Candace Garthwaite Honored for Advocacy for Preservation in Old Greenwich

The Old Greenwich Association held their annual meeting Monday night at the Sound Beach fire house. A highlight of the meeting was the announcement that Candace Garthwaite was the recipient of the organization’s annual award, the Old Greenwich Award.

Ms Garthwaite served on the RTM in District 6 from 2012 to 2021. She served as D6 chair for four years and chaired the Appointments Committee.

First Selectman Camillo issued a proclamation establishing that Jan 27 was Candace Garthwaite Day to acknowledge her decades of commitment to the Old Greenwich community, including advocating for flood mitigation.

In his proclamation he noted that Ms Garthwaite had helped lead the effort to designate northern Binney Pond and part of Sound Beach Avenue as a scenic road. After a lengthy process, a scenic road designation for the .6 mile scenic loop was approved by the Greenwich Planning & Zoning commission in 2020.

More recently, she worked to have Old Greenwich proclaimed as a Village District to  help preserve the character of Old Greenwich’s downtown business district. The goal is to preserve and maintain the distinctive look of the village as it relates to the use, scale and facades of existing buildings.

Ms Garthwaite said “outcomes have been great,” working with partners and as part of various teams.

“Pardon the bun, but it takes a village to really make things happen,” she said.

Garthwaite described herself as an introvert. However, she said, “If it’s something I really care about, and I am told there is a void, I will step in.”

P&Z director Patrick LaRow explained a bit about the Old Greenwich village district, noting it was the first village district enacted in the town of Greenwich.

“Village District is a zoning act from 1998,” he said. “It is different than a historic district. One, because the bar to enact it is a little lower – you don’t have to have the age of structures you need with a lot of historic regulations. And also, the consent that you need because this is a zoning construct and not a property preservation concept.”

He said the designation allows communities to create a district, define its characteristics, landscaping, spacial geography and essential character that makes it unique, and try to enact regulations that describe that and preserve it.”

“Most important, we have absolutely no plans whatsoever to change the façades on Sound Beach Avenue or on the side street opposite Kings. The buildings look terrific. They’re in great shape. They just need to be maintained.” – Martin Waters on behalf of OG Real Estate LLC

“That sounds somewhat easy, but it’s incredibly difficult,” LaRow said. “The reason it’s important is right now zoning regulations don’t have an architectural component. There is not the force of law that says you have to have a certain style of building, a certain architectural window to it. But this zoning district allows for that.”

LaRow said the village district law allows the community to designate a qualified individual to review the design  – generally someone who is in the design trade, such as an architect, planner, engineer or historian, who “have a flare for design.”

“Luckily our ARC is equipped with those individuals, and is taking up the responsibility for reviewing it,” he said.

“It’s a new dawn here. It’s exciting,” LaRow said. “It’s something we hope other villages in town want to enact on their own.”

Another speaker related to the village business district was Martin Waters. The Old Greenwich resident, who many know in connection to the preservation of the Feake-Ferris House at 181 Shore Rd, that dates back to 1645 and is considered the oldest house in Greenwich, spoke on behalf of the ownership group, OG Real Estate LLC, who recently acquired an estate formerly known as the Nolan Estate.

Waters said “the Nolan Estate” is comprised of 17 shops, 17 offices, 10 apartments and 5 warehouses.

“When this asset became available for sale at the back end of last year, myself and some friends in town decided it would be important to have a voice as to what happens to that important asset,” he recalled. “So we put an ownership group together to buy the asset and ensure it is not controlled by a faceless corporation who none of us know, but by people who live in Old Greenwich and care about Old Greenwich.”

“We’ve started our work already,” Waters continued. “I’m delighted to say we have 100% occupancy in all the shops – no empty units. What does having a good asset look like in Old Greenwich? No empty units. It means having offices that are a pleasure to go into – that are bright and cheerful and safe. We started the renovation of offices on Arcadia Road and have already renovated 5 of the 10 apartments to improve the overall standard of housing.”

“It’s going quite well,” Waters added. “We are four months into our ownership, we plan to be in this for a very long time. I describe it as a generational asset and we intend to be here at least for a generation.”

“Most important, we have absolutely no plans whatsoever to change the façades on Sound Beach Avenue or on the side street opposite Kings. The buildings look terrific. They’re in great shape. They just need to be maintained.”

 

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