By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — After numerous letters, petitions and long public hearings, beer and wine will be on the menu at the Old Mill Grocery.

The Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday voted 5-2 to amend zoning regulations and allow retail food establishments (which can have seating inside for up to 10 people) to serve alcoholic beverages.

The amendment was updated to include Residence B Zone only, restricting the benefiting property to just one — 222 Hillspoint Road.

Romanacci, a pizza chain, is the latest operator at the site.

The commission ultimately dropped from an updated proposal the idea of limiting revenue from the eatery to no more than 50 percent from alcohol sales.

It did keep the applicant’s recent idea of limiting alcohol sales to 9 p.m.

The idea behind the text amendment was to keep the corner store across from the entrance of Old Mill Beach, which has had many incarnations over more than a century, economically viable. Several renters have tried in recent years to make a go of it, but failed.

How people feel about allowing booze by the beach appeared related to how close they live to the grocery. Nearby neighbors have been vocally opposed, some even hired a lawyer.

Tensions on the topic also included P&Z members.

Joel Green, a lawyer from Bridgeport hired by some close neighbors, had a list of problems with the amendment and the site’s zoning history.

“It’s not an RFE [Retail Food Establishment] and a lot of these other bells and whistles are really distractions and are really unenforceable, and frankly absurd if you consider the jurisdiction of this commission and the enforcement powers of staff,” Green said.

“You cannot, in the jurisdiction vested in this commission, start adopting regulations on a site-by-site basis,” Green said.

“This amendment isn’t something that’s well thought out,” Green said. “I can assure you that any positive action on this amendment would never withstand judicial scrutiny and an appeal. And I don’t think you should put the taxpayers of Westport to the burden of defending an appeal.”

Representative Town Meeting member Jimmy Izzo, District 3, took issue with the hint of litigation.

“I take offense with Mr. Green with the lawsuit threat,” Izzo said.

NIMBY or NIMBI?

“I look at this like a NIMBY thing,” he said, referencing the Not In My Back Yard mentality.

“All we are trying to do is maintain a business,” he said. “For four months out of the year it’s going to be busy down there because we are in a beach area.”

“This is a fair compromise, and I’m urging the commissioners to please look at this for what it is,” Izzo said.

Green replied.

“Yeah, it is a matter of NIMBI, it’s the NIMBI, which is Now I Must Become Involved,” Green said. “It ends with an ‘I’ when people are trying to use a property which violates zoning regulations.”

“This is not a popularity contest,” he said. “And it doesn’t matter if 500 people signed a petition,” Green said. “Ask how many of those 500 people want a restaurant or bar in their back yard.”  

Gloria Gouveia, a land-use consultant, dismissed the notion that a restaurant formerly located nearby at 233 Hillspoint was done in by nay-saying neighbors. She said a hurricane damaged the eatery and made it unfeasible to reopen.

She read a letter on behalf of Robin Tauck, who lives across from the Old Mill Grocery and couldn’t be at the meeting but has been a vocal critic of the plan.

Gouveia defended Tauck’s right to speak out and lamented the treatment she’s gotten.

“If she’s the only person concerned about this, maybe it’s because she’s the person most affected by it,” Gouveia said, noting Tauck’s 100 feet or so of frontage on the road across from the grocery.

“None of this makes her a bad person or an enemy,” Gouveia said. “She is, in fact, a legally aggrieved property owner, whose ability to quietly enjoy a little beach house will be impacted by expanding the use of the deli and market across the street.”

A large majority of those who wrote in or testified before the P&Z supported the plan to keep the market afloat.

The P&Z was not of one mind.

“It still feels like we’re trying to solve something for the landowner, not necessarily the restaurant,” new member Michael Valante said. “This is a benefit to the landowner as it allows them to have commercial property, to earn, in form of a rent I guess or a lease … I’m trying to look for a parallel where we do that elsewhere.”

“I think that there’s more than just Romanacci’s that can go into this place,” member Patrizia Zucaro said, after asking if a pub could move in.

Anyone who’s followed the P&Z in recent years knows she’s no fan of text amendments.

“I can envision a different establishment in this place, using the text that we have here, that could be completely different from what you’re envisioning right now,” she said. “And we have nothing built into this text amendment that would have a check.”

P&Z members clash, briefly

“We have a limitation on hours, Patrizia,” said member Neil Cohn. “There’s also a limitation on seats.”

“Thanks Neil, I mean I’ve heard you ramble on for hours, but OK,” Zucaro said.

“Oh really? Cool,” Cohn replied.

Chairman Paul Lebowitz got between the two.

“Now let’s keep that down,” he said.

“We treat each other with great deference on this commission,” Lebowitz said. “Because what we’re doing here is working toward either a denial or an approval. So, I don’t consider any discussion rambling on, Patrizia.”

“OK, I apologize Paul, and I apologize Neil,” she replied.

Lebowitz said that under the amendment, pubs would not be allowed. It could not have more than 10 seats.

“Alcoholic sales cannot exceed 50 percent of their total sales,” he said of the grocery. “We’re not talking about a guy behind a bar serving up drinks. They’re looking to augment a burger or pizza with a glass of wine

“The only person I’ve not heard ramble on about this is Bre,” Lebowitz later said.

New member Bre Injeski said her understanding of the restaurant business was that 50 percent of sales is pretty high, and she wondered how that could get enforced.

“My preference would also seem to be to take that out, just to make it much cleaner,” Injeski said.

Her fellow commission members concurred.

Injeski, Michael Calise, Cohn, Michael Cammeyer and Lebowitz voted in favor. Zucaro and Valante were opposed.

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.