By John H. Palmer

WESTPORT — The Planning and Zoning Commission Monday abruptly rescheduled a much-anticipated public hearing on the Hamlet development plan for Saugatuck. 

Without discussion, Chairman Paul Lebowitz announced the next hearing on plans for a sweeping redevelopment of Saugatuck would be rescheduled to Monday, April 7. Any municipal meetings or cancellations are legally required to be announced ahead of time, but as of the meeting’s start at 6 p.m. Monday, the officially posted P&Z agenda stated the public hearing on the Hamlet application would continue that evening. No revision or cancellation of that agenda was posted to the town website. Efforts to reach Lebowitz after the meeting were not successful.  

The “Hamlet at Saugatuck,” as it stands, will consist of a multi-use development of 11 buildings, including retail, hotel and residential buildings between the Saugatuck River, Charles Street, Franklin Street and Railroad Place. The developer also has agreed to provide 14 off-site affordable housing units under the plan. 

Seven properties are currently under contract to be purchased if the application is approved:  601, 606 and 609 Riverside Ave., 2 and 16 Railroad Place, and 91 and 96 Franklin St. Not included at this point are: 21 Charles St., 40 Railroad Place, 36 Railroad Place and 611 Riverside Ave. Underground parking garages with 258 spaces are planned. 

The development has been going through intense scrutiny since the commission got a first look at the developer’s plans on March 10. The developers have promised to work with zoning officials and citizens to create what they say will be a “welcoming, lively, sustainable and vibrant place along the Saugatuck Marina where people want to live, work, visit and explore.”

Developers have been tweaking the plans to help alleviate resident concerns about traffic and parking. That includes working to update planned traffic lights, redesign traffic patterns and even a proposal to narrowing parts of Riverside Avenue to make it more pedestrian friendly and slow traffic.

Baron’s South affordable housing initiative tabled

Also at Monday’s meeting, P&Z members begrudgingly agreed to table a vote on a proposed text amendment for Baron’s South open-space property, which would modify the current “Dedicated Open Space and Recreation District” applied to the property — which prohibits any activities other than passive recreation — to “permit the renovation and expansion of the existing buildings for two-family or multi-family dwellings.”

The future of the 22-acre, town-owned site bordered by Compo Road South and Post Road East has been in contention for more than two decades. Since 2023, debate has revolved around a plan by the Tooker administration to permit renovation of the property’s five buildings into apartments that would be rented in compliance with state-set “affordable” criteria.

The Baron’s South buildings include the vacant Golden Shadows mansion, one-time home of former Austrian baron, Walter Langer von Langendorff, a chemist who founded Evyan Perfumes, known for its White Shoulders and Golden Shadows scents.

Planners on Monday evening seemed on the cusp of holding a vote to approve the text amendment as it stands, but a debate evolved over the dilapidated condition of the Golden Shadows mansion, and whether it makes financial sense to bear the expense of renovating the structure. Furthermore, several commissioners expressed concerns about how the remaining open space might be affected by building up to 22 units of affordable housing on the property.

“If there are residents in there, then it adds another complexity to doing more with the property,” said commissioner Michael Cammeyer. “We don’t want a privacy issue with walking paths going behind people’s houses. I’ve ridden my bike there. People are not going to want to ride their bikes next to people’s houses. That’s just not cool.”

While most of the commission was in agreement the town has a unique opportunity to use the property to help add to the town’s stock of state-mandated affordable housing, and in fact some perimeter structures on the property are already rented out to town employees, friction arose about the prospect of giving up valuable open space and how that may be controlled in the future. 

The text amendment, some commissioners argued, would cede control of the property to a developer to renovate the structures without adequate oversight and leave the town vulnerable to future litigation. 

On the other hand, as chairman Lebowitz pointed out, no developer will propose an affordable housing site plan if they don’t have permission to move forward with a project, and that he said, is what they needed to vote on. 

“Any way this town can get more affordable housing is a wise endeavor, and this is an opportunity that comes around rarely,” he said. “It’s no blanket approval. They [developers] have to come back and prove that it’s a smart use of the land and good for the town.”

Commissioner Michael Calise said he was uncomfortable with the idea of giving up town-owned open space, and could not approve the text amendment as written. 

“This is a pretty valuable piece of land, and we need to be more careful about what we do,” he said. “We tie ourselves in knots about playing fields and refuse to buy space to take pressure off the problem. Our primary goal is to think about land use, and maintaining the proper balance.”

Rather than kick the issue back to a P&Z subcommittee, commissioners ultimately agreed to send the text amendment proposal back to P&Z Director Michelle Perillie for rewording. Changes would include language to apply to the entire property except for the Golden Shadows mansion and include concerns of commissioners who feel more needs to be done to preserve the property’s remaining open space. 

The revised document will be brought back for a vote at a later commission meeting.

John Palmer is editor of the Westport Journal, and has covered community news in Fairfield County and Massachusetts for over 30 years. He can be contacted at jpalmer@westportjournal.com.