Horton: Call ‘time out’ on new stadium

I’ve been writing about Greenwich for more than 11 years now, and I think it’s fair to say that I spend more time than most people following civic life in town. I have never been more confused about the who, what, when, where and why of a project than I am about the proposed new GHS Cardinal Stadium.

I have found it next to impossible to follow how a simple bleacher repair job, identified two years ago, morphed into a $10- to $15 million new stadium complex that is now before the

Planning and Zoning Commission.

According to information on the P&Z website, it is holding a two-part public hearing Tuesday about the new Cardinal Stadium complex.

First it will consider placing the entire 55-acre school campus in the R-20 zone; then it will take up the school board’s application for a special permit for the “Cardinal Stadium Bleachers Project.” Now read what the so-called “bleachers project” includes: “replace home side bleachers and press box with elevator access; construct buildings under the bleachers to provide home team room; public toilet rooms and support spaces … upgrade the access drive to the bleacher area for delivery; food trucks, emergency access; an improved driveway from East Putnam Avenue to a new parking area that contains new ADA parking spaces; a new ticket kiosk; and replacement of the lighting fixtures on the current poles.”

Even that punctuation is confusing. And, that is just Phase 1. Phase 2 is not described, but I suspect it will include luxury boxes, a 360-degree Jumbotron, and enough other deluxe amenities such that Greenwich may apply to host Super Bowl LX.

Greenwich High occupies a divided site on the town’s zoning maps. One part carries the R-20 zone, the other part, which includes the current Cardinal Stadium, is governed by the more restrictive RA-1 zone. If that zone is not changed to R-20, the school board will have to apply for a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals to build this project and whatever future building plans that evolve. That is a much more difficult row to hoe. Without the zoning change, this project is at least delayed, if not on life support.

Another key part of the plan is the seemingly innocuous aspect of providing “ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] parking spaces.” That act requires all public buildings to accommodate people with disabilities. Without ADA parking, nothing gets built at Cardinal Stadium. And without automobile access from East Putnam

Avenue, there is no ADA parking.

East Putnam Avenue, also known as Route 1, is a state-owned road, and it is the busiest road in town. The state Department of Transportation is stingy with approvals for creating new access points. The school board apparently believes it already has the right to create access from East Putnam Avenue because it already has a “curb cut” just behind the existing stadium, which abuts East Putnam. However, the curb cut is on state property, according to the site map, so the board/town will have to get state permission to create a new entry to Route 1. The state denied two relatively recent applications for new traffic patterns on the Post Road in Greenwich; given the heavy pedestrian traffic around GHS, and the presence of three traffic lights from the top of Put’s Hill to Hillside Avenue, it would be shocking if the state agreed to provide a new point of access so close to existing traffic signals, crosswalks and intersections.

The sports complex suddenly jumped to the front of the school board’s 15-year master plan queue. In 2018-19, town taxpayers spent $500,000 to identify what physical alterations or additions would be needed to keep town school buildings suitable for evolving educational requirements. The result was a specific timetable and prioritization. Cardinal Stadium was on that list, but not until the last 2020s. It has moved to the top without any vote.

Someone on the school board needs to slow down the stadium consideration process. Remember, this is Greenwich High School, whose campus is a collection of buildings that went way over budget and whose designs were changed on the fly. Not to mention that the site is contaminated with PCBs that the town still has not remediated, many years after they were unearthed during excavation for the new auditorium – which, by the way, has proven to be the leakiest new building in town and appears to be slowly sinking into the 45-foot-deep peat bog on which it was built.

Do we really need to rush through another building project on this land?