By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — Members of the Conservation Commission on Friday morning visited 2 Owenoke Park, a $3 million house that seems to have changed hands only to be torn down and replaced by something fancier.

The plan for a new house, with a pool and patio, passed muster with the Flood and Erosion Control Board last week.

The Conservation Commission has jurisdiction under the town’s Wetlands Protection Line Ordinance, because the property is near Gray’s Creek, a waterway between Longshore Park and the western end of the Compo neighborhood, the Saugatuck River and other bodies of water.

The application was filed by Environmental Land Solutions on behalf of Bluewater Owenoke 2 LLC. The plan to raze what looks like a handsome, well-maintained house has raised eyebrows. Some of those on the site visit Friday mentioned that as well.

The Conservation Commission members were there to get a first-hand look at the property before they discuss the application at a 7 p.m. July 20 online meeting.

Conservation Director Alicia Mozian told commission members the existing house is below the flood elevation for a 100-year storm, and that the proposed house would be higher.

“The hundred-year flood I believe is 13,” Mozian said of the feet above the mean sea level the Federal Emergency Management Agency requires for the area. “They’re raising that up to 17 and a half feet.”

She said the grade is now eight or nine feet above the mean sea level, “so the house is going up about nine feet.”

Mozian said that in addition to Conservation Commission approval, the Planning and Zoning Commission must sign off on compliance with the Coastal Area Management requirements.

Thane Grauel, the Westport Journal executive editor, grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond more than three decades. Learn more about us here.