“I’m sure I’ll be getting phone calls after today…We’ve been looking for prime ice time for many years, and there’s a reason why it doesn’t exist. The economics of the rink business are not attractive.”
– Benoit Morin“We’d love to talk with Stamford Youth Hockey – if you’d like to put me in touch with them. We haven’t broadcast it until now,” he said. “We’re still looking to buy land.”
Mr. Bosak said he’d like special consideration on costs for ice time for Stamford high school hockey players.
“I just saw this enormous wonderful development in Chelsea Piers occur. …Stamford’s youth have not been able to access it because it has become so egregiously expensive,” Bosak said.
And while Stamford groups couldn’t afford Chelsea Piers, he noted out of town groups from as far as Westchester could.
“I’m sure I’ll be getting phone calls after today,” Mr. Morin said. “We’ve been looking for prime ice time for many years, and there’s a reason why it doesn’t exist. The economics of the rink business are not attractive.”
“I’m sure Darien, Stamford and Greenwich will have requests to get some of that ice time,” he added.
Zoning board chair David Stein said he though it might be possible to condition the approval of the rink on agreement about scheduling and users.
There was discussion about whether that was in the purview of the board.
Hennessey balked at a possible condition about scheduling and users.
“This is not put up by Hockey America to make a lot of money,” he said. “The more sheets of ice around town, the more opportunity there is for everybody.”
“I don’t know how you fabricate a condition – I don’t even know what we’re talking about – is it preferential time, preferential prices, is it transportation? …If Stamford has a problem, Stamford should begin to solve its problem. The Zoning board shouldn’t be solving a lack of ice for high school hockey teams.”
“You’re approving an as-of-right use,” he added.
Stamford Land Use Bureau Chief Ralph Blessing agreed with attorney Hennessey.
“I think it would be problematic to put a condition in there to say you cannot get your C/O if there’s not so many hours of ice time for certain groups,” Blessing said. “That’s outside of zoning.”
“I don’t agree,” Zoning board Chair Stein said. “Part of our job is to do what is best for the public of Stamford.”
Impacts on Greenwich
At Greenwich’s Hamill Rink, the largest purchaser of ice is the Greenwich Skating Club.
If they were to move to Wings Arena that might impact Hamill’s bottom line.
The men’s league already departed Hamill Rink for Stamford’s Twin Rinks where there are two sheets of ice, a restaurant, bar and shower facilities.
Hamill Rink is overdue for either a phased upgrade on its existing footprint or a full replacement.
It was built as an open air rink in the 1970s, and over time the town added walls and a roof, as well as bleachers and locker rooms. There are no shower facilities and the rink café is no longer in operation.
Greenwich’s rink user committee has been working with architectural and design firm SLAM.
SLAM’s renderings of a new 40,000+ sq ft rink next to the existing rink were presented to Greenwich P&Z in a pre-application in 2021.
The proposal also included a two-lane access road via Western Jr Hwy and a relocated/reconfigured Strazza ball field.
That plan was not well received. Greenwich P&Z chair Margarita Alban suggested to the applicant return with a new pre-application. She noted at the time that the proposal would involve an enormous amount of site disturbance.
Ironically SLAM worked with East Haven to on a phased renovation their municipal rink which had closed in 2019 after a leak was detected in the ice floor piping.
The renovation included replacing the ice rink’s original outdated and leaking system. The scope was later expanded to include renovations and upgrades to the facility’s front of house area, bathrooms, locker rooms and the purchase of a new electric ice surfacer.
The East Haven rink renovation cost about $5.75 million.
In Greenwich, the First Selectman’s proposed budget at the end of January budget for the new Hamill rink included $950K in 2024 for design and construction plans, and $21 million for construction in 2025.
The one area of agreement at Stamford Zoning Board was that the skating community was in shortage of ice time.
At the end of the meeting the applicant was asked to work on a landscape plan showing trees to be added or removed, a photometric plan.
As for colored panels on the building, the board didn’t see an issue. They noted it was the M-G zone and the building would still look like a warehouse anyway.
They said the applicant could work with staff on the color of the panels.
The applicant was asked to work with the Stamford Dept of Transportation, Traffic & Parking (TTP) on the issue raised by Ms Calvillo.
The item was continued to the next Zoning board meeting which is on 6:30 on March 13 on Zoom.
