An application from Greenwich DPW for a new Hamill Rink went before Greenwich P&Z commission on Tuesday night.
Like the first rink task force recommendation, a second rink task force recommended locating a new ice rink within the 13+ acre Morlot Park in Byram, thought there are some differences from the previous “flip” application. When the Municipal Improvement (MI) was approved by P&Z in December 2024, there were extensive conditions including:
Re-evaluate the relocation of the rink in terms of the best interest of the greatest number of residents. Confirm an additional regulation baseball field is a top Parks & Recreation Department priority; install shade trees, benches, native shrubbery, butterfly gardens, mileage markers etc along the walking path; create a viewing and relaxation area behind McKinney Terrace with shade trees and picnic tables to replace the existing; upgrade playground facilities for young children; ensure significant protection of the Memorial Grove trees; provide enhanced screening between the athletic facilities and the adjoining residential neighborhood.
However, a group of Byram residents appealed the MI to the RTM, where it was rejected. (136 No, 52 Yes, 6 Abstentions.)
The final site plan was not approved by P&Z, only preliminary.
The second task force created a year ago by the First Selectmen elected Matt DesChamps chair and set out to considered locations.
Like the previous “flip,” the “flip” presented Tuesday night would build a new rink on the grass field and allow the existing rink to remain operational during construction.
The rink was dedicated as the Dorothy Hamill Skating Rink in March 1976 after Dorothy Hamill won the Gold Medal for figure skating at the 1976 Winter Olympics. Originally an open air rink, roof structure was placed over the ice surface (1973), masonry walls were added (1979) and elevated concrete bleachers were constructed (1997). (For full project narrative go to file page 27.)
The rink task force evaluated criteria that that included flood potential, wetlands proximity, green space, zoning requirements and transportation. They evaluated available town properties and eliminated all but the Morlot Park location. Their remit did not include designing the rink. March 12, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager
While the new proposal is similar to the previous “flip,” in that the new rink would be built in the park while the existing one remains in use, there are differences. But it proposes features that were requested by residents including a concession stand area instead of food truck window.
The proposal includes a walking path around the park and parking area near the Memorial Grove of trees, which P&Z commission chair Margarita Alban said was “very important.”
It includes bathrooms that can be accessed from outside and inside the rink facility.
The proposed orientation of the building within the park has changed, and is proposed to be in the north of the park and run parallel to Western Jr Hwy instead of east-west close to the middle of the park. As a result the rink building will be further from the nearest residential dwelling on Sherman Avenue.
Also, this proposal features a new two-way road via Western Jr Highway.
Luigi Romano, the town’s Superintendent of Building Construction & Maintenance, said the new road would provide visitors an alternative to Sherman Ave and de-concentrate the traffic pattern from the current single entrance.
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The current parking lot area would be the location of a new baseball field. A smaller parking area is proposed off the new access road, near the tree grove for visitors to that area.
Mr. Romano said EV chargers along the eastern parking bays are proposed as well as pollinator gardens, benches, and bike racks to further align with the town’s POCD.
Romano said that with MI approval the town will be able to appropriate additional funding for design work and conditions from P&Z can be addressed.
He said the proposal would rotate the proposed building 90° to maximize the setback from the memorial tree grove. That would enable relocation of the ballfield to the center of the park and enhance the view of McKinney Terrace residents who could watch ballgames from the grove.
Trees, picnic tables and bleachers by McKinney Terrace overlook Morlot Park and Strazza field.
Memorial Day ceremony in the Memorial Grove of Trees in Eugene Morlot Memorial Park. May 27, 2024 Photo: Leslie Yager
Current layout of Morlot Park with rink in lower right corner.
Site Disturbance
There was discussion about disturbance, given about half of the entire park will be disturbed.
Mr. Romano said the overall disturbance to the park would be greater than the previous flip application, with about 6.5 acres of disturbed area instead of 6.3 acres because of the new access drive.
“No matter where the ballfield goes and how big the ice skating rink is – it’s in a park and the park has value as a park,” said commissioner Mary Jenkins who was the lone nay vote last year when the commission voted 4-1 to approve the MI.
“I would like to have more concern about the preservation of the sense of place of Morlot Park, she continued, adding that after preliminary was advanced to final there was significant outstanding information requested by the commission.
“You still don’t have a lot of that information,” Jenkins said, adding that her top three requests for information concerned green space calculations, grade plane and details on Parks & Rec priorities and scheduling of baseball and rink programs.
“I need to see how it fits into the park overall,” she said, adding that the commission previously asked for written confirmation from Parks & Rec that it was a priority the town have a regulation baseball facilities, and an anticipated program schedule.
Jenkins requested more information on traffic given the proposed new two-way access road.
She said she appreciated the relocation of the proposed rink so residents of McKinney Terrace and eventually to Vinci Gardens won’t have to look at the long aspect of the building.
Mr. Romano said the “switchback” pedestrian path that connects from the back of the existing rink to Western Jr Hwy and Western Middle School would be maintained and a pathway would connect it to the front door of the new rink.
Steep “switchback” path at rear of existing rink that descends to Western Jr Hwy and Western Middle School. Photo: Leslie Yager
Rendering from applicant’s file to P&Z.
Diagram of rink interior from applicant’s file to P&Z.
Diagram rink within Morlot Park from applicant’s file to P&Z shows rink (gray box) parallel to WesternJr Hwy, parking lot on lower right on site of existing rink, entryway from Western Jr Hwy to smaller parking lot by the Veterans Memorial Tree Grove (top of diagram) and alongside proposed rink. Entry via Sue Merz Way remains (bottom of diagram).
Romano said new facility would have an expanded season and become a year round skating facility.
Joe Siciliano, director of Parks & Rec, said all the activities of the ballfield and rink would be coordinated so as not to conflict.
Romano said the walking path was a focal point, given that survey results said the greatest use of the park subsequent to sports was passive recreation and walking in the park.
Ms Alban emphasized that the facility was not just a hockey rink, but place for figure skaters, destination for family outings and skating lessons for young children.
“That was a real sore point for us last time. People on one hand were saying, Title IX and different kinds of uses, and there is really no accommodation for figure skaters,” she said. “It’s all clearly geared to what looks to be hockey teams.”
Alban noted coach space and team lockers were mapped on the diagram, and asked whether there was space for a warmup area for figure skaters and family spaces in addition to the party room.
Public Comment
Kate Dzikiewicz from the Greenwich Tree Conservancy said the new plan was an improvement on the previous one.
“I think this new flip really does preserve more of the park’s character and open space. I love the impressive array of native tree plantings and think it does more justice to the memorial grove.”
However, she said the 28 trees slated for removal was likely underestimated and a full accounting for tree removals would be critical to an assessment.
She said the wooded walking trail that was part of the previous proposal would provide families an opportunity for nature appreciation.
Peter Berg, a former RTM land use committee member and chair who has advocated putting the rink on the site of the empty former teen on Greenwich Harbor, questioned the “extremely weak” or “absurd” claims that the proposal jived with the goals of the POCD, starting with “sense of place.”
Berg said Morlot park was in a hilly, hard to find spot, and inaccessible by public transit – therefore not the ideal location.
“The task force wants you to think that there’s no better site for anew rink. Not true,” Berg said. “The task force erroneously disqualified a better site, more accessible, more affordable for lower income Greenwich residents and families, more likely to attract donors and sponsors, more likely to support an onsite snack bar, pro shop and restaurant.”
“Please don’t bulldoze Morlot Park. The proposal for the flip is not worthy of your MI approval.”
Karen Fassuliotis, a former BET member, urged the commission to reject the MI and site plan.
“Placing a 40,671 sq ft gable roof building on the old Strazza field permanently changes the scale, layout and visual character of one of Byram’s primary public green spaces,” she said, urging the commission “not to trade away the expansive, unobstructed lawn the residents see and enjoy…for a net loss of open parkland, not an enhancement and directly violates the first principle of POCD.”
Javier Aleman, a member of the task force who resides in Byram, said removing the rink would change the “sense of place” given the rink has been in the park for 55 years.
With a nod to Mr. Berg’s recommendation, Aleman said, “From an environmental perspective, nothing would be worse than building a multi-million dollar facility on a flood zone.”
“Weather is becoming more extreme, things are changing. Building this on a waterfront property is counter to anything we would look at environmentally. Floods and salt water are detrimental to mechanical systems.”
Aleman said there was “big support” in Byram for the current proposal.
Lucy von Brachel, one of the four Byram residents who referred the previous MI to the RTM last year, agreed it would be ideal to keep the rink in Byram, but that the new proposal involved a tremendous amount of site disturbance.
“But POCD guiding principle #1 is paramount. This design is so much less compliant than the previous iteration that I am troubled, von Brachel said. “The calculations for green space haven’t been provided but it’s clearly going to be a loss of green space. There is a loss of trees – and on top of the acres of grass replaced with turf at Western Middle School, and trees lost there, this is not a small thing.”
“I urge you to look at the grading involved in moving the ballfield to the parking lot area. It’s remarkable. It’s currently a bowl and there’s about 8-10 ft of fill that would go in there, sometimes higher than the boulders around it. There would be a lot of retaining walls, large chain link fence and netting around the field that will impact views.”
“The whole experience of the park will be different. Every part of it is changing,” von Brachel continued.
She said the new access drive would reroute traffic from I-85 to Byram Road to “problematic” Richland Road and past Western Middle School, which already has its own pedestrian safety issues.
Florence Nalepka, a Byram resident and parent of 5 children, said Hamill rink was an important part of local families’ lives and that the proposal featured many improvements to the park.
Erin Capozza from Byram said her children were not hockey players, but took advantage of the public skating sessions.
“The plan before you improves the entire park while keeping the Hamill Rink where it belongs: in Byram,” she said.
Matt Popp, Byram resident and landscape architect, said his main concern was accessing the site via narrow, steep roads. He noted that a car slid off the road in the snow on Sherman Ave and into someone’s back yard. He recommended the commission visit the Wings arena in Stamford for perspective on the rink size.
He said the access road should align with the access way to Putnam Green on the other side of the street and he was concerned that access road would become a cut through street to get to the Post Rd when traffic backs up on Byram Road.
He noted there is a 10 ft grade change there and to clear for sight lines there will likely be 20-30 trees to be removed.
“All those trees should be on the survey,” he said.
Lucia Jansen said the proposed access way would function as a road that would accommodate buses, emergency vehicles, regular traffic circulation, and pedestrian movement.
“That requires roadway-level engineering and represents a fundamental alteration of the park, not a minor adjustment.”
“The Plan of Conservation and Development, particularly goals 1, 3, 4, and 6, calls for preservation of neighborhood parks, minimization of impervious surfaces, and compatibility with surrounding residential uses. This proposal is inconsistent with those principles.”
“Two years ago, this commission and the RTM approved a nearby four-story, 52-unit affordable housing development that required the removal of 71 trees (Vinci Gardens). Adding a 40,000 sq ft, two-story, 35-foot-high, warehouse-style rink immediately adjacent substantially compounds the visual, environmental, and neighborhood impacts,” Jansen continued. “This park is not underutilized. Residents of all ages regularly use it for both passive and active recreation.”
A site visit to Morlot Park, which is open to the public, is scheduled for March 9 at 2pm. https://www.greenwichct.gov//
See also:
Greenwich RTM Vote on Rink MI Fails: “Democracy in Action”
Jan 22, 2025
RTM Committees Balk at Flaws in Rink Process; All Vote to Reject the MI
Jan 14, 2025
Hamill Rink MI Approved by P&Z; Site Plan Moves to Final with Lengthy Requirements Dec 11, 2024
At Memorable P&Z Meeting, Byram Neighbors Again Push Back on “The Rink Flip”
Nov 14, 2024
Proposed Hamill Rink: The stepsister trying to squeeze her foot into Cinderella’s slipper?
August 7, 2024
Veterans Blast Hamill Rink User Committee: “There Will Be Hell to Pay”
June 24, 2021