P&Z Considers Revised Rock Ridge Proposal

By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) is considering a revised redevelopment proposal from Rock Ridge Country Club on Route 302 in Dodgingtown, which would remove existing aging buildings at the club, replacing them with larger, modern facilities.

The P&Z is expected to consider and act on the club’s controversial request for a special exception to the zoning regulations at an upcoming session. The land use agency conducted a well-attended public hearing on the proposal on May 29.

The country club, which includes a nine-hole golf course, wants to demolish existing buildings that house its clubhouse, restaurant, pro shop, maintenance building, and golf cart storage building. The club would replace those older buildings with two modern buildings containing larger, improved facilities. The project would roughly double the size of the existing facilities, which now have an aggregate floor area of approximately 10,000 square feet.

The country club is located on Route 302, between Route 302’s intersections with Pinnacle Drive and with Rock Ridge Road. The 63-acre country club, which was established in 1954, also has an outdoor swimming pool, poolhouse, and tennis courts.

Last November, as the P&Z was on the verge of approving a previous version of the club’s redevelopment project, the club withdrew its application from P&Z consideration.

The P&Z’s November 2002 motion for approval of the redevelopment plan, which contained various restrictions, apparently was unacceptable to the country club. In reviewing such special exception applications, P&Z members have broad discretion in setting the conditions of an approval.

In July 2002, at a heavily attended public hearing on the redevelopment proposal, Rock Ridge Road area residents raised many concerns about the proposal, saying that it could adversely affect their neighborhood. Neighbors’ concerns focused on traffic safety, noise, and the project’s effect on nearby property values. Rock Ridge Drive lies to the east of the Route 302 entrance to the country club.

Community Development Director Elizabeth Stocker said that a representative of Pinnacle Drive residents voiced concerns at the May 29 public hearing about the project’s potential effect on that neighborhood. Pinnacle Drive is a relatively new dead-end street, which lies to the west of the Route 302 entrance to the country club. New houses have been constructed on Pinnacle Drive during the past several years.

Currently, the club’s Route 302 driveway is used only as an entrance, and its Rock Ridge Road driveway is used as an entrance/exit, Ms Stocker said. Under the redevelopment proposal, the Route 302 driveway would continue being used only as an entrance, but the Rock Ridge Road driveway would be used only as an exit, she said.

Pinnacle Drive residents who are concerned about the project’s potential effect on their neighborhood have hired a lawyer to represent them, Ms Stocker said. Pinnacle Drive residents’ concerns about the project include the potential more intensive use of the club property and the project’s effect on property values, Ms Stocker said.

Rock Ridge Road area residents have continued raising issues about the project, she added.

Hearing

At the public hearing on the redevelopment proposal, architect Michael Stein, representing the club, said a sensor-activated vehicle gate would be installed at the club’s Rock Ridge Road driveway to ensure that the driveway is only used as an exit from the club, according to P&Z records.

P&Z members posed numerous questions concerning the number of vehicles that would be entering and leaving the country club. P&Z members also asked about the volume of earthen fill that would be brought to the site for construction, the use of sound amplifiers there, the presence of impervious surfaces on the property, and about noise generated by club activities, according to P&Z records.

Attorney David Bennett of Danbury submitted a petition to the P&Z signed by 16 Pinnacle Drive residents expressing their concerns about the project. The attorney also submitted numerous documents to the P&Z as evidence to illustrate the Pinnacle Drive residents’ concerns.

Among Rock Ridge Road area residents who spoke at the hearing, concerns included parking, noise, traffic, the size of construction, intensification of the property’s use, and poor motorist sight lines on Rock Ridge Road.