A “cultural option” that would have music and theatrical events on both a new outdoor stage and in the existing auditorium at the Schlumberger property proved most popular among Ridgefielders who took the second survey conducted by the committee studying the future of the property. It got more favorable responses than either a “municipal option” relocating town offices and the police and fire departments there or a “land bank” plan minimizing re-use of the property.
“Overall, we had a good response to the survey. Just under 900 people responded and we had about 800 comments typed into the survey, so we were very pleased with that,” said Schlumberger Study Committee Chairman Dick Larson.
“People are really interested in the outcome,” he said.
The committee was appointed by the selectmen to recommend future uses for the remaining 30 acres of the former Schlumberger property off Old Quarry Road and Sunset Lane. After extensive demolition, three structures from Schlumberger’s research campus remain: the Philip Johnson building, a 1950s modernist office building designed by the architect Philip Johnson; an auditorium beside it that has been used for events such as plays during the annual Chekhov Festival; and the “sky dome building,” a thick-walled warehouse structure.
“There were three options,” Larson said. “One we called the cultural option, which was use of the auditorium for music and theater, use of Philip Johnson for either a museum, municipal use or professional building use, and an outdoor covered stage for seasonal events.
“Then there was a municipal option, which was moving town police, fire and town hall to that site. And the third one was to pretty much leave it alone, except for pursuing the auditorium use for theater and music and continuing to find a use for the Philip Johnson Building,” Larson said.
“The preferred option by residents was the cultural option, which was preferred by a 2-to-1 margin over the municipal option, and by 1.6-to-1 over the land bank option,” Larson said.
The formal report on the survey — available on the town’s website () — put it this way:
“Respondents were introduced to a cultural option intended to create a cultural destination surrounded by open areas and walking trails. … 72% felt that this would provide a mix of uses that can be enjoyed by many, and 59% felt that it would be a viable long-term use for the site.”
The report also summarizes, for each option, some of the comments people typed into the online survey.
“General themes that emerged from the write-in responses to the cultural option included:
- “Significant number of favorable comments for the cultural option.
- “Some concern over duplication of existing cultural activities and venues.
- “Questions about the need to retain the Philip Johnson Building and/or Sky Dome Building.
- “Some concerns about cost and taxes of the option.
- “Some concerns about parking, noise and traffic.
- “Potential that village shops and restaurants could be negatively impacted.
- “The desire for more parks and open space.
- “Some suggestions of creating a satellite college campus.
- “The desire for additional sports/recreation options.”
Interviewed Tuesday, Feb. 23, Larson said he thought survey respondents’ preference for the cultural option would give the committee a direction to pursue in putting together a recommendation for the selectmen.
“Looking at the details, the reason I think people prefer the cultural option is that, first of all, 72% thought this would be a use that could be enjoyed by many people — which is a huge number,” he said. “And I think that ties into one of the committee’s goals, which is to do something on this property that benefits as many people as possible.
“And I think the second reason people preferred the cultural option is that 59% thought this would provide a viable long-term use for the site,” Larson said.
“You could say the cultural option is the one that’s preferred by the committee — at least at this point.”
There’s more work to do.
“So now we’re going through all of the comments on the cultural option to make sure we understand what people were saying about it, and make sure if there’s any additional research people thought we should do, we’ll do it.
“We had some comments about whether this set of activities would detract from businesses on Main Street, so we’re doing some additional research with the Chamber of Commerce and downtown merchants association on that,” Larson said.
“Other folks said make sure you know how the traffic would work, so we’ll be reaching out to the Police Commission to talk about that one,” he said.
“Generally there was a lot of excitement about this option. But we want to make sure we’ve covered all the bases before we finish this project up.”
Financial costs
The survey also explored whether the town should try to recover more of the initial $7 million spent on the property.
So far, 15 acres of the original 45-acre purchase have been sold off, recovering a total of $5.6 million: 10 acres off Sunset Lane were sold to Charter Group Partners, who plan 54 townhouses and “coach homes” there, and five acres across Old Quarry Road from the main property were sold to Steve Zemo, since then elected to the Board of Selectmen. Zemo hasn’t put forward a plan for his property after withdrawing an initial development proposal centered around a hotel.
“We had a question in the survey about whether folks thought we should try to recover additional income for the town by selling more of the remaining property, and the response to that was 70% said no, we’ve already recovered enough, and 30% said yes, we should sell additional property,” Larson said.
“So what the committee needs to do is dig a little deeper in terms of what we think would be a viable financial strategy,” he said.
“We spent $7 million, we’ve recovered $5.6 million out of the seven. And then from the Charter (coach homes) property the tax revenues were estimated at $475,000 a year. And Steve Zemo still hasn’t finalized a proposal, but once he does and builds that out, that would generate another significant amount of tax revenue.”
The options would all have costs, with the “municipal option” the most expensive.
“One of the things the committee wants to do before we complete our report,” Larson said, “is put together a strategy on how the cultural options could be funded from a combination of tax revenues from the properties already sold and private sponsorship and state and federal grants.”
The nine-member committee started work last May, meeting one or two Mondays a month, usually at 7:30 p.m. at town hall. Its next scheduled meeting is March 28.
The committee plans a last “public input workshop” on Thursday, April 28, at the Recreation Center, from 6:30 to 8:30.
“You would be able to see the recommendation we’re suggesting go forward to the Board of Selectmen,” Larson said, “and if that goes well, then we’ll wrap it up.”
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