Planning & Zoning Commission Rejects Proposed Cancer Center

GREENWICH, CT — After hours of meetings and hearings over the past year-and-a-half, the Planning & Zoning Commission rejected Greenwich Hospital's proposed 54,865 square foot Smilow Cancer Center during a special meeting on Tuesday night.

The center was proposed to be built near Greenwich Hospital on eight parcels at the corner of Lafayette Place and Lake Avenue. The parcels are a mixture of apartments, office and commercial uses as well as parking lots.

But residents in the neighborhood had voiced strong opposition to the facility since plans were drawn up, saying it would impact the character and feel of the neighborhood, as well as create more traffic problems in the area and compromise neighborhood safety.

Five commissioners voted on the three separate applications from Greenwich Hospital.

Three members voted to oppose changing the RMF Zone (multi-family) to H-2 (hospital), with Peter Levy and Nick Macri voting yes. The application needed four votes to pass, so the split vote was a de facto denial.

After that vote, the remaining votes to oppose the applications were unanimous; 5-0 to deny a text amendment to increase the maximum permitted building coverage in the H-2 zone, and 5-0 to deny a final site plan and special permit.

Before the vote on Tuesday night, about a dozen residents gave their final pleas to the commission, and repeated several of the same concerns from a town hall forum held with the hospital last month.

"The hospital itself acquired and then razed private homes along Lake Avenue, so it actually has affected the residential character of the neighborhood in a negative way," said resident Dale Lewis. "With the hospital's decision to replace homes that have now been torn down with a large building, the safety of people in the area has been compromised."

Patrice McCann said the hospital's traffic study on the area was false, and that traffic would get worse if a new facility was built. She said the hospital has encroached on the neighborhood for decades.

"We're not going to have a residential neighborhood if this passes," she said.

Other residents asked the hospital to find other locations in town, like Route 1.

Greenwich Hospital President Diane Kelly urged the commission to support the project.

She said the hospital has been listening to resident concerns and has made adjustments to the plans since their inception, like scaling back the building from 80,000 square feet to over 54,000, and making architecture and landscaping adjustments at the behest of Planning & Zoning and the Architectural Review Committee.

"I haven't heard of anyone rejecting to providing the best possible cancer care in Greenwich. I hear loud and clear that no one is making that statement," she said. "What I'm hearing is the objection to the location. I understand that, and we've worked really hard to make that location more palpable so we can coexist together. We've made significant concessions for this building to this point."

Kelly pointed out that the location near the hospital is necessary because it would provide the sickest cancer patients with access to phase 1 clinical trials.

"This requires the ordering physician to be close by. Also, if the patient is not in the hospital, we have to have the fastest route to emergency care in the event of a reaction," she said.

Tom Heagney, the attorney for the applicant, said other locations for a cancer center would be opposed as well.

"If it can't go here, where in town can it go? This is the place it needs to go. It needs to go there for the clinical trials, it needs to go there for patient safety, and treatment. To think that it's going to go someplace else is not realistic," he said.

Heagney said the hospital is part of the character of the neighborhood, and that a new cancer center would only enhance that.

"To say that the existence of the hospital and preservation of community character are diametrically opposed, I don't think that's the case at all. I think they're in sync. You want to have a hospital like this, you want to have these kinds of facilities," he said.

However, in discussing the applications, commission members often referred to the 2019 Plan of Conservation and Development —or POCD — which serves as the town's guiding light on zoning, conservation, and development decisions.

On changing the zones from RMF to H-2, Commissioner Dennis Yeskey said the proposed cancer center would be "in direct conflict with the POCD."

"Residential community is the number one priority in the POCD and the number one priority in setting regulations," he said. "We keep saying we don't want commercial to encroach, which this is doing, on residential. This is several blocks off the Post Road, and we've had issues with encroachment on the Post Road. This is several blocks away. It has been encroaching."

Commissioner Victoria Goss agreed.

"One could say, 'Well the residents knew about the hospital when they moved in, so they moved into the nuisance.' But when they moved in, they moved into a designated residential zone and they did not move in knowing that the hospital would request to change the zones," she said.

Goss said the hospital has alternatives for locations.

"It may be difficult admittedly, but this use is allowed in at least four other zones in Greenwich. The hospital claims the center needs to be within walking distance of the current hospital, and I'm not convinced by that argument."

Commissioner and Secretary Macri supported changing the zones, and argued that four story buildings are both permitted in the RMF and H-2 zones, as well as the same Floor Area Ratio. Macri said the hospital and neighborhood "grew up together."

Commission Chairwoman Margarita Alban disagreed, saying the hospital has quadrupled in square footage over the past 25 years. She said that with the proposed cancer center and the Bendheim Cancer Center on Lafayette Place, Greenwich Hospital is transforming into a campus. Bendheim is about 20,000 square feet.

"That's not what the POCD aims to do in terms of neighborhood, and you are changing the characteristics of the neighborhood by having the hospital become a medical center with two specialized cancer treatment areas — buildings — totalling almost 80,000 square feet," she said. "I do believe it affects character."

Alban explained that she began the application process with Greenwich Hospital looking to expand specialized cancer care in Greenwich. She noted that she, like so many other people, has lost loved ones to cancer.

"But at the end of the day, I believe that our first job here is to apply the POCD, regardless of my own personal feelings about cancer care. I have to step back and look at the POCD. We made that the first priority to protect the neighborhood, and this neighborhood I believe is being overwhelmed," she said. "I don't think we want a regional medical center. I think we should hold off on increasing the hospital zone. I feel badly about saying that. My heart to some extent does rebel. I want to have people who are ill get the top treatment, but on the other hand I have to obey the POCD and it just doesn't say what is being proposed."

Following the votes to reject the applications, Alban thanked the commissioners for their work.

"I know you all wandered around with your POCDs under your arms for a week. I certainly did," she said. "Thanks for all the hard work, I know you gave this all your deep thought and consideration. This is probably one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made on the commission, and I expect many of you feel the same way."

On Wednesday morning, Kelly expressed disappointment.

"We are extremely disappointed with the Planning and Zoning Commission’s decision last night," she told Patch. "While this is an unfortunate setback, the creation of a new cancer center near the hospital is extremely important to current and future Greenwich area cancer patients so we will look for alternate ways to realize this important effort."