Editor’s note: Following is an opinion submitted by Westporter Carole Reichhelm, on behalf of the Westport Alliance for Saugatuck.
With ROAN’s appeal in motion, town officials now seem set to negotiate a settlement instead of allowing the case to proceed with P&Z’s numerous and substantive reasons for denial. To put this into context, it’s worth remembering that if only one of their reasons is found true by a court, it will prove fatal to ROAN’s appeal.
How this question is being handled continues to shine a light on larger questions about town governance, particularly in this election season. The flawed Hamlet application process has already sparked calls for change and transparency—and motivated several new candidates to run for RTM and P&Z. The prospect of new RTM members and commissioners also appears to be motivating town officials to push for a quick deal.
This poses urgent questions for current and future town officials:
Why is our Town Attorney, whose role is to defend the Planning & Zoning Commission’s decision, maneuvering commissioners and the developer into closed-door settlement talks instead of standing by the public process? Why was a meeting hastily assembled in a lawyer’s office, followed by a 7 a.m. pre-holiday meeting that failed to meet even the most basic standards of FOIA and public involvement?
And why are further meetings proposed where developers are welcome, but the broader public is shut out? This question will be decided tomorrow at 1pm via ZOOM (to join the Zoom meeting click here) – another hurriedly scheduled P&Z meeting and we urge the public to attend. Please see the meeting agenda here.
More Questions Abound:
If the P&Z Commission went through a rigorous, thorough process to deny the Hamlet application, citing over 100 conditions and numerous failings under ROAN’s own Text Amendment 24C, why are we now undermining that work? Shouldn’t this detailed denial be sufficient?
Why did ROAN, after being denied, immediately resort to threatening Westport with an 8-30G project? Is this the behavior we should reward with secret negotiations?
Why should settlement talks be rushed through in a way that prevents groups like the Westport Alliance for Saugatuck from becoming a party to the discussions? And prevents future commissioners (potentially a mere 60 days away) from weighing in? Shouldn’t future commissions, elected by the public, have their say instead of being bound by hasty negotiations? Since P&Z’s responsibility on the Hamlet application ended with their denial, do they even have the power to bind a future commission?
With public opinion so strongly and visibly opposed to the Hamlet project, should our officials be negotiating at all? Wouldn’t allowing ROAN’s appeal to proceed before a judge provide our residents with more assurance that personal and political agendas are kept at bay?
Our town attorney said the “public comment” portion of a settlement process will happen only after a deal has already been struck. Doesn’t this render community voices meaningless? How can this process be called democratic or transparent?
Why must the Alliance, again and again, call for a transparent and consistent process, rather than our officials leading with it from the start?
Finally, we must ask: Should we, as citizens, accept opaque procedures, political maneuvering, and developer pressure? Or do we want a fair and open judicial process that fully defends our town’s decisions?
Transparency and fairness matter, in an election year, and always.
Carole Reichhelm for the Westport Alliance for Saugatuck
This is sadly so predicable. It’s the last 12 years in this town, but most especially the last 4. A nightmare.
The administration so desperately wants this that SMH, can be the only reaction.
That most of the public do not, appear to matter. The meeting several weeks ago was illegally noticed ! The vote they claim was not a vote was illegal.
Somebody(s) are bound and determined to pass this garbage.
I mean I suppose the scurrilous last few weeks will prove to be invaluable in court.
And the fact that this is being foisted on the commission who already ruled NO on it just goes to show there is no longer any rule of law.
The commission SHOULD KNOW BETTER !!!!!
This behaviour is outrageous !
Out of control !
Disgusting, skullduggery.
What should happen in the end are simultaneous law suites..
roan, the PZ and the town.
All costs should be demanded by plaintiffs.. ( residents)
and the proof of skullduggery will be indisputable.
This is revolting behavior !!!
It is abhorrent !
But this is how every matter that doesn’t go a certain persons way gets handled.
This is another reason to not vote in my opinion for O’Day Moore !!!!
It will be more of the same broken record crap !
Washington DC is taking its cues from Westport..
how pathetic !
I do not think Washington DC needs to take any hints from Westport but it is refreshing to discuss a purely local matter here. I lived in Westport during the first community upheaval over the office building on Gorham Island. A wonderful group was formed, Save Westport Now – Connie Greenfield and Betty Lou Cummings and other housewives and concerned men. Save Westport Now did not win that fight but we did delay the construction and the developer had trouble getting the rents he envisioned before the battle. Westport won in a way because all those energized citizens went on to be elected to and served on so many functions in this town.
I wish you luck in this current battle. All this secrecy means that they are trying to come to some settlement without going to trial. Roan appears to be more threatening than concilatory so it probably will not work out. Funny about people run for office on transparency and realize quickly that some things have to be ironed out privately. But the final explanation better be acceptable to the concerned citizens because the next election is coming soon and people will remember.
I listened intently to the whole meeting yesterday. I have been very critical in the past regarding lack of transparency etc as well as The Hamlet plan itself but what I heard from P&Z members yesterday restored some confidence. Although they ultimately decided to go into an Executive session with The Hamlet after hearing out Ken Bernhard( who seems to have intimate knowledge of
Some of The Hamlets revised planning including getting rid of the 3 hotels as well as their 8-30g threat strategy) it was a strains and reluctant decision and with out Patrizia Zucaro. Most of the members wanted complete transparency and fought hard for it. In the end it was decided that listening to The Hamlet behind closed doors could not do much harm as their could be no effect on the litigation.
They also acknowledged that if any time in their discussions The Hamlets proposed alterations were significant they would stop and require submission of a new application and go thru the whole process all over again which they seem willing to do in the name of transparency and fairness. Despite the 830-g threat. To do these negotiations in Public could risk potential comments made by board members to be used against them in the pending October litigation which is understandable. Also evidently CT has no rules of engagement for public negotiations between a town and a litigant.
P&Z knows they have a good case which was affirmed by our Town attorney. They also know “ conditions” ultimately have no teeth. and must be minimized.
They know that this decision must be for the greater good of Westport and clearly do not think the current denied project is that. I am now fairly convinced their sympathies lie with the appropriately vocal resident’s issues with this development. They also are quite aware they gave The Hamlet countless opportunities to reign in their egregious plan but to no avail. They are well aware their 2022 text ammendmant was underhandedly taken advantage of by Hamlet planners and infuriated by this.
The “negotiations” are not without peril but
I have increased confidence they will stand strong and make Saugatuck better for all and not just for Hamlet investors. That being said though the public must keep up their guard and remain vigilant regardless, as from what I heard, the vocalized concerns have been very effective and not falling on deaf ears as some may think. Anything can still happen.