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  St. Agnes Sale Gets Preliminary OK

By Hoa Nguyen
Greenwich Time [Greenwich CT]
March 17, 2005

The idea that surfaced earlier this month was such a good one that the attorney for the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp. wasted no time in presenting it at Tuesday's Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.

Instead of grappling with land-use issues that have plagued the diocese's plans to subdivide 32 acres it owns at 247 Stanwich Road, Tom Heagney, the diocese's Greenwich lawyer, said leave those issues for later.

"That we do not torture ourselves over whether this is an appropriate open space configuration," he said of the idea. "It gets beyond that."

All but one zoning commission member approved of the suggestion and gave the diocese's plans preliminary approval at the Town Hall meeting.

With the approval, the diocese can now seek final permission to split the land into two parcels, one to house St. Agnes Church and a second 25 acres that will be sold to Stanwich School or a developer of residential homes.

The proceeds of the sale would help the diocese finance settlement payments announced in 2003 to victims of sexual abuse by priests.

In many ways, the suggestion, which came from a Conservation Commission member earlier this month, was effective because it temporarily ends discussion of what had become the most problematic part of the plans.

The diocese has resisted pleas from officials and residents to reveal the likely buyer of the 25 acres, saying that this will be announced once the subdivision is approved.

But without that information, officials said they are ill-equipped to decide whether plans for the open space set-aside are appropriate for a school or for a collection of homes. Earlier this month, conservation officials voted to reject the latest plans, saying that they promoted inferior-quality open space.

What the suggestion does is to allow the open space discussion to occur after the second parcel is sold and before construction would be permitted. The new owner would have to return to the zoning and conservation commissions to finalize the location of 4.8 acres of open space.

"That sort of addresses what everyone's been talking about," Heagney said.

But not everyone was happy with the decision.

"They have specifically been playing games, let's put it frankly," White Birch Lane neighbor Andy Healy said of the diocese. "This whole thing is frustrating."

Zoning commissioner Paul Marchese, who voted against the plans, also had misgivings, saying there was a risk in delaying discussion and enforcing the open space requirement on the new owner.

"We have no idea who's going to buy this and how they are going to approach this," Marchese said.

The zoning commission also preliminarily approved a site plan to build a new three-car garage and relocate and redesign a parking lot for the church. The Zoning Board of Appeals is expected to hear the matter later this month.

 
 

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