By Thane Grauel
WESTPORT — The Long Lots School Building Committee on Thursday night voted to recommend to First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker that a new school be built.
Concept C, as it’s known, would be an entirely new construction. It would put a baseball field and soccer field where the Westport Community Gardens have been for more than two decades.
The gardens would be relocated west of where they are now.
Thursday’s meeting was the first by the committee, which has been meeting about a year, to be held in the Town Hall auditorium. Seventy or so people attended, including the committee and architects.
Read the feasibility study here.
The decision for a whole new school was not a surprise because options to renovate the existing building or renovate with a significant addition were estimated to cost many million dollars more, and to take longer to complete.
Of the new building schemes, only one — Concept C Alt — would have left the 20-year-old community gardens where they are.
People with garden plots and their supporters made up a large part of the crowd, but no one appeared surprised when the committee members, one by one, announced their support for Concept C, uprooting the gardens again.
Concept C has an estimated cost of $92.1 million, $98.2 with “enhanced sustainability” options. It has been said it will be the town’s biggest expenditure to date.
Before the vote, speakers again expressed concerns about potentially making stormwater runoff problems worse in the area, which includes wetlands and Muddy Brook. One man asked if comments could be made after the body announced its decision.
“No,” replied Chairman Jay Keenan, a Representative Town Meeting member from District 2.
He noted that comments typically are made before a vote. And, he said, he’d been told that the agenda of a special meeting can’t be altered.
Joseph Vallone, a local architect, presented his own concepts at the last meeting he said would preserve the ballfields and the community gardens.
“I’m hoping, that when get a little further down past the feasibility part, that we start looking at a three-story design solution,” he said, “which will compact the footprint and give us more room for athletic fields and save the community garden.”
“Is there anyone in this room that thinks the gardens should be demolished?” Vallone asked and got no replies.
“How many people in this room think we should save the gardens?” he asked and received loud applause.
He said democracy is about compromise.
“I’m concerned about why my town is not listening to its fellow citizens, who are basically saying that we want the school, but we want to keep the gardens,” he said.
Several building committee members disagreed with Vallone about a third floor. Liz Heyer, also the Board of Education vice chairwoman, cited “adjacencies,” or programs that need to be near each other.
Member Don O’Day, RTM District 3, began the decision discussion, saying he supported option C.
“I think it’s the best use of the site, it reduces the duration for how long construction will be in place,” he said. “All fields, all fields, will be rebuilt.”
“What I am strongly driven by is, this site has to be as safe as possible,” he said. “A school is going to be open for construction for 18 to 24 months. During that time, students, staff, parents, buses, cars will be coming in. But it’s going to be as locked down as humanly possible.”
Including the ballfields and the gardens, he said.
“To me, option C is the best location site-wise, it gives us the best opportunities to promote safety on the site with traffic, minimize coverage, and accommodate all the functions that are on the site,” member Tim Wetmore said.
All the members agreed, one by one, including Keenan. He said the location of the new school is the best option for the future.
“It has the least impact on neighbors,” he said, adding later that a two-story school instead of three would be better for neighbors. “It’s not the Post Road,” he said. “It’s a small, tight neighborhood.”
Next, funding for the planning phase of the project will need to be requested by the administration, followed by hearings by the town’s funding bodies.
What’s next for the gardeners remains to be seen.
The group has lobbied town boards and commissions over the last several months, adovcating repeatedly that the community plots remain where they have been on the Hyde Lane campus for two decades.
Moving or modifying the gardens, they argue, is tantamount to destroying them.
Thane Grauel grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 35 years. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.
Evicted.
The school is fine, it is about the LLSCB gifting a baseball field to people who don’t even attend the school that is outside of the ed specs of the project.
Ironically, last week, Jay said, “if we had to move the Gardens you’d expect us to replace them” noting that it is the same for the ball fields. But, of course, he wants to destroy the Gardens and put the fields in their place, without the slightest plan (or budget) to create a new Gardens.
The process has been disgraceful, without transparency. Has the LLSBC yet responded to FOIA requests?
Exactly.
I appreciate the hard work of the LLSBC. There is no doubt that a new school is required. Now all that is needed is for the Parks & Rec. department to find another location for the ballfields and not destroy the 20 year old community garden. Both the garden & fields are under their purview. Might I suggest that the section of Winslow Park North, where the State of Connecticut is currently using as a staging field for the work on the Post Road, as the site for the ballfields. This section of the park is not used by dog owners due to the proximity to the road. I would assume that by the time the state is done with using our open space it will be time to play ball. Please consider this suggestion as an alternative to destroying the garden. Let’s not have another locker fiasco. If this proceeds, as planned, all the way to the RTM lets pray it will get on the agenda.
Thank you,
Susie Kowalsky
Long Lots Junior High – Class ’72
This proposed ball-field has nothing to do with the school rebuild and will not be used by Long Lots students. The Garden is not on school property and is not part of the Long Lots “campus”. Jen Tooker’s committee went way beyond their BOE mandate in seizing the Garden for Parks and Rec under the guise of a school renovation. I couldn’t be more disappointed in our town.
To be clear, “Concept C” reflects the location of a new elementary school building. The consultant showed two images for “Concept C”: one that keeps the garden where it is and adds an adjacent soccer field – see page 60 of the Feasibility Study. The other replaces the garden with a ball field.
In short, the good news is that it is clearly possible to build a new school PLUS replace a soccer field AND save the garden The question is whether our elected leaders have the political will to make that happen.
Where did the real option C go?
The Feasibility Study presented two versions of option C, one which leaves the gardens intact (C Alt), and one which replaces them with a baseball field (C). Unfortunately the one that leaves the gardens intact was never intended to be viable – it proposes putting the baseball field in an absurd location that would cost almost three million dollars to build (see the map on page 60 of the study).
Why was the option that satisfies the most people and maybe even costs the least, i.e. leave the gardens where they are and build the new baseball field at Winslow Park North, not even considered as an alternative?
Just asking …
Jay Keenan’s friends are Little League dads, not gardeners.
The cost estimate for the baseball field in the Concept C plan (not C-Alt) includes these line items. (pages 61-62 of the appendices).
Baseball Field – Natural Turf 121,000 SF <
Seeded Natural Turf Outfield 121,000 SF
Import Topsoil 1,479 CY
Perimeter Fence 1,124 LF
Dugouts – 50'x10'
Bull pen – 75' x 15'
Batting cage
Fan bleachers two (2) sets – 60'x12'
Infield Mix – Clay
Backstop
Bases, mounds, foul poles
Scoreboard
Meanwhile in Fairfield…
https://www.ctinsider.com/fairfield/article/yearround-pollinator-garden-fairfield-post-road-18389534.php
AND…meanwhile in Hamden…..
https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/comm-gardens-coming-to-hamden-elementary-schools-18093505.php