The proposal for a residential development at 1 American Lane in the northwest corner of Greenwich has been reduced more than once.
The applicant is ready to move from a non-binding pre-application to the Planning & Zoning Commission to an application for a preliminary site plan and special permit.
Initially, back in March 2022, Greenwich American Inc proposed 456 residential units in 41 buildings.
Last July, P&Z chair Margarita Alban told the applicant’s attorney, “It looks like the proverbial 8 lbs in the 5 lb sack. I realize it’s a big property, but it’s not what I had in mind.”
The proposal referred to building townhouses and “starter homes.”
Alban said at the time, “When you talked about starter homes we had a vision of little back yards, little houses, and Havemeyer Park where someone could start a family and have a yard.”
“If you’re talking about $3 million houses, you’re not doing much in terms of our POCD,” Alban said, noting the POCD urges Greenwich work toward a greater diversity of homes.
At that same meeting, commissioner Arn Welles said a 400+ unit development would add a burden to Greenwich’s requirement to have 10% of all housing stock deemed affordable. (The state of Connecticut requires that 10% of every municipality’s housing stock be affordable according to a state formula).
More recently, in January 2023 the applicant returned to P&Z, with another pre-application, to talk about 309 units in 55 buildings.
Today the application materials refer to 248 units across 61 buildings. That breaks down to 170 townhouses and 78 single level units. There would be a total of 744 bedrooms and 643 parking spaces.
The buildings would be in a cluster design. Following the topography, some would be 3-1/2 stories high and others will be 2-1/2 stories.
Collaboration with North Castle, NY
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.
Access is via a four-lane road which has two intersections with King Street in New York State.
North Castle, NY town planner Adam Kaufman has been involved in conversations, though he has no approval authority. His concerns have been about traffic and parking in the hamlet of Armonk, as well as drinking water, sewerage capacity and water for fire suppression. Indeed, the he infrastructure burden would be on North Castle, with the exception of public schools.
The property is 155 acres, of which about 45 areas are conservation area. The area proposed for residential development is on undeveloped but mostly manicured portions.
Re-Zone
Also, they seek to rezone the property to “BEX-50 Residential Overlay Zone” to permit the residential development.
As part of the proposed overlay zone they seek an additional .3 FAR for residential uses and ancillary services associated with the residential use.
Accessory uses such as retail, restaurant, personal service, daycare, fitness and financial services would also be permitted in the proposed zone.
Possible Cash Payment to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund
Starting in April 2022, the P&Z commission said it would be important for the development to include a below market component.
“Yes we need starter homes, but more than that, we need affordable starter homes,” commissioner Arn Welles said in April 2022.
The applicant’s attorney Tom Heagney has said his client did not want to include affordable units as part of the development, but was talking to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund about a possible fee in lieu arrangement.
“Our initial proposal was a fee in lieu rather than building affordable housing on the site, with an equivalent of $55,000 a unit. That was our starting point,” Heagney said. “We came to the realization that the number we were proposing needed to be substantially greater.”
Heagney said the possible fee had increased to $250,000, and that would result in millions of dollars being added to the Housing Trust Fund, which could potentially be used by Greenwich Communities (Greenwich’s housing authority). He noted that one of the projects they had talked about was Quarry Knoll, which Greenwich Communities wants to redevelop more densely. Today it has 50 units on a 7-acre property a block from Julian Curtiss School.
The new application includes a letter from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund chair Bob Barolak that reflects a provision agreed to by his board for a cash contribution of $250,000 per unit for 20% of the proposed housing units.
The application is not yet on a P&Z commission agenda. Their next meeting is Sept 6, but an agenda has not yet been published.