P&Z Denies Grace Farms’ Bid To Host Other Organizations’ Sports Programs

Saying it would be a slap in the faces of concerned neighbors and citing the awkward timing of the request, officials on Monday night turned down Grace Farms’ bid to host other organizations’ multiple youth and adult sports activities in its own gymnasium over the next six months.

Grace Farms already had applied to amend its operating permit in order to allow for wide-ranging activities that have been taking place on its Lukes Wood Road campus, and OK’ing the use of its gym by other organizations—in this case, the New Canaan YMCA and St. Luke’s School—would be very bad timing because that application is pending, according to members of the Planning & Zoning Commission.

Though P&Z may, under Grace Farms’ current permit, make special allowances for such a use, “if there was ever a time you would not want to do it, it is now, while we are considering altering a special permit for Grace Farms,” P&Z commissioner Jack Flinn said during the group’s special meeting, held at Town Hall.

“I think it is not incidental. What they are asking for is not incidental. The Y is terrific—we are members of the Y, I use it all the time. But I think to do this would be just in total disregard to the neighbors up there and their rights to privacy and to have a say in what goes on—at least in the context of the special permit that we approved in the past. I would say ‘Have them wait.’ I can’t believe this just fell in their laps today.”

He added: “The neighbors have to be considered. We have to pay attention to the people paying tax bills in town, and their right to some comfort and privacy in their homes. And I feel strongly about that.”

P&Z voted 6-4 to deny Grace Farms’ request. Those voting to deny included commissioners Flinn, Bill Redman, Claire Tiscornia, John Kriz, Dick Ward and Elizabeth DeLuca, while those voting to approve included Chairman John Goodwin, Laszlo Papp, Jean Grzelecki and Tony Shizari. Commissioners Kent Turner and Dan Radman were not in attendance.

Those voting to approve Grace Farms’ request called it a one-time accommodation for the Y that comes exclusively from that organization’s needs as it undergoes an extensive renovation and expansion.

“It is really not a Grace Farms issue—it is a YMCA issue,” Papp said. “And I do not think Y would be able to accommodate the activity anywhere else because the schools are booked and the town facilities are occupied, so the only possible building would be behind Town Hall, the Outback, but that has some safety issues which have to be fixed, so I think it is reasonable to accommodate the YMCA as requested.”

The application from Grace Farms and subsequent P&Z discussion and denial mark the first time that neighbors have filed a formal opposition letter after the facility sought the town’s approval for activities at its site—a step it must take, under one condition of a 2013-issued operating permit, which reads: “The proposed gymnasium and athletic fields shall be incidental and accessory to the individuals and activities related to the applicant and shall not be rented or used by outside organizations without the approval of the commission.”

Concerns from neighbors about the intensity of use and range of activities at Grace Farms bubbled up this past spring and summer, and gave rise to the need for a new filing. In applying to the town for new zoning designations—an application that P&Z is expected to take up at its Nov. 29 meeting—Grace Farms’ attorney argues that P&Z may have erred in drafting the permit under which Grace now operates, but cannot now go back and cite what Grace officials had said at the public hearings that led to the approval of that permit—since those utterances do not determine what’s allowed as much as the physical document itself.

Rather, Grace Farms attributes its need to come back to P&Z to its own technical failure to interpret correctly New Canaan’s Zoning Regulations, according to the Application for Second Amended Special Permit (it is available here in the dropdown menu, listed as ‘365 Lukes Wood Road’).

P&Z commissioners at Monday’s meeting noted the odd timing of the new request, as Grace Farms and the organization’s neighbors both prepare for the public hearings and a decision by the town that will determine the size, scope and types of events and activities to be held at Grace, as well as what sorts of approvals must be had in order to run them.

Filed Oct. 21 with P&Z, the new application seeks permission for Grace to host the following activities between November and May:

• YMCA Youth Basketball league (team practice 5 to 7 p.m. Fridays, starting Nov. 18) and games 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturdays, through March 11;
• YMCA Men’s Basketball, 12 to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays;
• YMCA Pickleball, 10 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 2:30 p.m. on Wednesdays;
• Girls’ Junior High Y Volleyball Class, 5:45 to 6:45 p.m. on Thursdays; and
• YMCA Young Adult Open Volleyball Play, 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

According to Goodwin, an additional request came in Monday for Grace Farms to host specific St. Luke’s athletic activities, as well.

Kriz noted that “these applications are pretty recent and Grace Farms is looking for greater flexibility in the use of its property.”

“This is an example of that [flexibility]. So, in effect, if we approve it, it is a bit of a camel’s nose under the tent. ‘We have already done that—we’re just asking for more of what you have already approved, so what’s wrong with that?’ I feel it sets a precedent and perhaps moves us to a decision we have not come to yet, so this worries me.”

To assertions from Shizari and Papp that the YMCA’s construction has been long and involved, and that approving the request would benefit kids and others involved in the Y’s programs, DeLuca said: “It is not about the Y. It is more about the application.”

Tiscornia said it would be “highly irresponsible” for the commission to approve the request “because we are tasked with this issue in two weeks, and like John [Kriz] said, it is kind of like we are giving away the farm a little bit.”

“You can’t say, ‘Well you cannot have more uses except, yeah, well, the Y—OK, you can have that.’ We need to be a little more strict. This kind of reminds me of the gates issue: ‘You can have that gate, not that gate.’ I think we really need to stand and be a little more responsible about how we vote for these things. Be a little more serious about it. I understand the Y is our friend—I agree with that—but this is Grace Farms. That’s going to be a huge issue for the town.”

She added that the commission risked “ruining our integrity for pickleball.”

Grzelecki said approving the request would benefit Grace Farms and that “given the layout of the building” with its “subterranean basketball court,” the neighbors would not be affected.

Flinn disagreed, saying kids after they’re dropped off by parents and while waiting to be picked up would be outside “jumping around and screaming and laughing.”

Former Town Planner Steve Kleppin, serving in a consulting capacity on the application, suggested that the reason the request came in so close to the Y’s basketball and other activities may be that Grace Farms didn’t know just who would be using the court when.

Tiscornia countered that there are many places that groups playing basketball can turn, including public schools in New Canaan at all levels and New Canaan Country School.

Speaking as a youth basketball parent, she said: “I’ve driven all over town.”

Goodwin cited three reasons for approving the request from Grace Farms: P&Z as of now is addressing the current permit, not the amended permit application; the request regarding the YMCA and St. Luke’s is temporary; and similar allowances for institutions that sit in residential zones have been made before.

Even so, Kriz said, the proposal for the gym “is not a trivial event going on.”

“It’s not a single event. It’s several months of a number of events, and to say that it is not a Grace Farm event I think is not correct. All of this is taking place on Grace Farms—it is a Grace Farms event. Even though it is an accommodation for another venue in town, it is still a Grace Farms event … I do not see this as something that should be seen separately from the other reviews of the special permit for Grace Farms, so I think approving now is incorrect.”