By Chéye Roberson
Sentinel Correspondent
The Planning and Zoning Commission approved the final site plan for renovations to six multi-family buildings, including exterior balconies and walkways, at Armstrong Court.
The vote was five to zero in favor of converting the flat rooftops of the buildings to pitched rooftops, several interior renovations, along with adding 10 percent more ADA accessible units, and eliminating all one-bedroom units by merging them with other units; the total number of apartments will increase to 96 two-bedrooms and 36 three-bedrooms.
The Housing Authority will also be allowed to create 57 additional parking spaces. The executive director of the Greenwich Housing Authority, Anthony Johnson, said that the renovations will benefit Greenwich residents.
“It will do two things. It’s adding 18 units to Armstrong Court, which are sorely needed,” Johnson said. “And we’re basically going to change the entire inside of the building, which I think will increase the property value of the area with the look of the building.”
The project is not without opponents. A neighbor of Armstrong Court, Dawn Fortunato, urged P&Z to hold off on the project until there has been proper remediation of the soil found at the housing development. In 2014, a phase-one report by the civic and environmental engineering firm Fuss & O’Neill stated that lead was found along the drip lines of buildings 1 through 5, and that the fill contains pollution site wide, but apparently at low levels.
Further soil samples were taken in 2015. Pesticides and PCBs were discovered, but at levels that did not require remediation, according to Fuss & O’Neill.
During an interview on Monday, Fortunato said the 2014 report has been repeatedly overlooked by the commission when making decisions regarding Armstrong Court. She also charged the commission with holding marathon meetings that make it difficult for the public to participate.
“There are many misrepresentations in the Armstrong Court application—most overlooked or with minimal discussion by the P&Z Commission,” said Fortunato. “The vote was taken after 2 a.m., when the community was sleeping and the commission had deliberated more than eight hours on other projects. This is a shady practice that reflects a serious inability to plan. It looks like they will once again concentrate affordable housing and racial imbalance in District 3.”
Fortunato raised the possibility of a legal appeal and of Department of Justice involvement based on the need for “environmental justice.” She added that Johnson submitted some last-minute environmental information that was not taken into account.
But Johnson said the Housing Authority hired two different experts to come out and test the soil at Armstrong Court on the conditions set by the P&Z commission, and that there were no excess toxins found in the soil.
“We tested the site three times. We went over and above last year,” said Johnson.
According to Johnson, the residents of Armstrong Court approve of the new construction and had to write a letter showing their support of the project to the state of Connecticut before funding for new construction could be provided.
Johnson said that after the Housing Authority concludes a reimbursement process with the state, he hopes to begin the new construction in the fall of this year.
Fortunato said Greenwich residents did not receive the diligence and sound judgment in the approvals process that she would expect, considering that the property is close to “a polluting adjacent facility where ash residuals remain and pass into air and water run-off.” Armstrong Court lies a short distance from the town dump on Holly Hill Lane, which used to incinerate trash.
Fortunato, who began researching the area after her son became ill from lead poisoning, said that ignoring the 2014 study will place more families in danger.
“Turning a blind eye to the presence of a polluted fill spread out over 14.99 acres, with lead and arsenic over RRSR [state residential remediation standard regulations] limits, is a shameful disservice to our entire community and our children,” she said. “The ASTDR [Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry] shows arsenic and lead to be the number one and number two priority for EPA toxicology studies.”
Fortunato said that although officials for the Housing Authority say that the arsenic is a naturally occurring element in the soil, its occurrence at what she called toxic levels owes to the incineration of garbage, and to blacksmithing and coal burning, over several years at Holly Hill.
“The incinerator didn’t discriminate or stay in-bounds. The Housing Authority claims it’s ‘all green and clean.’ Our first selectman has first-hand knowledge of the incinerator soot on sheets hung out by his great grandmother when he was a neighborhood kid,” said Fortunato.
Johnson said that First Selectman Peter Tesei also wrote a letter to the state of Connecticut in support of the Armstrong Court renovation project.
