GREENWICH — Opponents of a proposed new rink need to put the plan on ice, however skaters don’t need to be left within the chilly in the case of leisure alternatives in Greenwich.
Underneath the preliminary plan, which has not obtained any city approvals, the city would assemble a brand new 40,500-square-foot ice rink on Strazza Discipline in Byram. After that, the 50-year-old Dorothy Hamill Rink could be demolished and a substitute discipline could be constructed on that website.
However that plan faces rising opposition from some locally. And when the city Planning & Zoning Fee held a preliminary, nonbinding dialogue final week concerning the ice rink plan, members introduced up a wide variety of questions.
After that assembly, William Drake, chair of the Rink Person Committee for Design and Planning, mentioned wants to higher inform the neighborhood concerning the challenge, its scope and the demand for ice time for hockey, determine skating and ice skating classes to show again that opposition.
“We are able to deliver them right here and say, ‘Right here’s what goes on right here.’ They’ll see what a regular session of the skating college is like,” Drake mentioned at a Wednesday assembly on the rink. “That’s who we’re constructing it for. We’re constructing it for the Greenwich Skating College and all the opposite customers.”
City Director of Parks and Recreation Joe Siciliano agreed the academic course of concerning the want for a brand new rink was “sort of missing.”
“It’s a must to get folks engaged within the dialog,” Siciliano mentioned. “It’s a must to educate the Planning & Zoning Fee. … They wanted extra background.”
P&Z Chair Margarita Alban informed Greenwich Time that the fee needed to see a visitors examine and an environmental evaluation in addition to decide learn how to incorporate vitality effectivity and “consider how greatest to hold out this challenge whereas contemplating the affect on adjoining residential makes use of and preservation of inexperienced area.”
Rink plans
Underneath the proposal, the brand new rink would have what the 50-year-old rink lacks: a regulation-size ice slab, together with improved seating, new locker rooms and bogs, and different facilities. A brand new entry highway from West Putnam Avenue would even be added.
Underneath the plan superior by the committee, the present rink would stay open whereas the brand new one was constructed.
However members of the Byram Veterans Affiliation and the Byram Neighborhood Affiliation are pushing again out of concern for the challenge’s potential affect on the adjoining Eugene Morlot Park.
BNA Chair Joseph Kantorski informed Greenwich Time after the assembly that there was a “breakdown of communication” between the committee and the neighborhood over the ice rink.
Lucy von Brachel, a member of the BNA and the Consultant City Assembly, mentioned she was nervous that opposition would develop on the RTM and “there might be no skating rink for this neighborhood, which isn’t OK.”
Committee members mentioned the neighborhood’s issues should be addressed.
“If we proceed the trail that we’re taking, we’re by no means going to have a rink,” Liz Eckert, a committee member and vice chair of the BNA, mentioned at Wednesday’s assembly. “There’s a lot neighborhood opposition to relocating (the rink) from the present footprint. There’s concern about what is definitely beneath this constructing. There may very well be a lot ledge below this constructing that it is going to be unattainable to construct a baseball discipline right here.”
City resident Syl Pecora mentioned he remembers the soccer discipline that was there earlier than the rink was constructed.
“This space is loaded with rock and ledge,” Pecora mentioned, including he was in favor of a brand new rink. “It will behoove you to remember that in case you transfer this rink to a different location on this space and anticipate the ball discipline to be right here it’s most likely unlikely.”
Eckert mentioned there’s a shared purpose of constructing a brand new ice rink, however she mentioned that making the challenge depending on not shedding ice time throughout building was a mistake.
alternate options
Committee member Michael Bocchino mentioned alternate options must be explored and mentioned the neighborhood needs “all of the choices exhausted earlier than we’ve got the city, the committee and the neighborhood going at one another to battle” over the proposed ice rink.
“I don’t assume the opposition goes to go away,” Bocchino mentioned. “I don’t assume you’re ever going to search out the answer right here outdoors of simply taking this constructing down and placing it again up on its present location, which the primary selectman has really useful.”
He additionally referred to as for extra outreach so the neighborhood would higher perceive the challenge.
“This challenge, if accomplished appropriately, can profit everybody within the city,” Bocchino mentioned, urging the committee to “flip the clock off” and make a greater plan.
Bocchino advised the downtown Horseneck parking zone, throughout from the Boys & Ladies Membership, as a substitute website. However Drake mentioned the city had already vetoed that website, which is in a floodplain and has a big sewer line beneath it.
Commander Don Sylvester of the Byram Veterans Affiliation mentioned he helps increasing the present location of the rink, permitting for a much bigger ice slab and different facilities. Building may very well be accomplished in a yr, he mentioned, with out disrupting the Eugene Morlot Park.
First Selectmen Fred Camillo has additionally expressed issues concerning the affect of a brand new rink. Camillo has mentioned beforehand that he was in discussions with folks related to the NHL, whom he didn’t establish, and mentioned a brand new rink may very well be constructed whereas shedding solely a yr of ice time.
However Siciliano mentioned that building timetable was not possible.
“It’s not potential to construct an inner rink in a constructing in 12 months,” he mentioned. “I don’t care what sort of cash you throw at it. There’s the demolition and all of those phases. It’s simply not potential.”
For extra info on the ice rink plan, go to www.greenwichct.gov/1926/Skating-Rink-Alternative-Mission.
