P&Z Approves Brunswick’s “Partially Enclosed” 74,000 sq ft Football Practice Facility

At the July 23 Planning & Zoning meeting the commission voted to approve a final site plan and special permit for Brunswick School to construct a 74,000 sq ft “partially enclosed recreational practice facility” at their middle school campus which straddles King Street.

The property is on two parcels totaling 43+ acres located in the RA4 zone.

The school purchased the property in 2017. It includes 100 Cliffdale Road and 1275 King Street – the former Tudor Investments property – on the east side of busy King Street, accessible by a tunnel that the P&Z commission approved in 2019.

The facility straddles the existing property line but the applicant is merging the two lots for one tax ID and address.

Unfortunately, the large, 74,000 sq ft building exceeded allowable FAR in the four-acre zone which is .075 FAR.

Maxed Out FAR

At a May P&Z meeting the applicant requested a text amendment to building zone regulations to allow private schools a greater FAR, but the commission balked. They noted that there are multiple schools that have completely maxed out Floor Area Ratio (FAR). In fact, a proposal in 2018 to change a town regulation to increase allowable FAR for schools would have allowed Greenwich High School to build a two-story building at Cardinal Stadium to include toilet facilities, garnered public opposition. At the time, BET member Leslie Tarkington talked about defending residential neighborhoods, saying an increase in FAR for schools would impact residents’ quality of life, diminish neighborhoods’ value to the town’s grand list and have a major impact on land values in town. She said the amendment was “a give away” to private schools.

The 2018 proposal was withdrawn.

The proposal includes a drop off and turnaround area.

The applicant said the building was designed to be “barn-like” and to be in keeping keeping with other facilities on the campus, particularly the field house on the other side of King Street.

Partially Enclosed, Like a Covered Porch

To comply with the town’s regulations concerning Floor Area Ratio (FAR), the practice facility will be indoors, but with a portion that is not enclosed, akin to a covered porch on a house: Porches do not count towards FAR.

There will be an 18-inch dividing wall around the 40 yard line to make off-weather practice possible.

The facility will only be used for practices.

There will be no spectator stands and no games would be held there.

The building will not be air conditioned, but it will have a heating and ventilation system.

The building will provide lavatories but not showers. Lavatories will be connected to the existing onsite wastewater treatment plant. That will be reviewed by the state DEEP.

Attorney Tom Heagney said the building will be recessed into the site, working with the existing topography, and would not be visible from Cliffdale Road, King Street or the Griff Golf Course because additional landscaping and screening had been added.

The side facing Cliffdale is the open side of the facility.

The applicant will remove 58 trees and plant 72 trees plus 98 shrubs and hundreds of perennials.

At a previous P&Z meeting, Brunswick headmaster Tom Philip had explained the school might have otherwise proposed to locate the facility on the west side of King Street where there is spare FAR and an existing similar looking field house, but a condition on their municipal bonds eliminated that possibility.

The facility will be partially indoors and partially exposed but covered, like a porch, starting at the 40 yard line to solve for lack of FAR.

During discussion commissioners Nick Macri referred to the applicant “digging a monster hole for a monster building” and expressed concerns about trucks damaging Cliffdale Rd in order to access the site. The alternative is to access via King Street but that would conflict with parent drop off.

As for timing of the project, Mr. Macri asked, “You’re suggesting that if we don’t move this quickly along you’ll lose your funding?”

Headmaster Tom Philip said the building was being funded by parent donations of students who will age out of the school it there is a long delay in approvals.

“I can’t go into a lot of detail, but our hope is, that it’s a $20 million-ish building being funded by a couple very large gifts. It is not likely that if one or two of these gifts walk away we can just snap our fingers and be replaced. It’s not being funded by $20,000 gifts. It’s being funded by a couple of enormous gifts that could walk.”

There were no public comments.

Voting were Dennis Yeskey, Arn Welles, Nick Macri, Margarita Alban, and Peter Lowe.

The application passed 5-0 with several conditions:

The applicant will return to the Architectural Review Commission and address their concerns.

The applicant has their own septic treatment plant and will work directly with the state DEEP for approval to tie that in with lavatories in the new building.

The facility is to be used for Brunswick School’s sports practice only. They would have to return to P&Z if they wanted to allow any other schools to use it.

If the applicant were to decide to add air conditioning in future, they would be required to return to the P&Z commission.