Planning Commission Denies Apawamis Tennis Bubble

 

BY ROBIN JOVANOVICH

 

An application to erect a seasonal bubble over three existing tennis courts at Apawamis Club has been on the City Planning Commission agenda for months. At the Commission’s September 24 meeting, after further input from the applicant regarding “visual mitigation” (landscape screening), and confirmation that the heaters under the courts would be easily movable and code-compliant, the public hearing was closed.

 

Before going to a straw vote, Chair Nick Everett allowed that the site plan and wetland permit process had been lengthy, and that the project’s appropriateness within a residential district was integral to a final decision.

 

In Commission member Martha Monserrate’s view, representatives of Apawamis failed to put forth a plan that adequately addressed the impassioned concerns of neighbors or provided sufficient landscape screening.

 

Fellow members Andy Ball and Steve Secon voted no, as did Birgit Townley, who noted that she is a member of the Club.

 

“The application is denied,” said Everett in closing. “We will work on a resolution and review it at our next meeting.”

 

There were many crestfallen faces after the vote — Stjepan Beg, Director of Tennis, who has rebuilt the Club’s tennis program, Club President Steve Furnary, attorney Jonathan Kraut among them.

 

Within days of the decision, conversations about building a tennis bubble at Manursing Island Club that could be shared with Apawamis members and would impact no more than one neighbor, were on the front burner.