Healthcare: Controversial Plan for Park Avenue Medical Building Moves Forward
By Andrew Brophy for Fairfield Patch
Stratfield residents concerned about the Jewish Home for the Elderly’s proposal to change town zoning regulations to allow for an expansion have another development to be concerned about.
Ray Rizio, a Fairfield attorney, filed plans in the town’s Zoning Department that call for the construction of a two-story, 25,000-square-foot medical building on 2.2 acres at 5545 Park Ave. in Fairfield.
Samuel Boyarsky, president of the Stratfield Improvement Association, said neighbors opposed earlier, larger versions of the proposed medical building and remain opposed to it today.
Boyarsky said the medical building planned by Rizio, Dr. Robert Russo and Philip DeGennaro would cause traffic problems and be built on land zoned for residential use.
Rizio told the town’s Economic Development Commission in April that his clients, who purchased the former Golf Digest building across the street and converted it to medical offices, would install a traffic rotary to improve traffic circulation, but Boyarsky said he heard that before. “They said they would have one installed for the one across the street, the Golf Digest building, and they never did that,” he said.
Rizio didn’t return a call for comment.
The proposed medical building, which Rizio said in April would house medical offices, requires approval from the Town Plan and Zoning Commission. The date of a public hearing hasn’t been set.
Rizio, Russo and DeGennaro would demolish a single-family house now on the 2.2-acre property, owned by the estate of Alphonse Bobowick, and build the medical office building in its place. The zoning application describes the building as a “hospital,” but Mark Barnhart, director of the town’s Office of Community & Economic Development, said that probably isn’t an accurate term because he doesn’t believe the building would include rooms for people to convalesce after surgical procedures.
Rizio, in the zoning application, says the 2.2 acres is in a residential zone, but doesn’t abut single-family homes and fronts on a major roadway. “Due to the property’s easy access to a major highway and direct access on a major roadway, the property is uniquely situated for its hospital use,” he states in the application.
Barnhart said the Economic Development Commission was receptive of the proposal in April but wanted more information. He said the commission would talk about the proposed development in September. “The commission was generally receptive of the idea and supportive of the proposed use. It does have the advantage of good access off the Merritt Parkway, and you have other properties nearby similar to their use,” he said.
Barnhart said Rizio told the commission in April that the rotary would lead to “an improved level of service” for traffic, increasing it from a level of service “E” to a level of service “B.”
Rizio said in April that his clients intended to build either a 14,000-square-foot medical building or 25,000-square-foot medical building. The larger version would be affiliated with Bridgeport Hospital, according to Rizio’s presentation to the commission in April.
The town’s Zoning Board of Appeals rejected the medical building in 2006 when it was proposed at 48,000 square feet. Rizio’s clients no longer need variances to town zoning regulations because the size was reduced to 25,000 square feet.
