“I’m trying to protect and preserve my neighborhood. We have traffic issues, water issues, and we’ve brought them up again and again. The neighbors have done their best to be responsible citizens but it feels people are not responsible to us. I’d like to fix these things before we go on. There is some responsibility to our neighborhood that I am not seeing happen.”
Ashley Cole, neighbor at Hillside RoadMs. Alban again disagreed. “I see this as giving us greater control over what happens with a site plan. For example, what they do with the bleachers is in our camp. They could have gone to get a variance and said, ‘We have a variance, so now there is nothing you can do to approve the site plan.’ That’s how variances work, because it brings it into regulations, and we can’t say, ‘Now this is too much.’ It increases the control you have when they come in for a site plan and special permit request. Or they come back and say, ‘Fait accompli. We have a variance which you wouldn’t believe how many people do to us.”
Ms Cole said that when the high school got a variance for MISA, the neighbors were promised 120 trees and landscaping, as well as the promise of a traffic study, which didn’t happen until last year after neighbors complained in several public hearings. A committee was formed and met for many months.
Ms DeLuca said she was on that committee and the the work was valuable.
“As annoying as it was, I do think in the end the process worked, there was public involvement,” she said.
“I don’t think it’s solved yet,” she said, referring to the traffic and parking at GHS, adding, “Phase 2 (of the stadium project) includes the entrance point to East Putnam Ave. It’s important to have an additional entrance. That came out of that committee too. As arduous and lengthy as it was, it was good process.”
“Throughout our study and even after our study, nothing has been done. Nothing has changed,” Cole said.
“We got the traffic study done and it’s difficult one with school being closed,” DeLuca said.
BOE member Joe Kelly promised Ms Cole that a second egress road to East Putnam Ave via East Putnam Ave remains a priority.
“I will work with you going forward to work on that road. The stadium is a replacement. There’s a little difference in square footage. And the entry way is a safety adjustment to address the possibility of danger to our children because of school shootings,” Kelly continued. “We have to address that without worrying about the difference in FAR. …We’re not haphazardly looking at campus expansion just because we have the ability to do so.”
“I wish I could put promises in the bank,” Ms Cole said, adding, “Several people told me that it (second egress) wasn’t funded and said, ‘Good Luck. It’ll never happen.'”
Clare Kilgallen, who served on the New Lebanon School building committee said she was in favor of the rezoning.
“I can tell you that the MI process is extremely rigorous,” Kilgallen said. “At every stage there is meaningful opportunity to have questions answered and addressed. Putting this in R20 zone complies with the goals of POCD.”
Leslie Tarkington, who is a member of the Board of Estimate and Taxation spoke against the rezoning.
“I’m speaking as a resident of district 7,” she said. “I was not aware of this change of zoning. I’m concerned this is a precedent for institutional down zoning in a residential neighborhood.”
Ms Alban disagreed, saying it would not set a precedent because GHS is unique in that it is a split zone.
“Spot zoning is wildly illegal,” Alban said. “It doesn’t set a precedent unless someone is already next to the zone they want to switch to, or it’s a split zone.”
“We need to spend more time protecting our grand list in residential neighborhoods,” Tarkington replied. “We want quality of life and great institutions, but it’s also about preserving our character and residential neighborhoods.”
“Residential neighborhoods are what make Greenwich so special. This has not had sufficient exposure.”
Leslie Tarkington, resident district 7
“We support the new entry way. But with declining enrollment…” Tarkington continued.
“You’re saying you really hold the cards here unless you, as chair of Budget Committee on the BET – unless you approve it for GHS and are willing to fund it, we can rezone or anything, and it has no impact until you look at it and agree to monies for it?” Alban asked.
“We approve the funding for it. Not the character of the project,” Tarkington said.
“If you never leave the BET, you have complete control of what happens in this rezone,” Alban said. “If they don’t fund anything, they don’t build anything….If you think it’s not good for the community, it’s a dead stop.”
“You’re giving the finance board much too much credit,” Tarkington said. “We broadly support the cardinal stadium.”
In the end the commission acknowledged that neighbors felt thy hadn’t had enough time to review the proposal, and item was left open until the June 30 meeting.
See also:
P&Z, BOE Hash Out Plans for Cardinal Stadium and Egress to East Putnam Ave May 2020
P&Z Watch: Consider Second GHS Egress As Part of Cardinal Stadium Phase 1 April 2020