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Greenwich Neighbors File Lawsuit In Attempt To Stop Private Ice Rink, Call It A 'terrible Imposition'

GREENWICH — As neighbors mount a legal challenge to an ice rink planned for a residential property in Greenwich’s backcountry, the proposal is also facing a new round of scrutiny from a town agency over the lighting that would illuminate the rink.  토토사이트

The Planning and Zoning Commission gave its approval in April to a plan from homeowners Adam and Sarah Dolder to build a 100-foot-long private ice rink on their property on the 400 block of Round Hill Road, as well as add a Zamboni shed, pool house and a small locker facility. There was no public comment on the proposal at the Zoom meeting.

But neighbors have since filed a lawsuit in state Superior Court to overturn the decision, saying it did not meet applicable town standards and would “impact negatively” nearby properties when it comes to “fair market value and the use and enjoyment [by neighbors] of their property.” The lawsuit is seeking to void the approval by the planning commission.

A neighbor, Liz Anderson, one of the plaintiffs, said the rink would cause trouble in the quiet backcountry neighborhood.

“The hockey rink requiring five condensers illustrates the huge scope of this facility. Our concern, and it is shared by many neighbors, is the inherent noise associated with pucks banging into sideboards, coupled with the planned stadium lighting. This project will be a terrible imposition on the neighborhood, seven days a week until 10 p.M.,” she said.

Her neighbors did not receive the letters sent to advise nearby residents of the application before the Planning and Zoning Commission, Anderson said, nor did she receive one.

“We are aware of the lawsuit filed by a neighbor against the Greenwich Planning & Zoning Commission. This is a matter that will be litigated in court, and out of respect for that process we will not be making any further comment,” Adam Dolder said in an email this week.

An attorney representing the town, Barbara Schellenberg, said in an email, “The Law Department believes that the commission acted in accordance with the regulations and properly exercised its discretion, and will vigorously defend the appeal.”

At the time of the approval, Bret Holzwarth, a civil engineer with Stamford-based land-use experts Redniss & Mead, told the planning commissioners that the design would aim for the feeling of “a New England-style backyard,” not an “institutional” ice-skating rink.

The property is a large one, with 7 acres of land, and the nearest neighboring home from the new construction is 300 feet away, he said. The lighting on the rink will be similar to the kind used on tennis courts, Holzwarth said.

At the time of approval, Chairwoman Margarita Alban said the proposal did not appear likely to bother neighbors.

When the Planning and Zoning Commission gave its unanimous approval to the application, it required the project to gain approval from the Architectural Review Committee over the use of lights and lighting poles around the rink — nothing else.

The attorney representing the neighbors seeking to overturn the approval of the rink, Joel Green, told the town Architectural Review Committee on Wednesday that the lighting issue was one of a number of “potential adverse impacts” that the facility posed to the backcountry neighborhood.

The ARC members raised a number of concerns about the amount of light at the rink and whether it would impact neighbors.

They questioned whether there was enough landscaping to screen the facility and whether the glare off the ice would heighten the amount of light emanating from the facility, among other technical issues. A number of critical questions and comments were raised by committee members about the rink lighting.

Eventually, the ARC said the Dolders’ project managers should come back with more detailed information on the lighting at the rink, and a site visit was included as another possible measure. The vote to schedule another meeting with more information was passed, 5-3.

The case has not been assigned to a judge in Superior Court, and the schedule for the town’s response has yet to be scheduled.