“Hello,

 

"Save Our Boatyard” is a grassroots group in Stamford, CT that was founded in August 2011 in response to the impending closure of the Brewers Yacht Haven Boatyard. The closure of this boatyard is being  precipitated by the actions of Building, Land & Technology, a development company who is the developer of a very major redevelopment scheme in the South End of Stamford, and who owns the Brewers 14 acre site.  Brewers Yacht Haven is the largest working boatyard in the Northeast.  BLT has not divulged what their plans are but is hinting at wrecking the last remaining waterfront property of Stamford with condos a marina which is NOT the same as "working boatyard".   From the earliest stages of those negotiations, it was a stated and documented in the 2002 City’s Master Plan, that there would be no change of services at the Brewers site, and that site was to remain a working boatyard.



Key Points:

  1. There has been a boatyard at that site since 1903. Boating and a working boatyard are a part of Stamford’s cultural heritage and business environment. 

  2. The yard is one of the largest boatyards in the Northeast and provides maintenance, hauling and storage services that are vital to a healthy recreational and commercial boating community.

  3. The developer was being given substantial development opportunities and variances to develop commercial and residential buildings on the balance of the Pitney Bowes site. In return the boatyard was to stay.

  4. Over 60 employees have lost their jobs.

  Our issue is not just about the future of 14 acres in Stamford harbor.

 

  • It is also about maintaining the full ongoing of maintenance, haulage and storage services that are necessary for the health of recreational boating in Long Island Sound and elsewhere.

  • It is about protecting environmental gains in Long Island Sound, as a modern boatyard provides environmental safeguards that may otherwise be ignored by boaters who are forced to do their storage and their maintenance in their backyards or in informal storage lots.

  • It is about honoring history, heritage and culture in the face of those whose only care is “highest and best use”.

  • Safety Concern, should a distressed vessel go down in Long Island sound, where will that vessel be brought to for repairs?

  • Boaters will no longer have a place to have their boats repaired and hauled