Westport is drowning in a river of disinformation. A small group of self-appointed obstructionists – who call themselves Y Downtown – is vigorously campaigning to prevent the Westport Weston Family Y from building a new facility on its Mahackeno campsite. The obstructionists claim the Y can remain downtown. false The Family Y entered into a contract to sell its Post Road facility on November 30, 2006 and it agreed to vacate the building within five years. That sale was not some amateur attempt at municipal brinksmanship. The Y simply can’t afford to stay in its current facility, which was built by Edward Thomas Bedford in 1923. The Family Y’s Post Road facility is too expensive to operate in the 21st century. The building also is too small to allow the Y to build a membership base large enough to meet its maintenance costs (which exceed $1 million per year). The Westport Weston Family Y has been running a deficit for the past three years and it is rapidly using up the money it earns from Bedford’s original endowment. The Y doesn’t need a new building. false The original YMCA building in Westport has been expanded twice in the last 35 years, but it is woefully inadequate for current needs. The fitness center is too small. The Post Road building is not ADA compliant, so senior citizens and physically challenged members find it almost impossible to use the facility. The Family Y childcare program is housed in the basement and the children don’t have an outdoor playground. If weather permits, they are bused to Mahackeno to use a small playground there. Other times they walk around Main Street, tethered together with leashes for safety. The aquatics program, in particular, needs a new and larger pool. Water polo, diving, and synchronized swimming are offered on such a limited basis in Westport that people are forced to join neighboring YMCAs if they want to participate in these sports. Swimming lessons in Westport are over-enrolled; meaning people who want to learn to swim are turned away every season. The Water Rat Swim Team also turns away scores of potential members because the Family Y’s pool is not large enough to accommodate more practices. In fact, the Family Y pool cannot even accommodate the current size of the swim team. The Water Rats rent the pool at Staples High School so older members can practice while there are swimming classes at the Y. The Y can renovate like the YMCA in Greenwich. false The Greenwich Family Y decided in 1997 that it needed a new 50-meter swimming pool, new gymnasium and modern childcare center. It is now completing a $22.7 million renovation to its Georgian Revival building, which was created in 1916. The Greenwich Y is able to renovate and expand because it has always owned the property adjacent to its Putnam Avenue facility. The Westport Weston Family Y doesn’t own any vacant land in downtown Westport. But it does own 32 acres at Mahackeno. The Y can build elsewhere in downtown Westport. false Westport rejected the Family Y’s attempt to lease or purchase part of the Baron’s North and South properties. Rising school enrollment forced the Westport Senior Center to vacate Staples High School and the Center moved to a new purpose-built facility at Baron’s South in 2004. The town then renamed Baron’s North Winslow Park and rezoned it as permanent open space, effectively preventing any future use. The Westport Weston Family Y could never seriously consider moving to Winslow unless the town showed it was willing to return Winslow Park to its original zoning. The re-rezoning of Winslow Park seems unlikely unless the mood has changed at the Planning and Zoning Commission. In 2001, the P&Z voted against a recommendation in the 2001 Downtown Plan that suggested locations for the Westport Weston Family Y as well as the Westport Arts Center. The P&Z said it would not support the sale or lease of town land to private entities. It is possible that the P&Z could soften its stance. (Last year, the Commission voted to extend the lease for the Longshore Inn, a commercial operation using a town building.) But the town has never shown any serious interest in allowing the Family Y to build in Winslow Park and that forced the Family Y to make plans to build a new facility on land it purchased in 1942. Other than Winslow Park, the only other open tract of land along the Post Road corridor is a municipal parking lot on Imperial Avenue, wedged between the Westport Woman’s Club and a former town dump (now covered over by the Levitt Pavilion). The WWC gave the parking lot to Westport in 1956. At that time the town and the WWC agreed that the Woman’s Club could use 100 parking spaces in perpetuity, so the entire site isn’t available. Even if the town were willing to sell or lease part of this property (which it has said repeatedly it will not do), the Imperial Avenue site is too contaminated to build a new facility for the Family Y. And construction near a former town dump could unleash far more pollution into Long Island Sound than building a new facility at Mahackeno. NEXT >>Mahackeno.htmlshapeimage_3_link_0

Westport Weston Family Y Can’t Stay “Downtown”