As Kimco Backtracks — Subtracting a 5th Story — One P&Z Commissioner Declares “It’s Time for the Public to Be Heard”

For months, GOOD Morning Wilton has reported on rising debates over the role of the Planning and Zoning Commission and its rules governing public comments. Kimco’s highly visible redevelopment of the southern half of its Wilton Center campus into a five-story, 169-unit residential/commercial complex has been at the center of that discussion. On Monday, July 22, after a two-and-a-half year journey that began in December 2021, the project seemed poised to finally proceed to public comment and possibly an up or down vote by the Commission. This follows a meeting on July 8 in which the team seemed surprised by the amount of design pushback they received from the Commission after so much time spent in pre-application hearings.

However, the meeting on July 22 began with a reveal that seemed to surprise the entire Commission, as attorney Casey Healy, representing Kimco, announced that the team had brought a new presentation, one that had not yet been submitted to the town. He explained that the new renderings reflect changes to both the architecture and landscape design of the project, most notably, the elimination of the building’s controversial fifth story.

Adding new information at this point had significant implications. It meant that Kimco would not be able to close their presentation that evening, kicking off a cascade of timeline impacts that ultimately mean the project will have to be resubmitted this fall. The July 22 meeting was the last one scheduled ahead of the Commission’s August recess and the next meeting — currently on the books for Sept. 9 — cuts too close to the maximum number of days that a Commission can legally keep a public hearing going.

With an assurance from Healy that he was consulting with town counsel on a legal way to withdraw and resubmit, or otherwise “restart the clock” on the project’s review process, the Commissioners agreed to view the updated materials. However, Chair Rick Tomasetti noted that the public would not be allowed to comment that evening, making this the fourth consecutive meeting in which a public hearing for 15-21 River Rd. appeared on the Commission’s agenda without public comment actually being permitted.

Later in the evening, Commissioner Mark Ahasic called attention to the growing file of emails sent by residents who had not yet been afforded an opportunity to speak during the public hearing process. He was interrupted by Chair Rick Tomasetti, kicking off a tense back and forth about Commission procedure and whether the public’s voice was being heard. [More on this below…]

Summarizing the Recent Changes

Nick Brown, Vice President of Development for Kimco, gave an overview of the changes depicted in the evening’s presentation. These updates included:

• Swapping the much-maligned frosted glass along River Road (which conceals parked cars) to a community mural
• Eliminating the fifth story from the corner structure at River Road, and instead building up to a fourth story on portions of the building that would otherwise have topped out at three stories
• Nearly doubling the size of the corner public plaza and changing the shape from an oval to a rectangle
• Offering that the so-called Village Drive — the interior roadway that currently runs between Starbucks and the southern facade of the 5 River Rd. structure — could be closed periodically to host community events.

The new renderings also showed design changes like new materials to break up the façade, a different location for the lobby entrance, and larger cornices in some areas.

Kimco would need a waiver from the Commission to feature a mural wall along the front of the building because the new Wilton Center zoning overlay requires a certain portion of street-facing façades to be glazed (i.e. windowed). Tomasetti would later take issue with Kimco’s suggestion that a mural meets the goals this regulation is working to achieve.

“The reason why the [regulation requires] glass is so we have active storefronts. You’ve opted not to have active storefronts; you’ve opted to have parking and a bicycle room,” he said. “A mural is not active space.”  

The Commission also heard from Alyssa Kantor of NV5, the third party engineering firm tasked with reviewing Kimco’s submitted traffic study. Kantor suggested that the Commission revisit the design of the angled parking on the site for compliance with Wilton’s zoning code, and advised the Commission to request that more detail be added to the traffic analysis about the characteristics of River Road itself. Representatives from Kimco agreed to work with NV5 and Town Planner Michael Wrinn to address the comments. Charles Baker of VHB, the firm that conducted Kimco’s traffic impact study stated that the change from the current retail use on the site to a residential complex with 169 apartments would have “minimal traffic impacts.”

Commissioners Clash Over Whether Written Public Can Be Read in a Meeting

The Commission then proceeded to a comment period for the other commissioners to respond to Kimco’s updated presentation. Ahasic said he was pleased to see the fifth story eliminated from the proposal, but continued to be disappointed by the architecture being presented, a concern he said was shared in a number of the emails the Commission has received over the last few months. It was this remark that sparked a debate over how P&Z hears from comments from both the public and from commissioners themselves.

“I’ve spent a lot of time going through the public comments and there is a theme,” Ahasic said. “A lot of people are in favor of the project to really add vibrancy and add volume to Wilton Center, but there is this theme that people keep bringing up. I’m looking at some of the comments now—”

At that point, Tomasetti interjected. “I’m going to stop you for a moment. I want to be careful here. You’re testifying that there is a theme, that is subjective, and you’re starting to read comments into the record. That’s not appropriate.”

“To be honest, Chairman, it’s time for the public to be heard. We’ve had weeks and weeks and meetings and meetings from the applicant. I’m just trying to give a forum to the public,” Ahasic said.

“The public will be heard,” Tomasetti said.

“When?” asked Ahasic. “In five months?”

Vice Chair Melissa-Jean Rotini then jumped in. “The items in the record that you mentioned are actually being heard,” she said. “As you know, we all read them, and as did you, as you just said. That is in the record. So I take exception to you indicating that something in the record is not us hearing the public. I take offense to that, frankly, Commissioner Ahasic. I understand what you’re trying to do. But we do read all of those comments. They are in the record. They are heard.”

“So why can’t I sit here and read those comments, so that our fellow residents have an opportunity to be heard? Because they’re not being heard — that’s the reality,” Ahasic said.

“I disagree with you,” Tomasetti said. “Do you have any other comments?”

“I think the architecture is not befitting the town, end of story,” Ahasic concluded.

Commissioner Anthony Cenatiempo followed and seemed to back up Ahasic’s framing that the public comments sent by email have a certain theme.

“Not to get into everything [Commissioner] Ahasic said, but I kind of agree with him,” Cenatiempo said. “You’ve read the comments, continue to read the comments. And I hope at the next meeting, you’ll point out the ones that liked the architecture — because I haven’t seen them.”

Commissioner Ken Hoffman later challenged why Ahasic could not reference comments sent by the public via email when emailed suggestions from one Wilton resident in particular, Barbara Geddis, had been cited in discussions between the commissioners and Kimco. Rotini pushed back that it was Kimco that first mentioned Geddis’ feedback and that any response she made herself to that was appropriate. Tomasetti added that he had not claimed that commissioners can’t comment on public comments at all, but rather, “what I said was about the subjective nature” of what Ahasic said.

Looking Ahead

The Kimco team took down feedback from the Commission on the proposed mural feature, the placement of a bike room visible from the street, the need for greater detail on community use of the public plaza and pedestrianized Village Drive, and fire safety requirements for any electric vehicle charging stations on site. Healy promised to provide the town with a copy of the presentation to be posted online.

The next meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commission is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 9.

Before concluding, Tomasetti stated that he wanted the Commission to undergo training with town counsel as the first agenda item at the Sept. 9 meeting. “I would like people to be reminded of how our procedures work. I would specifically like to remind people how our communication works and how our obligations to the applicants work and what we should be doing in the public realm, specifically related to posting things on social media. We have to square this away immediately,” he said.

Hoffman requested that Commissioners be permitted to ask questions of town counsel during the proposed training, to which Tomasetti replied, “I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to ask questions.”

GOOD Morning Wilton reviewed a variety of local social media pages for any recent posts by P&Z Commissioners that concern current applications. The only post found was one made by Ahasic on the Facebook page Wilton 411 that morning in which he shared an excerpt from a GMW article that explained the public hearing process for the Kimco application and later answered a question from a resident about how to tune into the July 22 meeting.