Westport residents oppose Sniffen Road as historic district
WESTPORT — The potential for a new historic district on and around Sniffen Road has been put on hold following neighborhood opposition.
The proposal, introduced last month, was to highlight the then 80 homes constructed in 1956 in the area by Ryder, Struppmann and Neumann, on top of the former Fillow Flower Company, called the Flower Estates at Westport.
“It was a heroic effort,” Historic District Commission member Wendy Van Wie said during the recent meeting.
Amy Zipkin, of Sniffen Road, introduced the application for the historic district during a February Historic Distirct Commission meeting. It included several homes on Sniffen Road, with hopes to expand to surrounding streets.
“It embodied the transition of the town of Westport from an agrarian farm community to New York commuter suburb,” she said in the March meeting.
One of the homes, 30 Sniffen Road, is under a 180-day demolition delay, which was one of the reasons for her applying for a historic district, she said in the February meeting.
However, Zipkin decided to withdraw the application following little support from surrounding property owners.
Zipkin said that to qualify for historic district status through State Historic Preservation Office, a property needs to be at least 50 years old and not have any substantial alterations to it. However, some houses have been altered.
Westport’s regulations for local historic district status also require the houses to be in numerical sequences without “donut holes,” which are gaps in houses, she added.
It was unrealistic for the Flower Estates to become a historic district, Zipkin said, as the district would have required crossing Sniffen Road to Clinton Avenue, and turning left to Fillow Street.
Zipkin said it could be possible for separate historic districts in the future, though.
“For the foreseeable future, my family’s well being and livelihood will be impacted by an out of town LLC, with limited connection to Westport and its future,” she said about the construction.
Zipkin said she expects the application to remain with the Historic District Commission, if someone were to consider it in the future.
Don O’Day, a Sniffen Road resident and Representative Town Meeting member, started a petition to oppose the historic district.
O’Day said he was opposed to the designation for his home, and he reached out to neighbors for their opinions.
He said within 90 minutes, he “got a lot of signatures that, to me, represented a good deal of opposition to this proposal.”
In an interview, O’Day said about 17 houses in only one section of Sniffen Road signed, though not every house was contacted as some people weren’t home.
Emily Stella, a Sniffen Road resident, said at the meeting that she opposed the historic district and encouraged the development of the neighborhood.