WASHINGTON —Matthew Klauer, whose land-use application to develop the 27-acre former Wykeham Rise property has stirred a fair amount of controversy in town, has scaled back and resubmitted his proposal to the Zoning Board of Appeals. Mr. Klauer originally proposed developing a destination spa, inn and restaurant that would cover more than 17 percent of the parcel, a number which exceeds the 10 percent maximum lot coverage that is currently allowed under town zoning ordinances. His new application, which he resubmitted last Thursday, is pared down to about 12 percent lot coverage. “We did this because neighbors have expressed concern about the original scale, so we decided to go back to the blackboard,” commented Mr. Klauer.
The new proposal calls for 54 rooms, as opposed to the original 60. Additionally, the size of the main building has been cut in half. Mr. Klauer has been adamant about how environmentally sensitive his application is, stating it will increase buffers, restore wetlands and possibly be the “‘greenest” resort of its kind in New England. Mike Ajello, the wetlands and zoning enforcement officer for the town, said it came as no surprise that Mr. Klauer altered his application. “When I first looked at this plan, I fully expected changes,” said Mr. Ajello. “Given the attention and the response it has received from the public, it comes as no surprise [Mr. Klauer] made the numbers more palatable.” Indeed, there have been a great number of vocal neighbors who feel Mr. Klauer’s project would destroy the rural character of the neighborhood, as well as create excess noise, lighting, pollution and traffic.
Mr. Klauer challenges those claims, and though he recognizes that traffic would increase, he notes that the property was once a girls school and later a hospitality industry training center. Therefore, he said, increased traffic isn’t an entirely new phenomenon to the road. He thinks people have grown accustomed to the property being inactive, as it hasn’t been used for the past eight years.
Neighbor Mary Ewing, who has recently retained the local law offices of Secor, Cassidy & McPartland to monitor, and if need be, challenge, the course of the various land-use applications, said the “scope of this project is a concern,” even when it is scaled back. She and about 20 other neighbors recently showed up at a Board of Selectmen meeting to complain about existing traffic on Wykeham Road, and the impact a resort would have on an problem.
Still, some residents have come out in support of the project, such as Stephen and Wanda Brighenti of Calhoun Street, who wrote a letter to the various land-use boards, calling the application “one of the best development projects proposed over the past decade and claiming that it “is overwhelmingly supported by the silent majority of Washington residents”
Because the application exceeds the maximum lot coverage, Mr. Klauer was scheduled to appear before the Zoning Board of Appeals on Wednesday, though that was cancelled because of a technicality with the meeting notice. If he gets approval from that agency, he will still have to win approvals from the Inland Wetlands and Zoning commissions before he can break ground on the project.
By Jack Coraggio – Litchfield County Times