On Monday evening, Mar. 24, the Planning and Zoning Commission began reviewing 118 Old Ridgefield Rd., the latest multifamily development headed to Wilton Center with a presentation by Granoff Architects‘ lead Ken Anderson and project attorney Liz Suchy.
At just 20 proposed apartments, the project is the smallest multifamily complex proposed in town since Sharp Hill Square. It envisions the half-acre site hosting a 4-story apartment building with 3,300 square feet of retail space at the ground level and underground parking for 29 vehicles. The current plan has the 20-unit building divided into seven 1-bedroom units, nine 2-bedroom units, and four 3-bedroom units.
The project’s approval involves three individual applications:
- A zone change to allow the half-acre parcel to use the new form-based zoning overlay created by P&Z as part of the master plan process
- A text amendment to extend the changes to downtown parking requirements that P&Z put into place when passing the zoning overlay in 2023
- A site development plan for the demolition of the current structure and construction of the 4-story, 20-unit building envisioned, including permission to build 10-feet higher than the current zoning allows to accommodate the tower feature and a higher roof that will conceal mechanicals.
Google streetview of current development, a 2.5-story office/retail space 
Rendering of proposed development from Old Ridgefield Rd. 
Rendering of proposed development from Old Ridgefield Rd. 
Rendering of proposed development from along the Norwalk River 
Rendering of driveway along the side of proposed development.
Overview of the Three Applications
1. Zone Change: The first application is mainly procedural; the commissioners have little reason or recourse for denying a lot in Wilton Center access to the new zoning rules they created.
2. Text Amendment: The second application may prove more controversial. In the new Wilton Center zoning overlay passed in October 2023, P&Z allowed developments on larger lots (those over 1.5 acres) to provide 30% less parking than would otherwise be required, to encourage a shared parking concept across uses and sites downtown. The concept is intended to encourage people to park once and walk between destinations rather than driving from lot to lot.
As part of this application, the project is seeking permission to reduce the amount of parking that developments on smaller lots throughout Wilton Center would be required to provide for residents and retail customers. If approved, this change would apply throughout the neighborhood. Attorney for the project Liz Suchy explained that there are 35 lots in the Wilton Center zone and currently only the 10 largest lots are eligible to reduce their parking requirement.
The text amendment being proposed would allow the remaining 25 sites to also reduce their minimum parking requirement: sites under half an acre would receive a 20% reduction in parking requirements, and any sites between half an acre and one acre would receive a 25% reduction.
At just barely over half an acre (0.53 acres), 118 Old Ridgefield Rd. would be eligible for a 25% reduction in the number of required parking spaces — 27.75 spaces, rather than the 37 spaces the zoning currently requires (though the developer intends to build 29 spaces in total). The spaces will be located underneath the building with an access driveway in the back. Suchy explained that they believe the 29 spaces could be shared by visitors to the building, with residents more likely using the parking at night and retail customers more likely to park there during the day.
3. Site Development Plan: The third application builds on design discussions that have already occurred between the applicant team and P&Z and the Village District Design Advisory Committee (VDDAC), an advisory group to P&Z. Both P&Z and the VDDAC reviewed past iterations of the project last year in pre-application hearings. The final version presented in September incorporated feedback from both groups, with an expanded outdoor arcade, increased retail including a possible restaurant space at the rear of the building that could offer seating facing the Norwalk River, and a new design that featured a corner tower and octagonal plaza feature that architect Ken Anderson said was inspired by the town green gazebo across the street.
The Wilton Center zoning overlay passed by P&Z in 2023 does allow architectural features such as 118 Ridgefield Rd.’s tower and its raised roof with concealed mechanicals to extend above the height limits set in the new regulations, with P&Z’s permission. The project’s overall massing and design is permitted in the new overlay as well. The proposal also incorporates two affordable units, which meets the minimum P&Z set for the area when they voted to amend the overlay after initially forgetting to incorporate affordable housing into the regulation.
Feedback from the Commission
The design elements currently proposed are the result of months of feedback from P&Z during the pre-application period. Pre-app hearings are non-binding but allow the Commission and other town entities to shape projects, sometimes quite extensively, before the public is allowed any input. Now that the project has been formally submitted for review, there will be a public comment period, but it will come after P&Z and the VDDAC have already expressed non-binding support for the overall design and layout.
In closing his presentation, Anderson from Granoff Architects said, “I think we’ve done a lot and come a long way by listening to your great comments and the VDDAC’s comments to bring this to a collaborative vision of what you guys were looking for.”
Several commissioners did press for further design details in Monday’s hearing, however. In particular, they focused on understanding how the building will fit in with the surrounding landscape and built environment.
“We need some context. We need to see [renderings with] the buildings adjacent,” Chair Rick Tomasetti said. “My concern with this project is that this is a building you dropped onto a site, that does not have a contextual relationship with the buildings around it.”
Vice Chair Melissa-Jean Rotini also sought contextual renderings of the proposed building, but from another perspective.
“What are we going to be seeing from Danbury Rd.?” she asked. “If I remember correctly, this is the spot, this is the site that has the least amount of coverage and is the most visible from Danbury Rd.”
The Commission also requested more information about landscaping, civic space amenities, and other elements of the site plan.
Looking Ahead
As Tomasetti was about to begin his questions and feedback with the architect on Monday, Suchy asked to interject and seemed to anticipate an active public comment period at the next meeting of P&Z on Monday, Apr. 14.
“I would just like to reserve time after the public comment has concluded, which I suspect will be at the meeting in April, for rebuttal testimony,” she said.
Tomasetti reassured her, saying, “Those are our standards.”
At the conclusion of the discussion, Anderson agreed to submit updated renderings in time for P&Z to post them publicly one week ahead of that meeting. He also asked if, in addition to the rendering Tomasetti described showing the building in the current street-view, he could submit a vision of what 118 Old Ridgefield Rd. would look like built out to the full 4-5 stories that the zoning overlay allows.
He seemed to envision that 118 Old Ridgefield Rd. would not be the last site in the adjacent area to be redeveloped at the new height and bulk now allowed by the master plan’s overlay.
“We obviously are going to be taller than these buildings [in a present-day rendering] because it is predominantly a 1-2 story neighborhood,” he said. “But the code does permit 4-5 stories. Can I also show a line of where the code permits all of these buildings to be?”
A built-out rendering like this was discussed periodically during the master plan discussions as the subcommittee grappled with where to set the new height, bulk, and setback limits for Wilton Center, but was never produced at the time by P&Z’s consultant.
Elsewhere in even evening’s discussion, Suchy also stated that she wanted to clarify that Granoff Architects, “is neither the owner nor the applicant” on the project. Rich Granoff, the founder and CEO of Granoff Architects, is the developer behind the 40-unit 5-story 12 Godfrey Pl. building currently under construction one block west of the Wilton Library. While Anderson, the architect for 118 Old Ridgefield Rd. — which would sit across the street to the east of the library — is a principal at Granoff’s firm, Suchy explained that the owner and applicant for this project is an LLC whose principals are Dominick and Joe Polito, longtime Wilton developers and builders.
The next meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled for Monday, Apr. 14 at 7 p.m. It will be conducted via zoom.
Wilton is becoming a metropolis with the ugliest buildings imaginable. Why allow this to continue?