Sam Bridge Community Letter--Help Save Sam Bridge

 
Dear Friends & Neighbors,
 
We would like to ask for your help and support. Due to excessive pressure from a new neighbor on Birch Lane, we were issued a cease and desist order from the town's Zoning Enforcement Officer Jodi Couture. The cease and desist order states that we have a "Landscaping Business Being Run Out of a Permitted Nursery."
 
According to the town's municipal code book (Division 2, Section 6-5 (11)), a commercial nursery shall mean a place where trees and other plants are grown for sale. Currently, the town does not have a definition for a landscaping business in the municipal code book. Although we find Mr. Couture to be a reasonable person, we believe that his interpretation of the town municipal code for nurseries is incorrect. We also believe that the current land use definition for nurseries, written in the 1940s, is vague and outdated. We will be asking the Zoning Board of Appeals to overturn Mr. Couture's decision and/or to amend our special exception to include landscaping.
 
When our father started this business in 1930, his business model was to grow and sell plants, plant related products, and services. In 1956 he moved his business from Doubling Road to its present location at 437 North Street. This property has been in our mother's family (Reynolds) for over 300 years and has always been a farm. The nursery and greenhouse business is considered farming; we operate under the Right to Farm Law and our property is assessed as farmland (PA490). Our family would like to keep this property as farmland rather than subdividing into house lots.
 
As part of running a nursery, we offer landscape design, installation, and garden maintenance services. These services are and have been an important aspect of selling the plants that we grow. These services also include many community outreach and special projects, several that we do free of charge for the town of Greenwich. Some of which are: planting and maintaining traffic islands, planting trees along public roads, growing and hanging the town baskets on Greenwich Avenue and the Post Road. We also work extensively with local community gardens, school groups, and non-profits. We do not cut grass, blow leaves, snow plow, perform masonry, and install lighting and irrigation or other services you would expect from a typical landscape company. We would like to ask for your support to help us overturn the zoning enforcement officer's decision and/or to amend the special exception for Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses to include landscaping.
 
 
If you can please call, write or email:
           
            David Weisbrod, Chairman
            Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals
            Town Hall
            101 Field Point Rd.
            Greenwich, CT 06830
            (203) 622-7753
            Email: zoningenforcement@greenwichct.org
 
If you would like to attend the Board of Appeals meeting that would also be helpful; we are trying to gather as much support as possible. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 19th. The schedule can be found on the Town of Greenwich website PZBA Agenda Schedule.
 
Thank you in advance for your support.
 
Kind Regards,
 
The Bridge Family
 
 
Please feel free to contact any one of us.
 
 
Mary Jo Bridge Palmer                     Sam Bridge III                                    Ron Bridge
maryjo@sambridge.com                      sam@sambridge.com                           ron@sambridge.com
 
Bill Palmer                  billp@sambridge.com                                  Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses:
Rich Palmer                rich@sambridge.com                                                                                    (203) 869-3418
Maggie Bridge            maggie@sambridge.com
Sammy Bridge            sammy@sambridge.com
Nick Bridge                 nick@sambridge.com