Six months since the Rye Arts Center appealed to the City Council for a zoning change to allow it to expand its Milton Road campus, the campaign took a tiny step forward Tuesday.
The Planning Commission, at its July 15 meeting, reviewed additional information submitted by the RAC in support of its initiative. The commission then asked City Planner Christian Miller to draft an analysis of how the city should approach a zoning change.
That memo is expected to be reviewed at the commission’s Aug. 11 meeting.
Although disappointed that the campaign for the zoning amendment has dragged on since the RAC’s formal request in January, arts center Executive Director Adam Levi said he was pleased that the commission appeared closer to making a recommendation to the City Council in the fall.
But getting to this point has already been an expensive process.
“We are a nonprofit organization and we want to be spending our money on programming and scholarships not on lawyers and consultants,” Levi said.
The campaign for a zoning change formally began this year, but its roots trace to back to 2022 when a supporter donated a house — on a two-acre plot adjacent to the arts center’s longtime home — to the RAC.
The donated property, located at 25 Milton Road, sits in a residential zone.
In January, the RAC appealed to the council to amend the code to allow an arts center to operate in such a zone. (The RAC, which is also in a residential zone, long ago received permission to operate as a nonconforming use on land it leases from the city.)
With that change in hand, the RAC would then submit a plan to build a new facility on the donated site that would complement its current 51 Milton Road headquarters.
Facing vocal opposition from local residents – especially from neighboring Blind Brook Lodge condominium owners concerned about increased traffic and parking shortages should the RAC expand – the council requested an advisory opinion from the Planning Commission back in February.
