By a vote of 4 to 2 in a work session early today, Westport’s Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) approved a special permit and site plan for a mixed use development at 793 Post Road East.
White Plains, N.Y.-based developer David Mann of DMC LLC plans two, 10,000-square foot mixed use buildings facing Post Road East and four townhouses in the rear of the property, which is located in a general business district (GBD), Residential A, inclusionary housing zone.
The plan calls for 28 rental apartments, six of them affordable, including 12 two-bedroom townhouse units, plus retail and office space. The site is next to Westport Wash and Wax at 791 Post Road East.
P&Z members Catherine Walsh and Al Gratrix were the dissenters. The seventh member Chip Stephens had left prior to the vote.
“Al and I were unhappy with the way the developer had handled himself; he had refused to go back to the ARB (Architectural Review Board),” said Walsh.
With the approval come the stipulations that Mann return to the ARB and get approval for color changes for the front buildings, and that there will be a monitor at the site because the stream behind it runs into the Mill Pond.
Mann purchased the property in December 2016 for $2.5 million.
By a vote of 6 to 0 also in the early morning work session the P&Z approved a special permit and CAM (coastal area management) site plan for a new, two-story retail and residential building at 35 Elm St.
The approval brings a more than a year-old land swap between the town and local developer David Waldman close to completion.
The .15395-acre property in the Baldwin Lot at 35 Elm St. is to be traded for .15449 acres across the road at 36 Elm St. to be used for town parking.
The P&Z, however, deferred a decision on the expansion and reconfiguration of the parking lot 36 Elm St. to a later date.
