WESTPORT | October 4, 2000 -- Representative Town Meeting member Michael Rea, District 8, on Tuesday night reluctantly supported a $55,000 appropriation to hire a downtown planning consulting firm.
The downtown plan "begs a bigger issue. We should be supporting the Planning and Zoning Department and create a town planner position," Rea said.
Rea was among the RTM members who voted for the appropriation. Michael Gilbertie, District 3, was the lone dissenter.
Gilbertie said he would rather see options developed by the Manhattan consulting firm of Buckhurst Fish & Jacquemart Inc., which has been hired to offer a single plan. The town might then be in a position of "taking or leaving it," he said.
The vote approving the $55,000 appropriation from the town's Capital and Nonrecurring Expenditure Fund followed an hourlong discussion among members of the RTM, town boards and commissions and one town resident.
In addressing Rea's point, Farrell acknowledged that the P&Z was burdened with work, but she supported additional clerical staff to free time for P&Z Director Katherine Barnard to devote time for planning.
Resident David Royce recommended rejecting the appropriation. He said the issue wasn't the need for a study but "leadership. We need people who say, Let's do this.' "
Royce said the study would only delay one of the town's major concerns -- where to relocate the senior center.
Board of Finance member R. Gavin Anderson shared concern for the senior center's future site. He said the issue had reached "a crisis proportion brought about by vacillation, and procrastination."
The Board of Finance unanimously approved the appropriation last month. Chairman Steve Ezzes scheduled, then canceled, a special meeting Monday to reconsider the appropriation after he said he was assured that the study would be undertaken under the auspices of the first selectman.
Ezzes said key issues including relocation of the senior center, the future home of the YMCA and uses of town-owned properties including Winslow Park and Baron's South, needed direct management by the first selectman with input from the town's major boards and commissions.
The study, expected to take four months, will also analyze traffic flow and parking and offer a plan to link town open space land and commercial properties.
"I have my work cut out," said Paul Buckhurst, a principal in the consulting firm, after the RTM's vote.
