By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The Planning and Zoning Commission’s hearing on a plan to re-subdivide 50 Sylvan Road North, already under fire from neighbors living off a busy street, faced tense moments this week as some neighbors appeared to assert a fix was in.

Rick Benson, a longtime resident and developer, is seeking to split the 3-acre lot into two parcels. His original plan added a driveway feeding into Sylvan Road North, near the existing driveway and Sylvan Farms Lane.

But the plan, after an earlier hearing, has been changed to join the two driveways into one.

“The goal of this application is to subdivide the existing three-acre parcel into two conforming residential lots in a manner that preserves the special 100-year-old dwelling that stands today,” Benson told the commission Monday.

“What you see is a fully compliant, two-lot subdivision with a shared driveway,” Benson said. “Our former application was also fully compliant but utilized two driveways.”

Jackie Kaufman, a lawyer for the applicant, said the application meets all the standards set by the town.

Planning and Zoning Director Mary Young detailed the limits of the commission’s powers, as explained by the Town Attorney’s Office.

“You’re acting in your administrative capacity,” she said. “Distinguished from a special permit where you have some discretion. You don’t.”

“This is a subdivision application where staff goes through, methodically, as does the other town departments who have jurisdiction, to determine whether or not the standards have been met,” Young said.

The only exception, she noted, is the commission’s power to require that 10 percent be set aside for open space.

Young said Benson, as the applicant, has the option of offering a fee in lieu of open space.

A long discussion followed that topic, but consternation from the public lay elsewhere.

“This new plan actually moves the driveway closer to Sylvan Farms Lane, which we see as a major problem,” said lawyer Barbara Schelenberg, representing nearby residents of 5 Sylvan Farms Lane.

She requested the public hearing be continued so a traffic engineer could be brought in.

“First, the shared driveway could be placed where the original driveway is located,” she said. “We believe there’s clearly room to do that.”

Elizabeth Bishop, who lives on Sylvan Farms Lane with three children and a labradoodle, addressed the commission.  

“The safety concern I have had and continue to have about the proposed plan made me feel strongly that I needed my face had to be seen and my voice to heard tonight,” she said.

“As a mother, as a homeowner, as a resident, as a taxpayer, it’s frankly hard to understand how the town of Westport would not give serious attention to the sight-line, the reckless speeding, which could lead to awful events.”

“And instead appears more sympathetic toward profit motives of a contract purchaser,” Bishop said. “These safety and speeding issues on Sylvan Road North, they are nothing new.

“If the general safety problems on Sylvan Road North were not known to this body in the past they were certainly known to First Selectwoman [Jennifer] Tooker,” who Bishop said lives nearby.

Bishop said town engineers and planning administrators “actively looking for ways to kick the can down the road on much-needed safety considerations.”

“Because Jen Tooker and developer Benson privately determined beforehand that this development should be granted,” Bishop said.

Michael Perry, who lives at 43 Sylvan Road North, and is a Representative Town Meeting member from District 2, also had questions.

“It’s been disheartening tonight to hear Mary’s interpretation of your role in this process,” Perry said, “because I had no idea P&Z was so powerless in this regard that you’re basically in an administrative role.”

He also mentioned a Freedom of Information request filed by another neighbor, and lamented the lack of comment from police traffic experts and others.

Young reminded the commission that it was acting in an administrative capacity, “giving you very little discretion.”

“It’s not the Police Department, or Engineering Department, or that the Planning and Zoning staff doesn’t care — we care deeply,” Young said. “But we have to give you the guidance of the legal authority vested.”

“When it comes to this applicant, yes, he’s well known,” said Chairman Paul Lebowitz. “No, there is not preferential treatment. … We don’t care if it’s the first selectwoman or anyone else who has come before us.”

“What we’re doing here is a division of land,” Lebowitz said. “We are not in charge of speed that people utilize as they race down the street in front of this property. We’re not in charge of how good or bad that road is in terms of site lines. None of those things have anything to do with the division of land.”

“The neighbors need to continue to put pressure on the town’s administration to do something about it,” Lebowitz said.

The commission members had a lot of issues they wanted to sort out, so a decision was delayed.

Thane Grauel grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 36 years. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.