Correction: the original article has been amended. The intent of Matthew Mandell’s meeting with Michelle Pirellie is to better understand the process and impacts the CDMA has had on districts that have been established in other towns.

By Ken Valenti

WESTPORT–After input from committee meetings held Monday night, the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) will vote tonight on a $275,000 settlement with the concession stand operator at Compo Beach tonight. A vote on joining a statewide planning agency has been postponed until at least next month.

The RTM meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Town Hall, 110 Myrtle Ave.

Multiple RTM committees met via Zoom Monday

The Finance and Parks and Recreation committees supported the proposed settlement for the Hook’d on the Sound concession to end its lease after five years rather than allowing the owner to exercise an option to renew the agreement.

The Planning and Zoning and Finance committees continued an hours-long discussion of whether to join the Connecticut Municipal Development Authority, which aims to foster vibrant areas downtown and around transit hubs. But with town officials still sifting through documents on how the agency operates, they postponed a decision. They plan to arrive at a recommendation to the full RTM for its February meeting at the earliest.

Un-Hook’d

When Hook’d on the Sound opened in August 2020 and at 60 Compo Beach Road, the original lease included two five-year extensions. The company that runs it, Upsilon Entertainment Group, also ran the Halfway House and Longshore Pavilion, both at Longshore Club Park. 

Parks and Recreation Director Erik Barbieri said last night that Upsilon approached him last year to exercise the options to stay another 10 years, but the town wanted the company out because of complaints about the service. He said the settlement cost is offset by the $180,000 the company invested in restoring the Compo Beach building and adding new equipment, some of which would remain.

Legal action could be more costly and take longer, perhaps two years or more, Barbieri and Town Attorney Ira Bloom said.

Both the Finance and Parks and Recreation committees supported the settlement unanimously.

“It’s unfortunate, but sometimes you have to just cut your losses and move forward,” said Transit Committee Chair Melissa Levy. “It sounds like that’s really the best thing to do in this situation.”

Barbieri said the department is preparing a request for proposals to look for another vendor. The aim is to have a new concession ready for the start of the season, but even if that doesn’t happen in time, Barbieri said the beach will have some type of food service, even if the Parks and Recreation Department staff has to run something there.

“I’m prepared to do that with our guest services staff if nothing else works,” he said. “We will have something available for the customers…whether it’s food trucks or us or (a) temporary vendor.”

The RTM is scheduled to vote tonight on whether to allocate the money, which would come from the general fund. The Board of Selectmen would vote on the settlement at its Jan. 14 meeting.

CMDA

In discussing the CMDA proposal, the RTM committee members and residents asked questions of the quasi-public agency’s executive director David Kooris for two and a half hours. The discussion was a continuation of a Dec. 17, 2025, meeting on the issue that itself took three hours.

Matthew Mandell, chairman of the RTM Planning and Zoning Committee, announced at the start of last night’s discussion that RTM members were still looking over documentation that came in after the December meeting, including information on the statute that gives the CMDA its powers.

“Our town attorneys, both Eileen (Lavigne Flug) and Ira (Bloom), have initially looked at this and determined that the information that was given was exceedingly dense and interrelated and they needed more time to research it and understand it to be able to give us a better understanding,” Mandell said.

Mandell said he plans to talk with Planning and Zoning Director Michelle Pirellie today to review districts that Avon and Naugatuck have established with the CMDA to better understand the process and its impacts.

Launched in August 2024, the authority began accepting municipalities’ applications to join last February. So far, 32 have signed on and 11 have reached Memorandums of Agreement (MOAs) with the agency to establish districts where they will work to foster development. In Westport, RTM member Kristin Mott Purcell spearheaded the petition that started the discussion.

The agency has $90 million to spend over two fiscal years providing matching grants to municipalities, loans to developers and expertise from 17 consultants, among other measures.

Kooris told the members that the initial decision to join does not impose any obligation on  the town, a point echoed by Josh Newman, a member of the RTM Planning and Zoning committee. 

“At this point in time, it’s a no brainer for me to say yes,” Newman said.

Others voiced concerns about the arrangement. Late in the meeting, Mandell noted language in the statute included the word “shall” repeatedly, including stating a municipality who joins the CMDA “shall” enter into an MOA to form a district.

Kooris said he and the agency’s attorneys read that as a condition of moving forward, not an automatic requirement triggered by the decision to join.