A new pre-application has been submitted from Greenwich American Inc to Greenwich’s Planning & Zoning Dept for a residential development at 1 American Lane in the northwest corner of town.
The 154-acre property is separated from the rest of the Greenwich by I-684 and cannot be accessed from the rest of the Town without crossing into New York state.
The development would include 456 units in 41 buildings with a mix of starter and townhomes ranging in size from 1,050 square feet to 3,400 square feet.
Per the narrative on the pre-application, in the 1960s the American Can Company constructed its headquarters on a portion of the property. At the time, they were the sole occupant of the building.
In the mid-1980s the company relocated its headquarters and sought to have the building used as general office with multiple tenants.
In 1991, after an appeal which was ultimately decided in Connecticut Supreme Court, multiple tenants were permitted, and the zoning regulations for the “BEX-50” zone were amended.
In 2019, the P&Z commission amended the zone to eliminate “executive” from the definition of office business use.
The property was home to to Blue Sky Studios, but in April 2021 Disney closed the computer animation film studio.
While the property contains 586,295 square feet of office space, much of the 154.5 acre lot is undeveloped.
Approximately 45 acres of the site are within a conservation area that would be preserved.
The owner of the property is exploring the opportunity to provide starter and town homes as part of a residential development of the undeveloped portions of the land.
The proposed residential units would be served by the existing on-site wastewater treatment facility and on-site wells.
The existing main road servicing the office building and other existing roads on the campus would serve as access to the proposed dwellings.
The development would provide amenities such as sports courts, playgrounds, picnic areas, and other ancillary uses on the property. Some of these amenities may be provided in the existing “Stone House” on the property.
Two parking spaces would be provided for each unit, along with 266 guest parking spaces for a total of 1,178 parking spaces.
The property currently has 1,898 parking spaces associated with the office buildings.
The current BEX-50 zone regulations permit offices, cultural and wildlife reservations in natural park areas and cemeteries as of right.
Religious or educational institutions not operated for commercial profit, public utilities and radio or TV stations and towers are permitted by special permit.
The applicant would propose to add as an additional special permit use, attached residential dwellings.
Additional amendments to the regulations would permit 3-1/2 stories for residential use with a maximum of 50 feet in height and proposed setbacks of 50 feet on all property lines.
Additional floor area would be permitted for residential purposes only, up to a 0.3 FAR.
There is an additional parcel within the BEX-50 zone of 62 acres which is owned by IBM as part of their adjacent corporate headquarters in New York.
The existing site plan shows the Greenwich American Center office building, storage facility, existing stone house, cooling tower, picnic areas, and site trails.
The proposed housing units would be located along the existing road network on the property.
Note to readers: This is a pre-application, and has yet to be scheduled for a meeting agenda, so P&Z commission and town planner are unable to answer questions at this time.
The time to comment or ask questions is if and when the application is scheduled for a public P&Z meeting. The idea of a pre-application is to dedicate about 20 minutes to the item during a P&Z meeting so the applicant gets enough feedback to determine whether to pursue an application.
Per CT Gen Stat § 7-159b (2013) pre-applications are non binding. They may not be appealed under any provision of the general statutes, and shall not be binding on the applicant or any authority, commission, department, agency or other official having jurisdiction to review the proposed project.