Greenwich Free Press (https://greenwichfreepress.com/tag/mary-jenkins/)
“You’re worried the tree might fall, I’d be worried about waves coming over the sea wall and scouring out your front yard. That tree root system is going to protect you and because it’s going to hold your earth.” – Commissioner Arn Welles Continue Reading →
With no dedicated parking and reliance on busy municipal parking lots, the issue of traffic circulation, parking and student safety was a major concern for the Greenwich Planning & Zoning commission, with one commissioner saying the location was “terrible.” Continue Reading →
“The perception of this building is three stories.” – Nick Macri, P&Z commissioner
Concerns included site disturbance, maxed out FAR with 6 bedrooms in each of two proposed houses, plus blasting and runoff. Continue Reading →
“The proposed plan would put a garage for 40 cars, an art gallery, art studio, indoor pool, squash court, office and laundry room all below grade. Clearly this plan violates the POCD and should not be approved. If it were approved, imagine what could happen. Developers could buy and merge adjacent lots in small lot zones and use the generous FAR to change the character in a neighborhood and in our town.” – Louisa Stone, former P&Z commission member Continue Reading →
The commission had concerns about the streetscape. They also asked applicant to have their consultant study traffic patterns, especially with an eye to preventing the development from being used as a cut-through from Neil Lane. Continue Reading →
P&Z asked if the disused loading area and access drive from Brookside Ave could be removed and landscaped. Other focused on on-site vehicle and pedestrian circulation, queuing, parking, and left turns into and out of Dayton Avenue. Continue Reading →
Commissioner Mary Jenkins said, “The building there now has sky and space and air around it. And frankly with two distinct, contemporary taller buildings, it looks to me like a Tudor sandwich.”
Commenting on the two additional buildings, Arn Welles said, “They seem out of place with the original ones. You’ve got those enormous, I’d call them space windows, they look like spaceships.” Continue Reading →
The GCDS Schwarz Campus is 41.5 acres in the RA-1 zone and the school does not receive any FAR bonus for educational use. The Schwarz Campus at 23 Fairfield Road was originally part of the F.A.O. Schwarz estate, which goes all the way to Cardinal Road. Even if the school added the requested units, they would still have remaining FAR, but the discussion revolved around the proposed multi-family apartment building in the RA-1 single family zone. Continue Reading →
“It’s a very large space and you’re saying you’re going to have small classes. We have had not positive experience with that – where people have filled the space to overflowing, creating parking problems. When you have the space, human nature fills it.” – Margarita Alban, Greenwich P&Z chair Continue Reading →
In the motion to deny Berkley Insurance Co’s large office building, Greenwich P&Z noted that 1976 zoning restrictions put the brakes on large scale office development and encouraged residential uses wherever possible to create more housing opportunities. Berkley already has their global HQ at 475 Steamboat. The new office building would have been an adjacent satellite on the parcels home to the former CT Iron Works, a two family house and two older office buildings. Continue Reading →