Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on October 10, 2014

The struggle over the construction of the new Greenwich Reform Synagogue is now one step closer to resolution after the proposed house of worship was granted a special exception from the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) as a part of a settlement with the town.

As a part of the terms, the synagogue will withdraw the federal lawsuit it filed against the town in July that claimed discrimination on the towns part in denying a key approval that had temporarily put the brakes on the project, which will see the synagogue built in an otherwise residential neighborhood in Cos Cob. The suit had been filed when the ZBA initially refused to grant the special exception for the project. The synagogue claimed that this was improper under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and that the congregation was being discriminated against since churches had been approved for residential neighborhoods.

The settlement does include some alterations to the plan for the synagogue. The number of parking spaces at the proposed synagogue would be increased to 52 from 46, including two spaces for the handicapped, the driveway would be shifted from the southern portion of the property to the northern portion, and the overall size of the proposed building would be reduced by approximately 2,100 cubic feet.

A pair of town meetings last Thursday finalized the settlement, with the Board of Selectmen approving a small portion of the document during its morning meeting and the ZBA going over the bulk of the terms in the evening. In the end, the document garnered a 2-0 vote of approval from the selectmen, with Selectman David Theis abstaining, and a 5-0 vote from the ZBA. With the settlement complete, the synagogue may seek final approval for its site plans from the Planning & Zoning Commission.

The agreement is certainly not without critics, many of whom reside within the Cos Cob community where the synagogue is being planned. Because of the highly contentious status of the GRS application, both boards discussed the settlement in public session, going against the typically closed procedure followed in cases of litigation against the town. Between the two meetings, dozens of residents voiced their concerns with the possible impact of the synagogue.

The synagogues application for a special exception was originally denied by the ZBA with a 2-2-1 vote in June. Both dissenting voters cited issues with the towns Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) as the basis for their denial, believing that the synagogue would change the character of the residential neighborhood with its mass and bring more traffic issues to an already troubled area.

Believing that it had satisfied the demands of the POCD and the towns land use commissions to the best of its ability, GRS filed a civil rights case claiming it had been denied its right to worship. Since filing its special exception application in August 2013, GRSs planned synagogue has seen a number of revisions in an attempt to satisfy the towns commissions as well as the neighbors. Additionally, a traffic study submitted to the Planning & Zoning Commission reported that there would be no significant impact on drivers traveling through the area.

In an effort to resolve the civil rights lawsuit outside of court, changes to the plan continued as a part of settlement negotiations between the town and GRS, with input from Mario Coppola, the attorney representing some of the Cos Cob neighbors. This round of revisions included additional parking spaces, a shift in driveway placement and a size reduction of 2,100 cubic feet. Additionally, the town has offered resident parking enforcement for those living in the neighborhood to assist with the feared influx of traffic.

I understand and I appreciate the concerns of the property owners adjacent to the site, but GRS has gone out of its way to accommodate those concerns, making several adjustments to the plan, and has tried hard and sincerely to be a good neighbor, GRS congregation member Jonathan Perloe said during the ZBA meeting.

Other than Mr. Perloe, the GRS supporters remained largely silent during both meetings. Concerns ranged from a lack of overflow parking and the frequency of events held at the synagogue to the safety of children walking home during the construction process. A number of concessions and revisions to the settlement were made during the meeting as a result, but none that altered the basic tenets of the agreement.

See the original post:

ZBA approves settlement, synagogue plans will proceed

Category: Synagogue
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