As you know from the incomplete Greenwich Time News Story The Cos Cob Power Plant Site Plan Passed Planing And Zoning.
Zoning Commission approves plan to turn site of former power plant into park
March 10, 2010 at 1:06 am by Francis MacEachern
March 10, 2010 at 1:06 am by Francis MacEachern
The Planning and Zoning Commission approved the proposal by the town to turn the site of the former Cos Cob power plant into a park at its meeting Tuesday.
In the regular meeting residents were split on whether lighting was needed at the site.
Some local residents said the lights weren’t needed because sporting activities on the one artificial turf field were going to be daytime activities only.
The commission decided lights could not be placed in the park’s interior but did say they could remain outside the park for safety reasons.
But the park still has several years before it could be in use because it still needs to be funded.
That's Whole Greenwich Time Story About A 10 Million Dollar Public Works Project
Later we can get more details when the Action Agenda is posted online. In theory the Action Agenda should be on-line by 3 pm today, but last meeting it took 3 days to post, an FOI violation.
It Is Clear To Greenwich Roundup That The Planing And Zoning Commissioners DO NOT Seem To Understand The Obligation Of The Town To The State And FEMA.
Please See:
A potential hitch that could affect flood insurance rates for town residents caused the Planning and Zoning Commission to delay voting Tuesday on a plan to turn the Cos Cob Power Plant at 22 Sound Shore Drive into a new town park.
The plan would make the 9.7-acre site into a park that would include an artificial-turf field, walking paths and a children's play area.
Midway through the meeting, however, it was discovered that part of the site's waterfront is in an area that could be strongly affected by large waves from tropical storms and may violate Federal Emergency Management Agency guidelines.
The National Flood Insurance Program is administered by FEMA and is a voluntary program whose goal is reduce the loss of life and damage caused by flooding, said Katie Blankley, the town's deputy director for planning and zoning.
The Greenwich Time Fails To Tell It's Readers ....
Connecticut DEP must issue the permit, and the authority to create a park derives from the State itself - and the park must serve the people of the whole State.
If The Greenwich Time Reporters Ever Stayed For A Whole Planing And Zoning Meeting They Would Be Able To Report That.....
There Are A Lot Of Screw Ups At Planing And Zoning Meetings And The Greenwich Time Is Not There To Report On Them. For Example:`
The Land Use Board's Monitor Reports To Greenwich Roundup That ....
Ray Heimbuch, former Chairman of Wetlands, engineer and P&Z Commissioner, assured that the FEMA non-compliance was "legal non-conforming," evidently not understanding that FEMA does not grant variances, even if ZBA does.
Rather, FEMA tracks municipal approvals of non-compliant plans, and penalizes every flood insurance rate payer with community wide rated-up premiums. FEMA is the risk holder, and like any insurance risk-holder, they underwrite and rate-up risky behavior based on incremental community non-compliance.
On June 18, 2010 FEMA will implement a new flood insurance rate map, with a new elevational datum, that expands the delineation of hazard mapping for tidal flooding, and pushes the boundaries of the VE and AE zones landward and upward. This will impact all shoreline properties, as well as the footprint of the Greenwich flood hazard overlay zone.
These changes will render the proposed site plan invalid, unless permits are issued before the implementation date. However, the site plan does not conform to DEP’s Coastal regulations, and DEP’s permitting process will control. These problems should have made passage of the Cos Cob Power Plant Park inadvisable.
It Is Almost Criminal That Work Force Housing For Greenwich EMTs, Firefighters, Police Officers, Nurses And Teachers Was Thrown Under The Bus And No One Knew About It
At no time did the Commission acknowledge the Town's obligation to provide low-cost, affordable or senior housing for 25% of the site.
PLEASE SEE:
.....But wait a minute. Not so fast. Isn’t there something wrong with this picture?
The coastal site plan application makes no provision for the affordable housing that was supposed to be built on this site. But this application is not the complete plan. Technically, it is an application “for placement of earthen cap” and “stabilization of existing shoreline for remediation.” Such a plan for “capping” the site is required by the state for remediation approval. This is what the Planning and Zoning Commission is being asked to act upon. The application has been framed in such a way that the housing issue is not before the Commission.
There is an irony here. The town has come up with a “capping” and remediation plan for state approval that includes recreational and open space uses of the property with no mention of affordable housing on the site and no provision to build housing units elsewhere. And yet, the state legislature would never have turned this property over to the town in the first place were it not for the requirement that a portion of it be used for low and moderate income, and/or senior, housing. Affordable housing was the driving force behind the state’s conveyance of the property to the town in 1987. This seems to have been conveniently forgotten.
The original state stipulation in 1987 was that the town use 25% of the site for low and moderate income housing, or for senior housing. The remainder of the property was to be used for public open space purposes. Unfortunately, the legislation gave no time frame for developing the land for these purposes. After 10 years, on July 8, 1997, at the town’s request, the state legislature amended the original legislation to allow the town to provide ” on or after October 1, 1997, housing units on other property in Town which are equivalent to this requirement.” Another 13 years have passed since that amendment. And still there is no plan for equivalent housing on other property in town.
Last year the Town Attorney took the strange position that the town has already met the housing requirement for the former Cos Cob Power Plant site. This is a highly questionable premise. In the first place, he considers the 40 bedrooms at the Parsonage Cottage senior residence as counting toward meeting the obligation in spite of the fact that Parsonage Cottage had already opened its doors prior to the October 1, 1997 date. He also counts special needs units developed by Pathways since October 1, 1997 as well as the units at the Hill House senior congregate living facility, also developed after the October 1997 date. But these units were developed by private, non-profit organizations without town involvement.
The legislation clearly states that the town should provide equivalent units to meet the requirement. At no time did the town ever claim that Pathways and Hill House were meeting the town’s obligation to provide affordable housing on the former Cos Cob Power Plant site while these private, non-profit organizations were planning and building their housing. Such an idea never entered anyone’s head. To claim so now, after the fact, is absurd, based only on the flimsy argument that these non-profits used federal Community Development Block Grant money as part of their funding packages.
In any case, the Town Attorney’s opinion is of little consequence. According to the 1997 amended legislation, the obligation to use 25% of the site for affordable housing can only be waived by the Commissioner of Economic and Community Development and only if “he determines that the Town has provided” the equivalent housing units elsewhere in town. In other words, only the state can rule on whether or not the town has met the requirement. And it is likely to be quite clear to the state that the town has not met this requirement.
Perhaps Planning and Zoning approval of the coastal site plan on Tuesday will not be a green light to move forward after all. If we want our much needed playing field, maybe it behooves us, after 23 years, to finally come up with a plan for affordable housing. Or maybe we should do this in any case, simply because it is the right thing to do.
The Greenwich Time Won't Tell Town Residents That .....
Planing And Zonings proposed regulation changes removes two-family houses and single-to-two family conversions in the R-6 zone as a permitted use. This will enormously impact and diminishthe opportunity to add affordable housing units to properties in the R-6 zone, where there is present build-out potential.
The Power Plant park site plan should have been delayed until the affordable housing mandate is addressed by the Town.
The R-6 zoning change will be pushed through without the affordable housing mandate being addressed by the town, only because the Greenwich Time reporters are totally clueless.
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