Plans For 354-Unit Apartment Complex OKd By Stamford Zoning Board
STAMFORD, CT — This week, the Stamford Zoning Board voted 3-2 to approve plans to redevelop a Long Ridge Road office property into a residential apartment complex.
According to the plans, the 300,000-square-foot office building and 512-space parking garage at 800 Long Ridge Road will be demolished, and two, four-story buildings containing a total of 354 apartments will be built. There will be 35 below-market-rate units.
There will be over 600 parking spaces, residential amenities, landscaping improvements, ground floor retail space and publicly accessible amenity space.
Click Here: Thiago Alcantara Jersey Sale
Find out what's happening in Stamfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The office building was originally built in the 1970s, and later served as corporate headquarters for Xerox. The property is a little over 25 acres, and the applicant for the project is 800 Long Ridge Road LLC.
Zoning Board members Raquel Smith-Anderson and Gerald Bosak Jr. voted against the project. Both said they had issues with the design of the apartment buildings, and Bosak added he wasn’t pleased with the sustainability features.
Find out what's happening in Stamfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In 2021, Stamford revised the C-D zoning rules to permit multi-family residential developments.
Zoning member Roseanne McManus said that while the project wasn’t what she imagined when the zoning regulations were changed, she was voting in favor of the project.
“Because the building can’t be seen from the street and because it’s no more cars than what are there when it’s an occupied office park, I’m voting in support of it,” she said.
Fellow members William Morris and Chair David Stein said they were concerned with the effect of traffic in the neighborhood.
“I think it complies with our regulations and the applicant made a substantial effort to revise the design so that it looks much better. I, too, was concerned about traffic in the neighborhood,” Stein said. “It’s not exactly what I expected when we changed the regulation permitting multi-family in CD Zones, but it’s not that far off, so I think I will be voting for that as well.”
The board approved the plans with 21 site-specific conditions.
Of note, the applicant must conduct additional traffic counts at the intersection of Long Ridge Road and Wire Mill Road, and at Long Ridge Road and Vineyard Lane when the apartments are 75 percent and 95 percent occupied.
Should the traffic counts indicate more than a 20 percent increase in trips over the projected volumes identified in the applicant’s traffic study, the applicant, at its expense, shall install traffic calming measures such as additional signage, electronic speed monitors, and speed humps on Wire Mill Road and Vineyard Lane as recommended by the city’s Transportation, Traffic and Parking Bureau.
In submitted written comments to the Stamford Planning Board in March, residents objected to the project noting concerns about increased traffic and congestion in the area.
The Planning Board unanimously approved the project 5-0.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.