By John H. Palmer
WESTPORT – Developers of the proposed “Hamlet at Saugatuck” have once again come back to the drawing board with their plans, presenting updated plans to the Planning and Zoning Commission Monday night that reflect changes that both the public and commissioners had wished to see.
Representatives for ROAN Ventures, during a session that lasted more than three hours, gave a detailed Zoom presentation to the commission and about 50 members of the public, addressing many of the aesthetic concerns brought up by the Architectural Review Board, as well as other concerns regarding parking and traffic in the area.
“I believe you’ve done an excellent job with the look and feel of the buildings,” said P&Z Chairman Paul Lebowitz, who called the latest plan updates “very comprehensive.”
The tweaks to the plan represent a last ditch effort to gain public acceptance for the development, which could end up being the largest ever seen in Westport, consisting 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. Some 14 off-site “below market” housing units would be contributed by the developer under the plan.
Time crunch after time crunch
As of Monday evening, the updated site plans hadn’t even been officially transmitted to the Planning and Zoning office. ROAN attorney Eric Bernheim said that he planned to turn them in no later than Wednesday.
That leaves a major time crunch for the P&Z, which under state law must close the Hamlet application on June 18, beginning a 65-day deliberation period after which a negative or positive vote must be taken whether to approve.
Commissioners will have just over a week to review the new site plans and share the new information with other town commissions, allowing for their reviews before the next meeting on June 11, during which more public input will be allowed, and then the final meeting before closure will be on June 16.
Meanwhile, the planners will meet on June 9 to discuss the Long Lots Elementary School project, and specifically a new, state-mandated “8-24” application that First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker is seeking, a necessary step before the town can seek state funding for the school’s construction.
Town boards are beginning a two-week tizzy of meetings to rush through the necessary approvals for the grant deadline. It was revealed last week that the Long Lots Building Committee was not only unaware that the state deadline was apparently changed from October to June 30, but also that a crucial town charter regulation requires a two-week pause to allow for a public referendum to be called. This means that the several town boards must approve the school plans, and the P&Z must approve or deny the “8-24” request by June 16.
Hamlet application process might need more time
Commissioners debating the Hamlet application are beginning to feel the pressure. ROAN representatives have been going through the pattern of listening to public concerns and tweaking the plans to respond, but there still appears to be many more questions that go unanswered.
Commissioner Amy Wistreich, for instance, expressed frustration at the developers about a continued lack of a traffic study for the “blind bend” area of Railroad Place where the “waterside” garage entrance would be located. Wistreich said she has repeatedly asked for traffic and safety reviews from both the fire and police department, but has yet to see them.
“I’ve been asking since the first meeting, and I don’t understand why it wasn’t in the purview to begin with,” she said. “It’s what I want, and I don’t think it’s there. I feel like it’s a treacherous corner, and it’s not a surprise.”
With such a time crunch in play, Chairman Paul Lebowitz began a discussion before closing Monday night’s hearing theorizing what options are available should the commission decide they need more time to gather information. One option, he said, is to add another meeting onto the P&Z calendar on June 17 or 18 if needed.
Town Attorney Ira Bloom told the commission that a viable option would be to have ROAN withdraw their application at the last minute and then immediately refile. This would reset the legal clock, and in essence start the entire approval process over again, giving the commission at least another 65 days of time during which more and public information could be gathered. Theoretically, the commission would not have to use all of that time, but the applicant, which has legal authority at this point given a 65-day extension had already been allowed, would need to agree.
“It’s not desirable because this could stretch out indefinitely,” Bloom said. “We’re under a lot of pressure to finish this by the 18th, there’s no question.”
The commission will make a decision about which route to go once the developers submit the new plans this week.
“We’re going to make sure we do this right,” said commissioner Neil Cohn.
Site plan changes reflect public concerns
The new site plans presented Monday evening have been tweaked to address concerns about parking and traffic, as well as complaints about how garbage collections, events loading, and rideshare traffic would be dealt with during events as well as heavy commuting times, given its proximity to the train station in Saugatuck.
Some of the major changes to the plans include the following:
- A maintenance tunnel underneath and leading across Railroad Place has been eliminated to comply with setback regulations.
- As a result, many of the building footprints have been moved behind a 10-foot setback from property lines.
- This has also allowed for more “accessible” public space, along with a larger public plaza. Total public gathering space is now estimated at about 53,000 square feet.
- A dome and clocktower feature has been added.
- The “view corridor” enabling sightlines to the Saugatuck River have been made larger by increasing space between two hotel buildings.
- Behind the proposed “Barn building,” where large events would be held, dedicated loading spaces for delivery trucks not visible at street line have been added by reducing the overall footprint of the building.
- Building heights have been lowered by eliminating a pitched roof on the barn building in favor of a flat roof, and hotel roof heights have also been lowered from 60 feet to 54 feet.
- Dedicated space for mail and package deliveries has been added, and will be completed at one central mail sorting station. Underground garage heights have been increased to 14 feet to allow for oversize delivery trucks.
- To reduce impact on local traffic, daily garbage pickup will be by a private contractor, and limited to very early morning hours, and package deliveries by UPS and Amazon will also be limited to restricted times.
“We’ve done a lot of work since the last meeting, and we think it’s been very productive,” said Bernheim.
Public comments ranged from positive to negative, and included concerns about traffic in the area, environmental impact on the Saugatuck River, and the specter of an 8-30g affordable housing application that could potentially be submitted for the area should the Hamlet application be ultimately denied.
“I’m concerned that this thing keeps going on and on,” said Bobbi Essagoff, a member of the Westport Alliance for Saugatuck. “I would like to hear from our first responders, as I find it hard to believe that the police department can agree to this. I can’t imagine how emergency vehicles will be able to get past the Hamlet and save us from what needs to be saved.”
Westporter Kevin McGrath said he has a 6- and a 9-year-old and he has never visited Saugatuck waterfront as a family. He’d like that to change.
“If you did have a boardwalk, etc. – a place where we could go get ice cream – we would utilize that space far more often,” he said. “Any additional green space is a great addition to a neighborhood I live a quarter mile from.”
John Palmer, a Norwalk native, is editor of the Westport Journal, and has covered community news in Fairfield County and Massachusetts for over 30 years. He can be contacted at jpalmer@westportjournal.com.
The project is NOT for the people of Westport.
However, we were supposed to be “razzle-dazzled” by the various supersized developments around the world. What a time-wasting distraction when real questions about traffic, parking, environment, police and fire safety, density and affordable housing are unanswered,
Further, while everyone else is celebrating the “responsive” revisions (done under duress), I view many of the changes as a poke in the eye:
— ditching the tunnel because the state wouldn’t approve it;
— complying with setbacks in place of promised historic preservation;
— architecture changes in place of density;
— new loading dock by overtaking public parking.
These changes were somewhat retributive from where I sit. I could be wrong but still, where is the traffic study and police and fire report?
Further, there has been no discussion on the required affordable housing component of their plan. This is a big condition to be left as a “tbd.”
I would also like to see more on the environmental impact on the river as a result of this development, including a report on whether there are endangered, at-risk or protected species harboring in and around the river.
The fire safety report should include information about the water infrastructure and whether a major fire event could be handled adequately.
It would be nice also for the powers that be in Westport to better articulate the vision for the river, from the LI Sound to downtown. Having this secreted “master plan” come out in dribs and drabs is really annoying to this taxpayer.
You are correct Toni,
Retributive is the perfect way to view all these “responsive” revisions, which no doubt were negotiated behind the public’s back with PZ commission. Or certainly with some of them.
The semantics at the end of the meeting 2 weeks ago certainly pointed to the fact that roan or bernheim were going to be speed dialing the PZ !
So nothing has really changed.
Height still remains obnoxious.
Views of the water still a joke
Public gathering spaces are walkways which they need anyway..
no marina permit solidified with DEEP.
Basically it’s still 1700-1800 parking spaces short
Not withstanding the 200 parking spaces being lost due to the building of this huge development being on top of what are now properties set back with parking being utilized at present.
So the hamlet starts out negative 200 and adds 277 tight awkward, stacker spots underground.
So in effect the Saugatuck area including the hamlet is plus 77 parking spaces, with a need for at least 3000-4000 parking spots when you include existing 23 restaurants, staff, retail.
As for the promised Offsite affordable component. Which is one of many reasons this cannot be called a TOD.
It would be ludicrous to leave that as a tbd !!!
How is that even an option ?
We know nothing about it.
Where’s it going ? On Franklin street where parking is super tight on street. If they use the building they have on Franklin, how high will it be since the regs PZ changed to suit this developer amount to open season on everything in that area.
How many units will be 1/2/3/4 bedroom. How tall will it be ?
Because if that 4 bedroom penthouse remains, then one of the affordable units should be a 4 bedroom.. what size are the others ?
Because state law says they should be comparable in size etc.. not the bare minimum this town has been allowing developers get away with.
The allowance for offsite affordable housing in this town being permitted offsite should not mean developers can use small pathetic accommodation by comparison so they make more profit. That should not be the goal. We should not be concerned with developers saving money to put in their investors pockets.
I suggest a massive correction here, and now, beginning with the hamlet.
There is no reason to not be presented with, for approval along with the rest of this site plan, the plan for affordable housing component !
I think this is a huge red herring.
Kicking the can down the road, for what ? So they can get away with something that should be deemed completely unacceptable.
The appropriate time is now, to see a marina permit, to see the affordable housing component, to know if there is any phase 2 or 3 to this fiasco, and if there is are they going to build a 5 or 6 story box on Franklin to put affordable offsite housing for all these potential phases ?
There is a reason this can is getting kicked down the road.
We had the proverbial wool pulled over our eyes 2 years ago. Let’s not be so foolish to think that behavior has gone away.
Look at the joke they came back with last night.
Thank you, P&Z commissioners, for your patience and stamina; this discussion has been very long and full of moving pieces. The commissioners are doing the right thing by insisting that ROAN live up to the town’s standards. I’m still unclear as to why ROAN doesn’t finish this by showing us everything they have, all at once, instead of dragging this out to the point that they may need to withdraw and resubmit. They are playing an expensive lose-lose game. I am not having fun.
The project is out of control. Changing the size of the hotel’s footprint does not address the issue of density. The area can not support the number of additional people, cars, or trucks needed to supply them. That can only be done by having fewer hotel rooms and condos.
I would also like to say that shaming the Alliance for being represented by counsel is just unfair and unkind. We are not all in commercial real estate or land use consultants, and cannot understand renderings shown briefly on a Zoom call. We are Westport citizens concerned about our neighborhood’s future. We started a petition, and we have found 1200+ neighbors around our town who agree this is not right for Saugatuck. We can’t all be wrong.
I hope the leaders of this town show up to help solve these issues. We must hear from our First Selectwoman, the Chief of Police, and the head of our Fire Department. Their absence tells me something is amiss, which should worry all of us.