By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT — The Parks and Recreation Commission took a swing Wednesday at some of the specific options outlined in the Longshore Capital Improvement Plan for the 168-acre park.
Suggestions about Longshore’s golf clubhouse and driving range teed up some of the most pointed comments during the commission’s online meeting.
Preliminary cost estimates for options favored by the public, commission members and others for the improvement project will be presented at a Jan. 11 meeting by Stantec, the New Haven company hired to develop the plan.
Stantec has held two open house meetings with the public at the Westport Library, and collected more than 2,000 responses through surveys to prioritize the suggested improvements, according to Gary Sorge, vice president of community development for Stantec.
The consultants divided the park into seven zones and asked residents to suggest how each zone could be improved, and offered options for each.
The top five priorities Westporters have for the park, according to Santec, are:
- Maintaining and creating open views of the water.
- Clustering and improving recreation activities, such as platform tennis and pickleball courts.
- Providing more pedestrian and bicycle paths and a shoreline walk.
- Improving road intersections within the park.
- Creating more passive recreation areas, such as picnic areas near the pool or marina.
Other items on the priority list include adding shade for the pool, upgrading or moving the playground and improving parking in several areas.
Golf clubhouse, driving range up to par?
But the main focus of comments at Wednesday’s meeting concerned golf.
The biggest controversy to arise so far over the improvement plan is where to locate a new clubhouse.
One option in the plan calls for the clubhouse to be moved closer to the golf course and to provide better parking. A second option would be to reconstruct the clubhouse where it now stands near the Inn at Longshore.
The golf clubhouse should have its own grill room, most of the commenters agreed, but some thought connectivity to the inn would be important, while others thought the proposed new location is better.
Many, including Sorge, thought the clubhouse could have a larger impact as a year-round restaurant, instead of a seasonal facility, with the addition of a grill room.
“There is a compelling argument to leave the clubhouse there with a view of the water,” said commission member Alec Stevens. “Smith Richardson [Golf Club in Fairfield] has a restaurant overlooking a golf course and is a year-round facility that gets a lot of use.” A clubhouse overlooking the water would be an even greater attraction all year, he said.
“To move the clubhouse is a bad idea,” agreed Skip Lane. “Everybody wanted water views as a priority [in the surveys]. It should be a clubhouse for everyone, not just golfers.”
Jay Walshon, who said he attended an open house Stantec held at the library, was one of several people at Wednesday’s meeting who commented on the golf driving range, which he said should be removed. He called the site of the driving range “the most scenic area in Westport.” Using it for space to collect golf balls “is a waste of that precious resource,” he said, suggesting the site could be used for other recreational activities such as pickleball or bocce.
“There are more people in Westport who don’t play golf than play golf,” Walshon said. “I’m not a golfer, but I am a Westport resident.”
Chris Tait, a Representative Town Meeting member form District 1 and chairman of the RTM’s Park and Recreation Committee, called the driving range “a landfill.”
He also wanted the clubhouse to remain close to the inn, which he said provides advantages for both the clubhouse and the inn.
Others pointed out the driving range generates revenue for the town and should remain.
Concerns also were raised over the liability the town could face for injuries to pedestrians on walkways too close to flying golf balls.
Wednesday’s discussion also touched on the requests by many for more pickleball courts, as well as the need to rebuild the park’s maintenance facility.
Sorge said he will present cost figures for favored options in the plan at the Parks and Recreation Commission’s next meeting, which is scheduled Jan. 11.
Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and currently teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.
This PRC meeting was a very productive one, and I appreciate all the in depth discussion and the comments that were presented.
However I want to clarify something that I stated just in case I was misunderstood.
If (by utilizing alternative means such as hitting cages and simulators) that golf driving range area can be freed up for passive and active recreational uses, this area could include the long desired bocce court facility, a miniature golf course that had been requested for some time, an exercise equipment circuit, as well as many other potential uses that would benefit many many Westport residents. The community could guide how this area should be repurposed IF the current driving range area can be freed up for other uses.
In addition, the location of a new “Clubhouse” is a fundamentally crucial aspect of this Longshore project, and Westport residents should understand that as envisioned, this will be a Clubhouse for ALL residents to enjoy (rather than being a so called “Golf clubhouse”). Therefore the decision on where to locate this clubhouse should be important to all Town residents.
It is very encouraging that Stantec and the PRC will now be giving this aforementioned possibility very serious consideration when they move into the next phase of the design planning. I commend the P&R, PRC and Stantec for their many public dialogues as this project has unfolded. I urge all Westport residents to remain involved as the Zone 4 is further deliberated.
Dr J