PUBLIC OPINION

To the Editor:

We've seen the future, and it isn't pretty.

Two weeks ago, Y Downtown representatives attended a meeting between the New Canaan Y and its neighbors. It was the latest in a long series of contentious meetings between the Y, which is situated in a residential area, and area homeowners.

The New Canaan Y was built in the early 1960s, by virtue of a special permit in a one-acre residential zone. It expanded several times, most recently undertaking a major expansion to its current size of 47,000 square feet. Neighbors did not object, believing the Y's promises that sensitivity to the adjacent neighborhood would be of foremost concern and consideration. The Y promised heavy landscaping, and neighbors expected that a green field on the property would remain as open space.

The Y, however, refused to cap its membership, which rapidly grew far beyond its expectations, to about 10,000 members from 7,000 members before the expansion. As a result, the projections on usage and parking upon which the New Canaan land use bodies had relied turned out to be very wrong, and the Y needed more parking. So the Y now is going back to town bodies to ask to turn the green field into a parking lot.

New Canaan's Planning & Zoning Commission has said no once. Since then, the Y has been back to P&Z and has had multiple meetings with neighbors to find a solution. The neighbors, understandably, feel betrayed by the Y, and are incredulous that they may soon be looking at a new parking lot literally in their front yards.

What can Westport learn from the problems in New Canaan? Most important is that plunking a huge, for all intents and purposes "commercial" facility in a residential neighborhood, where it does not belong, will lead to years and years of fighting. Choosing such a site for the Westport YMCA would not end the discussion: It would mark the beginning of Westport's problems.

The amount of time to date that Westport's town boards and commissions, concerned citizens and YMCA executives and board have spent dealing with the Y's future plans would pale compared to the time and expense that would be invested dealing with all the ensuing problems and issues, should the YMCA be located on the Camp Mahackeno property.

If you build it there, it is too late. You can't retrofit a neighborhood to handle an influx of at least a thousand people per day, and 10 times that for large sporting events. You can't prevent all that traffic from driving on side, residential streets to avoid backups on the Merritt and Route 33. You can't make things right for Sunny Lane residents who would have parking lots next door or in their front yards. You can't move the "Big Y" to another location when it decides it needs to put additional facilities on the south side of the property, near River and Rice's Lane homeowners. (The Y has said it will not put the south side of the property, on which it currently says it does not have plans to build, in a land trust as a good faith gesture toward concerned residents).

But it's not too late yet, Westport. The Y has not yet filed an application for its Y Mart. And once it does, it still needs to gain uncertain approval from a number of town boards and commissions to build a 100,000-square-foot fitness facility in a AAA residential zone.

Don't make Westport's townspeople and town bodies spend their time and money over and over again to fix a problem they could have prevented. Let's learn from New Canaan's woes: Putting something where it doesn't belong means there will always be issues related to it, because it does not belong there. Now is the time to speak up, to fight, so the Westport Y can be located in a central and accessible site designed to handle such a facility. For more information, visit www.YDowntown.com.

Debbie McGinley