No Appeal Filed in Final Family Y Lawsuit

Y Downtown, the organization opposed to the proposed move of the Westport Weston Family Y, will not be filing an appeal to the final court decision that ruled against their favor. Now, all legal hurdles preventing the Family Y from moving out of their downtown digs to has been overcome.

“The latest developments confirm that since the initial decision to move to Mahackeno so many years ago, we have made a lot of good decisions, made them carefully, and that we have done the right thing all along,” said Iain Bruce, president of the Family Y’s Board of Directors, in a statement “We hope that we can all collectively look forward to seeing the new Family Y as an integral part of the community in which we can all take pride.”

The lawsuit, which challenged the Planning and Zoning Commission’s approval of the proposed 102,000 square-foot facility on Sunny Lane, was in January.

“We do not agree with Judge [William] Mottolese's decision to uphold the project's P&Z approval, and we maintain that there are many issues with the decision, including but not limited to safety and traffic concerns, possible environmental damage and the appropriateness of building a commercial facility in a residential area,” said Indy Goldberg, of Y Downtown, in a statement.

She added, “We have concluded, however, that an appeal to the next level would not be productive. We thank the thousands of Westporters who helped to create, power and support Y Downtown over the past seven years in a collective, grassroots movement, with only the town's best interests at heart.”

The lawsuit caps off the governmental review process that has slowed down progress on the new building. In 2004, the expected completion date was 2008. Now, the new completion date is slated for 2014.

The Family Y still needs to raise millions of dollars to build the Family Y and complete a reconfiguration of exit 41 of the Merritt Parkway. Some money has already been raised, and construction is expected to costs upwards of $40 million. There is already a contract to sell the downtown building to a group of developers for an unspecified price.