P&Z Commission Approves Tesla Parking Along Laddins Rock Rd, Replacing School Bus Parking

Greenwich Planning & Zoning commission unanimously approved an application from Tesla & Stampar Associates LLC this week to renovate a large parking lot along Laddins Rock Rd, including striping, and removal of asphalt and other changes including landscaping to improve parking and circulation.

The address is 1810 East Putnam Avenue, also known as 0 Laddins Rock Rd in Greenwich. It is located in the GB zone.

Overall the property is 4.3680-acres. The buildings on the property are part of Commerce Park in the City of Stamford. Only the surface parking lot is in Greenwich.

Attorney for the applicant Jackie Kaufman said the parking lot had been in existence since 1960.

In 2005 the parking lot was converted to a bus depot and the commission had required the applicant to return for approval before any future changes to use. Prior approvals were for parking for 150 standard vehicles and 61 buses.

Also they originally proposed 119 parking spaces. That was reduced to 112 spaces to accommodate trees.

One of the original conditions of approval was to close the 2 driveways to the parking lot from Laddins Rock if the Greenwich Schools bus storage use were to cease.

That has happened as Greenwich Schools buses now park on Selleck Street in Stamford.

Ms Kaufman said there would be no through traffic at either gate.

A condition of approval was that the southern gate and curb cut be permanently closed, and the northerly gate and curb cut be reconfigured after coordination with the Town of Greenwich to accommodate emergency vehicles, and coordinate with Greenwich Police and Fire Dept the location of a key lock box for the northern gate.

Ms Kaufman said the Tesla facility was primarily a repair facility, so car carriers would be minimal. And if there were any, they would come through via Stamford along with any other deliveries.

A previous condition on the bus parking that the applicant asked to remove was, “No maintenance or servicing of vehicles is to be permitted on site.”

P&Z chair Margarita Alban said, “You’ll never know when someone is going to decide to have a Tesla repair facility on the parking lot. …Why don’t we say that charging of vehicles is permitted?”

“One day we might have all electric vehicles,” Alban added. “You can charge, but you can’t do maintenance or servicing of vehicles on the parking lot.”

Commissioner Nick Macri said he had concerns about having electric vehicles plugged into a chargers.

Ms Alban suggested changing the condition to, “No maintenance or servicing of vehicles is permitted on the site, except charging may be permitted, subject to approval by the fire marshal.”

Other conditions were no expansion of the parking lot or change of use returning coming to the P&Z commission, and no additional lighting is permitted without P&Z review and approval.

Trees and Landscaping

Previously the applicant proposed to plant six new trees, but the commission requested more trees be placed in the parking lot as required by current regulations.

The updated proposal was to add 14 deciduous trees in islands in parking lot.

Ms Kaufman said overall the tree count breaks down to 14 large shade trees, 16 red cedars along the street, 71 shrubs throughout and another 6 under-story trees.

Voting to approve the final site plan with modifications was Margarita Alban, Nick Macri, Peter Levy, Peter Lowe and Dennis Yeskey.

See also:

P&Z Watch: Pause Medical Spa Okayed in Mixed Use Building at Former Friendly’s Site

P&Z Watch: Toyota Proposes Alterations and Additions in Cos Cob