Wow, some actual good news for once: Chris Franco is back again at 5 Brookridge Drive

pecora dreamland will not be built

With a revised development plan, not that there was anything wrong with his first one.

Franco’s original plan would have seen the modest development of the property while preserving several old houses, but despite the support of the Historical Society and other groups, Greenwich P&Z killed it. The application was withdrawn, and the property went under contract to our local builder/vandal Joey Pecora, who clear-cut the entire lot and then submitted a plan to build a five-story apartment building. When that application was also denied — justifiably, this time — Joey walked from the contract and wandered off to find some other nice land to desecrate.

So now Franco is back again and this time, I hope our P&Z will welcome the opportunity to correct its original mistake. Over Easter, I invited myself over to meet Chris and his wife Rachel because, although I’ve admired their preservation projects over the years, I’d never actually met them. They’re very, very nice people, and I’d say that even if they hadn’t welcomed me in, fed me excellent coffee, and spent an hour and a half just talking.

Chris is a commercial developer, and that’s how he makes his living, but he grew up on Lockwood Road in Riverside and he and Rachael have taken a keen interest in saving some of our oldest buildings here in town. The linked-to article in Greenwich Free Press mentions some of those projects, but doesn’t mention their rescue of Elizabeth Feake house, the oldest house in Greenwich, at the entrance to Tod’s Point. The Francos and the rest of the Greenwich Point Conservancy came up with a way for the buyer of the house to build new while preserving the original 1645 house. Tip your hat in gratitude the next time you drive to Tod’s and pass the Winthrop Woman’s home, still standing.

So that’s the end of my paean to the Francos — you can read the GFP article for details on the revised Brookridge plan if you wish. My own wish is for our P&Z to stop treating Franco as some kind of evil builder and agent of the Devil, because he, and Rachel, are in fact doing more to save what little historical character is left in Greenwich than almost anyone else — certainly, from my observation, far more than the current members of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

The Elizabeth Feake house circa1645—1689