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Jul 9

Proposed Life Time Fitness riles preservationists, neighbors … – The Advocate

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Photo: Hearst Connecticut Media File Photo

The High Ridge Park campus, which includes the offices of Frontier,

The High Ridge Park campus, which includes the offices of Frontier,

Proposed Life Time Fitness riles preservationists, neighbors

STAMFORD Another battle is brewing over an office park near the Merritt Parkway.

An application that has been floating around the Land Use Bureau for several months, proposing construction of a Life Time Fitness in the place of one of the six buildings in a commercial office park off Exit 35 of the parkway, has already aggravated historic preservationists and piqued the interest of at least one neighborhood association.

Conservationists are trying to save the building from the wrecking ball as they worry about breaking up the architecture of High Ridge Park, designed by famed architect Victor Hanna Bisharat.

Bisharat, who also designed Landmark Square, was the visionary of urban renewal in downtown Stamford as the resident architect for F.D. Rich in the 1960s and 70s.

High Ridge Park is significant as a collection of mid-century modern architecture and its interrelationship with the designed landscape, said Jill Smyth, executive director of the Historic Neighborhood Preservation Program.

The State Historic Preservation Office weighed in on the office parks historic significance in a letter addressed to Smyth last week, naming the property as a possible candidate for the National Register of Historic Places.

Demolition of contributing components of this property would be a significant loss to our architectural heritage, the letter reads.

The building up for demolition which once housed Frontier Communications was built sometime between 1967 and 1975, when Bisharat painstakingly designed the office park.

Land Use Bureau Chief Ralph Blessing said the application has been made available to the citys Historic Preservation Advisory Commission for review.

Technically this building is not 50 years old, Blessing said of the Bisharat building that would fall to make way for the health club. Thats usually the threshold for preservation, but if there is any other evidence regarding the buildings historic significance, then I think it would be fair to have HPAC look into this.

Neighborhood concerns

The neighbors, on the other hand, are concerned about the level of noise and traffic the new gym will add to the area.

In Sterling Lake, an abutting neighborhood separated from the office park by a large pond, residents have been eagerly awaiting the applications debut on the Planning Board agenda, which could happen as early as August.

There are things (about this application) that affect us directly, said Hank Cuthbertson, president of the Sterling Lake Association. Were kind of like a little nature preserve here ... This wouldnt just be in our backyard, this would be in our living room.

Cuthbertson is most concerned about noise from the large gym complex and outdoor pool proposed for the site across the pond from his home.

The noise is a big concern. There is nothing between the back of our houses and this facility but water, he said. The sound would come across and you would hear the sound not just in the backyard, but in your house.

Neighbors are also worried about the impact on roads, which are already heavily clogged at peak traffic times as cars pile onto the Merritt.

Right now to get in or out (of Sterling Lake) at rush hour is troublesome, Cuthbertson said. Now it wont just be at rush hour, and that really drives people crazy.

When the application reaches the Planning Board, Cuthbertson has requested to address the board with the concerns of his neighborhood. He says hes heard from neighbors on Turn of River and Intervale roads who also plan to oppose the project.

Text change

Life Time Fitness is a national chain of high-end health clubs, which usually offer a wide array of amenities from classic fitness centers to salons, food courts, child care centers and indoor and outdoor pools.

This means the applicant, identified as an LLC that appears to be tied to the office parks property manager in Manhattan, needs to ask for text change that allows for development of a gymnasium or physical culture establishment in the citys office park zones.

A representative for the buildings property manager, George Comfort & Sons, could not be reached for comment.

This request is presented as an adaptive re-use under the Mixed Use Campus section of the citys Master Plan, which was also used to prop up Harbor Point developer Building and Land Technologys proposed and later rejected text change at an office park on Long Ridge Road.

The key difference between these two projects, however, is that the applicant is not asking for the addition of an entirely new use as BLT was with the addition of residential units on Long Ridge.

It would be a very targeted text change, Blessing said. The Life Time application is much more targeted on one specific use, where the Long Ridge Road one would have opened a whole new category of uses.

Still, he said, even narrow text changes can be problematic.

There are still concerns about what does this do to setbacks and allowed impervious surface, Blessing said. What it comes down to, as always, is what the Planning Board thinks about this and then the Zoning Board, and obviously they will listen to public.

The application has flitted on and off the Planning Boards agenda for several months, leaving residents to wonder what the final proposal will look like. A formal staff report has not yet been completed as the Land Use Bureau awaits final plans.

Blessing said hes not sure when the application will head to the Planning Board for review, but it could get there as soon as August, when the board returns from summer hiatus.

nnaughton@

stamfordadvocate.com; @noranaughton

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Proposed Life Time Fitness riles preservationists, neighbors ... - The Advocate

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