Old Lyme Zoning Meeting Draws Over Capacity Crowd; Halls Rd. Overlay District Item Postponed to New Meeting, Wednesday

OLD LYME—UPDATED 1/14 at 9pm with additional details on the speakers for the applicant: Last night’s Old Lyme (OL) Zoning Commission meeting drew such a large audience, which not only filled the Meeting Room but also spilled out into the Lobby, that OL Fire Marshal David Roberge determined the spaces were over-capacity from a fire safety angle.

Asked in a phone call how he handled the situation, he told LymeLIne that his estimate was that there were around 135 people in attendance with over 110 in the Meeting Room and the remainder out in the Lobby.

He continued, “We discussed the problem with the Zoning Chair and gave them (sic) a couple of options.” Commission members decided to postpone the second item on the agenda relating to the Halls Rd. Overlay District until Wednesday. That meeting will now be held in the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School Auditorium starting at 6:30 p.m.

With that announcement, Roberge estimated the audience reduced to around 85, thus falling within the fire-safety parameters for the Meeting Room.

When the business of the evening finally began, the proceedings opened with a number of people speaking on behalf of the applicants, Jeffrey and Emily Merriam, including their attorney, Lewis K. Wise; Senior Design Architect for Cardello Architects Sarah Finch (the main speaker), along with an additional architect; and engineer Seamus Moran PE of H+H Engineering.

The second speaker was ‘the Intervener’—Peter McKillop—a Smiths Neck Rd. resident, who spoke on behalf of the non-profit Great Island Foundation, Inc.

Finally, roughly an hour later, the public had a chance to speak. Some 17 individuals offered opinions and concerns, exclusively with a negative point of view towards the proposal. Those commenting variously asked the Commission outright to deny the application for an 11,000 sq. ft. eight-bedroom, seven-bathroom house with two laundries, a swimming pool, and extensive gardens; or send it back to the Connecticut River Gateway Commission for further review; or to request answers to the numerous still unanswered questions by the applicant; or other questions.

The applicant then responded to comments from both the ‘Intervener’ and the public.

The Zoning Chair then closed the Hearing at around 9:15 p.m., which meant no further comments can be accepted from this point onwards.

The meeting itself ended around 30 minutes later. The Commission now has 65 days to render a decision.

Editor’s Note: We have been advised that since last month’s meeting, the applicant has removed the proposed pool from the application, and added more landscaping.