By James Lomuscio

Westport’s mobile home park on Post Road East, a part of the town’s landscape since the 1940s, will soon be relegated to the dustbin of history. The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) tonight unanimously approved a site plan to demolish the remaining 33 mobile homes, transforming Sasco Creek Village into a park of three-story buildings totaling 54 rental units.

The 33 mobile homes at 1655 Post Road East will be demolished and replaced by three-story buildings. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

The project, estimated at around $15 million, would add 21 new units, 13 one-bedroom and eight two-bedroom ones, to the town’s affordable housing stock, according to the Westport Housing Authority (WHA). 

Planning and Zoning Director Laurence Bradley said the demolition and construction would be done in phases, “so they don’t have to relocate everyone at once.”

“The Westport Housing Authority really knows how to run and operate things,” said Jeffrey Wieser, president and CEO of Homes with Hope, speaking in support of the project. “This is going to be a great opportunity for the town.”

By Judy Szablak

Fall is nearly upon us, and with it comes a seasonal slowdown in home sales. If you are selling, make every effort to make sure that your home is as attractive as possible to the limited number of buyers that will be looking in the weeks to come.

This home at 8 Beachside Ave. is listed at $2,995,000. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Photo courtesy of William Raveis/Al Filippone Associates

Traditionally, we can expect somewhere between 50 to 60 single-family home sales between Sept. 1 and Nov. 1.

As there are now more than 300 Westport properties available for sale, we can reasonably anticipate that less than 20 percent of what is on the market today will sell in the next two months.

In other words, your home needs to stand out from the crowd if it is to sell in the next 60 days.

By James Lomuscio

A controversial zone change proposal that would have replaced two 19th century homes with a parking lot and added a commercial element to a Westport residential neighborhood has been withdrawn from the Planning and Zoning Commission’s agenda for Thursday night.

The houses at 20 Lincoln St. (l) and 14 Lincoln St. were sought to expand parking. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Elizabeth R. B. Suchy, the attorney for 1 Burr Road LLC, notified Planning and Zoning Director Laurence Bradley in a letter Tuesday “that my client does not intend to pursue the zone change and hereby withdraws the pending application.for a zone map change.”

The proposal had the Lincoln Street neighborhood up in arms last week, arguing that their residential area would be gutted by the razing of the two-and-a-half story houses at 14 and 20 Lincoln St. and replacing them with a 26-vehicle parking lot for Healthbridge, a 120-bed nursing facility located at 1 Burr Road.

To do so, the properties’ owner had sought a zone change, transforming the area from a residential A zone to an Restricted Office Retail District (RORD), one that allows commercial use in a residential zone.