Greenwich Planning & Zong Dept recently received an application from 2 Dearfield Drive, LLC to convert 5,000+ sq ft of garage space and parts of lower level offices to four additional residential units .
The address is 2 Dearfield Drive, located behind chase Bank and across from Greenwich Library.
The building is home to Christopher Peacock cabinetry and Greenwich United Way.
The building already has 10 residential units.
They propose to add two one-bedroom units and two two-bedroom units.
In a letter to P&Z with the application, attorney for the applicant John Tesei said with 44 parking spaces, the property was over parked, meaning there is more parking than required.
The pre-application is for final site plan and special permit.
The property is located in the R-12 Zone.
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2 Dearfield Drive
2 Dearfield Drive
2 Dearfield Drive
The mixed-use building contains garages and storage areas on the lower level, 10 dwelling units on the street-grade floor and floor above and 2,610 square feet of retail/showroom space located also on the street-grade floor of the building. These uses were approved by the P&Z commission in November of 1999.
A Certificate of Occupancy was issued by the Greenwich Building Dept in November of 2004. At the time, three of the residential units were designated to be affordable for a period of 20 years. With 20 years having lapsed, those three units are now market rate units.
The property is 1.044 acres with 37 outdoor parking spaces and 2 ADA spaces. There are also five parking garage spaces in the building for a total of 44 spaces.
The narrative in the attorney’s letter to P&Z explains the lower level of the building, under the current “Grade Plane” rules is considered a story above grade under the building zone regulations, rendering all lower-level space to be counted in the building’s Floor Area. When approved by the P&Z commission, the lower-level space was considered “basement” with no area counting toward Floor Area. It was used for storage, mechanical space, garage spaces and lobby for the
residential units above.
The total floor area of the building for the three levels is 22,284 square feet based upon current FAR calculations.
This equates to an FAR of .49.
The R-12 Zone permits an FAR of .315.
This FAR equates to a Floor Area of 14,325 square feet, meaning that the 7,959 square feet are non-conforming.
On December 21, 2021, the Commission approved a change in use of the building for the conversion of 3,351 square ft on the lower level from storage/mechanical space to office use by two qualified 501c(3) corporations, one of which is Greenwich United Way.
The applicant would would like to convert garage spaces, and portions of the approved lower level office space to residential uses, thereby adding an additional four residential units, for a new total of 14.
As a result, the remaining office space (occupied by United Way) will total 2,353 square feet; and the remaining retail space/showroom space (occupied by Christopher Peacock) will total 1,298 square feet.
The total floor area converted would be 5,093 square feet (1,352 square feet on the street grade floor and 3,781 square feet on the lower level), which is well less than the nonconforming FAR in the building.
The property would remain over-parked after the proposed conversion.