
Diane Fox’s seaside cottage
In the face of widespread opposition – unanimous opposition, so far as I could tell – at its last public hearing on flood zone limitations, the Planning & Zoning Commission has not only broken its promise to “listen to what we heard tonight” but has actually gone back to the drawing board and doubled down, expanding its power to condemn your house without compensation. There’s a public hearing scheduled for this Tuesday at 7, where you can vent and be ignored. Who won’t be there? If history is our guide, every single one of your elected representatives, from Peter Tesei down the lowliest member of the RTM Land Use Commission. Why are Greenwich property owners letting this happen to them?
Here’s what’s happening: The P&Z already has a “50% rule”, meaning that if a homeowner spends 50% of the value of his house – the structure, not the far more valuable land – on repairs or improvements, he must bring the entire house into compliance with current P&Z regulations on coastal areas. That means a new house, essentially.
Not content with this, the P&Z, in accordance with its stated intention to eliminate all non-complying homes from Greenwich as quickly as practicable, now proposes a 25% rule, specifically applicable to flood damage
Here’s the rule as of today: Substantial Damage” means damage of any origin sustained by a structure whereby the cost of restoring the structure to its before damaged condition would equal or exceed 50% of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred.
Here’s what your employees at P&Z want now:
P and Z proposes to add the following: Substantial damage also means flood-related damages sustained by a structure on two separate occasions during a 10-year period for which the cost of repairs at the time of each such flood event, on the average, equals or exceeds 25 percent of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred.
This goes way beyond FEMA requirements and, as noted, is a spit in the face of all the property owners who attended last November’s FEMA workshop. P&Z “employees”Diane Fox and Katie Blankley enjoy doing that.
The other change your P&Z wants to accomplish next Tuesday power to force homeowners to pay for outside consultants who will be hired by the P&Z to challenge your application. This won’t just slam Old Greenwich homeowners, although they will certainly be punished for daring to request doing anything with their property, it is intended to hit every property owner anywhere in town.
Tuesday night’s your chance to yell and scream. Will these people listen? Not voluntarily; bring pitchforks to improve their hearing.