Residents Say "No" to Linxweiler House Changes

In a crowd of about 50 people at the Planning and Zoning Commission's meeting Thursday night, nearly 30 attendees were neighbors of the Linxweiler House on Post Road East. 

The 1.3-acre property is the subject of a zoning change and lease extension that would allow the nonprofit agency Interfaith Housing Association Homes with Hope to pursue state and federal funding to develop the property as permanent, supportive housing for the homeless or those at risk of homelessness.

The 30 residents were all holding yellow signs with the word, "No," printed on them, which were intended to serve as a constant reminder to the commissioners each time they looked out into the audience, said Amy Staw of Crescent Road.

The Linxweiler House — most recently used to accommodate single mothers in need of transitional housing — is owned by the town and leased to Homes with Hope for $1 a year. The organization has requested the town change its zoning regulations to allow for certain building specifications that would pave the way for a 12-unit supportive housing complex.

If approved, the Linxweiler House would remain on site as a place for supportive services, such as a common area to conduct counseling, said Rick Redniss, principal of the Stamford-based land-use consultants Redniss & Mead, who represented Homes with Hope at the meeting.

Westport First Selectman Gordon Joseloff has also asked the commission to modify an existing 10-year lease on the Linxweiler House and extend the term to 75 years. According to town documents, that time frame is required for the organization to secure funding from the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to build the proposed complex.

Residents are opposed to the project for a variety of reasons. 

Some fear the people who would live in the complex. 

Danielle Merchant, a resident of Crescent Road, wrote a letter to the commission last week stating her family, including two young daughters, moved to Westport to live in a safe area with quality schools and rich amenities.

"The approval of theLinxweiler housing project and allowing its eligible tenants including potential sex offenders, child molesters and drug addicts, to move into our neighborhood is unfathomable," she wrote. "We did not purchase our house ever expecting that our children would be playing, walking and waiting for the bus amongst such threatening conditions."

In an opening statement to the commission, Redniss said child molesters and sex offenders would not be candidates for the organization's supportive housing program. There is a strict criteria and anyone requiring extensive services would not be eligible to live there because the residents must be able to live independently.

Other residents, such as Mark Fischer of Sue Terrace, worry developing the property, which topographically is a high point in Westport would cause drainage issues downhill where severe flooding problems already exist. When significant rain falls on Westport, Fischer says he gets up to three feet of water in his driveway, which he said was the case Thursday and he brought photos to prove it.

"When we have a rain event, its' not just the flooding, the sewers are backing up into our homes," he said.  "No matter what is going to be developed there, there is going to be significant more asphalt cover, more storm flow and these events are going to happen more and more. It's going to be exponentially worse."

The primary reason many people spoke out against the project, however, was that they did not feel the proposal was in sync with the wishes of Joanna Linxweiler, who gifted the property to the town in 1981 with the desire, according to her will, that it remain a green space on the busy Post Road.

Her cousin, Jake Linxweiler, drove to the commission meeting Thursday from New Hampshire to speak on her behalf.

Jake Linxweiler said his cousin lived in that house all her life, from 1904 to 1981.

"I was 35 years old when Joanna died," he said. "I knew her well. Joanna loved Westport. ... During her 80 years, she saw tremendous changes in town. The Post Road went from a rural area with houses and farms to a commercial area and I knew this saddened her in a way. She wanted one little speck of green there so people in Westport would know what it was once like to live there. A remembrance. A reminder, that the Post Road wasn't always strip malls and commercial zones and car dealerships but that there were farms and families there. 

"Just a reminder, that's all, and I believe that was the intent of her will to maintain one last green space on the Post Road. Joanna loved Westport and I ask you to honor her generosity to the area by maintaining as best you can her property the way she wanted it to be maintained."

As Jake Linxweiler left the podium, the audience applauded.

There was only one other moment applause broke out Thursday night and that was following a statement from Matt Mandell, a member of the town's Representative Town Meeting and chairman of the RTM Planning and Zoning Committee.

Mandell said his biggest problem with the proposed zoning change was that it would apply to more than one property; it would apply to 39 sites throughout town. He said the town should notice residents in those areas about how this change could affect their neighborhoods. He also said if the town ignores the desire of Joanna Linxweiler to keep the property as open space, it's unlikely anyone else would give their land to the town.

He also reminded the commission that their decision could be appealed to the RTM, referring to the recent P&Z decision to allow offices on the first floor of buildings in the Historic District Design Zone that was overturned by the RTM and then the subject of a potential lawsuit between town bodies.

"I urge the residents of this community not to look at the RTM as a clearinghouse in dealing with P&Z decisions," Mandell said. " ... If it does come, I certainly hope the P&Z works well with the RTM and that if it so happens it does get overturned again, as the prior one did, that we don't have the same scene and that we can all work together."

The commission continued the public hearing until March 4 because of the late hour and the desire of more residents to speak on the proposal. The commission must make a decision on the proposed zoning change and lease extension by March 11.

For more information on the proposal, the Linxweiler House file is open to the public in the Planning and Zoning Office in Room 203 at Town Hall.