On Thursday, June 5, the proposal for a 20-unit mixed use development at 118 Old Ridgefield Rd. returned to the Village District Design Advisory Committee for a third look. With a deadline for a vote looming, the Planning and Zoning Commission sent the project back for review in light of significant architectural changes that the Commission had asked for since VDDAC weighed in.
P&Z vs. ARB/VDDAC: What’s the Difference?
VDDAC, along with the Architectural Review Board (a joint entity made up of the same group of design experts) is tasked with providing architectural and design recommendations on projects heading for P&Z review. It is an advisory board to P&Z. VDDAC specifically covers projects within Wilton Center and commercially zoned parts of Cannondale.
The group went through upheaval last year as P&Z Chair Rick Tomasetti threatened to disband the ARB (or possibly both entities) and hire paid outside design consultants. The two groups had long been at odds over the role of ARB/VDDAC, which was created to handle the design and architectural matters that are, strictly speaking, outside the mandate of P&Z. But despite projects going through as many as three rounds of architectural discussion at ARB/VDDAC prior to being heard at P&Z, the Commission routinely engages in further design review. At times — seemingly without realizing it — P&Z has directed applicants to revert to earlier, already discarded designs that they worked through at the ARB/VDDAC level.
At the conclusion of the skirmish, P&Z declined to reappoint longtime ARB/VDDAC Chair Rob Sanders, leading to the appointment of Kevin Quinlan as ARB/VDDAC Chair and the creation of a new checklist of review items that should be used to summarize the group’s advice going forward.
Closing the discussion after votes had been cast, Tomasetti characterized his vision for the groups’ future collaboration as, “We want to make sure that the ARB is focused on the materiality and micro aspect of projects,” said Tomasetti. “Let us [P&Z] continue to focus on the big picture issues of zoning and use.”
Since then, however, the old dynamic has continued, with P&Z at times straying from its planning and zoning mandate to dramatically alter the design and architecture of buildings that have already been through, or are in the midst of ARB/VDDAC review.
As for the application for 118 Old Ridgefield Rd. currently up for debate, in May, last minute design changes requested by the P&Z Commission created a building almost unrecognizable from the one VDDAC had recommended earlier this year. At the Commission’s previous meeting, P&Z Vice Chair Melissa-Jean Rotini expressed concern that the commission might be out of compliance if the project were changed so significantly without a new VDDAC review, and so the application was sent back to the advisory group.
VDDAC Takes Another Look
“It lost the playfulness. This was design by committee—it watered down the spark and the energy as you tried to satisfy everyone,” VDDAC Chair Kevin Quinlan
On Thursday evening, Ken Anderson of Granoff Architects presented the project once again to VDDAC. The mood of the evening seemed to be one of ‘how can we make this work?’
“The Victorian turret is long gone and the building mass has evolved into what we saw today,” said Quinlan. “We’re not sending you back to the drawing board on the form of the building.”
The design group did offer a robust list of suggestions for improving the look of the building. VDDAC Member Kathy Poirier noted that brick would be a more typical material for a three-story main street building in New England towns than the board and batten currently envisioned. Quinlan and VDDAC Member John Doyle proposed changes to the window proportions and façade ornamentation to reduce the “heaviness” and “blocky” feel of the building.
Quinlan also defended the applicant against some criticism from the public hearing process, where many comments from Wilton residents have focused on the height of the building and the parking provided. The project in its current form adheres to the heights set by the new Wilton Center form-based zoning regulations P&Z passed in 2023 and the parking complies with the underlying zoning for Wilton as a whole. Public outcry or not, there is little that can be done to stop the building from being approved in its current form.
“Someone has to go first, and that’s perhaps the genesis of so much of the outrage and negative comments,” said Quinlan. “We’re at a point now where all of the buildings are low. The first intervention at a larger scale is going to look out of scale for a period of time until the development fills out. It has a shock factor but it’s part of the long-term plan of the form-based code.”
“Unfortunately we’re the first on this street, and also unfortunately, most of the public seems to have no idea that the form based code was adopted and exists,” said Anderson. “They’re taking their frustration out on our application.”
Closing the meeting, Quinlan reiterated, “It’s the future vision of Planning and Zoning. The form based code — it’s the future.”
Looking Ahead
Doyle agreed to summarize the group’s feedback using the approved checklist of review items with a goal of delivering the final report to the applicant by Friday, June 6. P&Z meets again on Monday, June 9, and the intention has been to have VDDAC’s recommendations incorporated into a new presentation for the Commission. This tight turnaround would keep the project on track, given that the legal deadline for P&Z to vote on the project is coming up in early July.
The public hearing on 118 Old Ridgefield Rd. is currently scheduled to continue at P&Z’s Monday, June 9 meeting.