A text amendment made by the Westport Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC) was allowed to move forward on Jan. 17 by the town”™s legislative body, the Representative Town Meeting (RTM).
The RTM, which normally consists of 36 members but is down to 35 after the recent passing of a member, voted 33-1 with one abstention against overturning a text amendment designed to clear the way for the proposed Hamlet at Saugatuck mixed-use development.
The text amendment creates a small district where the PZC will have the discretion to allow for buildings to stand as high as 72 feet, provided that the developers ROAN Development Ventures LLC can earn a “bonus” height from meeting certain conditions with their designs for the space, such as public outdoor areas and architectural choices.
Photo by ROAN Development Ventures.
The amendment was opposed by a group of Westport residents calling themselves the Saugatuck Sensible Zoning Commission (SSZC). They employed a rarely used section of the town charter to trigger marathon sessions of the RTM totaling more than 13 hours spread between Jan. 10 and Jan. 12, which was followed by a vote on Jan. 17. The vote was preceded by presentations from both ROAN and the SSZC, as well as the Department of Planning and Zoning. The vote itself came after a second public comment period and included comments from each RTM member, bringing the meeting to more than five hours.
The meetings were required due to a provision in the Westport Charter dating to the 1950s, which allows for any amendment or repeal of zoning regulations or boundaries made by Westport”™s PZC to be challenged by petitioners who can gather 20 signatures. A successful petition requires a full review by the RTM, which will then have 30 days to vote to either accept or overturn the changes with a two-thirds majority.
Though no floor plans or firm decisions have been made, ROAN provided several renderings of what they hope to produce: dozens of apartments in a series of buildings stretching from the edge of the Saugatuck River to the edge of the Westport Train Station parking lot. They also plan to create a marina with expanded dock space, and the idea of ferry service has been floated. Restaurants, shops and a “farmer”™s market building” are expected to fill out most of the spaces, with the apartments located above them.
Mary Young, the director of Westport”™s Planning and Zoning Department, described the proposal as a way to get the town most of what it wants with few tradeoffs. Failure to compromise could lead to a development forced through with 8-30g, the state law, which allows developers to bypass many zoning regulations if construction has 30% affordable housing.
“ROAN controls the majority of the land between Charles and Franklin streets, Railroad Place and the river,” Young noted. “This land is not publicly owned or controlled by the town. I want everybody to understand that this is privately owned land . . . ROAN has asked P&Z permission to create a mixed-use development of approximately 35 units, a small hotel, restaurants, onsite parking for the project.”
An 8-30g project undertaken by another entity if ROAN sells the property could be larger and denser, she warned.
Michael Calise, one of the leaders of the 12-person SSCZ gave a final presentation on the topic, disputed many of the warnings given by Young.
“The reason that all of us are here is the sheer size of this text amendment and the allowable size of building construction” Calise said.” What that will ultimately allow in this area is buildings with square footage well in excess of 450,000 square feet. I did some calculations on my own and it is my opinion that fully built out these buildings will comprise approximately 1 million cubic feet of space.”
SSZC members produced a scale model of what a worst-case development could look like, which some RTM members at previous meetings criticized as misleading. They also delivered warnings that the amendment could provide developers in other locations precedent to argue their cases and characterized the ROAN development as equivalent to “bringing Co-op City to Westport,” a reference to the massive apartment community in the Bronx.
Nearly 200 people tuned into the RTM”™s Zoom meetings, and passions ran high for commentators on both sides of the issue. Many RTM members praised the process as a laudable example of democracy in action.
