By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT — Debate over development issues — especially housing — defined partisan differences among candidates for the Planning and Zoning Commission during an online forum sponsored Thursday by the League of Women Voters of Westport.
The Democratic team of Danielle Dobin, Michael Cammeyer and Neil Cohn, all incumbents, as well as Ron Corwin of the Coalition for Westport, criticized Republican Jack Whittle’s views and decisions made by the P&Z during his tenure.
Previously elected to the P&Z in 2011 and 2015, Whittle is making a bid to return to the commission (he resigned from the panel in 2016).
But Whittle fired back. Among other criticisms, he chided the Democrats for wrongly claiming credit for the current moratorium on affordable housing development projects in Westport. “The moratorium was accomplished during my time on the commission … [the moratorium] is what this current commission dropped into, they did not accomplish the moratorium,” he said.
Asked which previous P&Z decision he would change if he could, Corwin cited the commission’s rejection of a proposal by the developer of the former Save the Children property on Wilton Road, which would have included improvements to the Post Road/Route 33 (Wilton Road) intersection.
“That application was turned down by Jack Whittle and several of his Republican colleagues who were controlling the commission at the time,” Corwin said. “It was a huge mistake with an opportunity to alleviate traffic at the arguably worse intersection in Connecticut.” Drivers who have been stuck at the intersection “can thank those who voted” to reject the application, he said.
Cammeyer agreed with Corwin about the vote regarding development plans for the former Save the Children property. “Sometimes it’s not about fight, fight, fight,” he said. “They should have figured out how to work with the developer,” so the proposed intersection improvements could have been salvaged.
The candidates disagreed on other P&Z decisions, including the recent settlement of lawsuits over the proposed 157-unit Hiawatha Lane development in Saugatuck. Whittle called the agreement in the long-running dispute “a terrible, short-sighted mistake,” but Dobin described it as “the toughest decision, but the one of which I am the most proud.”
The three incumbent Democrats, cross-endorsed in this election by the group, Save Westport Now, cited as achievements the revitalization of downtown, including regulation changes that made opening new restaurants easier — especially outside dining — and creation of new regulations allowing accessory dwellings and apartments.
They also contended the commission is more focused on the future of the town and less combative than in the past. “We’ve changed the tone of this commission,” Cohn said. “We needed a major course correction,” Dobin, current chair of the P&Z, agreed.
The viability of some of the most recently built senior housing projects also sparked disagreement among the candidates.
While Whittle praised the senior housing projects on the previous site of the Daybreak Nursery on Main Street and at the former Kowalsky Construction property on Post Road East, Dobin disagreed.
That housing is too expensive for seniors and others who want to stay in Westport on retirement or single incomes, she said. “Those units are very expensive,” up to a million each, she noted.
The new accessory dwelling regulations, which allow homeowners to build a small guest house or apartment on their property and rent out the main house, makes more sense, she said. “They can stay on their street and in their community … it’s a game-changer for seniors in Westport.”
It’s a shame that this beautiful quint Town. has been forever changed by the constant development of huge homes , a Post Road now filled with Apartment complexes some not even filled that have created more congestion on our roadways yet Affordable Housing is still being pushed by the same board of people who approved all this development & took away chances for the kind of housing middle income buyers could afford …. There isn’t a rental in this town affordable to anyone other then those making big incomes unless your income is so low you qualify for Westport Housing …..
As usual, all of the candidates for the P&A Commission are committed to Westport and likely to work hard. It concerns me that the Democrats are running as a team. Each of them has their own perspectives and hopefully will not vote only as a bloc on important issues. I would say the same if the Republicans had they the ability to fill three seats. The Coalition for Westport chose not to exercise its ability to nominate three candidates. It is fairly obvious to most who know the P&Z Commission that the concept of voting as a team reflects the desire to have the votes to secure the Chair of the P&Z The Chair should not be as important as that approach reflects. All candidates should be evaluated individually on the basis of past records, future expectations, public positions on issues and zoning concepts and having the willingness and time to perform their demanding tasks. Political party affiliation should have almost no role.
I agree wholeheartedly with Don. It is important to vote for Ron Corwin for P&Z, the candidate of the non-partisan Coalition for Westport. Ron is former chairman of the P&Z and a proven visionary. He has a record of shepherding projects that have clearly benefited all of us and has contributed much to making Westport a vibrant and enjoyable place to live. He has done it before; He will do it again.