Even as Westport planners look to limit the height of future “McMansions,” the town is exploring ways to furnish rooms with a view by encouraging commercial property owners to add floors for apartments.
The proposals are part of the final draft of Westport”™s 2007 plan for conservation and development, on which the town”™s planning and zoning commission will hold a public hearing Oct. 4.
In a draft version of the town”™s decennial design for conservation and development due this fall, planners cite a mantra of “go up instead of out” to encourage continued vitality downtown while protecting existing green spaces.
The document would give the planners leeway to approve the construction of one or two additional floors in some dual-level retail buildings to accommodate additional stores, restaurants or even apartments. The plan also considers encouraging owners of single-floor commercial buildings on Route 1 to add a second floor for apartments.
Because just 2 percent of Westport”™s housing meets the state definition of affordable housing, developers can attempt to appeal to the state to circumvent local land-use regulations. Towns must meet a 10 percent threshold to curtail such appeals.
The town has prepared a plan of conservation and development on six occasions starting in 1959, when accelerating population growth had residents embracing commercial construction as a way to offset the costs of expanding schools.
By 1975, however, Westport tapped the brakes on commercial development due to fears that traffic and crowding would change the town”™s character.
The most recent plan, in 1997, emphasized maintaining the quality of existing residential neighborhoods and business districts, and that theme is peppered throughout the proposed 2007 plan as well.
In addition to the town”™s burgeoning retail scene exacerbating parking woes, Tom Jamison fears that Route 1 in Westport is strained from commuters seeking an alternative to the rush-hour gridlock on Interstate 95. Jamison is president of Connecticut Business Centers, whose Westport Financial Center is among the largest executive suite facilities in the state.
“I think its getting to the crisis point,” Jamison said. “There needs to be a way to increase the traffic flow.”
He is not alone in that wish ”“ nearly two in three respondents to a town survey in April felt Westport should provide more parking in the downtown area.
Even as they consider converting a riverfront parking area into walkways, the town is exploring the use of parking meters with rates set according to proximity to Main Street; minibus service to outlying lots; and multideck parking structures.
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Rather than build parking garages at the heavily utilized Saugatuck Train Station, however, the town is considering raising parking rates on the theory that will free up passes held by people who seldom use them.
The April poll asked residents an open-ended question on what issues most worried residents: only taxes, schools and the proliferation of large houses cause deeper distress.
Today, residents appear less threatened by changes to the commercial district than they are by the rapid proliferation of the large houses labeled McMansions to describe their scale, ubiquity and generic design.
To limit the teardown of existing homes for such residences, Westport planners want to reduce allowable heights for new houses, and to factor house “wings” into the equation for building height.
Still, planners recognize that larger homes have a potential benefit ”“ as home offices, which can take cars off the roads at rush hour. Recognizing the growth of home offices, planners are considering changing regulations on home businesses to allow couples both to use their home as an office without requiring a special permit and to expand by special permit a floor-area limitation of 600 square feet.
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