P&Z Amends Village District Zoning

Weston Today photo

The Planning and Zoning Commission voted on Monday evening to approve versions of amendments to Village District regulations proposed by Peter Greenberg of Able Construction, who hopes to develop one of Weston’s four corners into a mix of business and residential units.

While the decision opens the door to development at 176 Weston Road — currently owned by the Norfield Congregational Church Society — Mr. Greenberg’s project still has a distance to go.

The central issue before the commission was whether to increase, as proposed, the permissible size of dwelling units in the Village District from 1,200 square feet to 1,800 and the maximum number of bedrooms from two to three.

In an informal pre-application meeting last July 1 and in a public hearing on February 3, Mr. Greenberg and attorney Eric Bernheim told commissioners that, without the increased limits, development of housing in the Village District would not be financially viable.

In Monday evening’s discussion, mindful that a change to regulations would affect all potential development in the Village District, the commission soon focused on finding a middle ground first voiced by member Alex Burns to allow a portion of units to be larger than currently allowed.

After much back and forth on percentages and wording, the commission voted 6–1 to allow up to 25 percent of units to have more than two bedrooms (but not more than three) or be as large as 1,800 square feet. The remaining 75 percent would have to conform to existing limits.

Voting in favor of the change were commission chair Sally Korsh, vice chair Alex Burns, and members Gus Christensen, Joseph Leone, Megan Loucas, and Michael Reiner. Commissioner Lauren Gojkovich voted no.

This morning, Mr. Greenberg said he was reasonably pleased with the outcome. “I took it as a positive decision,” he said. “I would have liked it to be a higher percentage, but we will try to make it work. We will go back to the drawing board a little bit.”

P&Z’s Monday evening vote was only on the Village District zoning amendments, not on Mr. Greenberg’s project itself. To proceed, at some point he will need to come back to the commission with a formal, fleshed-out proposal, which he said he hopes to do “relatively soon.”

That will involve another round of deliberations and another public hearing. Along the way, other bodies will have to weigh in, including the Aspetuck Health District, the Conservation Commission, P&Z’s architectural review board, and the Historic District Commission.