Blame Joe Pecora, but blame our Inland Wetlands board, too
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if you didn’t like this …
you’ll probably hate pecora acres
On Tuesday, the Planning & Zoning commission heard a pre-application for a five-story, 86-unit 8-30g affordable housing development at 5 Brookridge Rd, on the corner of East Putnam Ave (Rte 1).
Per 8-30g, a developer is exempt from local zoning regulations if 30% of the units are set aside for Affordable housing, unless the commission decides there are health, safety, environmental or other major concerns that would outweigh the Town’s need for affordable housing.
Attorney Bruce Cohen, representing the applicants, the Pecoras, who are contract purchasers of the property, reminded the commission, “8-30g in effect trumps local zoning regulations.”
“One of the things that 8-30g does is place the burden, in the event of an appeal, on the commission to establish whether issues of public health and safety are involved,” he added.
Their development would feature parking for 183 vehicles for residents in a mix of one-, two-, three-bedroom and a few studio units.
Chris Franco, who has a great record of preserving old houses and what little historical character is left in Greenwich, proposed a modest project here, one that would have kept the existing homes and built a total of sixteen condominium units. Our Wetlands board killed the plan.
Readers may recall Mr. Franco’s proposed development, “Milbrook Crossing,” which would have maintained the historic streetscape from Brookridge to Hillside Rd included 5 Brookridge, 3 Hillside Rd, 7 Hillside and 505 East Putnam Ave. (509 East Putnam Ave, home to Pathways was not included).
Mr. Franco sought to preserve the row of historic homes and develop them into 16 dwelling units with driveways, utilities, drainage, and landscaping adjacent to wetlands and a watercourse.
That proposal was denied in January 2020 after a unanimous 5-0 vote of the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency, who had held four public hearings. Prior to the Wetlands denial, in December 2018 the Historic District Commission unanimously endorsed the project, approving a certificate of appropriateness. The applicants planned to submit the application to P&Z under Historic Overlay which grants incentives in exchange for preservation.
But it was not to be.
Wetlands director Pat Sesto said of 3 Hillside at the time, “It’s in a floodway and 100-year flood plane,” she said. “I have significant concern – it’s not clear how the site would be protected in small events, let alone significant ones.”
At the time of the denial, Chris Franco commented, “It will be a real loss to the community if these fantastic and historic buildings and streetscape cannot be preserved….”Our project is perfectly aligned with the new 2019 POCD, which was pointed out in detail to the Agency. They said however that their concern was only the waterway, and that they were not concerned with other land use priorities of the town. Frankly that seems very strange and not appropriate to us.”
So now the board can fight it out with Pecora and his very able land-use attorney Bruce Cohen (Pecora’s brought out the big guns), and see if they can whittle down the new applicant’s 183 cars and 82 units. Whatever compromise they reach, or a court forces on the town, will be a disaster compared to what Franco would have buillt.
That’s stupid.
