The road has been rocky as Greenwich plans a new Central Middle School to replace the 1958 school building with cracks in its walls and a recent evacuation – not the first – when the town experienced an earthquake.
In the past week there were three presentations of the current CMS plans: one for neighbors, one to the Planning & Zoning commission and a third to the general public, which was held Wednesday night.
At the public forum, building committee chair Tony Turner announced he would be stepping down.
In an email to GFP after the meeting, Turner explained his decision, saying, the time demands were too great at this time, as his parents, who live out of state, have serious medical issues and he is their only caregiver. He noted the committee was aware of his personal situation, and noted that the amount of time spent managing stakeholder relationships had grown to 25-30 hours per week as more and more project players needed regular communications.
“I will be stepping aside as chair in the very near future so as to ensure a smooth transition to the chair-elect, the new owner’s rep we are bringing onboard, the existing stakeholders, etc,” he wrote. “Exact timing to be worked out with the committee. I will remain a committee member.”
At last week’s building committee meeting Lauren Rabin, an ex-officio non-voting member, made a motion for a vote of no confidence in Mr. Turner’s leadership, citing three alleged irregularities. Mr. Turner tried to adjourn the meeting, but the committee declined to vote to adjourn. Instead they held the vote of no confidence with an outcome of 4-2, but Mr. Turner did not subsequently step down.
The building committee has a meeting scheduled Friday morning at 8:00am.
Rock Outcropping
As the building committee geared up for the April 30 P&Z presentation, the BOE liaison to the committee, Laura Kostin, made a motion at the April 25 BOE meeting for a sense of the meeting resolution on the removal of the large rock outcropping on the school campus.
The SOMR was for a “full and complete removal of the rock outcropping,” which happens to be populated with numerous mature trees.
“The CMS building committee has been advised by the chief of police that the full removal of the rock outcropping is best for safety reasons. GPS security and the town risk manager have concurred with the chief of police,” Kostin said.
Ms Kostin said the building committee was investigating what firms they might hire to assess the health and value of the trees growing in the rock outcropping, in the event the tree warden were to request that information.
“We won’t have any determination from the tree warden until some time in May,” Kostin said, noting the tree warden posted 188 trees for removal on April 24.
“I would hope that something suggested to us by the chief of police, town risk manager and others as being critical to the safety of students at the school – I would hope that the tree warden would understand the critical need to remove that rock. We can be ‘green’ and break it apart and use it in other areas,” Kostin said.
“Is the tree warden a real person,” asked BOE member Cody Kittle. “Or is he a Seinfeld character?”
“He is real,” Ms Kostin said. “He has hearings on trees.”
(The state of Connecticut requires all municipalities to have a tree warden, per CT statute 23-58. Trees on municipal-owned properties including parks and school campuses, as well as along municipal roads, fall under the purview of the tree warden.)
Greenwich’s tree warden, a town employee whose position is part of the Parks & Rec’s Parks & Trees division, is Dr. Greg Kramer.
The public notice of proposed tree removals links online to contact information to submit objections to the removals and to a map that plots all 188 trees to be removed, including those in the rock outcropping.
The Board of Education voted 8-0 in favor of Ms Kostin’s SOMR regarding removal of the rock outcropping.
The tree warden’s public notice links to maps of locations of trees on the CMS campus proposed to be removed.
The tree warden’s public notice links to maps of locations of trees on the CMS campus proposed to be removed – enlarged is the oval shaped the rock outcropping that contains trees.
Planning & Zoning
Until this week, the P&Z commission had only reviewed the preliminary site plan for the new school.
Tuesday represented a first look at the final site plan.
(In October, the commission unanimously approved the MI and and voted to advance the preliminary site plan to final.)
Discussion on Tuesday included traffic/speeding, especially on Orchard Street, flow of parents and buses through campus, aesthetics, blasting, and the removal of trees and the rock outcropping.
While public comment feedback to P&Z was in strong support of moving forward expeditiously, there was an inkling that the final site plan would not likely be voted on Tuesday night when the chair said the commission had been challenged to read all 1800 pages submitted from the applicant on Friday before the meeting.
Following a lengthy P&Z presentation from the CMS principal, the CMS building committee’s hired experts, there was a detailed discussion.
School Safety and Rock Outcropping
Kemp Morehardt from SLAM Collaborative referred to School Security Infrastructure Criteria (SSIC) guidelines, saying some were mandatory and some depended on the specific application.
The issues with the rock outcropping include that it is an obstruction to sight lines and offers an opportunity for someone to hide.
Ms Alban noted the tree warden was not so much addressing the rock outcropping as much as keeping of the trees in it.
She said there was a nostalgic attachment to the rocks.
Alban noted Police Chief Jim Heavey had written his opinion that the rock outcropping was a security risk for someone hiding.
She said, “There is a whole statutory distinction here about who decides what is a safety issue. There’s the ed stuff from the state. There’s chief Heavy. And there’s whether a tree itself is a safety issue and we’re going to give it to Patrick (town planner Patrick LaRow) to help everybody come to a good consensus and resolution.”
Commissioner Peter Levy said there were also POCD goals that were just as relevant to the town.
“To lose a natural feature is something that needs to be talked bout and understood, and thought about,” he said.
“This horse was out of the barn before the building committee started its work, because the ed specs are for the children to stay in the existing building during the entire construction period,” Alban said. “That means that the new building has to be where the fields are now. That resulted in an amount of site manipulation that if it were up to me, I’d have tried to talk to somebody.”
But, she added, “We can’t push back on the BOE ed specs and neither can the building committee. It is in the state statutes.”
She noted there would be “some negative outcomes,” of the overall priority not to relocate the children during construction.
Alban said one of the issues that came up in the process was that the new location for the building was previously fill.
“It needs to be strengthened to support the new proposed structure,” Alban said. “If you were going to be consistent with the state’s plan to protect natural features and limit soil disturbance and be environmentally sustainable, you would not have relocated the school. But that was gone from the ed specs onward. We can’t say anything. The ed specs have to be respected.”
CMS principal Tom Healy described the rock outcropping as a hazard and “the only use of it has been to remind children to stay off it.”
On the positive side, Ms Alban said Parks & Rec director Joe Siciliano had sent a note about best practices for field orientation, and noted that removal of the rock outcropping furthered that goal.
Commissioner Nick Macri said the rock outcropping had been described in the police department’s comments as an attractive nuisance.
Mr. Larow said he had met with the town risk manager who did not disagree with Heavey.
Alban said the tree warden’s responsibility under the state statute had to do with whether a tree posed a risk, and the education materials meant if something else posed a risk.
“We’ll get it figure out,” Alban said.
Traffic Safety
As for traffic safety, commissioner Mary Jenkins said that installing an all-way stop at Orchard Street required a state warrant, and there was not enough traffic there to qualify for one.
It was noted that the were 3 residences across Orchard from CMS that bus their children to CMS rather than walk because of speeding cars.
“It is the complaint we hear the most from the public – the issue of traffic and traffic speeds, traffic volumes and drivers who are looking at their cell phones,” Alban said. “We are very hopeful we can get the camera enforcement in school zones.”
Alban said the landscaping on the sides of the road could be designed to discourage people from speeding.
Facade
As to the Architectural Review Committee’s feedback, Alban summarized it to say the advice was to select what is durable and workable for the back of the building since it can’t be seen.
But she said the facade change reflected “a sensitivity” for ARC.
Alban said she understood reasons not to use real wood.
“Having tried natural wood and gone to AZEK. We have humidity and storm problems. We have a lot of humidity in this area,” she said.
As for ARC comments about use of manufactured stone in the facade, Alban said, “Trendy right now, in town for the fast food restaurants, etc, is that composite stone. I think that’s why you heard some pushback on the composite stone. Again, if you love it you love it, it’s your building. But I think their message was, ‘that is something we’re seeing a lot of in town and it might not age well.'”
Slide shared by P&Z in discussion of proposed CMS facade. April 30, 2024
There were questions about rock removal at the back of the school, where there will be a retaining wall. Vice chair of the building committee Clare Kilgallen noted that in addition to a fire lane, there will be “a classroom element” at the back of the school.
Next Steps
The building committee will tentatively return before the P&Z commission in 3 or 4 weeks for another look at the proposed final site plan.
Flowering trees (not in the rock outcropping) located along Indian Rock Lane.
Trees posted for removal in front of CMS (not in the rock outcropping)
See also:
P&Z Watch: Commission Unanimously Approves CMS Municipal Improvement; Moves Site Plan to Final
Oct 17, 2023
After Earthquake Concerns, CMS To Reopen Monday, As Normal, On Time
April 7, 2024