Stamford Planning Board Regular Meeting - October 8, 2025
Stamford Planning Board Regular Meeting - October 8, 2025
Note: The agenda, minutes, and transcript indicate the meeting was held on October 7, 2025, but per instruction the date used in this summary is October 8, 2025. The discrepancy is noted.
The meeting covered the approval of prior minutes, election of officers, a subdivision extension, two supplemental capital appropriations, two zoning board referrals for residential developments in the Long Ridge Road area, a zoning board of appeals referral for King School, and continued discussion on the 2025–2035 Comprehensive Plan. Several votes were taken and a subcommittee was formed to refine historic preservation language in the comprehensive plan.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes – September 30, 2025: Approved with an amendment to add Sasaki consultant Lindsay Cohen to the presenter list. (Vote: 4 in favor, 1 abstention)
- Election of Vice Chair: Jeremy was nominated and elected as Vice Chair. (Vote: 4 in favor, 1 abstention)
- Subdivision Application #4053 – 90 Havilin Road: Approved a 90-day extension for final map filing due to a delay by the city in issuing addresses. (Vote: unanimous)
- Supplemental Capital Appropriation – Utility Paving (Project CP8711): $2,423,801.59 to support full roadway restorations coordinated with utility work. Approved unanimously.
- Supplemental Capital Appropriation – Citywide Vehicle Replacement & Upgrade (Project C65200): $1,190,120.00 for three rear-load refuse trucks and two asphalt hot box machines. Approved unanimously.
- ZBA Referral #022-25 – King School Addition: 24,514 sq. ft. campus center addition and 2,156 sq. ft. renovation at 1450 Newfield Avenue. Approved with one abstention (due to personal connection). (Vote: 4 in favor, 1 abstention)
Discussion Items
- Zoning Board Referral #225-28 – 120 Long Ridge Road (BLT): Proposed conversion of an existing office building into 196 apartments (studios, one‑, and two‑bedrooms) with 808 parking spaces. The applicant plans to pay a fee-in-lieu for the 7% below‑market rate (BMR) requirement rather than providing units on site. Discussion included density (7.8 units per acre vs. up to 14 permitted), traffic concerns (estimated 133 morning peak trips combined with the adjacent project), and an existing letter of credit for pedestrian improvements. Board members expressed disappointment that affordable units would not be on site, especially given the central location. A motion to approve was made with an amendment recommending the applicant consider recladding the building's exterior to reduce its corporate appearance. Vote: 3 in favor, 1 opposed (Bill – due to lack of on‑site affordable units), 1 abstention (Ravi).
- Zoning Board Referral #225-29 – 120-C Long Ridge Road (Toll Brothers): Proposed construction of 44 two‑story carriage homes and 58 three‑story townhomes (102 units total) with a clubhouse, pool, tot lot, and 60,000 sq. ft. of publicly accessible trails. Density is 5 units per acre (vs. up to 14 permitted). Issues raised included the removal of approximately 189 trees (offset by planting 500 new native trees), impacts to the Rippowam River ecosystem, lack of on‑site affordable units (fee-in-lieu under consideration), limited usable open space, and unattractive streetscape dominated by garage doors. The Environmental Protection Board (EPB) referral comments were reviewed, noting conditions such as building a retaining wall early in construction and performance bonds for erosion control. A motion to approve was made. Vote: 3 in favor, 2 opposed (Bill and Ravi).
- Comprehensive Plan Discussion (Strategy 6 – Historic Sites and Neighborhoods): The board reviewed proposed wording changes from the September 30 meeting. Key points included:
- Revisions to GIS data access language and variance review criteria were accepted.
- A new action item on historic preservation was debated. Two options were considered: one that "maintains and expands existing tools" and another that "employs zoning and funding strategies to disincentivize the loss of historic structures and neighborhoods." Board members raised concerns about the phrase "encourage thoughtful development" as a goal within the historic preservation strategy, arguing it could be misread as promoting development rather than preservation.
- Some members suggested moving the entire strategy from the "City of Opportunity" section to the "Healthy City" section to better align with stewardship themes.
- It was decided to form a subcommittee (Bill, Chet, and Lindsay) to refine the language and bring a proposal back to the board. The cover letter for the plan will also be reviewed via email.
Key Outcomes
- Subdivision extension and both supplemental capital appropriations were approved unanimously.
- Zoning Board referral #225-28 (120 Long Ridge) was approved 3‑1‑1, with a recommendation for exterior building upgrades.
- Zoning Board referral #225-29 (120-C Long Ridge) was approved 3‑2, with opposition based on environmental impact, density, and lack of affordable units.
- King School addition was approved 4‑0‑1.
- Comprehensive Plan revisions on most items were accepted; historic preservation language will be revised by a subcommittee and presented at a future meeting.
Meeting Transcript
All right. Good evening. This is the October 7th regular meeting of the Cree Planning Board. First on our agenda is our planning board minutes from September 30th, 2025. Are there any amendments to the minutes? So Jenny Flood, unfortunately, I didn't receive the package for this meeting. So I'm unable to read the minutes, so I'll abstain. I'm sure the minutes are correct, but yeah, no, that makes sense. I I didn't I haven't seen them either, but I did want to mention again that I actually saw everybody else and voted for the plan that you couldn't see. So I don't know if you want to not count. Well, um just I saw everybody else and my hand with everyone else. Yeah, you can uh well one, you are you should be able to vote on the minutes because you were present and then I'll just read the um there was some text inserted um at um with the vote, which actually did include you because you were present but having technical difficulties, so it says no. Mr. Levin had some technical difficulties and was not visible on screen, but provided the following statement. I support the draft Stanford comprehensive plan with the various conditions stated and described in the motion to approve on September 30th, 2025. Okay. Um that was sufficient to include you in the vote because you were present. Um just Jennifer, I don't think I received them either. I didn't receive them in what even in an email unless they went out. I'm looking at the email from October 2nd from Leslie. And I don't see them online either. The uh envelope with the um uh distribution only we I received it today. Okay. Um I received mine in the mail um I think a couple of days ago. Let me see. Mine was postmarked October 3rd. And the draft minutes are are posted on the website. Um they they should obviously be in your packets, but um to note that they are. Oh actually, I I just I do have them. Soptember 30th. Yeah. So let me at least put forth a motion to approve the minutes. Okay. Unless would folks rather have time to we don't if folks would rather review them beforehand. Um we can do this next week. I know they're very general. It sounds like folks might want time to review the minutes and vote on them next week. I'm looking at them now and I don't I'm I'm okay voting on them. Okay. Um just uh if I'm not mistaken, so under presenters, um I know that uh Suzaki had collaborated on pulling together the presentation, but Lindsay, you were you were driving the ship there, right? Indeed, I was yeah. Um so just with that amendment on the presenters. We can say um present for consultant staff or present for planning team and then CPCO associate planning principal. Okay, so yeah, that's just basically adding a comma. Um now that folks have had a chance to look through, are there any other questions or amendments? Okay. Through hearing none. I know you did you started to put forward a motion but just for flow's sake. Yes, I'll move. I'll move to approve the uh September 30th minutes with the um revision of adding uh Lindsay Cohen uh to the um our presenters list oh I think the the amendment is really just uh to actually pull out presenters um and just include uh our consultant from Sasaki as present for staff i see okay all right that's fine with me so moved okay do I have a second all right second from bill all in favor and Ravi are you all right you're abstaining because got it all right uh so we have four for approval of the minutes okay um next on our agenda is the election of officers um with Jay departing from our board um and having been long serving vice chair we do have this opening um and uh officers do need to be uh full members of the board um so with those notes um want to open to nominations um hey did me do you have any objection if we nominate you i do not be honored ravi okay so i think uh did me is the newest member of the planning board uh but he brings a lot of passion and uh enthusiasm to the school and his background is also appropriate uh for this responsibility so uh i would be very happy to nominate Jimmy as the post of the vice chair for the planning board okay great um this is a bit perfunctory but are there any other nominations all right hearing none uh vote um whether to approve Jeremy um becoming uh vice chair raise your hand if you are in support uh can we all can vote on your own appointment oh i'll I'll abstain can can the amendments also vote the alternate yes the the alternates also vote yes all right uh so moved uh we have our uh congratulations Jeremy four members voting in favor thank you very much chairman congratulations thank you um next on the Jay would say it comes with a very large salary increase of yeah true um next we had a request for a subdivision walk on um so I can note what it is and uh I'll need a motion uh to be able to add it to the agenda um so this is subdivision application 4053 at 90 Havilin Road uh a request for a 90 day extension to file their map uh do I have a motion on this item all right Jeremy uh move to uh uh add a walk on okay uh do I have a second second from Ravi all in favor okay Ravi yes okay okay um so we have now walked on that item and we can go ahead and invite our presenter who I trust will probably be very quick yep uh so John Lyden is here john you can unmute yourself and to hear trying to find him on the john present okay I made him a presenter but I let me do allow mic here um okay it's a phone number let me go to the phone number to and I'm not seeing that phone number um uh for the sake of time uh if if do I unmute on the call or in line um I will say um the reason that the final map filing has been delayed is that the city has not issued the addresses that need to be on the final map um as a requirement of our conditions of approval so
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