The facility would house a bar, restaurant, bowling alley, and outdoor hockey rink, but residents who oppose the project say it would compromise the town’s rural setting. But the club’s developer says steps will be taken to avoid any disruption to the neighborhood, and that the proposal would serve the community better than the abandoned nursery that now sits on the property.
A debate that began last year about whether a “winter club” should be built in Ridgefield, Conn. will be rekindled in the next few weeks as the proposal heads to its first public hearing, reported The News-Times.
Outcry against the proposal for the former Pinchbeck Nursery property had largely died down since last summer, when preliminary talks about the idea spurred the creation of a neighborhood alliance, petitions and requests for changing zoning rules to stop the development, reported The News-Times.
But neighbors, who call themselves the Peaceable Neighbors Alliance, are now gearing up again to argue against the proposal, after a formal application was received by the Planning and Zoning Commission last week. The issue will face a public hearing on September 4th, reported The News-Times.
Jeff Hansen, the alliance’s spokesman, argued in a release this week that the club would not fit in with the rest of the residentially zoned neighborhood, reported The News-Times. The area, which lies next to the New York border, is largely “nature separated by sporadic housing,” Hansen said.
“We chose to give up town amenities of water, town septic service, and proximity to shops and restaurants in order to live in a quiet, more rural setting,” Hansen wrote. “A facility with a bar, restaurant, bowling alley and outdoor hockey rink, including 40-foot light poles, loud speakers, goal buzzers, crowd noise and 96 parking spaces, does not ‘fit in’ and drastically alters the neighborhood deliberately chosen by the current homeowners.”
The release echoes Hansen’s arguments last year, when he and his wife, along with 130 petitioners, proposed changing the town’s zoning rules to block the proposal, reported The News-Times.
The change would have eliminated “private club” as one of the allowable uses in residential areas by special permits—at least until a definition for the term was created—but was rejected by the commission, reported The News-Times.
Hansen and others argued that the regulations should be updated to allow small, nonprofit clubs, but to also prevent clubs that are more similar to commercial businesses, reported The News-Times.
But winter club developer Bud Brown argues that current zoning laws have “served our town well for decades” and that the proposed club will comply with all regulations, The News-Times reported. Its 95 parking spaces will keep cars off the streets, its LED technology will reduce ambient light, and berms, fences and the rink design will eliminate noise outside of property lines, Brown said.
“Like the town’s ball fields and recreation centers, neighborhood pools, and the ice rink, the current Ridgefield planning and zoning regulation defines them as recreational facilities that are permitted in residential zones by special permit, and have always been allowed in order to improve the amenities offered in town and the quality of life,” said Brown.
Brown has contended that the winter club will benefit the town more than the property’s current use as a vacant nursery, reported The News-Times. The daily water usage for the club will be three to six times less than that of a nursery with one acre of planting, and its tax revenue will be five times more, he said.
But neighbors are skeptical about whether, like other clubs approved in residential areas, the winter club will even serve the community it will be built in, reported The News-Times.
“After almost a year and a half of living under this looming threat, we still don’t know the cost of a membership or who the financial investors and the builder of this project are,” alliance member Matt Grossman said.
Brown said the membership cost for the proposed club is still being worked out but estimates it will offer 275 family memberships over three to five years, reported The News-Times.
Peaceable Alliance members and other residents, including members of a neighborhood alliance started against a rehab facility proposal from 2016, contend that residents even outside of the Peaceable neighborhood should speak out against the proposal to avoid similar situations in their own neighborhoods, reported The News-Times.
“If our P&Z Commission were to approve the winter club as an allowable business in a residential zone, then what happens next?” said Catherine Nelligan, a spokesperson for the other alliance. “The house next door to yours could be the location of someone else’s new and lucrative business idea. This sets a risky precedent. If Ridgefield residents don’t speak up now, they may regret that decision in the future.”
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