By Gretchen Webster

The Planning and Zoning Commission heard two applications on Monday that have been before the commission multiple times in the past. One is a proposal to tear down a historic house built at 125 Riverside Ave to make way for a new house and accessory dwelling unit, and the other is to put an office building at the corner of Post Road East and Roseville Road, a spot Westporters recognize because of the logs frequently piled there.

The P&Z did not make a decision on either application, however, scheduling another hearing for both of them at their Oct. 20^th meeting.

House older than the US of A

The development of the Riverside Avenue property owned by 125 RA LLC, is a sensitive riverfront property, with a historic house built in 1756. The house should be saved if possible, several commission members said, an opinion shared by many members of the public in letters they sent to the P&Z. Wendy Van Wie, a member of the Historic District Commission, asked the P&Z to delay their decision. She said that recent revisions to an ordinance that would protect the house and still allow for some development of the property will soon go into play.

Michael Perry, a member of the Representative Town Meeting from District 2 advised the commission “to approach this in a cautious way. This is anything but a typical application,” he said, noting that 10 RTM members had written to the P&Z with concerns about the development of the 0.42 acre property. “You can’t be careful enough with the Saugatuck River,” he said.

Detailed plans submitted by Lucien Vita of Vita Designs contained various safeguards for the shorefront property including three different drainage systems, some modifications to protect sensitive tidal wetlands, and a native upland meadow that would include 1,500 individual plants. The meadow would replace a lawn on the property, which would reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides, improving water quality and habitat, William Kenning, a professional soil scientist told the commission.

Concerns

P&Z members said they had some concerns about two driveways being put onto the property,  and with the number of letters they had received for the public opposing the application, but most of all with demolishing the historic house which is listed in the town’s Historic Resources Inventory. 

“There were a lot of letters written about this,” said Commission member Michael Cammeyer, suggesting that the hearing be continued, and not closed.  “It will give us more time to think about it and see if more comments surface.”

The owner’s efforts to subdivide the property to hold two houses, likely demolishing one of the town’s oldest houses, began in January 2024. In March of that year, the property owners failed to get approval of an amendment to zoning regulations that would have permitted the subdivision of properties with historic houses at least 100 years old.

In June 2024, the Historic District Commission voted to delay demolition of the house for at least another six months, hoping that the text amendment they were revising would be in place to save the house. On Monday the P&Z also voted for a delay – to continue the hearing until Oct. 20 and possibly prolong the life of the house.

Office building to replace tree dump

The decision to approve or reject a plan to build an office building at 715 Post Road East at the intersection of Roseville Road, was also postponed at Monday’s P&Z meeting. Applications to develop the property, dating back to 2012, were considered again by the P&Z more recently in 2023. And in 2024, the Zoning Board of Appeals approved a variance for the property for reduced parking space after the state condemned a piece of the property for intersection improvements.

Plans for an office building on the site, long used for the storage of cut down trees and construction equipment, have also been the source of several lawsuits.

This time, the P&Z’s concerns were about some unusual features of the parking lot and the building which made it unsafe for motorists and pedestrians, several commissioners said. The current design calls for a two-floor building, but without an interior staircase, requiring those using the second floor to park on a different level, entering the building there. The two-level approach would force cars to use limited space to turn around to exit into the busy intersection, or to back out without proper sight lines for other motorists or pedestrians, several commissioners pointed out.

Traffic study not required

A traffic study was needed, several commissioners agreed, but Attorney Laurel Fedor, representing property owner William Taylor, said that had been an issue in former lawsuits, and the property owner was not required to provide a traffic study.

The use of the building for law offices and some medical facilities would result in a lot of traffic coming into and leaving the site frequently, said Commission member Michael Calise.

“I don’t know what is going to be gained by this concept – there’s a wide range of impediments to the users of the structure, and potential confusion,” he said.

The P&Z voted to continue the application to Oct. 20 to give them more time to study the traffic patterns in and out of the proposed development and to get some expert opinions.

“If we can’t get a traffic study and you won’t provide one,” Cammeyer said to Fedor, “We’ll get the police to comment on this sight line … I think it’s important to get the safety issues right.”

Gretchen Webster

^{_{Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, has reported for the daily Greenwich Time and Norwalk Hour, the weekly Westport News, Fairfield Citizen and Weston Forum. She was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman for ten years. She has won numerous journalism awards over the years, and taught journalism at New York University and Southern Connecticut State University.}}