By John Schwing
WESTPORT — Approval of a revised municipal land-use report is being sought to build the new Long Lots Elementary School, raising questions about whether the project — already delayed by a year from initial plans — could be set back even further.
A new state-mandated “8-24” land-use report is sought by First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker, on behalf of the Long Lots School Building Committee, because a relocated site for Westport Community Gardens on the Hyde Lane campus — provided in the 8-24 report approved for the project in January 2024 — has been dropped.
Tooker, in a May 14 letter to the Planning and Zoning Commission requesting approval of a new 8-24 report, wrote: “… that because of school and [athletic] field needs on this parcel, the community garden would have to be relocated to an alternate location.”
Debate over the future of the Westport Community Gardens, which were located on the Long Lots property for more than two decades, prompted months of impassioned debate as plans to replace the seven-decade-old school were taking shape.
A “compromise” no more
In proposing what she had called a compromise 8-24 application for the school — which won that 2024 P&Z approval — Tooker said although a multipurpose athletic field would be built on the current site of the gardens, she promised a new location for the gardens would be set aside on the property.
That plan no longer is viable, the first selectwoman indicated in her May 14 letter.
Asking the P&Z to approve the new 8-24 report for “only” the new school, parking and athletic fields, Tooker also requested the commission to simultaneously approve new special permit and site plan applications “in an expeditious manner so that construction can commence.”
As of Monday, no hearings for the new 8-24 Long Lots report or the related applications have been scheduled by the P&Z, which among other business, is in the midst of a months-long review of the complex “Hamlet at Saugatuck” project.
A foreshadowing of plans to eliminate a location for the gardens on the Long Lots property emerged in April when, at a pre-application review of the project between the P&Z and school building panel, it was noted the preliminary site plan did not show an area designated for the gardens as required under the approved 8-24 application.
Now that the gardens have officially been cut from the site, the P&Z must issue a new positive 8-24 report for the overall project.
Construction plans already running a year late
It was not immediately clear what impact a new P&Z review of the state-mandated application might have on the start of construction for the estimated $100 million project.
Planners had initially hoped to begin work on the new school late last year, with completion expected for the 2026 academic year. Under the current scenario, construction is estimated to start sometime this summer and be completed by 2027.
A clearer picture of the prospects for more delays may be the topic of discussion when the Long Lots School Building Committee meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Town Hall’s Room 201/201A, 110 Myrtle Ave.
A master plan for alternate site
In her letter, Tooker said a new search for another community gardens site now will be carried out through the town’s recently launched parks master plan. Her earlier suggestion that the gardens be relocated to the Baron’s South open space got a largely negative reception from gardeners, who say it is unsuitable for several reasons.
The first selectwoman wrote that “a strategic review” of all town-owned parks would take place for a new gardens site, and that Parks and Recreation Director Erik Barbieri has discussed the initiative with Louis Weinberg, chair of the community gardens steering committee.
Weinberg confirmed Monday that he has been in touch with Barbieri, but was non-committal about the search until the election of a new administration in November, saying he is hopeful it focuses on protecting open space and not dividing people. Tooker has decided not to seek re-election this year.
Gardeners’ bitter harvest
Weinberg blamed Tooker for the months-long controversy that engulfed the gardens’ future, which he said led unfairly to “the vilification and demonization” of the gardeners. They were deliberately cut out of early-planning stages for the school project, he said, because Tooker was focused on a “land grab” to build an athletic field supplanting the gardens. That field, he added, will be used not by Long Lots students but by other town recreational teams.
Weinberg characterized his discussion with Barbieri, who has been on the job since February, as designed to give him “a sense of what has happened, what is happening and what we would like to happen.”
But he seemed doubtful any progress would be made until after Tooker leaves office, given what he said was her determination to “bulldoze” the nationally recognized gardens.
John Schwing, consulting editor of the Westport Journal, has held senior editorial and writing posts at southwestern Connecticut media outlets for four decades. Learn more about us here.
There is no need to wait until November to get a plan in place. Tooker is not going to get this done and never intended to. Nor is her appointed P&R Commission. Burying this in a decades-long Master Plan is typical.
The one with the clear head and direct responsibility is Mr. Barbieri. Understandably, he is on overload with any number of urgent demands on his time and attention.
Furthermore, the COMMUNITY garden is a community of people, not a single individual. I suggest the town work toute de suite with more of those invested in the idea of a community garden, and not with a single individual gardener.
For starters, pull together an advisory committee, better yet a commission, with the singular task to get this done.
As I have said many times previously, there has never been a requirement to work with the WCG Steering Committee exclusively. These are friends, neighbors, and good people, and they have good hearts and minds. But they cannot continue to delegate to a single viewpoint.
In addition to the members of the WCG Steering Committee, a more diverse and engaged group is what will move this off dead center. Engage others!
The concept of the non-profit WCG is a good one to manage the day to day operation of the garden. The governance of this nonprofit should be beefed up going forward.
Strategic planning for a clean-sheet garden requires broader perspectives and diverse viewpoints. The garden should have better protections (legal and otherwise) than what has been. It needs independent legal counsel to get this set up properly.
Because of the scarcity of town land, and dependent on demand, we may need more than one location. I strongly suggest a flat, sunny, accessible, clean space be a priority — without the need to clearcut. A brownfield site with full and proper remediation for agriculture could also work.
Let’s get this done.
Surely nobody is even remotely surprised by this carefully choreographed plan.
Tooker had no intention of leaving the community gardens anywhere on that site.
And the suggestion of barons contaminated site offensive to a group who grow food they eat and their children. What a disgrace.
It was all a game. And a game that has now delayed the school, not delayed by the gardeners but by this administrations dogged determination and utter arrogance to “get their own way no matter the consequences.
From the ridiculous assertion that the gardeners might pose a safety risk to the kids at school, to locking them out of the site during typical gardening hours, to offering them and trying to push on them a nasty shaded hilly spot on contaminated soil, to now putting forward a new 8-24, excluding them and offering no viable alternative.
This is just preposterous and the PZ should not pass this 8-24 unless an alternative site agreeable to all concerned has been nailed down.
That is the least they should do.
And Westport is watching.
Elections are coming and thankfully soon enough that hopefully memories will not have faded.
This literal shafting of a group of Westport taxpayers who have I might add, spent hundreds of combined years of taxes paying for the schools, is just malicious and dirty.
Shame on this administration and shame on PZ if they pass this 8-24 without a site the gardeners are happy with.
P&Z should not honor the utter mendacity coming from the administration by allowing them to change the 8-24 that they had requested.
To do so would be to tell anyone in Town that if they lie to P&Z there will be no consequence.