to differ, as I have 3 homes in Saugatuck.
And this development SUCKS. Traffic, chaos, destination for a bunch ppl who don’t want to drive to Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket but want to escape nyc.
Avail of our amenities and most of those visitors will pay no Westport property taxes..
how does any of that work ?
It does not.
As a business owner in this town, I know what it took to invest and to provide a service and that does not make me biased against this out of the gate but it makes me savvy.
Hamlet is too big and it knows it.
Is this a flip ?
Would sure make you wonder..
Something is funky, no other developers are bidding or competing. The backers are a secret cabal, obviously, who have exerted influence on a previous formation of pnz panelists, in order to change the zoning laws for this one spot. So that only they benefit. The explanation, for this normally illegal “spot zoning” was put forth as the only way to save Westport from unknown shady developers who would not be so nice about exploiting the state laws in support of housing for poor people.
Its the old carrot and stick approach. “We have to be able to go way overboard with this development and with obscene changes to regulations that are in place to protect Westporters, these regulations must be zapped” to paraphrase, “or else”
And the town went along with it, believing this menagerie, out of fear. What do Westport elites fear most– poor folk–
As I lay here on the beach in Newport, on assignment, I wonder. Who is the mastermind behind it all, the fear and manipulation, pulling the strings. Quite a strategist, this Moriarty, barely leaving a trace…hmmm…wonder wonder wonder
I go back to first principals. What is the biggest use-case connected to a transit hub and train station? A meatpacking district..no…3 fancy hotels…no….
Parking and traffic….obviously…the town has failed us in this regard.
Everytime i head out to the station to catch a train, the traffic is backed up for miles.
When i was a kid we had traffic cops keeping things moving.
They got buildings that look like these propasals in south norwalk…
What are they gonna say next, we need to have redlight district or the gangs are gonna take over…when does it end!?