By Kerri Williams

WESTPORT – The Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday got its first look at a new vision for 606 Riverside Ave. – the same site as a portion of the controversial Hamlet Development they denied last year.

In a pre-application, or non-binding discussion, Spinnaker Real Estate Partners of South Norwalk presented a plan for a development with 175 residential units along with 283 parking spaces on 1.54 acres. The proposal differs from the Hamlet in that it is not directly on the waterfront and does not include a large retail component.

“I do live in town,” said Spinnaker owner Matthew Edvardsen, as he addressed the commission for the first time. “I have a personal stake in getting it right.”

But, for many of the commissioners, the elephant in the room was that Spinnaker has proposed for 10 percent of units on site to be deed restricted as affordable, instead of the 20 percent that is required.

The first question following Spinnaker’s presentation by commissioner Breanne Injeski was about the reasoning behind the 10 percent affordable number. Edvardsen responded that the 10 percent number made the project “feasible for us” economically.

But Injeski and several other board members said they would have a hard time approving a project where the affordable component is lower than “every development in town.”

“This just doesn’t work,” said commissioner Michael Calise, adding that the 10 percent number is the overall goal for affordable housing across town. “Their contribution is net zero.”

Later in the meeting, Chairman Paul Lebowitz asked Spinnaker representatives what a development would look like that was economically viable and met the 20 percent number. Edvardsen responded that Spinnaker would come back in another pre-app with some “different scenarios,” adding that the team got the message that the 10 percent figure was “not palatable.”

While the state has incentives for developments with 30 percent affordable units, those do not exist for 20 percent, Edvardsen said.

Commissioners also questioned the height of the buildings and whether the parking would be adequate for the number of tenants. The façade along Riverside Avenue will have a scale of 3 ½ stories, with additional height stepped back into the site so it is less visible from the street, according to Seelan Pather, of Beinfield Architecture.

Lebowitz said he had driven around looking at some of the other Spinnaker properties, including one in Norwalk that he felt was particularly tall. His concern is that the Saugatuck project would also be tall, although he added that the height was “way better than what we were presented with in the past.”

Pather said that the architecture is meant to have the look of a New England village and that the people living there should “feel like this is their home.” He added that there will be “a great attention” to detail. 

“We’ve done this before,” he said, referencing other developments in Darien, New Canaan, Fairfield and Norwalk. “We know we can get it right here.”

Marissa Tarallo, of AKRF in Stamford, also delivered a preliminary traffic study for the plan. The study examines the 11 intersections that would be impacted by the project, with extensive data collection of the current traffic counts. A housing development on the site would create less traffic than adding retail to the area, she said.

But Lebowitz and other commissioners still questioned the effects of the development on traffic that is already congested. “People don’t drive through good numbers,” Lebowitz said. “They drive through those streets.”

Also brought up was the issue of environmental concerns, which were also a big part of the Hamlet proposal. “We are aware of it,” Edvardsen said, adding that they will work with the town and regulating agencies. “Every site has some kind of issue that you have to address.”

Overall, Lebowitz added that he liked the “tone and tenor” of the discussion, which he said was “way better than what we ended up with a year ago.”

Another issue is that the commission has been questioning the zoning for the property, which is in the General Business District/Saugatuck Marina, created by the commission in 2022. Spinnaker representatives referred to the district as the “Roan Zone,” referring to the company that proposed the Hamlet, and saying it won’t work for their project.

Instead, Spinnaker is asking for a district designation as General Business Saugatuck, which would be the same zone as the nearby Gault properties. However, even that zone would not work exactly for the project, and they would need a special sub-area that they are calling transit-oriented development, or TOD.

Kerri Williams

^{_{Kerri Williams is an award-winning writer and journalist. She has worked as a reporter at the Norwalk Hour, as Living editor at the Darien News-Review, and managing editor for the Norwalk Citizen-News. For Westport Journal, she is a reporter as well as a gardening columnist, writing “Cultivating with Kerri.” She recently published her first children’s book – “Mabel’s Big Move,” based on her daughter with special needs.}}