Greenwich Communities Looks To Add Senior Housing Units In Byram

GREENWICH, CT — A pre-application went before the Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday night that would add a four story, 50,000 square foot building consisting of 51 senior housing units on the Mckinney Terrace campus in Byram.

The McKinney Terrace campus consists of three townhouse buildings with 21 family apartments, and an elderly apartment building with 51 apartments in what was the old Byram School. The proposed building, named "Vinci Gardens", would be built directly across from the elderly apartment building.

The pre-application process allows for a non-binding discussion with the commission about the pros and cons of a proposal before a substantial investment is made in developing plans, reports, and studies.

To view pre-application materials, renderings and plans for Vinci Gardens click here.

Greenwich Communities, formerly known as the Greenwich Housing Authority, brought the pre-application forward.

The project is part of a large plan the organization has to add about 200-225 units of affordable housing to the town over the next few years, said Sam Romeo, Chairman of Greenwich Communities.

CEO of Greenwich Communities, Anthony Johnson, said the site which houses the old school was shut down years ago, and it was given to Greenwich Communities under a 100-year lease. There are about 77 years left on that lease, Johnson said, noting that the facade of the existing elderly apartment building facing the Post Road is considered historic.

"This site is a wonderful site for what we're looking to do for senior housing, to provide for senior housing that's desperately needed in town," Johnson said. "The building we designed was designed with [the facade] in mind to show appreciation to that architecture of that building and to fit into the community."

All of the units in the proposed building are one-bedroom, Johnson noted, and would add to Greenwich's stock of affordable housing under the 8-30g state mandate. Greenwich has been trying to meet the mandate, which calls for at least 10 percent of housing to be affordable.

Portions of the project will extend into the adjacent parcels to the north and east. These parcels are bordered to the west, by West Putnam Drive, to the north/east by Western Junior Highway, and to the south by residential properties.

Johnson said there is a dividing line on the property that denotes Greenwich Communities-owned land, and town-owned land. Johnson said he's unsure where that line is.

"We're looking at different avenues to finance the building and what we're looking for and asking for in terms of relief, we'll be seeking variances for building height, and possibly setback because of the fact we're not sure of that dividing line," Johnson said.

John Brice, an architect from Geddis Architects in Southport, Conn., said the site is "extremely rocky."

"We're sitting at the top of a hill of rock. In order to minimize the amount of rock removal we'd have to do at the site, we are actually creating sort of an empty floor underneath which will essentially be a crawl space. Then we'll only have a limited number of units at the entry level," Brice said.

To that end, because of the elevation, a lounge space on the second floor would have direct access outside in the rear. In the front, there'd be access to the lower level.
Brice said the building would feature a "rich assortment of community spaces" to compliment the residential units. There would be spaces for cooking classes, lounges, and other meeting rooms.

Commissioner Nick Macri said he wants to see the height of the building reduced. He said it would pop out of the tree canopy. He noted that by his count, 57 trees would have to be removed. He also questioned materials that would be used for construction.

"I'm not seeing how architecture as proposed fits in or is keeping with that facade of the existing building," Macri asked, suggesting brick. According to the project narrative, the project is wood modular construction.

"Is vinyl siding indicative of a site that's got an historical building on it?" asked Macri.

Macri suggested Greenwich Communities get in touch with the Department of Public Works or Parks and Recreation, who would know where the dividing lines on the property are.

There was brief public comment on the pre-application. Lucy von Brachel, a Representative Town Meeting member for District 4 and a board member on the Byram Neighborhood Association, voiced several concerns. She spoke as a resident during the comment portion.

Earlier this week, theRTM approved the creation of an affordable housing trust fund to help increase affordable housing in Greenwich.

"I know you're under a lot of pressure to add affordable units and this would add a significant number of units to our housing stock, but I hope that you will review this application as you would any other application. I know that's an incentive to pass this, and I want to make sure this is scrutinized the same way you scrutinize other things," von Brachel said.

She said she's concerned about the housing crunch, as Byram is the most dense neighborhood in Greenwich. Adding more units would be detrimental.

"Continuing to add affordable housing to a neighborhood like this where we are dealing with thousands of units that are under applications between Port Chester and Greenwich within a one mile radius, it's very concerning to us to have all of this housing pressure," she said, noting that she'd like to see units spread out across town.

Von Brachel also mentioned concerns about trees, saying she counted around 70 that would have to be cut down.

One thing that's personal for von Brachel is the fact that there's a memorial tree on the property that's dedicated to Anne Kristoff, a neighborhood activist in Byram who died several years ago.

"Her legacy was really keeping this property as open space, and it's kind of a cruel irony to me that it would be cut down for housing, which she had been very actively trying to prevent because we don't have a ton of open space in Byram, we don't have a lot of trees in Byram, we're pretty jam packed over here," von Brachel said.

Romeo said he believes the memorial tree is not located near where construction is proposed.

JoAnn Messina, Executive Director of the Greenwich Tree Conservancy, explained the importance of tree canopies. She said the Conservancy would like to help in this project with Greenwich Communities.

"The Tree Conservancy has been working for 15 years trying to replenish the canopy specifically in the western part of Greenwich. This is something really important to us. We will assist anyway we can, but more importantly we'd like to see very minimal tree canopy taken down," Messina said.

Romeo responded by saying Greenwich Communities will "do everything we can to keep it green."

"We'd work with the Tree Conservancy because we'd love to take trees from them and plant them where we can, and put in a lot of flower gardens," Romeo said.

Planning and Zoning Chair Margarita Alban told the group she wants them to maintain the tree canopy, and that she has questions and concerns about infrastructure. She said there will be plenty of conversation about the project when it comes back in a full application down the road.

"The materials question is of course an issue. What materials you use with the building and whether you do modular [construction]... All of that is how you make the economics work," Alban said.