Most people who live in the Long Island Sound watershed do not know what a
watershed is and do not believe their behavior damages the Sound, according to a
study.
The Stony Brook University Center for Survey Research and the federal
Environmental Protection Agency surveyed more than 1,200 people who live in
watersheds - land from which water drains into the Sound - from New London to
Fairfield to the Bronx, N.Y. Residents were asked how polluted they believe the
Sound is, where they think the pollution comes from and whether their behavior
affects it.
Of those surveyed in Connecticut, 77 percent said they do not do anything to
harm the water quality, and 61 percent said there is nothing they can do to
improve it.
Yet 73 percent said that if "most" residents changed their behavior, water
quality would improve.
Among the key findings was a lack of awareness about how residents affect the
Sound, researchers said.
For example, 30 percent of respondents said they fertilize their lawns several
times a year, and 37 percent said they wash their cars at home. Both pollute the
Sound, according to the EPA's Long Island Sound Study.
Nutrients in fertilizer can suck oxygen from the Sound, causing hypoxia, and
soap can wash down storm drains and end up in the Sound.
"There's a disconnect between the knowledge and understanding of what causes
problems," said Mark Tedesco, director of the EPA's Long Island Sound Office.
"That reveals a lot about humanity. We always think that problems are with other
people."
Yet most watershed residents "overwhelmingly" support environmental protection,
Tedesco said.
According to the study, 76 percent would rather see a healthy environment more
than economic growth, and 73 percent agreed with the statement that "if things
continue on their present course, we will soon experience a major ecological
catastrophe."
Most surveyed in Connecticut did not know that storm-water runoff is one of the
most harmful contributors to pollution in the Sound. Sixty-three percent said
industrial plants, development, boats and sewage cause the most pollution, and
18 percent said runoff.
Sewage treatments plants are a significant contributor to hypoxia, but the
problem has been curbed since the 1980s, according to a 2006 report by the Long
Island Sound Study. Technological advancements allow treatment plants to limit
releases of nitrogen, which causes hypoxia, the report says.
Fossil fuel power plants, pesticides and car exhaust also release toxic
chemicals into the Sound, though direct chemical and airborne releases have
declined significantly since 1988, the report says.
Doug Mears of Norwalk, who took part in the survey, said he did not know that
storm-water runoff is harmful. He said he thought sewage and dumping are
problems, but not the rain that carries pollutants as it makes its way to the
Sound.
Asked whether watershed residents should worry about the health of the Sound,
Mears said, "It depends if people care about how clean the water is. If people
care about that, they should definitely care about this issue."
The director of the survey, Leonie Huddy, attributes the confusion to old
information.
"This is outdated thinking on water pollution. Colorful examples sway public
opinion if other information isn't disseminated widely," Huddy said. "It's like
smoking. Look how long it took to change people's views on that. Right now,
we're in a green moment. It's a good time to tell people if you want to be
green, if this matters to you, you can change your behavior."
Tedesco said results of the survey likely will lead to the creation of an
outreach program, though it is too soon for details.
"We wanted to better understand the perceptions of the public, to be able to
say, 'What are the messages we need to be able to get out to people?' " he said.
"It helps us understand what they understand and what they don't understand."
NORWALK — Paying for public education
through local property taxes — a sore subject for many Norwalk taxpayers — will
be the topic of a forum Monday evening at Norwalk City Hall.
"This forum, while sponsored by the
Norwalk Democrats, is about a problem which transcends partisan differences in
our city. Changing the state funding formula for education has long been a
primary need for Norwalk," said Kenneth J. Slapin, past chairman of the
Democratic Town Committee and a member of Democratic State Central Committee.
"The panel will include three of the most important figures in this year's
developing debate. This is for the purpose of examining the problem. We know
what are needs are. This is not a rally. It's for everyone can be informed."
The forum, titled 'Will We Finally Fix The Way We Fund Our School?," is
scheduled for Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Community Room of City Hall, 125 East
Ave.
Scheduled to participate as panelists are state Senate President Pro Tempore
Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn; state budget Director Robert L. Genuario, a
Republican who represented Norwalk in the state Senate; and Stephen T. Cassano,
executive director of the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education
Funding.
The state's Education Cost Sharing
formula bases school aid for municipalities mainly on property values rather
than student population, achievement and need. Local Democrats and Republicans
concur that the formula leaves Norwalk and Stamford, which have relatively high
property values, shortchanged compared to cities such as Bridgeport, New Haven
and Hartford — even as both cities face urban challenges.
Among those planning to attend the forum
is Jody Bishop-Pullan, chairwoman of the Norwalk Board of Education. She said
she hopes to learn from the more about how state aid is allocated to local
school districts.
"I think it will be interesting. I'd
like to hear what some of the plans are. There's a lot of talk about the
governor's budget and how it will affect education," Bishop-Pullan said. We need
"a change in the formula so Norwalk gets as much as some of the other districts
that are similar in need to us."
"Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport get
a lot of money. Because of our location and the value of our property, it seems
that's we don't get as much money," she said.
Michael W. Coffey, president of the
Common Council, said he will try to attend the forum.
"It's very important that the members of our state delegation, both in the house
and (senate) work to get us our fair share," Coffey said. "Clearly right now,
we're not getting a fair return from what we send up to Hartford.
In Tuesday's The Hour, the council
president is quoted as saying "There's some discussion if the ethics board is
best left in the council, or if it should be an (appointed) commission." Did we
read correctly? Some discussion? I picture Jon Stewart waiting for the some to
sink in. Folks, we need tons of discussion.
Some time ago city employees and
appointees were asked to comment on the proposed code of ethics. It seemed to me
that the code itself was not the primary issue, but the manner of its
enforcement. So I did some simple research, and Googled "City Ethics Committee."
Even though I deliberately looked for committees, I found zero out of 12 cities
with an ethics committee formed of elected officials. Twelve out of 12 cities
had formed independent ethics commissions. There are powerful reasons why this
is so.
More than any other appointed body, an
ethics commission needs to be trusted by the public and by appointed, elected
and salaried officials. The public would naturally and logically assume that a
committee of the Common Council would have a political agenda: Councilors are
elected precisely because they have a political agenda, as was pointed out to me
by a colleague on the ZBA.
Besides inspiring cynicism in the
public, a committee of the Common Council would also cast a serious pall of
anxiety over salaried and appointed officials who, while honestly pursuing their
duties, occasionally find themselves at odds with a councilor's or the mayor's
favorite project. The fear of retribution would inevitably impede their
effectiveness. Whether these fears are justified is not the issue: The
presumption of political bias is reasonably assumed.
In most cases, members of ethics commissions are chosen by elected officials,
but in Tampa, Fla., the five members are appointed this way: One by the
president of the University of South Florida; two by the 13th Judicial Circuit;
one by the dean of Stetson Law School; and one by the mayor.
In Dallas, no member of the commission may be: (1) a city official or the spouse
or domestic partner of a city official; (2) a city employee or the spouse or
domestic partner of a city employee; (3) an elected public official; (4) a
candidate for elected public office; (5) a person who, for compensation,
represents the private interests of others before the city council; or (6) a
paid campaign worker or a political consultant of a current city council member
Mr. Coffey is quoted as defending a
council body because "It's hard enough to find people who can serve (as
appointees)." The same Google search uncovered a useful list of organizations
from which unbiased candidates are drawn in various cities: colleges, bar
associations, the courts, civil service board, school boards, state officials,
etc. I made an off-hand suggestion that it be staffed with pastors, priests and
rabbis, which met with approval by another ZBA member — ethics is, after all,
one concern of prelates. But if Mr. Coffey is right, it is far better to be
without an ethics commission for lack of volunteers than to set up an ethics
committee of the Common Council.
In their research, the councilors may
have missed City Ethics, an online organization dedicated to ethical urban
government. The following comments found at http://www.cityethics.org/mc/introduction
deserve quoting:
"The fact that elected officials like to
have the final say (on the decisions of an Ethics Commission) is itself a
conflict of interest, because it is certainly not in the public interest to give
them this final say. The more independent the ethics commission, the more it
will be trusted by city residents, the less it will be used for political
purposes and the more respect its decisions will be given. When an ethics system
is not perceived as independent, and ethics accusations are politicized, the
ethics system can actually undermine the very confidence in government it is
supposed to protect."
Because of this built-in conflict of
interest, we cannot rely on a committee of the Common Council to act as an
ethics commission. Such a body just by its existence will do far more damage
than any good a code of ethics might do.
I call on the Common Council to hold an
open discussion on this issue in which public comment is invited. This could
most effectively be done by holding hearings on the issue through the
neighborhood associations, either individually or through the Coalition of
Norwalk Neighborhood Associations. To do less is to insure public cynicism and
the failure of the current effort toward better ethical standards.
The problem is not the ethical qualities of this or that collection of
councilors and the mayor. It is that an ethics committee formed of elected
officials is intrinsically unethical. We citizens must oppose it with all our
vigor, and help in crafting a proper alternative: Namely, an effective,
completely independent ethics commission.
NORWALK — Residents of Lockwood Lane,
Buckingham and Olmstead places — and other often-underwater areas of Norwalk —
urged the city's Planning Commission Wednesday night to spend capital dollars
sooner, rather than later, to halt flooding in their neighborhoods.
"I'm asking on behalf of my neighbors
and all flood victims in Norwalk to the fix the flooding first in your
recommendations," said Diane Cece of Olmstead Place. "We respectfully ask that
you approve the full amount requested for flood remediation (this year). Even if
you recommend every dollar asked for this year, we will continue to flood for
the next two to five years."
"For that reason, please consider
recommending the total amount for the full five-year plan that is directly
related to the original seven flood-study areas, and move ... this to fiscal
year 2007-08," Cece said.
Cece was one of nearly two-dozen residents to speak before the Planning
Commission at City Hall Wednesday night on the city's unfolding 2007-08 capital
budget, which now stands at $12.1 million.
Within that, Director of Public Works
Harold F. Alvord has asked for $2.7 million for 2007-08 for storm-water
management projects. Of that, $650,000 is sought for permitting, engineering and
design work related to fixes for Buckingham Place and Lockwood Lane; $350,000 is
requested for Olmstead Place. Overall, Alvord seeks nearly $19.4 million through
2011-2012 for design and construction work related to storm-water management.
In word and photographs, residents
related their flooding woes to Planning commissioners Wednesday night.
Gwendoline Street resident Margaret
Peterson wore a sign — "My dreams of home ownership have been flushed down the
toilet" — as she took the podium.
"In the three years I have lived in
Norwalk, I have gotten flooded seven times. Each time the water has gotten
higher and higher," Peterson said. "The last flood on Aug. 27 brought over two
feet of stormwater and raw sewage, which filled my ... garage and crawl space."
Alvord's recommendation to spend $2.7 million in fiscal year 2007-08 rests on
the findings of Tighe & Bond, the engineering firm that studied seven
flood-prone areas of Norwalk. While many speakers at the public hearing urged
more to be spent in the first year, that may not be possible, according to
Alvord. Speaking afterward, he indicated that the projects take time, from
design through construction.
"It doesn't make sense to take that
out-year money and push it up to 2007-08, because we couldn't spend it anyway,"
Alvord said. For "Buckingham/Lockwood, engineering and permitting will take at
least a year."
Of the nearly 60 people attending the
budget hearing in the Community Room of City Hall, nearly all were interested in
flooding, based on several shows of hands asked by speakers. Two Noah's Lane
residents urged the commission to restore $350,000 for flooding fixes for their
neighborhood.
The Planning Commission review marks the
second step in the formation of the city's annual capital budget. City
departments and the Board of Education have requested nearly $28.4 million for
2007-08, which begins July 1.
City Finance Director Thomas S.
Hamilton, citing rising debt service related to school renovations, and a desire
to maintain the city's favorable bond rating, has recommended paring that to
$12.1 million.
By contrast, the departments and school
board sought nearly $30.3 million for 2006-07. The Common Council approved $11.4
million.
The Planning Commission and Mayor
Richard A. Moccia have yet to weigh in this year's requests, before the Common
Council adopts the final 2007-08 capital budget this spring.
While most speakers addressed flooding,
several urged giving departments capital dollars to continue improvements at
Cranbury and Irving Friese parks, put in new carpet and air conditioning at the
Main Library, create affordable housing through the Redevelopment Agency, and
establish a citywide database through the Information Technology Department.
One speaker said such a database will
help the city crack down on illegal apartments.
"Illegal apartments continue to be a
major concern to the Golden Hill area," said James Del Greco, president of the
Golden Hill Association. " The city needs to have one common citywide database.
... Our hope is that (more money) will be put into the budget and that you all
will champion a citywide database."
Walter O. Briggs, Planning Commission
chairman, invited residents to submit their written concerns about the 2007-08
capital budget to the Planning and Zoning Department no later than Friday at
noon.
"We will start our budget deliberations the following week," Briggs said.
NORWALK — The Norwalk Redevelopment
Agency is grilling local preservationist groups on its plan to place three dozen
Wall Street-neighborhood buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.
The agency's question: Did we miss any
important buildings?
"None of us at the Redevelopment Agency
are experts at historic preservation. You guys are," said Munro W. Johnson,
senior development project manager at the agency, speaking recently to the
Norwalk Historical Commission. "We can take (your recommendations) back to our
consultant. If you think there is something missing ... then we're going to go
back and tweak (the boundaries)."
The proposed district, unveiled last month by Mayor Richard A. Moccia,
Redevelopment Agency officials and historical commissioners, calls for
registering the Wall Street Bridge and three dozen buildings in the area on the
national register. Under the plan, property owners would become eligible for
what Johnson described as "irresistible incentives" in the form of state and
federal tax credits to renovate their properties. The credits, for example,
could cover half the costs of a $50,000 renovation project, Johnson said.
A draft application shows the district
covering nearly six acres and including such buildings as the Regent Theater,
known as the Globe Theater, built in 1915 at 71 Wall St.; The Norwalk Savings
Society, now Bank of America, built in 1922 at 48 Wall St.; the Bishop Building,
built in 1935 at 64 Wall St.; and a host of other structures built between 1854
and 1955 along Wall and Commerce streets.
Architectural historian James Sexton,
acting as consultant for the agency, prepared the application to place the
bridge and buildings on the national register. All have features embodying
distinctive characteristics of a particular era.
"The majority of the buildings in the
district were constructed in the last quarter of the 19th century," Sexton
wrote. "These share many characteristics: Deeply overhanging bracketed cornices;
decorative masonry, often in the form of contrasting lintels or sills; and brick
or brick veneer construction."
Redevelopment Agency staff have spoken
to members of the Norwalk Preservation Trust about the proposed district and
plan to do the same for the Norwalk Historical Society. Norwalk historical
commissioners, meanwhile, expect to get back to the agency with their
suggestions in about two weeks.
For now, Historical Commissioner William
M. Krummel would like to see a portion of the river included in the proposed
district, given its importance to Wall Street.
The agency anticipates sending its
application to the state Commission on Culture and Tourism in a couple of months
for review and then onward to federal government for consideration. Ultimately,
Wall Street property owners would have to approve the district by a vote of at
least 51 percent.
Charles L. Yost advised the agency to
speak with affected property owners now.
"Educate the property owners before the
state calls and says, 'It's up or down,'" Yost said.
While some property owners may have
picked up on the national historic district plan when city officials unveiled it
on Wall Street last month, others remain unaware.
"I don't know enough about it. I don't
know all the ins and outs of it," said Michael D. McGuire, owner and redeveloper
of 64 Wall St., before offering his advice to fellow property owners. "Make sure
you get on board with an accountant that understands the specific tax-credit
issues."
NORWALK — Visitors to Veterans Memorial
Park someday will be able to enjoy a game of miniature golf, as part of the
Department of Recreation and Parks' long-range vision to boost interest in the
East Norwalk park.
For Jerry Petrini, owner of My Three
Sons Family Fun Center on Wall Street — the vendor recommended by the department
to operate the miniature golf course — it would be a long-term dream come true.
"Before starting My Three Sons, I'd
thought about a miniature golf course," Petrini said. "This came through and I
thought it was a great idea. Miniature golf is just a great recreational
activity. We're not putting in a carpet golf course. This is going to be heavily
themed with waterfalls and lagoons."
The plan comes six months after Petrini
withdrew his application to the city to install a rooftop mini-golf course at
his business at 62 Wall St. Petrini described that proposal as "still kind of
pending."
The city, after issuing a request for
proposals, has since selected Petrini as its vendor to operate the proposed
36-hole miniature golf course at Veterans Memorial Park. On Tuesday night,
Petrini and Michael Mocciae, the city's director of recreation and parks,
outlined the plan to the Planning Commission.
"We're looking favorable on it. We think
it is a good addition to the park and it only takes a quarter acre," said
Planning Commission Chairman Walter O. Briggs afterward. "We're waiting to see a
better description of it."
A miniature golf course is part of parks
department's larger plan to turn the 35-acre park off Seaview Avenue into a
family friendly destination. The course would be built on the east side of the
park between the restrooms and the baseball area. The area is currently unused
save for a service road, Mocciae said.
"It would be fully landscaped. It would
enhance the park. It would be a lease agreement (with My Three Sons) where (the
city) would get a percentage," Mocciae said. "We're going through a pre-review
with planning. Any questions they have they'll forward to me. All said and done,
by this fall, hopefully we'll break ground."
The plan has the backing of the Common
Council's Recreation, Parks and Cultural Affairs Committee, according to Fred A.
Bondi, committee chairman. He pointed to other elements of the larger master
plan for the park, including revamping the ball fields and putting in an
amphitheater. Collectively, the efforts are aimed at making Veterans Memorial
Park a destination.
In fact, a shuttle might someday run
from the Maritime Garage taking people to concerts and other events at Veterans
Memorial Park, according to Bondi.
"We've got a 750-space garage. It's
ideal for people to shuttle to the park," Bondi said.
Robert Koch covers Norwalk City Hall. He
can be reached at (203) 354-1007.
(Dec. 21) -- More traffic will be coming
to downtown Danville, Ill. - and that's how Danville wants it. The city of
33,000 is converting some of its longtime one-way streets back to two-way
thoroughfares. City officials hope the change will make it easier for
customers to reach downtown stores and shop in them.
"The driving force
behind it is economic development," says city engineer David Schnelle, who
expects to reprogram signals, change pavement markings and change signs by
November 2007.
He says motorists
tend to drive faster on one-way streets and go past their destinations, then
lose time and patience backtracking.
Danville is one of
hundreds of cities - from Berkeley, Calif., to Charleston, S.C. - switching
one-way streets to two-way to improve commerce downtown, according to the
American Planning Association in Chicago. The trend got rolling in the early
1990s and has expanded this year to bigger cities such as Miami, Dallas and
Minneapolis. It's part of the reinvention of former industrial cities, which
are converting empty factories into loft housing and trying to convince
suburbanites that downtowns are livable.
"There's a lot of
emphasis now on taming the automobile and emphasizing walking and biking. It's
all part of creating a place that people want to be," says Marya Morris of the
American Planning Association. "The bigger pieces are the major downtown
housing booms and having things for people to do after 5."
The boom in
one-way streets began with the Cold War in the 1950s, when cities planned
quick routes out of town for evacuation in case of nuclear attack, says John
Norquist, one of the first vocal advocates of two-way-street conversion.
Norquist was mayor of Milwaukee from 1988 to 2003 and now runs the Congress
for the New Urbanism, which promotes the revitalization of cities.
The growth of the
suburbs contributed, too, as cities smoothed the route home from work, says
Neal Hawkins, associate director for traffic operations at the Iowa State
University Center for Transportation Research and Education. Now, though,
there are more jobs in the suburbs, more entertainment downtown, and drivers
go in all directions.
They drive less
efficiently on two-way streets, according to the Thoreau Institute, an
environmental advocacy group in Oregon. The slower stop-and-go traffic means
cars pollute more, the institute says.
In Danville, 170
miles south of Chicago, two-way streets are meant to speed an economic revival
after 15 years of plant closings left downtown streets quiet. The city set up
a small-business loan program to attract stores and restaurants.
Now Danville wants
to make it easier for customers to find them, especially the shops on
Vermilion Street.
Marie Pribble,
co-owner of the Java Hut coffee shop and cafe, looks forward to the change.
"The slower people go, the more likely they are to pay attention to your
business or your storefront, and the more likely they are to stop in," she
says.
Norquist was one
of the first mayors to promote more two-way streets. He led a campaign to
convert several downtown Milwaukee streets back to two-way. He says the
increased traffic means that neighborhoods flourish: "I think people started
to realize that the city was more important than the road that runs through
it."
Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division
of Gannett Co. Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The
High Price of Parking: Housing Costs Inflated by Minimum Requirements for
Parking Spaces
Spawned by
suburban sprawl in the 1950s, local requirements for the minimum of one or more
parking spaces per unit have abetted car dependency and - letting builders fold
the $30,000-$40,000 per slot into unit prices - pushed housing costs especially
high in big cities, some of which are now eliminating or revising parking space
minimums to boost transit and lower housing costs, with University of
California-Los Angeles Professor Donald Shoup saying, ''In the future, we will
look back at minimum parking requirements as a colossal mistake.''
Author of ''The High Cost of Free Parking'' (American Planning Association,
2005), Professor Shoup tells New York Times writer Linda Baker that with
its expensive housing and cheap parking, the nation ''got it the wrong way
around,'' but the change is under way. Condominiums without parking are already
common in Manhattan and a few other East Coast city cores, the writer reports,
but downtown Los Angeles still mandates 2.25 parking spaces for any unit, and
Houston requires 1.33 spaces for a one-bedroom and 2 spaces for a three-bedroom,
with a committee reconsidering these minimums along the light-rail line.
Portland, the writer continues, eliminated central city parking minimums six
years ago; Seattle reduced the parking minimums for multifamily housing in three
major commercial corridors last year and may eliminate them in six core
districts and near light-rail stations next month; and San Francisco, which
gained more downtown housing in the last few years than in the previous 20,
replaced downtown minimums with a maximum of 0.75 parking space per unit.
''The city's modus operandi is 'transit first,''' stresses city planner Joshua
Switzky, pointing out that now downtown builders must ''unbundle'' the price of
parking from the price of a condo and adding, ''Buyers aren't obligated to buy a
parking space, and developers don't have the incentive to build spaces they
can't sell.''
In downtown Seattle's neighborhood of Belltown, where the average condo has 1.5
parking spaces, the 251-condo Moda project, now under way, includes 83 units
without parking, 125 with access to permit parking, and only 43 with assigned
spaces, each priced at about $30,000 more than the others, and all 251 sold
within a week.
The same happened with 24 condos without parking in the 261-unit Civic project
under construction near bus and light-rail stops six blocks from downtown
Portland. The Gerding/Edlen Development Company ''decided to test the water and
see if there was a market for units without parking spaces,'' says project
manager Tom Cody. ''We're always looking for ways to promote smart growth.'' --
New York Times 11/12/2006
This web site is a subset of
http://www.sustainable.org, developed
and maintained by the Sustainable Communities Network (SCN),
and supported with funding from the US EPA.
FEWER CARS
There are no parking spaces for the condos bought by Annemieke Clark and
Daniel Pasley in downtown Portland, Ore.
By LINDA BAKER
Published: November 12, 2006
PORTLAND, Ore.
Peter Yates for The New York
Times
There are no
parking spaces for Mary Stonecypher-Howell at the Moda condominiums in
Seattle.
Peter DaSilva for The New York
Times
In San
Francisco, One Rincon Hill allows for one space per unit.
ANNEMIEKE CLARK and her boyfriend,
Daniel Pasley, do not spend a lot of time driving. Ms. Clark, a 29-year-old
nursing student at Oregon Health and Science University, takes the bus to
school. Her boyfriend is a “crazy bike rider,” she said.
So when they decided to buy their
first home last winter, they chose a one-bedroom unit in the Civic, one of the
first new developments in Portland to market condominiums without parking
spaces.
Ms. Clark said they bought the
$175,000 condo, which will be ready next summer, because “it was absolutely
the cheapest one selling.” Mr. Pasley also hoped a unit without parking would
inspire Ms. Clark to sell her 1992 Subaru.
“So, part of it was idealism — that we
would get rid of the car,” Ms. Clark said.
Although condominiums without parking
are common in
Manhattan and the downtowns of a few other East Coast cities, they are the
exception to the rule in most of the country. In fact, almost all local
governments require developers to provide a minimum number of parking spaces
for each unit — and to fold the cost of the space into the housing price.
The exact regulations, which are
intended to prevent clogged streets and provide sufficient parking, vary by
city. Houston’s code requires a minimum of 1.33 parking spaces for a
one-bedroom and 2 spaces for a three-bedroom. Downtown Los Angeles mandates
2.25 parking spaces per unit, regardless of size.
Today, city planners around the
country are trying to change or eliminate these standards, opting to promote
mass transit and find a way to lower housing costs.
Minimum parking requirements became
popular in the 1950s with the growth of suburbia, said Donald Shoup, a
professor of urban planning at the
University of California at Los Angeles and the author of “The High Cost
of Free Parking” (American Planning Association, 2005). “They spread like
wildfire,” he said.
But in the 21st century, skyrocketing
housing prices and the move toward high-density urban development are bringing
scrutiny to the ways in which cities and developers manage the relationship
between parking and residential real estate. Once a tool of government,
parking requirements are increasingly driven by the market.
Last year, for example, Seattle
reduced parking requirements for multifamily housing in three of the city’s
major commercial corridors. Next month, the City Council will vote on a
proposal to eliminate minimum parking requirements in Seattle’s six core urban
districts and near light-rail stations. In June, San Francisco replaced
minimum requirements downtown with maximum standards allowing no more than
0.75 parking spaces per unit. In Portland, where central city parking minimums
were eliminated six years ago, developers are breaking ground on projects with
restricted parking.
“In the future,” Dr. Shoup said, “we
will look back at minimum parking requirements as a colossal mistake. Change
will be slow, but it’s happening now.”
The Civic, a 261-unit project,
includes 24 condos without parking. The building is six blocks from downtown
and near a major bus and light-rail line, and will offer residents a
rental-car-sharing arrangement.
“We’re always looking for ways to
promote smart growth,” said Tom Cody, a project manager of the Gerding/Edlen
Development Company, which developed the Civic. “We decided to test the water
and see if there was a market for units without parking spaces.” The 24 condos
sold out, he said.
In San Francisco, more downtown
housing has been approved over the last few years than in the last 20 years
combined, said Joshua Switzky, a city planner. The booming real estate market
there inspired local officials to revoke minimum-parking requirements in the
central core, Mr. Switzky said. “The city’s modus operandi is ‘transit first,’
” he said. “Everyone recognized the existing rules didn’t match the policy.”
Under San Francisco’s new parking
maximums, downtown developers are also required to “unbundle” the price of
parking from the price of the condo. “Buyers aren’t obligated to buy a parking
space, and developers don’t have the incentive to build spaces they can’t
sell,” Mr. Switzky said.
Sustainable development is not the
only factor driving changes to parking standards. “We talk about affordable
housing as the most critical thing facing cities and the nation,” Mr. Cody
said. “But we never talk about the costs of the automobile.” Since individual
parking spaces cost about $40,000, reducing or eliminating parking is an
effective way to lower housing prices, he said.
At the Moda condominiums, a
development under construction in Seattle, only 43 out of 251 units have
assigned parking. Eighty-three units have no parking and the remainder have
access to a permit parking system. The building is in the downtown Belltown
neighborhood, where the average condo has one and a half parking spaces.
“I wanted the least expensive unit,”
said Mary Stonecypher-Howell, a computer database specialist who bought a Moda
studio without parking for $170,000. Ms. Stonecypher-Howell said it was the
only downtown condo she could find for less than $200,000. “In the city, it’s
simpler not to have a car,” she said. Moda units with parking cost about
$30,000 more than units without.
Lenders traditionally balk at
financing projects without parking, said David Hoy, who developed the Moda
condos. The concern is that they would be difficult to resell. “But in a
high-density urban environment, there’s a strong demand and a shortage of
supply,” Mr. Hoy said. Moda, which is financed by United Commercial Bank, sold
out in less than a week, he said.
Other cities are also reconsidering
parking standards. In Houston, for example, a committee is reviewing parking
minimums along the light-rail line, according to Suzy Hartgrove, a spokeswoman
for the city’s planning and development department.
But not everybody is enthusiastic
about the piecemeal changes taking place around the country, especially
because often-arcane parking codes vary from district to district and city to
suburb.
In the Rincon Hill neighborhood of San
Francisco, where the new luxury tower One Rincon Hill is selling for $1,000 a
square foot, parking standards allow a maximum of one space per unit. Just a
few blocks away, downtown requirements undercut that figure by a quarter,
making One Rincon Hill more attractive to buyers with cars.
“It gives them a marketing advantage,”
said Victor Gonzalez, director of development for Monahan Pacific, a local
company that has built condo properties downtown. “You’d be killed if you
tried to do a project in the suburbs without parking,” he added.
Others point to the free-market
parking situation in Manhattan, where monthly rates now exceed $500 a month.
Planners are undeterred. In the United
States, “housing is expensive and parking is cheap,” Dr. Shoup said. “We’ve
got it the wrong way around.”
NORWALK — Fewer curb cuts, more trees
and street lamps, underground utilities and curtailing the possibility of more
big-box stores are several recommendations within a draft plan to be presented
to The Main & Westport Avenue Corridor Study Advisory Committee Thursday night.
"I think it's a well-balanced plan. It
gives us lots of opportunities to work with. We look forward to getting some
public input after Thursday's public gathering," said Frances DiMeglio, advisory
committee co-chairwoman and a member of the city's Planning Commission.
On Thursday night, Phillips Preiss
Shapiro, a planning and real-estate consulting firm based in New York City, will
present to DiMeglio's committee — and to the public — its draft plan for the
Main and Westport avenue corridor, which stretches from the Merritt Parkway to
the Westport border.
The presentation is scheduled for
Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the Common Council chambers of Norwalk City Hall, 125
East Ave. Committee members and the public may ask questions afterward.
The "mini master plan" eventually will
be worked into the city's updated Master Plan of Conservation & Development.
That larger plan, now being assembled, will serve as a blueprint for zoning
regulations.
The Main & Westport Avenue draft plan
addresses land use, transportation, urban design, zoning and economic
development policy changes that "could be used, either together or separately,
to affect the corridors over the next 10 years," according to Phillips Preiss
Shapiro.
The 105-page plan includes maps of
recommended traffic improvements and breaks up the corridor into six sections
with specific recommendations for each.
"It is recommended that big box retail
development be limited to the northern end of Main Avenue, where the Stop & Shop
is now located," reads the land-use recommendation for the northernmost section.
"This location is logical for this type of development, because it is next to a
large employment and residential center, has excellent highway access, and has
the potential for improved transit connections."
For central Main Street and Main Avenue,
the plan recommends that retail stores be limited to 10,000 square feet and that
drive-through facilities be prohibited. For lower Main Street and North Avenue,
Phillips Preiss Shapiro recommends limiting individual retail stores to 5,000
square feet.
Along Westport Avenue, approaching the
Westport border, the plan recommends against big-box stores. Near Stew
Leonard's, it recommends no land-use changes as there are "no apparent soft
sites ripe for development."
"What they're recommending is that
(zoning regulations) try to preserve the smaller retailers on Main Street and
also Westport Avenue," said Michael E. Wrinn, assistant planning and zoning
director for the city. "I think (the recommendations) are in keeping with what
we're hearing."
In addition to land-use and zoning
recommendations, the draft plan includes urban design recommendations. They
include large storefront windows, awnings and overhangs, broken and textured
facades and other features aimed at creating an "interesting walking environment
for pedestrians."
The plan recommends placing parking
behind rather than in front of storefronts, limiting the number of curb cuts
into which traffic enters and exits, and adding street trees and street lamps.
For lower Main Street and North Avenue,
the plan recommends village district zoning to "give the city additional
control" over site-plan approval. For lower Main Street — and possibly upper
Main Street and Main Avenue — the plan recommends a special services district.
In special service districts,
municipalities can enact legislation allowing property owners to impose a higher
tax rate in exchange for special services, such as extra street cleaning, added
police protection and marketing. Stamford's downtown is a special services
district. Norwalk currently has no such district.
Former Mayor Alex Knopp launched the
Main & Westport Avenue Corridor Study Advisory Committee. The initiative
followed his administration's pattern of turning to outside consultants for
areas of the city that the mayor says are subject to development pressures and
therefore need added attention.
"In particular, I want to avoid the traffic congestion and over-concentration of
large-scale retail on Westport Avenue that occurred in the past on Connecticut
Avenue," said Knopp, speaking last year.
NORWALK — The newly formed Wall Street
Parcel Three Land Disposition Agreement Review Committee received Tuesday a
draft version of the agreement that will guide M.F. DiScala & Co. in reshaping
of the Head-of-the-Harbor portion of Wall Street.
"We are working on what terms would be
acceptable, such as if there are any infrastructure costs to be borne by the
city, the size and scope of the project, the responsibilities with regards to
public works," said Michael W. Coffey, Common Council president and co-chairman
of the new committee. "We're hoping that this (committee) helps us ... cut
through red tape while looking at the projects. Instead of just elongating the
process and taking many years, we're hoping we can reduce some of the time
frame."
M.F. DiScala's plan calls for 20
townhouses in four-story buildings facing Main Street; retail, restaurants and
61 residential units in a six-story building on Wall and High streets; and a
294-space parking structure. Between Smith Street and the Norwalk
River will rise a five- to seven-story
condominium building with 80 units and 156 parking spaces. A 15-foot-wide public
boardwalk is planned for along the river.
Land-disposition agreements — legal
documents spelling out each party's responsibilities on land use, roadwork,
public parking, affordable housing and other issues — are part of the
redevelopment process.
Redevelopment Agency Executive Director
Timothy T. Sheehan recommended formation of the ad hoc committee to address
council members concerns about not having a large enough role in the approval
process. That process sends draft land-disposition agreements through the
Redevelopment Commission, the Planning Commission, the council's Planning
Committee, and lastly the full council for approval. The new committee will
allow representatives of each body to review the unfolding agreements.
Co-chairing the review committee are
Mayor Richard A. Moccia and Coffey. Also on the committee are council Majority
Leader Carvin J. Hilliard; Minority Leader Douglas E. Hempstead; Planning
Commission Chairman Walter O. Briggs; Redevelopment Commission Chairman Paul L.
Jones, and commissioner Emil Albanese. Sheehan and Redevelopment Agency
Assistant Director John L. Burritt Jr. are staff.
"The reason for the joint committee is
to streamline (the agreement) through the process," Jones said. "It's our
mission to be completed (with the Wall Street agreement) in five meetings. We
are trying to stay on schedule each week. We hope to have it up (to the council)
in six or seven weeks."
From there, the project would go through
site-plan and other review, and onward to construction.
The committee's work will not end with
the Head-of-the-Harbor land-disposition agreement. Next to be reviewed: A
land-disposition agreement between the city and POKO Partners LLC.
POKO Partners, the chosen developer for the Isaacs Street portion of the Wall
Street neighborhood, plans to reshape the area bounded by West Avenue and Wall,
Leonard and Isaacs streets with 349 housing units; 93,000 square feet of public
open space; 45,500 square feet of retail; and 845 public and private parking
spaces. The plan also calls for restoring the former Norwalk Theater.
NORWALK — Conservation commissioners
received Tuesday night an engineer's assessment of flooding problems in Norwalk
and what is needed to fix them.
Director of Public Works Harold F.
Alvord unrolled a map of 16 flood-prone areas of the city. The causes range from
undersized or clogged storm-water pipes to too much rainfall. And correcting
them will require additional public works staffing, equipment and dollars,
according to Alvord.
"We've identified areas where there are
blockages or partial blockages," Alvord said. "Our storm-drain system you should
clean every year, because you don't know who's throwing frozen turkeys in there
and bowling balls. And then you've got the sand off the streets."
"We need operating budget dollars to do
the cleaning and hopefully add to that vacuum trucks" in the capital budget,
Alvord said.
The Conservation Commission, which is
responsible for reviewing development applications for properties that include
or are located near ponds and other wetlands, called the meeting to "review
flooding and drainage issues within the city," after East Norwalk residents last
month urged them to reject a condominium development for the former Fitch School
property on Strawberry Hill Avenue.
Commissioners approved the storm-water
management plan for the condominium development, which they concurred will
reduce storm-water runoff from the site. At the same time, however, they called
for a special meeting to address flooding problems citywide.
Councilman Kevin M. Poruban and eight
residents who've experience flooding problems — including Olmstead Place
resident Diane Cece and Buckingham Place resident Lisa Rivieccio — attended the
special meeting at City Hall Tuesday night.
"There's just so much need in terms of
fixing infrastructure in Norwalk," Rivieccio said. "The Department of Public
Works ... is trying to catch up with years of neglect. You're talking millions
of dollars to brings back quality-of-life to residents."
Alvord compared undersized storm-water
pipes and clogged drains to neglected roads and outdated traffic signals in the
city. The city has 200 miles of storm-water pipes, he said.
In equipment, the public works
department currently has three operational vacuum trucks to clean clogged
storm-water drains and pipes, Alvord said.
"We hope to get a fleet of eight trucks,
which should give us the ability to maintain the system," Alvord said.
In July, the city commissioned Tighe &
Bond, a Westfield, Mass., engineering firm to study eight flood-prone areas of
the city, and lay out possible solutions along with costs. Alvord said
preliminary results of that study are due back later this month. The public
works department hopes to have dollars placed in the city's 2007-08 capital
budget to fix the flooding problems — and then study other areas.
"But that's only going to do a few areas
of the city," Alvord said.
Anne Cagnina, Conservation Commission
chairwoman, welcomed the map and presentation as needed information for
commissioners, as they review future development applications.
"We needed to be informed. When any
applicant comes in, look at the impacts of the projects," Cagnina said.
NORWALK -- The zoning department is circulating new regulations that would force
developers to build affordable housing units in some business and residentially
zoned neighborhoods.
The draft proposal, issued in late summer and altered in recent weeks by the
Zoning Commission, is expected to go before a public hearing next month,
Planning and Zoning Director Michael Greene said.
"It's evolving," he said.
The proposal also is being reviewed by the city's Planning Commission. On
Friday, the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce established an ad-hoc committee
to weigh in on the plan.
"They will report to the board at our November meeting," Chamber President
Edward Musante said. "Generally speaking, we have been" supportive of affordable
housing.
He added: "Now you have a specific proposal and the specifics need to be looked
at. . . . Is it written in a way that's productive, fair and equitable?"
The so-called inclusionary zoning or workforce housing policy was crafted over
several months earlier this year by a liaison committee of the planning and
zoning commissions.
The draft was forwarded to the Zoning Commission for initial review in August --
more than four years after former Democratic Mayor Alex Knopp's administration
first began touting the need for such regulations.
But the administration never moved forward, relying instead on an informal
process of negotiating with various developers.
As first proposed, the regulations would have made at least 15 percent, and in
some cases 20 percent, of the units in new, multifamily developments affordably
priced.
Greene said that number has since been decreased to 10 percent, the level used
in many other cities.
The units would be affordable for households earning less than 80 percent of the
state median income, or $65,000 for a family of four.
"To be perfectly honest, the Zoning Commission has met with various developers
and with representatives of the Chamber (of Commerce) and they've been
(advocating) a simpler version" with more modest requirements, Greene said.
"Everyone's saying, 'That's what we should do first and over time fine tune it,'
" he said.
The regulations still will allow developers to increase the density of projects
to accommodate the affordable units; transfer the requirement to another
development site; or pay a fee in lieu of housing to a special fund for other
affordable housing projects.
The fee is currently calculated at $218,700 per unit, Greene said.
He said another change to the initial draft proposal is the inclusion of an
equity-sharing program.
Often affordably priced condominium units are assigned deed restrictions to keep
them from reverting to market-rate units when they are sold.
Greene said the equity-sharing program would allow developers to instead build
non-deed restricted units that the owners could later sell at market-rate
prices, splitting any profit with the city's housing fund.
"So you do lose the unit as affordable, but the person has built up equity to
move to a market-rate unit and the city has built up equity to build more
affordable housing," Greene said.
Robert Keyes, chairman of the Zoning Commission, said the draft regulations have
been revised to be more palatable to officials who do not support mandatory
affordable housing.
Republican Mayor Richard Moccia and at least three zoning commissioners --
unaffiliated voter Larry Bentley, Republican James White and Independent Andrea
Light -- have said they oppose mandatory regulations.
"Ultimately, we're not trying to make a regulation that's a hammer to
developers. We want to make it so this is something they can work with," Keyes,
a Democrat, said. "I'm very excited about this. Hopefully, we get it passed and
approved."
Light said while she appreciates "efforts at compromise" like the equity-sharing
proposal, she probably will not vote for the regulations.
"I have real concerns about the impact on our operating budget," Light said.
"When you have two identical units -- one that's deed-restricted, one that's not
-- the deed restricted unit has a lesser assessed value so you're paying less in
taxes. That shifts the burden to. . . the middle-class population."
Proponents of inclusionary zoning argue since multifamily housing construction
is increasing in Norwalk, the regulations are needed to help the city continue
to meet the state guideline of having at least 10 percent of its housing stock
affordably priced.
Cities and towns that do not meet the standard are open to lawsuits from
developers whose zoning applications for high-density housing that include
below-market-rate units are rejected.
According to a state Department of Economic and Community Development survey
released in April, 11.45 percent, or 3,864 of Norwalk's 33,753 housing units,
qualified as affordable last year -- down from 11.77 percent, or 3,972 units, in
2004.
Light believes the city will remain above 10 percent for the near future,
although others are skeptical.
The Norwalk Redevelopment Agency has said the state count is artificially high
because it relies on housing data from the 2000 census and the city could find
itself at or below 10 percent in 2010 when the numbers are updated.
Assistant Redevelopment Director Jack Burritt said agency staff recently
completed double-checking the state numbers and believes it over-counted by 329
units, decreasing the percentage of affordable housing to 10.47 percent.
"They had some double counting and projects that hadn't been developed," he
said.
NORWALK -- Negotiations yesterday between the owner of the Norwalk Inn and
Conference Center and preservationists did not yield any results, but the two
sides said they were encouraged by the dialogue.
The preservationists are trying to save a historic home threatened by the
hotel's planned expansion.
"I don't want to say we have more hope that we can save the building, but we
have a better opportunity to do that now that we are talking," Mayor Richard
Moccia said after attending a noon meeting with hotel owner Chris Handrinos and
Norwalk Preservation Trust President Tod Bryant.
The participants have agreed to meet in the future but have not set a date,
Moccia said.
Two weeks ago, Handrinos applied for a demolition permit for the historic
Grumman-St. John house at 93 East Ave. to make way for a 43-room expansion.
The trust invoked the city's 90-day demolition delay ordinance, that can hold up
tear downs of structures more than 50 years old for three months.
Bryant said the white mansard-roofed building should be preserved because the
core of the structure dates back to 1741.
If Bryant's claim is correct, that part of the building would date to before the
Battle of Norwalk, making it one of a handful of structures that remain after
the British burned the city in 1779.
Bryant said yesterday's meeting at City Hall, which included city attorney
Robert Maslan, Planning Director Michael Greene and his assistant Michael Wrinn,
was positive and everyone agreed to explore ideas to save the building.
He declined, however, to get into specifics.
"It's too soon to get into any kind of detail," Bryant said. "I think it was a
productive meeting. It was good that everyone was in the same room and talking,
which hasn't happened in five years."
Last week, after it was announced that the building made the 2006 Connecticut
Trust for Historic Preservation's Most Important Threatened Historic Places
list, Handrinos reiterated his offer from five years ago that he would save the
home if he could put a third story on his hotel.
The building zones in which the hotel is situated, however, would not allow a
third story without zoning regulation changes or a variance.
Greene also declined to share the details of yesterday's talks.
"There were a couple ideas that we talked about, and there are issues that were
discussed that need to be looked at by the parties involved," Greene said. "I'm
always hopeful when people are talking."
A message left for Handrinos at the Norwalk Inn was not immediately returned.
NORWALK — Olmstead Place residents told
the city's Conservation Commission Tuesday night that their flooding woes will
increase if a proposed 29-unit condominium development is built on the site of
the former Fitch School on Strawberry Hill Avenue in East Norwalk.
Assurances from the developer's attorney
and engineers that the housing development would reduce storm-water runoff and
improve the site didn't seem to alleviate their fears. Those fears stem from a
slope leading downward from the site into a pond, which sometimes floods onto
their properties.
"We have a problem now. It's going to be
worse," said Demetrius Arnone, who lives at 39 Olmstead Place. "I really wish
you would consider turning this proposal down, because we're going to get
inundated with more (water). Every time the sky opens, I have to keep my fingers
crossed."
Arnone and his wife, JoAnne, were among
nearly two-dozen residents to sound off Tuesday night against DT Development Co.
LLC's application to raze the former school and two adjacent houses at 61 and 63
Strawberry Hill Ave. and build 29 condominiums. After the public hearing and
discussion, conservation commissioners postponed action on the application.
"We all just agreed we weren't ready to
vote on it," said Commissioner Marny Smith afterward. "We all felt that
considering the opposition, we had to look more carefully at the drainage
report. We were all quite surprised about the degree of opposition. None of us
were prepared for that kind of opposition."
"We'll probably make a decision at our
next meeting on the 10th of October," Smith added.
The slope, located on city-owned land
immediately behind the former school, mandates
Conservation Commission review of the
application. DT Development also needs the city's Zoning Commission to lift the
cap on planned residential developments to permit 29 new units.
On Tuesday night, Norwalk attorney David
F. Waters and three consultants representing DT Development pitched the
storm-water drainage plan to distrustful residents. The plan includes additional
landscaping, erosion controls on the slope, and underground detention tanks
designed to catch the first inch of rainfall and slowly release it into the
soil.
"A good percentage of the water is going
into those (tanks). You get a lot gentler flow," said landscape architect Don
Strait of Norwalk-based Grumman Engineering LLC. "It infiltrates down into the
soil. That's what prevents that spike of water coming through."
Many residents shook their heads in
disbelief.
Among those speaking against the
condominium development was Diane Cece, who has frequently asked the city to
help eliminate flooding on her property at 37 Olmstead Place.
"Because we know that even in a moderate
rainstorm, the pond has overflowed into several of our back yards, and in
serious rainfalls can and has caused substantial damage, we oppose any
development that calls for additional runoff to the pond, or any areas southwest
of the (former) school," Cece said.
Commissioner Matthew A. Caputo asked
residents how long they have experienced flooding on their properties, then
pressed the developers' representatives for numbers.
"What kind of calculations do we have
for maybe different (rainfall) events?" Caputo asked. "If you're contending
you're decreasing (runoff), show us the numbers — it's a 5-percent reduction,
it's a 10-percent reduction?"
Strait said the condominium development
would reduce the amount of impervious surface — paved areas, rooftops, etc. —
from 80,588 square feet to 53,732 square feet. The drainage system would reduce
runoff from a 25-year storm from 43,800 cubic feet to 36,900 cubic feet of
water, he added.
Said Waters: "The wetlands and pond that
already exist will not be impacted in a negative manner."
East Norwalk Councilman Kevin M. Poruban,
speaking to The Hour last week, pointed to water channels cut into the slope.
Poruban said he hadn't seen DT Development's plan, but added that he also has
concerns.
"Whatever they do, they cannot add to
the problem we have here," Poruban said.
NORWALK — The president of the Norwalk
Preservation Trust on Wednesday asked the city to impose its 90-day demolition
delay ordinance to save a house at 93 East Ave.
The house stands in the way of the
Norwalk Inn & Conference Center's long-planned expansion.
"Both the Norwalk Inn and your office are in possession of a letter from the
Connecticut Historical Commission. ... Please stop the demolition permit process
pursuant to this letter," wrote Preservation Trust President Tod Bryant, in the
first of two e-mails to Norwalk Chief Building Official William Ireland. "Please
invoke the 90-day delay of demolition on 93 East Ave."
In response, Ireland wrote that the city's Building and Code Enforcement
Department has not yet received an intent-to-demolish application. Ireland
continued that he is aware of the letter from the state commission.
Byrant e-mailed Ireland Tuesday after
reading a legal notice announcing the intent-to-demolish application, and again
Wednesday after seeing a sign announcing the application posted outside the
house. The Preservation Trust maintains that the house at 93 East Ave. is
historic and should be preserved.
"The whole idea of a demolition delay is
to get the parties to try to negotiate a way to save the building," Bryant told
The Hour.
The Norwalk Inn, located at 99 East
Ave., plans to demolish the house to accommodate a 40-room expansion. The
project has been tied up in court for several years, after neighboring property
owner Dr. Rishon H. Stember in 2001 and 2002 appealed decisions by the city's
Zoning Board of Appeals and Zoning Commission allowing the expansion to proceed.
The inn and Stember earlier this year
reached a settlement that would shift the proposed new inn wing and common
driveway away from Stember's business at 91 East Ave., but still raze the house
at 93 East Ave. Stamford Superior Court has yet to review the settlement.
Norwalk Inn co-owner Chris Handrinos
said he was not surprised to learn of the demolition delay request.
"The preservationists are trying every
means, whether proper or improper, to delay," Handrinos said. "That is costing
us a lot of money. We'll offer (the house) to them, not only to take it, but to
pay some of the expenses to move it."
Handrinos said the inn pulled
intent-to-demolish paperwork from the city and plans to return it by Friday. He
described the demolition as separate from the court issues regarding the
expansion.
"We intend to demolish the house, no
matter what. It's not connected with the court case. The court issue is about a
change in zoning. It has nothing to do with (93 East Ave.)," Handrinos said.
"All the court issues have to do with is planning and zoning."
Bryant, in his e-mail to Ireland
Tuesday, wrote that a letter from the Connecticut Historical Commission — now
the state Commission on Culture and Tourism — dated Jan. 11, 2002, remains
binding.
According to Bryant, the letter states
in part that "the office of the Attorney General requests that you provide the
commission with written assurance that you will not 1) file an application for a
demolition permit or 2) undertake any physically-destructive activities to the
subject property prior to appearing at a future public meeting to discuss your
proposed project."
Bryant said Susan Chandler of the
History Division of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism has
assured him that the letter remains in effect "since the Norwalk Inn has never
appeared before the commission."
Chandler could not be reached for
comment Wednesday afternoon.
NORWALK -- A tentative settlement has been reached that could allow a 235-unit
luxury condominium development to proceed on the old Pepperidge Farm bakery site
on Westport Avenue.
Attorney David Waters, who represents developer FF Realty LLC, said an
"agreement in principle" has been reached between the Texas-based developer and
two homeowner associations who filed appeals against the city's Conservation and
Zoning commissions.
The panels approved the project in June and July 2005.
The project planned for the 15-acre site at 595 Westport Ave. has been in limbo
for a little more than a year since the appeals were filed in state Superior
Court in Stamford by the neighboring Birchwood Townhouses Condominium
Association and Terra Nova Homeowners Association.
Waters said a compromise plan may come before the two panels in the next month.
"There are some changes being made to the plan that will require further review
by the Conservation and Zoning commissions," he said last week.
Budd Schwartz, treasurer of the 66-unit Birchwood Townhouses Condominium
Association and a plaintiff in the appeals, said he thinks the settlement is a
step in the right direction.
He said FF Realty has brought in a new architect to redesign the development,
putting what was planned to be an underground 500-car garage above ground.
Schwartz said the homeowner associations were against the underground garage
because it would require excavation blasting and long lines of dump trucks
coming in and out of the site to remove the debris.
Schwartz said plans now call for the construction inside the Pepperidge Farm
site to be pulled further back from Hills Lane, the site of the Birchwood and
Terra Nova developments.
Some of the units will have to be reduced in size to make the plan work, he
said.
"It appears we are going in the right direction and I'm hopeful that we can
resolve it soon," Schwartz said. "They ended up with a much better design than
what they had before."
The appeal seeking to overturn the Conservation Commission's decision said that
evidence was ignored indicating the development would create stormwater runoff
problems and threaten wetlands.
The appeal against the Zoning Commission decision argued that evidence, which
pointed to the project's noncompliance with zoning regulations regarding
building height and setbacks, also was ignored.
The suit also said that the project would hurt property values.
Waters and Fairfield attorney John Fallon, who is representing Birchwood and
Terra Nova, declined to comment on what the new plans would look like.
"I will not have any comment with regard to any aspect of that case. The cases
are pending before the Superior Court and I will have no comment with regards to
any settlement discussions that are ongoing," Fallon said in a phone message.
Calls seeking further comment were not returned.
Waters said he expected that the two commissions would look favorably at the new
plan.
Planning and Zoning Director Michael Greene declined to comment on the plans,
saying he had not seen the new plans.
When proposed last year, project plans called for the construction of three
residential buildings, totaling 450,000 square feet, in nearly the same place
the shuttered bakery now stands.
The buildings, each four stories, would surround an 11,000-square-foot clubhouse
with a pool. The proposal also included a 33,000-square-foot expansion of
Pepperidge Farm's existing 78,000-square-foot corporate offices next door.
Whitman, Glendening Speak Out on
Government's Role in Growth Patterns
Quite
sure that much of Connecticut's ''misplaced development is aided and abetted,
and even subsidized, by state policies and practices,'' as it was in their own
states when they took office in 1994 and 1995, former New Jersey Republican
Governor and 2001-03 EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and former
two-term Maryland Democratic Governor, now Smart Growth Leadership Institute
President Parris N. Glendening point out in a Hartford Courant
commentary that growth pattern changes ''cannot be accomplished in any lasting
way unless the state government plays a major part'' and that ''it certainly
helps if the governor makes it a personal priority.''
Maryland, they write, was ''funding infrastructure and school construction in
areas where neither the locality nor the state had planned for development''
until lawmakers passed the 1997 Smart Growth Act, under which the state
''began to remove subsidies for sprawl and instead steer funds toward
communities that had planned to absorb growth in a smaller, better-planned
footprint.''
New Jersey was losing open space while cities struggled to revitalize until
voters approved the 1998 bond issue which will raise more than $1 billion to
preserve 1 million acres by 2010 and the state ''took steps to make it easier
to redevelop in existing areas, reclaim industrial brownfields and adopt older
buildings for re-use.''
Not always easy, the moves gained strong bipartisan support when the public
understood their benefits such as ''holding down property tax bills, creating
alternatives to traffic congestion, creating healthy communities, and
expanding recreational and other opportunities,'' the two former governors and
National Smart Growth Council co-chairmen write, stressing the need for three
elements to ensure reform continuity ''beyond the current governor.''
There must be ''a statewide smart planning and investment framework'' codified
in law; a nongovernmental advocacy organization -- like 1,000 Friends of
Connecticut or Maryland or New Jersey or any other state -- must keep watch,
to prevent erosion of commitment to smart growth; and governments and
nonprofit groups must ''invest in an ongoing public discussion of the
issues,'' they write, crediting The Courant for ''making a tremendous
start'' in that area.
Specifically, they continue, the state leadership should focus on four goals.
It should ensure that planning happens and incorporates ''meaningful'' public
input, and that there is a state agency responsible for planning and a cabinet
post ''for coordinating state agencies overseeing transportation, environment,
housing'' and related sectors; connect transportation and land use, because
''(i)f you build communities so every activity requires a long car trip, no
amount of pavement will cure congestion;'' work with employers and businesses
on economic development, because they ''want to know that workers can find
housing and transportation close to jobs;'' and make sure ''tax policies are
working for, and not against, community and state goals,'' with too heavy
dependence on property taxes often forcing localities to take ''a
development-at-any-cost-attitude,'' and compete for commercial projects or
zone only for the most expensive housing.
''Based on what we've seen, Connecticut has the elements necessary to become a
national model for innovations in guiding growth for betterment of the state's
people,'' the two former governors conclude. ''All that is needed is public,
private and community leadership to put it in motion.'' -- Courant 7/9/2006
NORWALK — Motorists caught by police
violating the rules of the road will now have to pay an additional $10 surcharge
for their wrongdoing.
A new Connecticut law, which goes into
effect this month, will add the surcharge to every ticket issued for speeding,
failure to yield, making an illegal turn and numerous other violations.
Currently, the money earned off speeders is given to the state but the new
surcharge was added so that the municipalities who fund the work of the patrol
officers can receive the funds. The accumulated funds will be forwarded to the
municipalities four times a year.
Police Chief Harry Rilling said that the new law will probably yield
approximately $50,000 to $55,000 per year for the city. This money will be put
into the city's general fund and likely be used to hire officers for selective
motor vehicle enforcement.
"Motor vehicle enforcement is very labor
intensive because it generally involves assigning an officer or two to a
particular area to spend a significant amount of time watching for violations,"
Rilling said. "These officers are typically pulled off other duties to do this."
Speeding and other motor vehicle
violations are serious issues in Norwalk, Rilling said.
"I'm appalled at how many times I see
people blatantly go through red lights two to three seconds after the light has
turned red as if they never had any intention of stopping at all," Rilling said.
"People are not as focused on their driving as they used to be and there are
motor vehicle violations occurring all over the place."
For the past four years Senator Bob
Duff, D-25, has pushed for the approval of this legislation. Now that it has
passed, he is hopeful that Norwalk's roads will become safer for motorists and
pedestrians.
"I supported this from the beginning
because speeding is one of the biggest complaints I hear about from residents of
Norwalk and it's really a quality of life issue, but with our limited resources
we can't afford to just have police officers sit and wait for speeders," Duff
said.
The money paid to police officers who
man speed traps is primarily from the overtime budget of the department. Some of
it comes from grant money from the state awarded to departments for use in
selective motor vehicle enforcement of any kind.
Those against the law think that the
added incentive of monetary compensation for issuing tickets might lead to a
surge in tickets being given to the public.
Duff said no.
"I think the surcharge is fair and not
so outrageous that it is going to become a revenue stream for the city, but it
will provide money for the city to pay officers to increase their presence on
streets where speeding and other violations are common," Duff said.
Rilling said that regardless of the
financial returns to the city officers will not issue violations unless they are
warranted.
"There might be more tickets as result
of this but not because they are doing it for the incentive, but because there
is more money available to hire these patrols," Rilling said.
Rilling said that the law is fair
because it is punishing those who violate the law, not the law abiding taxpayer.
"I don't think it's unreasonable for the
person responsible for the violation to pay for the efforts of enforcement of
these violations," Rilling said.
Money aside, the main issue is safety
and Duff said he hopes that the availability of additional officers will
increase safety.
"I just think that this will help the
quality of life in Norwalk and make our local roads safer," Duff said.
NORWALK — The former Perkin-Elmer Corp.
property at 761 Main Ave. has been sold for $16 million, according to the Town
Clerk's office.
Perkin-spinoff Applera Corp., located at
307 Merritt 7, sold the property to i.park Norwalk LLC, c/o National Resources,
485 W. Putnam Ave., Greenwich, for $16,027,200, according to paperwork filed
with the clerk's office.
The Tax Assessor's office has the
property valued at $15.7 million on the city's 2005 Grand List of taxable
property.
Officials at National Resources could not be reached Wednesday afternoon to
comment on their plans for the property.
An image posted on the company's Web
site, however, shows a mixed-use development with a four-story apartment
building, two three-story condominium buildings, a health club with a 50-meter
indoor pool, and other space at the address, which straddles the Norwalk-Wilton
border.
According to i.park, the property lies
in a "prime location" off the Route 7-Interstate 95 Connector and a quarter mile
from the Merritt Parkway, and has good connections to the Norwalk Wheels Bus
Services and Metro-North Railroad.
The development would follow i.park's
pattern of converting corporate and industrial buildings into what it describes
as "intelligent" energy-efficient spaces that offer rents 25 percent below
market."
Projects to date include the conversion
of the Lockheed Martin property in Lake Success, N.Y., into a business campus
office. In Yonkers, i.park Hudson has resulted in 750,000 square feet of office
and flex space along the Hudson River.
The Norwalk property was once
headquarters to the Perkin-Elmer Corp., which manufactured optical equipment
for, among other things, the Hubble Space Telescope. The company was one of
Norwalk's largest employers.
The Norwalk portion of the property
spans 18 acres and includes a two-story steel-frame brick industrial building
that was constructed in 1950. The property is listed as in fair condition,
according to the Assessor's office.
The city will receive $80,136 from sale
of the property through the real-estate conveyance tax; the state will get
$160,272, said Town Clerk Andrew S. Garfunkel.
'Quality
of life' more than trite description for us
"Quality of life" has become the
buzzword phrase of the year, and it's tossed around by politicians and
bureaucrats at all levels of government. Its frequency of use may make it seem
trite, but there is something to be said for it — or at least for making it a
fact of life.
Mayor Richard A. Moccia has called for a
focus on such issues, and it's hard to fault the approach. Much of the quality
of life depends on the enforcement of existing building codes, zoning
regulations and even motor vehicle laws.
When you start talking about what an
individual does — or doesn't do — with his or her property, there's always a
danger of infringing on those rights.
We agree that there should be
enforcement of the laws as it pertains to illegal apartments, parking of
vehicles on sidewalks and even on front lawns. Whether it can be extended to
such items as an overgrown lawn is something else again.
Neighborhood associations have taken the leadership in making residents aware of
the problems in their area, and how to best work to remedy them.
How far a municipality can go in pressing property owners to clean up their act
is a question for the lawyers. We hope we're not at the stage of the "lawn
police" yet.
We have urged stricter zoning
regulations as one way of controlling development. Whether the city can develop
a "blight ordinance" remains to be seen. Blight, like beauty, too often is in
the eye of the beholder.
Along those same lines of quality of
life, we are happy to see the return of "slow down days" in Norwalk.
This means Norwalk police will be
stepping up enforcement of the speed limits, among other motor vehicle laws.
They also hope to crack down on noise
violations, particularly annoying in the summertime. Whether it's motorcyclists
or hot-rodders or just plain old jalopies with blown mufflers, they are all a
nuisance.
Now that school's out, there needs to be
special attention to speeding. With youngsters out riding bikes and the like,
drivers need to be alert.
Nothing will make an impression on a
motorist like a hefty speeding ticket.
While the police are at it, we hope they
enforce other motor vehicle laws, such as wearing seat belts, use of proper
child safety seats, observance of the "no right turn on red' signs, and the
requirement that all vehicles displays both front and rear license plates.
NORWALK — Developer Spinnaker Cos. has
appealed the Zoning Commission's rejection of its plan for multifamily housing
on the Norden site, adding to litigation against the city over the development.
"The defendant Zoning Commission denied
the application (to allow multifamily housing) despite the fact that the city of
Norwalk Planning Commission unanimously approved the amendment," reads a portion
of the appeal prepared by attorney Elizabeth A. Suchy of the Norwalk law firm
Tierney Zullo Flaherty & Murphy PC. The commission "denied the application ...
despite the undisputed and uncontroverted testimony and evidence presented to it
that industrial and manufacturing uses and tenants are no longer locating to
Fairfield County or Connecticut."
Today was the last day for Norden Place LLC — a Spinnaker spin-off — to appeal
the Zoning Commission decision made June 7. In May, Norden Place appealed the
Conservation Commission's denial of its application.
"Obviously (Norden Place) feels there are grounds for appeal and the court will
make a decision," said Zoning Commission Vice Chairman Robert Keyes, who voted
against the zoning change.
Zoning commissioners rejected the zoning
change on a 3-3 vote. A majority vote was needed for approval.
The Norden Place application, as acted
on by the Zoning Commission, called for 328 apartments and condominiums to be
built between NordenPark and the Westport border. The 38-acre parcel is now
zoned for restricted industrial use. The Zoning Commission rejected Norden
Place's request to modify zoning regulations to allow multifamily housing as an
additional use.
The 10-page appeal, filed with the Town
Clerk's office Thursday and headed to state Superior Court in Stamford,
challenges the commission's rejection of the zoning change request, as well as
denial of the site plan. After rejecting the zoning change, the commission had
by default rejected the site plan, as multifamily housing would not be permitted
on what remained industrial-zoned land.
According to the appeal, the commission
rejected the zoning change despite evidence of a need for affordable housing.
The appeal further alleges that some commission members "conducted ex-parte
discussions with outside agencies and experts after the public hearing on the
applications had been closed."
Robert F. Maslan Jr., assistant
corporation counsel for the city, received the new appeal Thursday and said he
would need time to review it before responding to specific allegations. Speaking
generally, Maslan Jr. said applicants usually do not prevail when appealing a
zoning commission's rejection of a zoning change.
"The Zoning Commission acts in a
legislative capacity and has broad discretion to grant or deny such
applications. A court is typically not going to reverse a decision by a zoning
commission on an application to change, because the court would substituting its
own discretion for the discretion of the commission," Maslan Jr. said. With "a
site plan (the question is) does it comply? Then you have a set of regulations.
Some are discretionary."
At several points, the appeal refers to
expanding the city's housing stock.
"The defendant Zoning Commission's
findings were contract to multifamily endorsed by the city of Norwalk ad-hoc
Industrial Land Task Force's recommendations," reads the appeal.
Spinnaker Cos. agreed to boost the
percentage of affordably priced units from 10 percent to 15 percent, after the
city's Industrial Zones Committee endorsed allowing multifamily housing on the
Norden site provided that 15-percent of the resulting units be priced
affordably.
Ten percent of units would target
individuals or families earning up to 80 percent of the state median income; 5
percent would be available to those earning up to 60 percent of the state median
income. The state median income now stands at about $81,000.
While proponents have pushed the
affordable housing aspect of the project, East Norwalk residents and others
maintain the development, if approved, would add to traffic along Strawberry
Hill Avenue and strain schools, emergency services and other infrastructure. The
proposed development drew largely negative reactions during an informational
presentation at the East Norwalk Library on Jan. 31.
In the Zoning Commission action June 7,
commission Chairwoman Dorothy Mobilia, Robert Hard and Karen Spencer backed the
zoning change. Keyes, Andrea Light and Patrick Shields voted no.
Mobilia said the change would place "on
the books, a 15-percent guarantee for work-force housing" — a priority for the
commission — while Shields said Norden Place could "come back with a better
proposal." Light said the Conservation Commission has "a lot of issues with the
site plan."
According to the Conservation
Commission, Norden Place provided no information to show that detention basins
would treat run-off during storms exceeding one inch of rain.
In addition to the Zoning Commission
approvals, Norden Place needs a wetlands permit from the Conservation Commission
to proceed with the development.
Zoning
panel moves could dim affordable housing outlook
By Brian Lockhart
Staff Writer
June 30, 2006
NORWALK -- Efforts to craft an affordable housing policy may have been dealt a
blow this week by some Common Council Democrats -- the same party that for years
has campaigned for cheaper housing.
The council Tuesday replaced a pair of Democratic zoning commissioners, who were
vocal affordable housing advocates, with a more conservative Republican and an
unaffiliated voter with unknown views on the subject.
One of the replaced commissioners, Chairwoman Dorothy Mobilia, ran a
subcommittee of zoning and planning commissioners who are drafting "inclusionary
zoning" policies that would require developers to build affordable units. She
had hoped to be reappointed and to finalize the regulations for presentation to
the full Zoning Commission this fall.
The Zoning Commission would then hold public hearings before deciding to
implement anything.
But according to an informal poll yesterday of the two new and five sitting
zoning commissioners, inclusionary zoning regulations will have a harder time
gaining votes.
Mobilia's departure and that of Democrat David Watts, who did not seek another
term, leaves two commissioners who support inclusionary zoning -- vice chairman
Robert Keyes and Corrine Weston, both Democrats.
Independent voter Andrea Light said she "is not supportive of mandatory
affordable (housing)" and Republican commissioners Patrick Shields and Jackie
Lightfield said they are unsure.
"I'm in favor of a diverse mixture of housing in Norwalk, but not sure how we
get there," Shields said.
Mobilia's replacement, Larry Bentley, has been involved with the Mutual Housing
Association of Southwestern Connecticut, a nonprofit agency that helps people
purchase homes, but did not want to discuss his views on affordable housing
regulations.
"I haven't even had my first meeting yet," Bentley said.
Watts' replacement, James White, who had previously served on the Zoning
Commission under former Republican Mayor Frank Esposito, said he "sees the need"
for affordable housing but does not believe it is something "that can be totally
legislated."
Both men were nominated by Republican Mayor Richard Moccia, who does not support
inclusionary zoning because he thinks it will deter developers from building in
the city.
"It's a substantial setback," said Councilman Matthew Miklave, a Democrat who
did not want to replace Mobilia.
Lightfield, who serves on Mobilia's affordable housing subcommittee, said she is
uncertain what the chairwoman's departure means for that group.
The next meeting is scheduled July 13.
"It was definitely moseying along with Dorothy's efforts," Lightfield said.
"Without someone to champion something, things get sidetracked."
Councilman Carvin Hilliard, one of several Democrats who joined the council's
Republican minority in replacing Mobilia, said he was not convinced she had done
enough since joining the Zoning Commission in 2003.
"If we thought Dorothy Mobilia was legitimately in favor of affordable housing,
it wouldn't have been a second thought," said Hilliard, who supports
inclusionary zoning. "I go by performance."
Council President Michael Coffey, also a Democrat, agreed, saying he had been
unaware of Mobilia's subcommittee and has never seen any proposed inclusionary
zoning legislation.
"As we sit here today, there is no affordable (housing) plan in place," Coffey
said. Coffey was one of five Democrats on the Common Council who voted to oust
Mobilia on Tuesday He said he disagreed with her vote to allow a zone change to
allow housing to be built on the industrially zoned Norden Park site in East
Norwalk. Mobilia had negotiated with the developers of that project to price 15
percent of the proposed 278 condominiums below market rates. Democrats have been
touting the need for affordable housing policies since 2002, soon after former
Mayor Alex Knopp's initial victory over seven-term Republican Esposito.
Knopp initially supported inclusionary zoning, at one point circulating drafts
of legislation through City Hall. But Knopp lost his enthusiasm for the effort.
Although Democrats controlled the council and land-use boards, no one else took
a leadership position on passing an inclusionary zoning regulation.
The debate was revived last year when the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency,
concerned about the future of affordable housing, hired consultant Alan Mallach
to recommend some policies for the land-use boards and Common Council to
consider. Topping Mallach's list, released late last summer, was inclusionary
zoning.
Mobilia and Planning Commission Chairman Walter Briggs formed the subcommittee
in response to the report with the aim of implementing measures to increase the
city's affordable housing stock.
The subcommittee began meeting in December and has since held a handful of
gatherings discussing affordable housing policies and gathering input from the
Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce and some developers.
Though Moccia opposes inclusionary zoning, he so far has not had enough
appointments on the land-use boards to quash any efforts to pass it.
Miklave said that is why he voted against replacing Mobilia and abstained from
backing White.
"Simply losing the knowledge base and the time Dorothy spent studying this issue
is a setback," Miklave said. "And replacing folks who support (affordable
housing) with those who don't is another setback."
Hilliard said he has served with Bentley on other city boards and is "very
comfortable" with him.
Though council Democrats have scrutinized some of Moccia's suggested
appointments to other commissions, Coffey said it was not warranted in White's
case because he was once zoning commissioner.
"In critical policy appointments to boards, a mayor should be allowed to select
some of the people he wishes to serve," Coffey said. "We're not always selecting
people because of party affiliation."
Mobilia said her subcommittee should conclude its work, whether or not the
Zoning Commission and its new members pass an inclusionary zoning regulation.
"Have the public hearings," Mobilia said. "Norwalk's getting more expensive. . .
. Present this information to the public and get their reaction."
NORWALK -- NordenPlace LLC filed a lawsuit yesterday against the city and Zoning
Commission for its decision two weeks ago that scuttled a proposed 278-unit
condominium complex at NordenPark.
Attorney Elizabeth Suchy filed the seven-page appeal in state Superior Court in
Stamford, charging that NordenPlace was denied due process and its property has
been devalued.
NordenPlace is affiliated with the Spinnaker Cos., primary developer of
Reed-Putnam, the city's largest urban renewal project.
The denial of the proposal to allow residential use of the industrially zoned
property was made "despite the undisputed and uncontroverted testimony and
evidence presented to it that the proposed multifamily use with mandatory 15
percent affordable housing would provide viable and needed affordable housing,"
the suit states.
The property is south of Interstate 95 near the Westport border.
Suchy declined to comment on the appeal, saying that the court papers spoke for
themselves.
City staff attorney Robert Maslan said he was confident that the court would
uphold the commission's decision.
"The hearings were held in accordance with the applicable statutes and
regulations," Maslan said.
On June 8, the Zoning Commission cast a 3-3 vote on a proposed amendment to
zoning regulations that would have allowed the multifamily development on the
38-acre parcel. As part of the proposal, 50 of the residential units would be
priced below market rate.
But four votes are necessary for a zone change, and the application was denied.
As a result of the denial, zoning commissioners that night also rejected a
special permit for the project's site plan, identifying where the buildings
would be placed.
Yesterday's filing was the first move NordenPlace has made on the project since
the denial.
The residential plan for the tree- and meadow-lined parcel also was denied by
the Conservation Commission in May over concerns that a storm water drainage
plan for the development could harm wetlands.
That decision was also appealed by NordenPlace in a separate lawsuit filed in
May.
The suit filed yesterday charges the Zoning Commission did not properly consider
its own criteria and state statutes for making zone changes, and that its
decision was not supported by the evidence and testimony presented.
It also says the panel disregarded evidence that the proposal would have
provided needed affordable housing, promoting housing choice and economic
diversity.
The suit noted that the panel denied the application despite the unanimous
approval it received from the Planning Commission.
The suit also says that NordenPlace was treated unfairly because some of the
commission members conducted discussions with "outside agencies and experts"
after the public hearing on the application was closed.
The suit states that the information gained from those meetings was shared with
other commission members.
To that charge, Maslan said: "The applicants right to fundamental fairness in
the consideration and decision of these two applications was not violated."
NORWALK — The Norwalk Association of
Silvermine Homeowners got a $7,000 boost Monday toward creating a historic
district and placing nearly 90 historic structures on the National Register of
Historic Places.
On Monday, Helen Higgins, executive
director of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, came to Silvermine
Tavern on Perry Avenue and presented the neighborhood association a state grant
toward the effort.
"We had a field staff work with the Norwalk Association of Silvermine Homeowners
and (we) recognized the importance and unusualness of having a three-town
historic district," Higgins said. "This is a highly significant historic area.
This is a far-reaching project."
For several years, the association, its consultant and others have worked to
create the historic district and have 88 selected properties — including
Silvermine Tavern — placed on the national register. The bulk of the properties
lie in Norwalk or New Canaan; several are in Wilton.
"It's an early settlement and it's been
a cohesive community for two centuries," said Higgins, referring to Silvermine's
history as an arts colony and milling area.
The Connecticut Trust grant will pay for
Associated Cultural Resource Consultants, the firm engaged by the neighborhood
association, to survey the properties to be included in the historic district.
"We will be doing a brief description of
each property and we'll make our argument which makes the case for historic
significance," said Phillip Esser, historic preservation consultant with
Associated Cultural Resources.
Leigh Grant, president of the Silvermine
Homeowners association, credited all of the nearly two-dozen people at the check
presentation Monday with helping land the grant. She thanked, among others,
Norwalk Mayor Richard A. Moccia and state Sen. Bob Duff, D-25, for writing
letters supporting the project.
As a lawmaker, Duff worked to boost
state funding for historic preservation efforts and recommended the Silvermine
project for the $7,000 grant.
"Historic Preservation is important to
me and very important to all the people in this room. We don't do nearly enough
to preserve our history," Duff said. "The money ... coming into Silvermine will
be well worth it."
Moccia said that while residents may
disagree on which buildings are historically valuable in Norwalk — as evidenced
by recent redevelopment battles — "it's important that all the neighborhoods
work together."
"The main point is we're looking at (the
issue)," Moccia said. "This is a great step for the Norwalk Association of
Silvermine Homeowners."
Also present were Norwalk Preservation
Trust President Tod Bryant, and Cindy Clair, executive director of the
Silvermine Guild Arts Center.
Other properties in the proposed
historic district: The Jacob St. John House (circa 1727) and most other houses
along Silvermine Avenue, houses along the Silvermine River on Perry Avenue, and
the Perry Avenue Bridge.
Grant said the history division of the
Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism will decide whether to approve the
historic district. So far, the proposed district has passed the eligibility
study.
Grant, speaking to The Hour last week,
said owners of the properties will benefit if the historic district is approved
and their homes land on the national register.
"Number one, it actually enhances your property value. It does make you eligible
for certain tax credits. It give you pride in place," Grant said. "But it does
not affect your property rights."
Flowers
gone wild: After planting is done, a meadow blossoms along I-95 exit ramp in
Norwalk
A wildflower
meadow grows on a small patch of land just before the first stop sign on Exit
14 of Interstate 95 north in Norwalk. Norwalk Clean and Green has posted a
sign asking the state not to mow the area.
(Dru Nadler/Staff photo)
By Lisa Chamoff
Staff Writer
June 26, 2006
NORWALK -- A few weeks ago, a former dumping ground and unofficial truck parking
area began to blossom.
The small patch of land, just before the first stop sign on Exit 14 of
Interstate 95 north, was once filled with big piles of trash. It is now an array
of blues and snowy whites in a wildflower meadow, thanks to the work of a
resident of the nearby Golden Hill neighborhood.
Norwalk Clean and Green, which organizes nearly 40 adopt-a-spots around the
city, sponsored by local groups and businesses, decided it was time to transform
the small area.
In April, landscape architect Michael Mushak, who owns an antique home in Golden
Hill, seeded the ground with a northeast wildflower mix of bright blue chicory
and white yarrow, along with black-eyed Susans and goldenrod that are expected
to bloom in a few weeks.
Mushak had designed a more manicured Golden Hill adopt-a-spot on the opposite
side of the road, but believed the area to the north would be better as a big
open, grassy area. By using wildflowers, it negated the need for mowing -- Clean
and Green placed a sign asking the state Department of Transportation, which
owns the property, not to mow it.
The flowers thrive under poor soil conditions, and the soil at the spot was very
compacted, Mushak said. The flowers require no maintenance, aside from Mushak's
plans to reseed the spot in September.
The concept is unusual for the area around I-95. Though the DOT doesn't plant
wildflowers, the agency does take special precautions not to mow areas with
wildflowers and certain other vegetation, such as cattails, a wetland plant, as
long as motorists can get off the highway safely, a DOT spokesman said.
"If you've got a section on the side of the highway with wildflowers and (they)
are in bloom in the spring . . . we might not mow them," DOT spokesman Kevin
Nursick said. "If there's a sensitive area, we're obviously going to take
precautions."
Mushak, who often plants wildflower meadows for clients with large lawns who may
not want to mow it all, said he has visited the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower
Center in Austin, Texas. He was inspired by the former first lady having
persuaded the state to plant wildflowers on its highways.
The concept is rare in this area, though Mushak said he has seen wildflowers
along roads in upstate New York.
Wildflower meadows often contribute to the surrounding environment, Mushak said.
"There's also a lot of songbirds that like to utilize the meadow," he said.
"They feed in there."
NORWALK -- Republican Mayor Richard Moccia's decision not to reappoint Dorothy
Mobilia as chairwoman of the Zoning Commission has split her fellow Democrats.
Council President Michael Coffey, a Democrat, is blocking Mobilia's
reappointment because she supports turning commercial land into housing. But
Mobilia's supporters say the commission would lose a strong advocate for new
affordable housing policies without hers.
The Democratic Town Committee this week took the unusual step of passing a
resolution asking Moccia to support Mobilia rather than appointing unaffiliated
voter Larry Bentley to take her place.
"One of our core values in the party has been to get more 'work force housing'
in Norwalk," Democratic Town Committee chairwoman Galen Wells said. "She's been
a responsible, thoughtful commissioner."
Moccia said despite Republicans' differences with Mobilia over her support for
affordable housing regulations, he would have reappointed her if not for
opposition from Coffey and other members of the council's Democratic majority.
"I have to work with the council," Moccia said. "Nobody in my administration or
my (party) called and said, 'We do not want Dorothy Mobilia.' That is the God's
honest truth."
A former Advocate reporter, Mobilia was appointed to the Zoning Commission in
2003 by former Mayor Alex Knopp, replacing Republican Ernest DesRochers. Her
term ends July 1.
Coffey said he opposes Mobilia in part because last month she supported a failed
zoning change to allow residential construction at the industrial NordenPark in
East Norwalk. He believes the existing industrial land should be preserved for
commercial development, despite conclusions to the contrary by city planners and
the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce.
The zoning change would have allowed NordenPlace LLC to build 278 condominiums
costing $300,000 to $500,000.
In an effort to get the change passed, the developer had agreed, after several
months of negotiations with Mobilia and the Zoning Commission, to designate 15
percent of those units as affordable. They would cost $178,000 to $239,000 for
families of four earning 60 percent or 80 percent of the state median income.
Coffey said he wants lower-cost housing built in the city, but sides with
NordenPark neighbors who said the project was too dense and being sold "in the
guise of affordable housing."
Coffey also argues the Zoning Commission under Mobilia has been too slow to
craft a "cohesive" approach to building more affordable housing.
Mobilia said Coffey's criticism of her is contradictory. On the one hand, he
says wants more affordable housing. On the other hand, he opposes the NordenPark
project, which included affordable housing.
"This is a Democrat?" Mobilia said.
She said she has been working hard to find ways to build more affordable housing
in Norwalk.
Over the past few months, Mobilia has been running a subcommittee with Planning
Commission Chairman Walter Briggs to craft a citywide inclusionary zoning
policy.
Inclusionary zoning, adopted a few years ago in Stamford, forces developers to
include a percentage of affordably priced units in their market-rate
developments or contribute money toward future projects.
Mobilia and city planners want more affordable housing to ensure the city
remains above the state threshold of 10 percent affordable units, a rule set for
all municipalities during the 1980s. Cities and towns that do not meet it are
open to lawsuits from developers whose zoning applications for high-density
housing developments that include below-market-rate units are rejected.
According to a state Department of Economic and Community Development survey
released in April, 11.45 percent, or 3,864 of Norwalk's 33,753 housing units,
qualified as affordable last year -- down from 11.77 percent, or 3,972 units, in
2004.
The goal was to a draft policy to the full Zoning Commission in August or
September. Mobilia said she hopes that work continues if she is not reappointed.
Wells said at least five of the 10 Democrats on the council would support
Mobilia. But she also faces opposition from the council's five Republicans.
"Dorothy has really been in the forefront of affordable housing regulations,"
Council Minority Leader Douglas Hempstead said. "Maybe that doesn't sit well
with everybody."
Coffey said Bentley, Mobilia's possible replacement, is "very well-qualified"
and has "bipartisan support."
A business development officer for Patriot National Bank, Bentley has been a
member of the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce's Small Business Council and a
Norwalk police commissioner.
Asked yesterday to outline his views on affordable housing, Bentley said it
would be premature.
NORWALK — A uniform facade and European
tones are part of the recently completed $250,000 facelift to the half-century
building housing Marshalls department store on Westport Avenue.
"The building itself, the way it
evolved, had (several) different types of architecture, and frankly we thought
it was an eyesore," said Michael F. DiScala, president of M.F. DiScala & Co.
Inc., the Norwalk developer that owns the building and spearheaded its exterior
overhaul. The project "was a complete makeover. We raised and lowered the
(facade) height of the building, so it would be uniform."
Gone is the disjointed look and the dull
gray roof. In their place is a uniform facade, accented columns and terracotta
tone. DiScala spotted the color in Italy.
"Most of the buildings around (Norwalk) use earth tones, which is nice, but we
thought we'd think out of the box," DiScala said.
Built in 1957, the steel-and-brick
building was once home to Grand Union Supermarket. M.F. DiScala & Co. purchased
the property about 25 years ago. After Grand Union filed for bankruptcy about
five years ago, M.F. DiScala began leasing it to Marshalls and 10 satellite
stores, DiScala said.
For an architect, DiScala & Co. turned
to Transystems Corp., an architectural and engineering firm with offices in
Norwalk. The challenge to the design team was to merge disparate buildings that
had evolved independent of one another.
"We did the design studies to develop
the transitions of the different buildings to one another. You have basically
four different buildings by different architects that needed to be
transitioned," said Jim Silvester, principal vice president with Transystems.
"That was the intent ... to basically get the look of a single building from
four different buildings."
On the color treatment, Silvester said
DiScala brought back a photographic image of a hotel in Italy. Transystems
applied the color to the renovated facade. That and treatment of the columns
resulted in a new yet recognizable look.
"Mike's intent was to basically bring a
Mediterranean architectural flavor to that building through the color and the
architectural treatment," Silvester said.
So far, at least one tenant is pleased
with the building's new look.
Won Song, owner of Elegance Drycleaning,
which moved into the building in 2003, wrote DiScala a letter thanking him for
the renovation work.
"It is more attractive than before," Won
Song told The Hour. "And they changed the sign. Before it was plastic on the
awning, but this sign is illuminated and automatically turns on and off. They
spent a lot of money for the tenants. I think it will bring a lot of customers."
DiScala hopes other property owners in
Norwalk will take notice.
"We did it out of pride of ownership. We
hope it has a ripple effect," DiScala said.
M.F. DiScala & Co., whose offices are
based in the refurbished historic Trolley Barn at 10 Wall St., is the designated
developer for the head-of-the-harbor portion of the city's Wall Street
Redevelopment Plan.
In Middletown, M.F. DiScala and & Co. are proceeding with $6 million expansion
of Millennium Business Park. The project will create a facility for
International Paper and up to 850,000 square feet overall, DiScala said.
Photo of Marshalls.pdf
NORWALK -- A proposal to build a massive housing development in an industrial
park near the Westport border failed to win a necessary zoning change last
night, effectively killing the NordenPark project.
The city's Zoning Commission split its vote 3-3 on an amendment to the city's
zoning regulations to allow multifamily housing on industrially zoned property.
Norden Place LLC principal Clay Fowler called the commission's action a "slap in
the face" and said he did not understand it. In an attempt to get the zone
change, Fowler had pledged to set aside 50 of the units as affordable housing.
Fowler said the $1 million spent to develop the proposal appeared lost, and he
questioned whether he would spend another $1 million to make another proposal.
The controversial plan to build 278 condominiums on 38 acres south of Interstate
95 was faltering after a May 16 denial of a wetlands permit for the project by
the city's Conservation Commission.
Kim Morque, another principal in Norden Place LLC, said he was disappointed by
the apparent contradiction in words and deeds over the need for affordable
housing.
"We do think that actions speak louder than words," Morque said. "The message is
there is a real disconnect between policy and action."
Before the vote, Zoning Commission Chairwoman Dorothy Mobilia expressed her
support for the zoning change, saying that a residential use for the property
would be more consistent with its surroundings than an industrial use. That view
is shared by zoning commissioners in Westport, she said.
Citing the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce's support for the zoning change,
Mobilia told the commission that, according to chamber Executive Director Ed
Musante, only 16 percent of Norwalk jobs are industrial.
Commission member Andrea Light was unconvinced.
Light said judging by the success of NordenPark's other tenants -- Gibbs
College, radar manufacturer Norden Systems and tour travel company Tauck World
Discovery -- she didn't see the need for the zoning change.
Commission member Patrick Shields said because the Conservation Commission had
turned down the wetlands permit, Norden Place would have to come back with a new
proposal.
By denying the project its wetlands permit, largely because of storm water
drainage concerns, the Conservation Commission last month effectively killed the
project as it is written.
Last week, Norden Place LLC filed an appeal of that decision in state Superior
Court in Stamford, alleging it was made illegally.
Legal sources said the appeal could take 18 months or longer in the courts.
Shields described the zone change as a "stick" that could be used to sweeten the
developer's offer.
"Hopefully, they will come back with a better proposal," he said.
After the meeting, Fowler said zoning decisions shouldn't be made by threat but
by collaboration.
Shields, Light and Robert Keyes voted against the zone change; Mobilia, Karen
Spencer and Robert Hard voted to approve.
Planning Commission Chairman Walter Briggs said he was disappointed by the vote.
He said he hoped Norden Place would return with another plan.
NORWALK -- The developer trying to build 273 residential units at NordenPark is
appealing the Conservation Commission's rejection of its application.
The appeal, filed in state Superior Court in Stamford by Norden Place LLC,
states the commission acted illegally in denying a wetlands permit for the
condominium project.
The city's Zoning Commission is scheduled to decide whether the proposed 38-acre
site of industrial-zoned land can be used for multifamily housing.
The panel also is scheduled to decide whether it should approve a special permit
for the development, proposed to be built along the Westport line and Interstate
95.
The six-page appeal said the developer was denied a fair hearing and the
commission's decision unfairly diminishes the property's value.
The suit also said the commission made findings inconsistent and contrary to
evidence and testimony presented at the public hearing.
City staff attorney Robert Maslan denied the allegations made in the suit and
said the Conservation Commission's May 16 decision denying Norden Place a
wetlands permit was "very defensible."
"The applicant and interested private parties had a fair opportunity to present
evidence to the commission as regards the state statutes and local regulations
regarding inland wetland applications," Maslan said.
Norden Place principal Clay Fowler declined to comment.
In its decision, the commission said Norden Place failed to ensure the proposed
development would not significantly affect wetlands and watercourses.
According to commission consultants, the storm water management plan for the
project would be able to handle the first inch of rainfall. But additional rain
falling onto the property once the project is built, could harm wetlands.
When it rains more than an inch, "the proposed detention basins would not
provide storage of runoff or provide any further water quality treatment," the
commission ruled.
As a result, a large storm could significantly change how much water existing
wetlands on the property would have to absorb.
Norden Place consultants disagreed, saying their plan would not significantly
change the amount of water runoff the property now produces.
The commission's consultants said they could not verify the developer's claim
without additional information.
The commission suggested Norden Place come up with a new application minimizing
development within 50 feet of wetlands and watercourses. It also said that
Norden Place should increase the capacity of its storm water management system
to provide treatment when it rains more than an inch.
Connecticut's economic future is intimately linked with its
environmental future, according to state Department of Environmental
Protection
Commissioner Gina McCarthy.
Economic growth and the protection of natural resources are not separate
missions -- those who shape both agendas must work together, McCarthy told
area business leaders at the Stamford Marriott yesterday during a luncheon
organized by The Business Council of Fairfield County
The quality of life and the health of state residents are at stake, as is the
ability for business to flourish, she said.
The DEP, under McCarthy's leadership, will not be a regulatory agency that
merely reacts to problems, she said. McCarthy, who was appointed DEP
commissioner 18 months ago, is aggressively implementing programs and ideas to
help shape Connecticut's long-term environmental future.
"We need to have an agenda," she said of her agency. "We need to be proactive.
We need to insert ourselves at the table where decisions are being made,"
The role of environmental regulators has changed from the days of the 1960s
and 1970s, when traditional, industrial sources of pollution pumped
black smoke into the air and toxic waste into rivers.
"These were big visible issues," she said. Today's environmental challenges
are less conspicuous, but the consequences of ignoring them are just as
devastating.
McCarthy said one of her primary focuses is the issue of urban sprawl, which
she describes as "the greatest threat to the natural resources of this state."
She has launched the Landscape Stewardship program in an effort to influence
land-use patterns in the state by providing support and environmental
awareness training to local boards and commissions.
The goal, she said, isn't to take away a municipality's independence on
land-use decisions. "It's getting them the support they need to think through
their growth issues," McCarthy said.
One of the EPA's major efforts is to encourage revitalization of urban areas,
which will keep new construction away from precious grasslands and open space,
said McCarthy.
She has hired a brownfield redevelopment liaison for the DEP, and worked to
revise regulations that block urban redevelopment.
A big concern, particularly for the lower Fairfield County region, is air
quality. "Fairfield County is right in the middle of the worst air quality our
state faces," she said.
Air pollution in this area comes from the traffic that clogs the roadways, and
the air that floats into the region from New York City and New Jersey
exacerbates the problem, she said.
A further complication is the region's quest to increase its energy supply.
McCarthy said she will not tolerate harming the environment for the sake of
bringing in more power.
"We are short on energy, but high on air pollution," said McCarthy, who
congratulated the business council for its efforts in energy conservation. The
council is spearheading the largest office building energy conservation
initiative in the country.
"The work you are doing on energy efficiency is absolutely critical if we are
going to make our way forward on this energy crisis," she said.
After McCarthy addressed the group, Christopher Bruhl, president and chief
executive of the business council, said he was encouraged that the
commissioner is concentrating on creating a common dialogue.
Environmental and energy concerns are interwoven, Bruhl said. "These are
different parts of the same decision. They have to be approached together."
NORWALK — As a follow-up to the weeklong
"slow days" the city held last month, motorists will face a week of slow and
quiet days beginning June 22, Mayor Richard A. Moccia told a neighborhood group
Thursday night.
Moccia said police handed out around 400
tickets for a variety of violations during the week of increased traffic laws
enforcement, and in June they'll be using decibel meters to make sure noise from
engines and stereo systems don't exceed the city's noise ordinance.
Moccia said his only regret was that the
city does not receive any of the money paid in fines for traffic violations. If
it did, he said, the city could conduct weeklong slow and quiet days seven times
a year, instead of four.
Moccia's announcement came in response
to a question raised Thursday night during his appearance before a neighborhood
group in the East Norwalk library. About 20 people attended the program, which
was sponsored jointly by the East Norwalk Neighborhood Association and the East
Norwalk Business Association.
Moccia said the city intends to hire "as
many youths as we can find meaningful jobs for" this summer, with at least 150
being employed by city departments, social service agencies and local
businesses.
He said about $100,000 has been raised
to employ youths, and it may be necessary to dip into city funds to cover the
cost of the hiring program. To save money, he said this summer the program will
be managed by City Hall staff, instead of hiring an administrator.
The mayor added that with cutbacks in
funds from the state and federal governments, the only way to operate such
programs is to obtain funds and assistance from businesses, nonprofit agencies,
volunteers and local government.
Stating "resource officers work," Moccia
expressed confidence that the placement of specially trained police officers —
called resource officers — in Norwalk and Brien McMahon high schools next year
will "make kids feel safer and more confident." He emphasized the officers would
not be there to arrest students.
Including the resource officers, Moccia
said the city will have nine more police officers next year.
Responding to a question about the
ability to evacuate East Norwalk in an emergency, Moccia said the city has a
comprehensive emergency preparedness plan covering the first three days of an
emergency.
"We want (the city) to be able to
function for a minimum of three days," he said.
Moccia said plans to revitalize areas of
the city with new housing, offices and retail space were necessary to limit
increases in property taxes. He said new construction along West Avenue will
turn it into a "city within a city," where residents "won't have to get into
their cars to go somewhere."
Moccia said the boom in construction of
condominiums would have a limited impact on the school population because the
number of kids living in condominiums was only about one-fifth of those who
reside in "normal housing."
Moccia said Norwalk ranks 41st in funds
the state's municipalities receive from the state and federal governments. With
86 percent of the city's budget covered by property taxes, Moccia said, "We're
just not getting our fair share of federal and state funds."
Asked what has surprised him the most after five months in office, Moccia said
it was the number of people who come to City Hall each day wanting to see him.
He said his desk was "like a bunny farm," because an hour after he clears it
off, it's covered with papers again.
NORWALK — A month after residents
sounded off against large homes on small lots, the city's Zoning Commission has
approved additional lot-coverage restrictions.
"(Residents) point to houses that
already have been built that dwarf (neighboring) houses. We attempted to address
the concern. We feel that this is a good starting point and we will study
further the ramifications of height," said commission Chairwoman Dorothy Mobilia
after approval of the restrictions Wednesday night. "The coverage on lots we
think will address some of the worries of folks who live in these neighborhoods
where these buildings are going up."
In B Residence zones, 35-percent maximum
buildout is permitted on lots up to 6,250 square feet. For lots measuring 6,251
to 8,250 square feet, 35-percent coverage is allowed for the first 6,250 square
feet, and 30-percent coverage will be allowed for lot area above that. On lots
greater than 8,250 square feet, 35-percent buildout is permitted on the first
6,250 square feet, and 25-percent buildout will be permitted for square footage
beyond that.
For instance, on an 8,250-square-foot
lot in a B Residence zone, a building footprint may exceed no more than 2,787
square feet.
Similar sliding scales will apply to the
C and D Residence zones, under the lot coverage restrictions approved by the
Zoning Commission on Wednesday night.
About 100 people packed the Common
Council chambers of City Hall last month during a public hearing on the proposed
restrictions.
Rowayton Advocates for Zoning collected
nearly 600 signatures from residents urging the commission to adopt the
restrictions before Rowayton loses its "small village feel." The majority of the
speakers at the hearing endorsed the restrictions.
"What this ... is trying to eliminate is
the real monster houses," said Rowayton Advocates Co-chairwoman Julie Burton,
reacting to the approval of the lot coverage restrictions this week. "This is a
huge step in the right direction, and we would really like to see the height
restrictions passed."
Commissioners postponed action on the
proposed height restrictions.
Under existing regulations, pitched-roof
midpoints may reach no higher than 35 feet. Under the proposed revisions,
midpoint heights would be limited to 28 or 32 feet, depending upon the zone.
Overall roof heights would be limited to 38 feet.
"At the committee level, they could not
reach a consensus as to whether they should reduce the height," said Michael B.
Greene, the city's planning and zoning director. "That's the issue before the
commission: Should there be a limit and what it should be."
Greene said the Planning and Zoning Department drafted the additional height and
lot coverage restrictions, after the Planning Commission raised the issue as
part of its work on updating Norwalk's Master Plan of Conservation and
Development. The update, slated for completion this year, will guide development
for the next decade.
NORWALK — The Common Council's Planning Committee on Thursday night recommended
yanking from Norwalk's unfolding 2006-07 capital budget $1.72 million aimed at
designing a new fire headquarters.
"I
do not take (my) proposal to delete $1.7 million for the new central fire
station lightly," said Matthew T. Miklave, committee chairman. "I am prepared to
consider funding by special appropriation a study with respect to the new fire
station."
"The concern that I have is the following: In order to fund this fire station,
we are using all of our capital surplus money, $4.75 million. We're also using
all of the funds generated from the sale of a key city asset — the Volk Fire
station — $4.3 million," Miklave added.
In
a vote along party lines — Democrats for, Republicans against — the committee
passed Miklave's motion to remove the $1.72 million sought by Fire Chief Denis
McCarthy and backed by Mayor Richard A. Moccia as part of a package of changes
that removed $1.3 million from the mayor's recommended capital budget of $12.75
million. The council must adopt the budget this month.
"The resolution passed, so there's no money for any work," McCarthy said
afterward. "I think that we've demonstrated that the (Volk station) is in
deplorable condition. The cost of the (new) station will increase and the cost
of the study is an added expense. I believe we made a convincing argument and
offered a viable compromise."
At
issue is whether the city should sell the Charles A. Volk Fire Station property
at 121 Connecticut Ave. and build an estimated $14 million new headquarters at
the site of the Fire Support Services Facility at 100 Fairfield Ave. — or follow
through with a $4.1 million plan launched under former Mayor Alex Knopp to
renovate both locations. Renovation costs since have climbed to $5.6 million.
Earlier this week, McCarthy indicated that $600,000 would suffice to launch
design work and nail down the accuracy of the $14-million estimate. He planned
to come back to the council in December and request the balance of the $1.72
million if the results of the design work merited further expenditures.
Thursday night's debate, however, demonstrated that council members are not
unanimous about building a new fire headquarters.
Miklave, referring to the proposed new headquarters, said there is a difference
between "can we afford it and do we need it." He said he remains unconvinced of
the needs amid requests to fix roads, replace school technology, build a fire
substation to serve the northern section of the city and other priorities.
Councilman Nicholas D. Kydes, a Republican on the committee, fired back with a
raised voice.
"The point here is that the fire department's needs are the needs which are
frankly your needs, my needs, everybody's needs. And that's the need of safety,"
Kydes said. "You're going to spend my tax dollars for another study that's going
to procrastinate or postpone this project, which will cause me as a taxpayer
another potentially 10 to 20 percent more in construction costs ... to protect
the well-being of every citizen in this city."
McCarthy stood firmly by his request for a new headquarters.
"Significant elements of both buildings would go untouched. There would be no
additional square footage added to the Volk station," said McCarthy referring to
the earlier renovation plan. "Really, this was, 'What can you do for $4.1
million?'"
McCarthy said a new headquarters would allow his department to "do more with the
resources I have. I think that it is a good plan for the city of Norwalk and
that its a good plan for the Fire Department."
City Finance Director Thomas S. Hamilton said he believes the city can afford
building the estimated $14 million headquarters based on changes that have
occurred since last year.
Those changes include an appraisal of the Volk station property which puts its
value at at least $4.2 million and a higher-than-anticipated growth in the
city's capital fund balance. To build the headquarters, the city would now have
to bond slightly more than $5 million, Hamilton has calculated.
In
other changes recommended by Miklave to the capital budget, the committee
restored $50,000 to fix a retaining wall along Perry Avenue, $80,000 to plan
traffic-calming measures for Strawberry Hill Avenue and $250,000 for new
computers at Norwalk High School and elsewhere.
The latter restoration
brings technology funding close to the $875,000 requested by the school board
and schools Superintendent Salvatore J. Corda.
NORWALK -- After two months of neighborhood organizing, Lexington Avenue
homeowners Rafael Degro and Milargos Navarro are beginning to see improvements.
Parking rules on the once-neglected South Norwalk residential street are now
more strictly enforced. Tickets have been written for littering and drinking in
public, abandoned cars have been towed, and police are now seen walking the
tree-lined beat instead of driving through it.
The city recently made a property owner near Ely Avenue erect a chain-link fence
around a watery open pit where a house was torn down last year. And on Saturday,
the neighborhood will hold a junk day, when residents can get rid of old
furniture and appliances.
Degro, a handyman and father of five, and Navarro, a mother of two who runs
Julie's restaurant in East Norwalk, said they helped start the new Lexington
Avenue Neighborhood Association because they wanted something better for their
kids.
During the past two months, Degro and Navarro have held five meetings attended
by about 10 active members.
"Thirty years ago, Lexington Avenue was a beautiful place. We want to bring the
neighborhood back to the way it was, a quiet neighborhood where everyone knows
each other," Degro said.
Residents said the street had been plagued by drug dealing and gang activity,
particularly after criminals were swept off South Main Street when the new
police station opened in May. Lexington Avenue needed someone to watch over it.
In January, Cesar Ramirez, a community police officer with nearly 19 years on
the force, began patrolling Lexington and Ely avenues when his beat changed.
One of the first things he did was seek out residents to organize the Lexington
Avenue Neighborhood Association.
"While conducting a review of the district, I realized that to improve the
quality of life in the community, we needed to empower an organization," Ramirez
said.
Ramirez found Degro, Navarro and several others before calling a meeting in
January at police headquarters attended by 16 people.
"They all agreed that it was time to put together an organization that would
really care for the community," Ramirez said.
Degro and Navarro said they hope the neighborhood organization can turn back the
clock on the street, whose faded charm is closely tied to its tightly spaced
two-story homes that spill out onto Lexington Avenue.
Through the '40s, '50s and '60s, Lexington Avenue -- intersected by Lubrano,
Olean, Kossuth, Austin, Snowden, Laura and Hemlock streets -- was an Italian and
Hungarian enclave.
Ginger Sollazzo Raymond remembers when grocery stores and butcher shops dotted
the residential street.
With a dozen or more cousins living around her when she was growing up on the
street in the '50s and '60s, Raymond said, "It was a wonderful, wonderful way of
life."
"They would have feasts and street parties. On saints days, we would parade on
the street. It was like Little Italy in New York City," said Raymond, who owns
Chatham Manor catering hall.
Degro and Navarro said they hope that after years of neglect, Lexington Avenue
will have street fairs and greeters to welcome new residents.
"I hope everyone comes out and takes action in the neighborhood," Degro said.
City Neighborhood Improvement Coordinator David Shockley said Degro and Navarro
have been working hard to sign up volunteers for the neighborhood's Saturday
trash pickup.
"They get to know one another and understand their concerns, and it makes a
tighter neighborhood. We have seen this in other neighborhoods like Golden
Hill," Shockley said. "They communicate more, and it makes a closer
neighborhood."
"When they see us start to do something, they will come out and help us,"
Navarro said.
Residents of Lexington Avenue, Lubrano, Olean, Kossuth, Austin, Snowden, Laura
and Hemlock streets who want to get rid of furniture, appliances and other bulky
items should put them on the sidewalk Friday night. Department of Public Works
will not accept items placed on the curb after 8 a.m. Saturday.
Residents must help load the trucks.
Other bulky waste cleanup days are scheduled for Woodward Avenue on April 8;
Golden Hill neighborhood, April 22; West Main Street, April 29; South Main
Street, May 13; and the Spring Hill neighborhood around Kendall School, June 3.
NORWALK — Members of the public will
have their say next month on revised plans for the Norden Place housing
development.
The Conservation Commission granted the
developer's request to defer resumption of a public hearing on its proposed
328-unit housing development until April 11. Because the revised plans contain
new information, the public can once again sound off, said Anne Cagnina, acting
chairwoman of the commission.
Norden Place LLC requested an additional
two weeks to prepare its rebuttal, to address concerns raised by the commission
and members of the public Feb. 29. The commission deferred the developer's
rebuttal period after its presentation and public comment ran until 11 p.m. Feb.
28.
The developer's attorneys acknowledged
questions surrounding the development's density, intrusion into buffer areas and
provisions for retention of stormwater runoff. The new plans will scale back
development on the wooded, 38-acre property situated between NordenPark and the
Westport border, attorneys said.
"These changes would include the
elimination of (two mid-rise buildings) and replacement with townhouse product,
thereby reducing overall density by approximately 50 units," wrote Frank N.
Zullo, an attorney for the developer, in a letter to a commission staffer. The
changes "will result in a lesser intrusion into the buffer areas and a reduction
of overall coverage and parking requirements."
While the plans are still being
modified, Norden Place hopes to submit its revisions to the commission by March
31, said Elizabeth Suchy, an attorney for the developer.
Norden Place, led by Spinnaker Real
Estate Partners, LLC, needs the Conservation and Zoning commissions' assent to
build multi-family housing on the land, now zoned for industrial purposes.
The Conservation Commission is charged
with protecting Norwalk's inland wetlands and watercourses. The Norden property
contains numerous wetlands.
In a letter to the Zoning Commission
earlier this month, Cagnina lobbied for the removal of 11 acres of wetlands from
the density calculation formula. That change would leave room for 240 units,
likely still 38 short of the revised proposal to be offered by Norden Place.
GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc. of Vernon, a
consulting firm hired by the Conservation Commission, reviewed the developer's
stormwater management and erosion control plans. While GZA said the engineering
is sound, it requested information on 30 points within the drainage plan.
The city's Industrial Zones Committee
endorsed the rezoning, provided 15 percent of the units qualify as affordable
housing. Spinnaker has agreed to the request.
Commission members said they will need
time to examine the new plans.
"There would be an understanding that
should we ... need additional time, you will grant us an extension," Cagnina
said.
An attorney for the developer said
Norden Place would not oppose such an extension.
The public hearing will resume April 11
at City Hall in the Community Room.
Staff writer Patrick R. Linsey can be
reached via e-mail at plinsey@thehour.com.
NORWALK — Norden Place LLC has asked the
Conservation Commission to push back a public hearing on its proposed 328-unit
housing development for the Norden site from tonight to next month, as it
considers paring its plan by 50 units.
The public hearing, which began Feb. 28
and is set to resume tonight with a rebuttal from developer Norden Place, is now
in the hands of commissioners.
"We haven't seen any changes to what
they've proposed. We will open the continuation of the (Feb. 28) public hearing,
and then we will vote on whether we want to continue to April 11," said Anne
Cagnina, Conservation Commission acting chairwoman. "It would give (Norden
Place) time to submit and for us to review whatever the changes would be."
Attorney Frank N. Zullo, who represents
Norden Place, said the developer reviewed the report from the city's consultant
and also comments heard at the earlier hearing. As a result, Norden Place has
"been made aware of the following major areas of concern" over density, degree
of intrusion into wetlands, and additional provision for stormwater runoff,
wrote Zullo in a letter to Conservation Commission Senior Environmental Analyst
Alexis Cherichetti.
"In a good faith effort to address these
concerns, we are considering adjustments to our site plan. These changes would
include the elimination of mid-rise buildings A-1 and C-1 and replacement with
townhouse product, thereby reducing overall density by approximately 50 units,"
Zullo wrote.
The changes would result in the
opportunity for on-site water detention, creation of additional areas for
stormwater re-charge, less intrusion into buffer areas, and a reduction in
overall coverage and parking requirements, Zullo wrote.
Norden Place, led by Spinnaker Real
Estate Partners LLC, needs Conservation and Zoning commission approvals to build
multi-family housing on the largely wooded, 38-acre parcel that lies between
NordenPark and the Westport border. The land, now zoned for restricted
industrial use, contains numerous wetlands.
The Conservation Commission hired GZA
GeoEnvironmental Inc. of Vernon to review the stormwater management and
erosion-control plans submitted by Norden Place. GZA found that "the engineering
design appears to follow good engineering practices," but asked that the
consultant provide additional information on 30 points within the Norden Place
drainage plan.
Earlier this month, Cagnina wrote the
Zoning Commission, urging removal of 11 acres of wetlands from the density
calculation formula. For the Norden development, that would leave room for 240
units rather than the 328 units. A lower density residential use would be more
desirable "because the environmental impacts are typically reduced," she wrote.
Norden Place has pitched the housing
development as a means to offer a variety of housing types on land that likely
will not be used for industrial purposes, given changing economic patterns. The
city's Industrial Zones Committee has endorsed the requested rezoning provided
that 15 percent of the resulting units be priced as affordable. Spinnaker Cos.
has agreed.
"There are concerns about density," said
Spinnaker Cos. principal Clayton H. Fowler. "We are looking at modifications to
the plan in response to comments heard."
Zullo, in his letter to Cherichetti, wrote that Norden Place will try to
complete the plan revisions and deliver them to the Conservation Commission
office by March 31. He has asked that the revisions be treated as related to
Norden Place's rebuttal rather than as new information for the commission.
WESTON —A father of two is being held on
$1 million bond as a suspect in a bombing that exploded through Weston Friday
night and might be a suspect in the "monstrous" bombing that ripped through
Norwalk Friday afternoon.
The Weston Police Department arrested
Bruce Forest, 49, of 10 Spring Valley Road, in the driveway of his home Friday
night. He had attempted to run from police officers when he was seen driving
away from the area in Weston where the explosion occurred.
Police found a loaded rifle in his
vehicle and after conducting a search of his home, "seized numerous other
weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition and computers," said police chief
Anthony Land.
Meanwhile, the Norwalk Police Department
was in Weston Saturday and determined that Forest's car is the one eyewitnesses
described leaving the scene of the Norwalk explosion, Land said.
Norwalk Police Chief Harry Rilling did
not return calls by press time.
Forest was arrested at approximately 11
p.m. after Weston police received multiple calls of a loud explosion in the area
of Georgetown Road and Samuelson Road, Land said.
The Redding Police Department also
assisted in the arrest.
Land said Forest seemed "contrite" and
was "cooperating" with the police investigation.
The police chief said he couldn't
speculate as to why Forest allegedly set off the explosive in Weston.
The explosion in Weston caused damage to
the rear of an unoccupied building that used to be the Midtown Service Station
at 107 Georgetown Road.
The explosion in Norwalk occurred at the
front left entrance of a vacant building at 73 Strawberry Hill Ave.
The building, the site of the former
Norwalk Care & Rehabilitation Center, is boarded up and a popular hangout for
youths. The explosion shook houses and knocked one man sitting in his living
room out of his chair.
"He didn't put anything where anyone
could get hurt," Land said.
The explosion closed down Georgetown
Road in Weston for hours as members of the Connecticut State Police Bomb Squad
collected evidence and checked the area for additional explosive material.
Eyewitnesses had described the suspect
in the Norwalk bombing as a white or Hispanic man, approximately 5 feet 10
inches tall, approximately 27 years old and wearing sunglasses.
He was seen leaving the scene in a
silver BMW.
Land said Forest had been under police
radar for more than two weeks. Weston police have been working with Redding
police, the Aquarian Police Department, the Connecticut State Police Fire
Marshal office and the FBI on a series of explosions that began in October,
2005, Land said.
"We learned a lot about him," he said.
Land said the explosions last year
destroyed a number of portable toilets located on the Aquarian Bridgeport
property adjacent to the Saugatuck reservoir.
He said Forest is a suspect in those
bombing and police expect to make additional charges against him.
Calls to Forest's home went unanswered.
Forest is currently charged with the
manufacture of bombs, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, unlawful
discharge of a firearm, possession of a dangerous weapon, use of a firearm in
the commission of a felony, second-degree criminal trespass, second-degree
reckless endangerment, third-degree arson, second-degree criminal mischief and
speeding.
He will appear Monday in Norwalk
Superior Court.
Land termed the arrest and the
investigation as police work performed in the "trenches."
"The cops did a great job," he said. "It
was a great team effort."
Staff writer James S. Walker can be reached at (203) 354-1004 or jswalker@thehour.com
NORWALK — The city may churn nearly $4.5
million into road repairs for fiscal year 2006-07, after public works officials
located additional dollars this week.
"After having our Department of Public
Works director review expenses for all road project accounts since 2002, it has
now been determined that not all of the past budgeted money has been utilized,"
Mayor Richard A. Moccia said Friday.
Road repaving and reconstruction dollars
now stand at $2.55 million in the city's unfolding 2006-07 capital budget.
Director of Public Works Harold F. Alvord sought $4.89 million for roadwork for
the fiscal year starting July 1.
Moccia said the review of road project
accounts over the last four years has found $1.267 million leftover from fiscal
year 2005-06 and an additional $659,000. He said the "found" money, although
encumbered, can be used for 2006-07, as the projects for which the dollars were
intended were completed under budget.
As a result, roads can be paved "without
an additional strain" on the capital budget, and the city can maximize its
paving program, Moccia said.
"Roads are a priority but so are the
taxpayers' dollars, and by moving cautiously and reviewing all accounts, we are
acting prudently," Moccia said.
Overall, the public works engineers have
identified 38 streets for repaving or reconstruction for fiscal year 2006-07.
The Common Council earlier this month
returned to its Finance Committee a Moccia-supported request to shift $100,000
from installing speed humps toward repaving East Avenue south of Interstate 95.
The city last fall paved the south part of the busy north-south thoroughfare.
Democrats, who hold 10 of 15 council
seats, asked Moccia and the city's finance director to look elsewhere for the
repaving dollars, and leave the $100,000 intact for traffic calming. On Friday,
Moccia indicated that may occur.
"We may just leave the (dollars) alone
and use the money for other traffic-calming measures such as road striping,"
Moccia said. The council will decide, he said.
Douglas E. Hempstead, council minority
leader, for years has pushed to boost capital budget funding for road repaving
and reconstruction. In January, he praised Alvord's $4.89 million request. On
Friday, he welcomed location of additional dollars.
"I am the happiest camper alive,"
Hempstead said.
The city must boost its annual expenditure for roads from $2 million to $5
million, if it is to stem the pace of their deterioration, according to Alvord.
NORWALK — A $500,000 grant awarded to
Elderhouse by the state of Connecticut to expand its services for senior
citizens might be tossed out the window because of a decision by the Zoning
Board of Appeals Thursday night.
The board voted 4-1 to deny a request to
grant seven variances to Elderhouse to construct a 2,400-square-foot addition to
its building that sits on property owned by the First Congregational Church on
the Green.
Variances, which allow an applicant to
bypass zoning regulations, are granted when an applicant proves hardship and
also proves there are no other options available.
The board denied the request without
prejudice, which gives Elderhouse another opportunity to present its case.
Elderhouse wants to add a sunroom,
library and four-season porch to help make the adult day care more relaxing and
user-friendly for its clients.
The expansion would be built on
"sloping, downhill property" abutting Lewis Way that is owned by the 1st Taxing
District.
Denise Cesareo, executive director of
Elderhouse, said the center has the full support of the church and the taxing
district.
"Each gave us a little flexibility in
the design," she said. "We thought we had proved our case."
ZBA chairman Anne Carbone was not
available for comment, but commission member Gordon Tully disagrees with
Cesareo's assessment of Elderhouse's presentation before the board.
"I don't think they were well prepared,"
he said. "There was no evidence of the attempts they made to develop other
options."
Tully said the board is "200 percent"
behind Elderhouse but "variances run with the property" and not the building
that sits on the property.
Tully said Elderhouse's lease with the
church expires in about 10 years, but Cesareo did not present evidence the
church would enter into another long-term agreement. She also did not provide an
opportunity for anyone from the taxing district to explain why the expansion
couldn't be constructed on another piece of property owned by the district in a
location near the one cited that would be a better fit.
"We didn't have a sense that they had
done their due diligence," Tully said. "There was no point-by-point presentation
of what they put into it or if they had exhausted all other options. We did not
have the tools to allow us to help them."
Tully said to his knowledge the ZBA was
not aware of a $500,000 grant. The board suggested a move to larger quarters or
starting a second Elderhouse in a different location.
But Cesareo said the church gives
Elderhouse "a favorable lease" and it would be impossible to find another
location with the "ground space" they have with their current lease terms. She
added moving would require additional monthly expenses that would have to be put
toward overhead and not on services.
"It (the church lease) allows us to take
care of people rather than pay overhead," she said. "I don't understand this.
Elderhouse was built by this community for this community."
Elderhouse has been around for close to
30 years. It is the oldest free-standing adult day care center in Connecticut,
which means it's not attached to a nursing facility.
The center gives families that take care
of senior citizens a place where their loved ones are provided for during the
day while they're off working or taking care of daily functions.
Elderhouse provides medical treatment,
social interaction and helps seniors with their emotional, physical and
nutritional needs.
About 70 percent of its clients have
Alzheimer's disease; the rest have had strokes, heart attacks and Parkinson's
disease and need assistance in some form with daily living activities.
The day care center provides for
approximately 40 senior citizens a day. The expansion would allow the facility
to serve an additional 20 seniors.
Cesareo said she is unsure what's next
for Elderhouse but will discuss options with her attorney.
Meanwhile, Cesareo said she's committed
to keeping Elderhouse at its present location but with baby boomers set to
retire, the adult day care center must be ready to accommodate the growing
number of city's senior citizens in need of services.
"We must be prepared for the years to come," she said. "We must do this for
Norwalk."
NORWALK — A city man was charged with
reckless driving after a head-on collision on Strawberry Hill Avenue Thursday
night police said he caused by losing control of his car and veering into the
oncoming lane of traffic.
Police said Christopher Umpierre, 22, of
County Street, was driving a Volkswagen Jetta south on Strawberry Hill Avenue
near Scofield Street when he crossed into the northbound lane and collided with
a 2005 Nissan Altima driven by a Milford man.
Umpierre and the other driver,
27-year-old Marvin Vasquez, were transported by ambulance to Norwalk Hospital.
Umpierre was released following treatment. Hospital spokeswoman Maura Romaine
said Vasquez was admitted and was listed in good condition Friday.
The accident was reported at 10:52 p.m.
Umpierre's Jetta came to rest on its roof. A field of shattered debris from both
cars lay fanned out across the road for a distance of at least 40 feet.
Police spokesman Robert Bardos said a
report of the incident written by the investigating officer said Umpierre told
him he was rounding a curve and felt his car lose control, possibly because of
striking a pothole. The report said officers found no large potholes in the
road.
Standing on his front lawn observing the
accident scene, Strawberry Hill Avenue resident David Park said it was ironic
the crash occurred during "Slow Down Days," during which police were strictly
enforcing speed limits at various locations throughout the city. Next to Park
was a handdrawn sign on his lawn that said, "SLOW DOWN," which he installed in
support of the anti-speeding program.
Park said numerous car accidents have
occurred near his home in the 21 years he's lived there, an observation
confirmed by his next-door neighbor, Don Burns. Both pointed to spots in front
of their homes where they said accidents had occurred.
Burns said that after hearing Thursday
night's crash, he came out of his house and saw the driver of the Jetta getting
out of the car by "crawling through the windshield." He said he thought the
other driver was trapped in his car because he heard a lot of screaming.
After being charged, Umpierre was
released on a promise to appear in court April 6.
Explosion rocks Norwalk neighborhood Police investigate abandoned building site
By LEE HIGGINS
Hour Staff Writer
NORWALK — City police are investigating
to determine who set off an explosive device Friday at the front left entrance
of a vacant building at 73 Strawberry Hill Ave., shaking nearby houses and
knocking one neighbor out of a chair.
At about 3:57 p.m., Al Scofield, 63, who
lives on Scofield Place, across the street from the building, heard a "very
loud" explosion while sitting in his living room, he said.
"It managed to put me out of my chair,"
he said. "That's how bad the explosion was."
Within five seconds, Scofield rushed out
into Scofield Place to find out what happened and saw a shiny silver BMW with
fancy rims race past him with its trunk open at an estimated 50 mph. He said the
driver stopped the car, exited, slammed the trunk closed, got back in and raced
back down Scofield Place, heading north on Strawberry Hill Avenue.
Scofield described the man as a white or
Hispanic, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, 27 years old and wearing
sunglasses. He said it sounded like a case of dynamite exploded.
"It was monstrous," he said. "It really
was. I'm not exaggerating ... That was something to feel it like that."
City firefighters, police officers and
paramedics responded to the scene and the Stamford Police Department's bomb
squad was called in to inspect the building.
Norwalk Police Chief Harry Rilling had
no immediate comment. Alex Lametta, 16, was at his house on Strawberry Hill
Avenue just down the street when he heard the explosion.
"There was this big explosion," he said.
"A little bit of smoke. Really, really big rumble, shook my whole house. It was
loud. It shook it like crazy, enough that my dad explained he thought it was an
earthquake."
Elvie Funicello, 17, who lives on nearby
Beacon Street, said her room started "rocking a little bit."
Rebecca Urban, 14, who lives on Woodland
Court said her "whole house shook" and she went out and saw gray smoke toward
the top of the building.
Mayor Richard A. Moccia, who also
responded to the scene, said fortunately no one was hurt. The building, the site
of the former Norwalk Care & Rehabilitation Center, is boarded up and is a
popular hangout for youths, witnesses said.
It has been the site of previous criminal activity including an Aug. 5, 2005,
arson.
Editor's note: Nationwide, this week is Sunshine Week, organized to combat
government secrecy. All citizens have the right, by law, to know what government
is doing. Yet, around the nation, laws that allow you information about
government workings are being restricted or ignored. Each day this week The
Advocate will publish a story about the public's right to know.
"With a deep sense of pride that the United States is an open society in which
the people's right to know is cherished and guarded."
President Lyndon Johnson, signing Freedom of Information Act in 1966
Imagine your boss asks to see the sales report you're working on, and your
response is that you have to check his driver's license before you give it to
him.
Or it's none of his business.
Or that he read a newspaper to find out about it.
For municipal employees, the taxpayer is boss. Yet that is how some employees
responded to requests for public records.
Over the last several days, The Advocate sent reporters to eight towns in lower
Fairfield County to view records that are public under the Freedom of
Information Act.
In each town, the reporter asked to see marriage license applications at the
clerk's office, arrest logs at the police station, and teacher attendance
records at the Board of Education.
The law is designed to preserve democracy by guarding against government
secrecy. With a few exceptions, the records of a public agency are open.
Citizens should expect to view just about any document the agency keeps.
All you do is ask
According to the law, citizens do not have to give their name, explain why they
want to see a document or what they will do with it. They do not have to show a
driver's license or other identification. They may be asked to write out their
request, but only if they want a copy of the document.
Yet reporters who went to city and town halls to view public records -- they
identified themselves as reporters only if they were asked -- in some cases were
questioned, told to show identification and refused.
Public employees in Westport and Wilton did the best; those in Greenwich did the
worst.
In lower Fairfield County, employees in the offices of city and town clerks
appear to understand Freedom of Information law best. Seven of the eight offices
turned over marriage license applications, with applicants' Social Security
numbers blacked out as the law allows. In Greenwich, however, an employee told
the reporter he could not see the applications and turned over a list of
applicants' names instead.
Police and school offices often refused the requests or fulfilled them after
imposing restrictions.
Too much paper?
In Stamford, an employee at police headquarters said she could not show the
reporter the arrest log for the week because "that would use a lot of paper."
When the reporter said he just wanted to look at them, she asked him why. When
he questioned whether he had to explain, she told him he did. Then she asked if
he were a reporter. When he said yes, she asked to see identification. He showed
it to her; then she refused to turn over the list of arrests.
"I fear sometimes that government officials think they own the records because
they compiled them," said James Simon, director of the journalism program at
Fairfield University. "They forget that they used taxpayers' money to do that,
and taxpayers have the absolute right to look at them."
Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy said city managers are trained once a year, and
Stamford soon will designate someone in the law department to oversee Freedom of
Information compliance.
Stamford Director of Legal Affairs Thomas Cassone said he or someone on his
staff have seminars with members of boards and commissions when Freedom of
Information issues arise, and city employees "have questions for us almost daily
about what information they can release."
"I start every seminar by saying, 'Assume everything you do, everything you say
and everything you write is public.' That's how the law is written," Cassone
said.
As for the police department employee, "We'll look into it," Malloy said.
Schools still learning
Fairfield University sent journalism students on similar Freedom of Information
surveys last year and in 1999. In those, Boards of Education did the poorest,
Simon said.
"The people who work there don't seem to be as used to dealing with the public
as the town clerk or police," Simon said. "But the state Freedom of Information
office has put on endless workshops with school officials, so there really is no
excuse for this."
Employees at the Stamford Board of Education fit the pattern. A reporter who
asked to see the teacher absentee list for the week was asked who she was, why
she wanted to see it, where she was from and what company she worked for.
The reporter said she thought it was public information, and the employee said
the law requires that the request be put in a letter.
Not true, said Tracie Brown, principal attorney for the state Freedom of
Information Commission in Hartford.
"If you simply want to inspect a document, you do not have to provide a letter,"
Brown said. "If you want a copy, they may ask for a letter but they don't have
to. But under no circumstance do you have to provide the purpose for the
request."
The Stamford Board of Education has trained administrators in Freedom of
Information law, and it may be time to train the rest of the staff,
Superintendent Joshua Starr said.
"Clearly there is a need to do it," Starr said. "The person may have thought she
was protecting teachers' privacy, and we absolutely want to do that, but we also
fully recognize we have to comply with the law, and we will make every effort to
do so."
Taxpayers do not have to know why a teacher misses a day of school, but they are
entitled to see the tally of absences, Simon said.
Teachers and other public employees "work for the taxpayers," he said. "The
whole idea is not to discourage the public from viewing these things, but to
encourage people to get involved in the process and make sure government is
working effectively."
MYOB
At the Norwalk Board of Education, a reporter who requested the teacher absentee
list was told, "I don't know if that's any of your business." Other employees
told the reporter she probably couldn't see the list, asked who she was and why
she wanted to see it and then said she couldn't have it because the office is
under construction. One employee concluded by saying the reporter would have to
get permission from the superintendent.
"She should have told the reporter to go to human resources for the
information," Norwalk Superintendent Salvatore Corda said. "What that suggests
to me is that I need to make it clear that people with requests should be
directed to human resources."
It also suggests "we may need more training" in Freedom of Information law,
Corda said. "In the public arena, the public is entitled to know."
At the Norwalk police department, an employee acknowledged that the arrest log
is public information, but still asked the reporter why she wanted to see it
before handing it over. Norwalk Mayor Richard Moccia said he will consider
asking the city attorney's office to coordinate Freedom of Information training.
"I know based on legal memoranda I've seen that there have been procedures in
place going back to my predecessors," Moccia said. "I think I have been open
myself. That's the way it should be."
Greenwich First Selectman Jim Lash said he feels that way, too, but town
employees rejected all three requests.
Besides the town clerk's office, where an employee turned over a list of
marriage applicants' names rather than the applications, a desk sergeant at the
Greenwich Police Department told the reporter who asked to see the list of
arrests, "We don't have anything like that in this department to give to the
public or to show them."
When the reporter asked the Board of Education to view the teacher attendance
log, the assistant director of human resources told him he would have to make a
written request to the director -- a violation of the law.
"I have no idea what they were thinking," Lash said. "My policy is that if
people ask you for things, give it to them. It looks like (employees) aren't
understanding it."
Greenwich had a training session with the Freedom of Information Commission in
the last year, the town attorney briefs new members of boards and commissions,
and handouts about the rules are distributed, Lash said.
Opening up
It can take time to change thinking, said Judy Neville, first selectwoman of New
Canaan.
"We have had FOI training for all town employees and unions," said Neville,
who's been in office 21Ú2 years. "It's very important that everyone understands
it."
The New Canaan town clerk freely complied with the law, but when a reporter went
to the police department and asked to see the arrest log, a woman told him they
don't keep such records and recommended he read a newspaper.
"That one has me dumbfounded," Neville said. "I would think she was trained."
At the New Canaan Board of Education, an employee checked the reporter's
driver's license, balked at his request to see the absentee records of all 400
town teachers, and asked if he would like to see one school. So he picked one.
She handed him a printout of the list and stood over his shoulder as he read it.
New Canaan Superintendent David Abbey said the Board of Education did not
participate in Neville's Freedom of Information training.
"What you might have to realize is we are in a security-conscious environment.
We all wear badges in the schools," Abbey said. "The request was unusual and
(the employee) probably got a little disoriented. If the person requesting the
information identifies who they are and why they are here, it helps us feel more
secure."
The law does not require that, said Brown, the Freedom of Information Commission
attorney. "I would suggest that agencies not create more issues than they have
to," she said.
The employee should not ask to see a driver's license, presumably to check
whether the requester lives in the town.
"You can live anywhere in the world and go to a public agency in Connecticut and
make a request for a public document and it should be complied with," Brown
said. "The statute requires that agencies respond promptly to the request.
Promptly has been defined as how soon the individual needs the information
balanced against the workload of the agency staff. If the record is right there,
let the person look at it. You don't get to ask if the request is legitimate."
Abbey said he thinks the employee complied with the law because she dropped what
she was doing and showed the reporter the absentee log, even though it was for
only one school. Still, "we have every intention of complying with the law,"
Abbey said. "We will follow up."
Why ask why?
In Darien, the town clerk's office freely complied with the request to see the
marriage license applications. The police department also turned over the arrest
log, though an employee in the communications department asked the reporter why
he wanted to see it.
At the Darien Board of Education, an employee asked to see the reporter's
driver's license, made him write down his request, sign it and provide his phone
number. The next day, Friday, an administrator called the reporter to say he
could view the attendance log. The reporter went on Monday and no one was there.
Yesterday, the information was faxed to him.
Town Administrator John Crary said town employees are trained regularly in
Freedom of Information law.
"My basic attitude is there is not much we have here that isn't open," Crary
said.
As with other cities and towns in Fairfield County, Darien's Board of Education
is overseen by the schools superintendent, not the mayor or first selectman.
Darien schools were not in session this week and Superintendent Don Fiftal could
not be reached.
In Westport, First Selectman Gordon Joseloff, a former journalist, said town
supervisors are trained in the law, memos are distributed and workshops are
planned for all employees.
"I have a great interest in sunshine laws and want to make sure government is as
open as it can be," said Joseloff, who took office in November. "I already have
found occasions to remind employees of that."
The Westport town clerk's office complied immediately, the Board of Education
took the reporter's name and number and called her back two hours later to say
the records were ready, and the police department let her view the arrest log,
even though an employee there first asked if she were a reporter or a private
person.
Be reasonable
It's OK if public employees need a little time to gather the information, Brown
said.
"You are entitled to inspect or get a copy of records during regular business
hours," she said. "That's not to say the person behind the counter can't say,
'We are just getting ready to go into a staff meeting. Can you come back
tomorrow?' We expect members of the public to be reasonable."
In Wilton, the town clerk and police department complied freely with the
requests.
At the Board of Education, a woman first asked the reporter several times who he
was and why he wanted to see the teacher absentee list. "Are you a parent, a
teacher, a student?" Then her co-worker told her it was public information and
she complied.
"My feeling is that employees are well-trained and try to comply," Wilton First
Selectman William Brennan said.
But there are concerns about identity theft, and some searches are
time-consuming and "onerous" for the town's limited staff, Brennan said.
Those things are true, but towns still must comply with the law, Brown said.
"People can get your Social Security number from many places," she said. "The
public agency has to do what it has to do."
Weston refusal
In Weston, the town clerk turned over the marriage license applications on the
spot. At the Board of Education, the reporter was told no one was there to help
him with the records.
A communications person in the police department broke the law, asking the
reporter why he wanted to see the arrest log. He said he just wanted to look at
them and she told him that, without a reason, she could not allow that.
Town Administrator Tom Landry said town hall employees are trained in Freedom of
Information law because many Weston residents request information.
The police department is run separately from the rest of town government. Weston
Police Chief Anthony Land returned calls and left phone messages but could not
be reached for comment.
-- Tomorrow, the Legislature is considering several bills that would amend the
state Freedom of Information Act. Some would make public records more detailed
and accessible, others would exempt information that now is public. _________________________________________________________________________________
March 12,
2006
Advocate
To help
homeowners, four Norwalk neighborhoods seek special designation
By Lisa Chamoff
Staff Writer
March 12, 2006
NORWALK -- The Historical Commission is working to designate four distinctive
city neighborhoods -- from Golden Hill, with its sprawling and fanciful
Victorian homes, to the immigrant Whistleville section of South Norwalk -- as
state historic districts.
State recognition would allow homeowners of old homes in these neighborhoods to
qualify for tax credits for fixing up their properties, which preservationists
hope will help save many of the properties from demolition.
In the Golden Hill neighborhood -- a former enclave for factory owners located
on a bluff just south of Exit 14 off Interstate 95 -- 70 percent of the houses
are 75 years old or more.
Kurt Schaaf, who lives in a circa-1860 house on Golden Hill Street, is hoping to
take advantage of the designation to bring his place back to its old glory.
Schaaf, 60, bought the house for his parents when he was in his 20s, and moved
in after they died a few years ago. The dwelling once served as the barn and
carriage house for the main home across the street, built by the owners of a hat
factory in South Norwalk.
"I'd like to do some work on the exterior, bring it up more to what it looked
like historically," Schaaf said.
Schaaf started the work himself but couldn't continue due to physical problems.
He has been trying to save money to hire workers. The tax breaks would be a
great help, he said.
Jim Clark, president of the Golden Hill
Association, said the group has been looking to start the process of being
designated as a historic district, but coming up with the funds has been
difficult.
"We're very grateful that we're part of this project," Clark said.
The work to recognize Golden Hill and Whistleville, as well as the Camp Street
and West Main Street neighborhoods, sprang from a $30,000 federal Community
Development Block Grant the Historical Commission received last year.
With the grant, it is creating a handbook to help owners of old homes receive
tax credits for fixing up their properties. For property owners to take
advantage of these credits, the building must be listed on a state or national
Register of Historic Places.
Deborah Mathies, a commission member leading the project, said they chose four
neighborhoods that fall under qualified U.S. Census tracts. To qualify for the
tax credits, 70 percent of the families in the neighborhood must earn 80 percent
or less of the $81,891 median state income for a family of four.
Stacey Vairo, a consultant hired by the historical commission to compile the
information the state needs to approve the districts, has established the
initial boundaries and is creating a catalog of buildings to be included.
With the exception of Golden Hill, which was initially a wealthy neighborhood
and features some unique architecture and "high style" houses, the
neighborhoods' homes were built for and by everyday residents, Vairo said.
What makes a neighborhood meaningful is the concentration of older buildings and
the area's historical importance.
"I think what's most important is that these are historic neighborhoods and they
develop in a very typical pattern," Vairo said.
For example, the collection of streets around the railroad tracks in South
Norwalk was developed by the large population of Hungarian and Italian
immigrants who came to the city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The
community was called Whistleville because of the sound the train made when it
took a sharp turn nearby. Today, the area is largely Hispanic.
"It's so representative of the waves of immigrants that came in to Norwalk,"
Vairo said.
The imprint from those European settlers is still visible in the architecture
and masonry of the dwelling and buildings. The Italians built social clubs and
bocci courts, and the area had its own butcher shop and shoemaker, said John
Kurtzman, who grew up in the area in the 1950s and is of Hungarian descent.
"What it did is it contained every industry that you would find in Europe at
that time," Kurtzman said. "It was like a transplanted European community."
A total of 300 to 350 homes will be included in the Whistleville historic
district. Its architectural styles are fairly simple, with Victorian elements
and European stonework visible throughout.
As part of her research, Vairo also has been compiling a list of interesting
architectural features. Of note in Golden Hill is a house on Elmwood Avenue with
a "turntable" garage. Built before cars were able to go in reverse, the garage
was designed so cars could circle around the garage to pull out.
Vairo said Golden Hill could qualify for the National Register of Historic
Places.
She expects the districts to be listed with the state by the end of the year.
The designation would be welcomed by residents of Camp Street, who for the past
several years have been dealing with the possibility of old homes being torn
down on the street, just north of the city's downtown.
Ursula and Peter Schuerch have worked slowly on their Italianate-style house at
8 Camp St. since purchasing it in 1989. It was a labor of love for the two
architectural designers, and they know how costly maintaining an old home can
be.
"Certainly anything would have helped us, especially in the beginning," Ursula
Schuerch said. "We didn't have a lot of money, but we had a lot of energy."
Camp Street is the smallest of the districts, with 56 houses and Union Cemetery
likely to be included. Nearby, the West Main Street district will contain 150 to
200 homes.
Schuerch said though the neighborhood has changed, the historic district
designation could help sustain it.
"I think anything that would help preserve what was here and help keep Norwalk
special is a good thing," Schuerch said.
Norden Place hearing
allowed little public discourse
To the Editor:
I went to school Monday night, March 6,
to a public hearing scheduled by Norwalk Zoning Commission for public input on
the proposed text amendment request that would bring multi-family residential
housing to No. 8 Norden Place in Norwalk, currently a restricted industrial
zone. I live in the neighborhood where the project stops just 90 feet away.
All sorts of legitimate public questions
and concerns were to be voiced. Not so fast .... and here is where I went to
school ...
I watched and learned how Attorney Frank
Zullo set about to legally hijack the meeting away from the public and have it
serve as a "glory forum" for the developer. Slicker than Fred Astaire's dancing,
the Frank Zullo Tag Team waltzed out speaker after speaker, drone after drone
from the Zullo Team, hovering by them as they spoke.
With an added twist, Zullo, in his
version of Perry Mason, would interrupt and question his speaker and then
re-cross, so to speak, so that the Zullo message was hammered home to commission
members.
This is the same pattern he used last week to shut down the process of a public
hearing scheduled by the Conservation Commission on the same proposal. All legal
and very efficient stonewalling.
The March 6 Zoning Commission public
hearing started at 7 p.m. Some three hours later, Zoning Commission members
couldn't even start the public hearing portion.
Due to this Zullo Tag Team approach to
monopolizing the clock, people were so worn out from the incessant talking and
waiting, many needed to leave. As Zullo intended, his efforts undermined the
intent and purpose of the public hearing. So much so that the Zoning
Commission members could very well be cited for failure to handle their
responsibilities in their capacity as appointed officials to serve the public.
The question is now who will rein in
Zullo and who will undo all the damage he tried to inflict on those who did make
statements; brushing aside everything said, discounting and dismissing any
criticism and shortcomings with the No. 8 Norden Place proposal.
I call on the Zoning Commission to
reconvene the public hearing and let the public speak on the No. 8 Norden Place
text amendment proposal.
Commissions review info
on Norden Place development
By ROBERT KOCH
Hour Staff Writer
NORWALK — With one public hearing behind
and another set to resume later this month, the city's Zoning and Conservation
commissions are busy digesting information on Norden Place LLC's proposed
328-housing development for the eastern half of the Norden site.
Norden Place — a partnership led by
Spinnaker Cos. — needs Zoning Commission approval to build multi-family housing
on the 38-acre site between Norden Park and Westport. The area is now zoned for
restricted industrial use.
Three additional acres lie on the
Westport side, but all access — except for emergency vehicles — would be from
Norden Place in Norwalk, according to Spinnaker.
On Monday night, the Zoning Commission closed its public hearing on the
development. The same day, Conservation Commission Acting Chairwoman Anne
Cagnina wrote Zoning commissioners, urging them to reduce the density of the
proposed development.
The current density is 8 units per-acre.
The Conservation Commission recommends removing 11 units of wetlands from the
density calculation formula, in effect leaving room for 240 units rather than
the 328 proposed by Norden Place.
"A lower density residential use would
be more desirable than the currently proposed residential density because the
environmental impacts are typically reduced," Cagnina wrote. "The higher density
results in more impervious surfaces, a higher number of people using the land, a
higher number of cars, more owners and more non-point source pollution risks —
of particular concern on parcels with extensive natural resources, such as
inland wetlands."
Frank N. Zullo, a Norwalk attorney
representing Norden Place, has said 8 units per acre is one-third the density
found in areas zoned for multi-family housing.
Spinnaker Cos., following the
recommendations of the city's Industrial Zones Committee, has offered to price
15 percent of the resulting units as affordable.
Because the site contains numerous
wetlands, the Conservation Commission, acting as the city's inland wetlands
agency, must offer its recommendations to the Zoning Commission.
Michael B. Greene, city planning
director, said the Conservation Commission wears two hats. He said Cagnina's
letter, while important information, represents the comments of the Conservation
Commission and not the comments of the Conservation Commission acting as the
wetlands agency. The latter comments, needed by the Zoning Commission, are
forthcoming.
On Feb. 28, the Conservation Commission opened its public hearing on the Norden
development. The hearing is scheduled to resume March 28.
East Norwalk cemetery loosens regulations on burials
By
John Nickerson
Staff Writer
NORWALK -- For generations the East Norwalk Historical Cemetery, believed to be
the city's oldest, has accepted the deceased on an invitation-only basis.
At more than 350 years old, the cramped 1.76-acre resting place for more than
1,100 bodies has been open to only those who can prove that family already
reside there and space is available in established family plots.
That policy is about to change.
Prompted by younger board members, the cemetery's governing association is
creating more than 100 plots to inter cremated remains around a planned 12-foot
granite monument. These plots, unlike the traditional ones, are likely to be
open to East Norwalk residents.
The East Norwalk Historical Cemetery Association will erect the monument with
space for more than 100 new names, said Christopher Burr, who recently completed
his first year as association president.
"This monument will be installed as soon as the ground thaws," said Burr, who is
guaranteed a final resting place in the traditional headstone area of the
cemetery by virtue of blood relations with no fewer than five founding families:
Betts, St. John, Selleck, Hill and Fitch.
Burr's sixth great-grandfather, Gov. Thomas Fitch, and fifth great-grandfather,
Col. Thomas Fitch of legendary Yankee Doodle fame, are buried in the cemetery on
lower East Avenue. He said the family-only restriction was put in place
generations ago to save space.
With fewer than 100 full-sized grave sites left in the cemetery -- most all of
those are inaccessible to grave digging machinery -- burials all but stopped
over past several decades.
Burr and association member Terry Rooney said a policy has yet to be approved
that stipulates who will be eligible to be buried in the new area. But the two
said they believe it will be open to East Norwalk residents.
"There are people who have lived in East Norwalk for 30 years and want to stay
in East Norwalk forever, but they can't get in because they don't have any
ancestors," Burr said. "The people of East Norwalk own the place, so we want to
let them in."
"I think it is a good idea," said Rooney, an eight-year member of the
association and executive director of the East Norwalk Improvement Association.
"Once people find out that we are going to open it up we will get more people
that will want to take advantage of it."
The earliest legible gravestone in the cemetery belongs to Rev. Thomas Hanford,
who died in 1693. But because the grave yard adjoins the city's earliest
settlement, Burr believes that pioneer Richard Seymour, whose 1655 death has the
distinction of being the earliest recorded in Norwalk's settlement history, is
buried there.
Initially, graves in the cemetery were cared for by the family survivors.
Because early grave markers usually consisted of a wooden cross or a rock, which
have long since disappeared, Burr said there is a good chance that there are
more than the 1,100 registered graves in the cemetery.
In 1843, the Down Town Cemetery Association was incorporated to care for and
manage the cemetery. Ninety years later the name was changed to the East Norwalk
Cemetery Association, Burr said.
After decades of dwindling perpetual care donations, the Third Taxing District
took title to the property in 1966 because it was better able to procure
insurance for the grave yard.
A year ago, the East Norwalk Historical Cemetery Association was formally
designated by the district as the cemetery's burial authority.
The granite monolith will be erected on the east side of the park near where
Emerson Street intersects the cemetery. The first urn, holding the remains of
longtime East Norwalk resident Gloria Cromwell, was interred at the site last
summer in one of the two-square-foot plots.
The association, which is funded by the interest generated by a irrevocable
trust, spent just more than $22,000 for the monument, Burr said.
The final cost for new plots is yet to be determined. Burr and Rooney said the
cost of the monument, name placement and perpetual care needs will go into
figuring the cost for each cremation plot.
Individual headstones for the crematory urns will not be permitted.
"Our concern is not only the space, but it is ancient burial ground and we don't
want to allow separate markers because we don't want to change the appearance of
the cemetery," Burr said.
With word leaking out about the grave yard becoming more inclusive, the
association has been hearing from interested parties.
So far, there have been three applications during the past 18 months.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Hour
February 10,2006
Norden
plan increases affordable units
By ROBERT KOCH
Hour Staff Writer
NORWALK — Following a city
recommendation, Spinnaker Cos. has boosted the percentage of affordable housing
units within its proposed 316-unit development for the eastern half of the
Norden property.
"We are doing the 15 percent recommended
by the Industrial Zones Committee," said Spinnaker principal Clayton H. Fowler,
leaving City Hall Thursday night after further review of the proposed
development by Zoning commissioners. "We would fit (studio apartments) in the
mid-rise buildings."
Norden Place LLC — a joint venture of
Spinnaker Real Estate Partners LLC, Greenfield Partners and Summit Development —
needs Zoning commission approval to build housing between NordenPark and the
Norwalk-Westport border. The site now is zoned for Restricted Industrial Use and
not multi-family housing.
The development calls for the units to
be built in "villages" on the eastern half of the 78.6-acre Norden site, which
lies between Norden Place, the Westport border, Interstate 95 and the
Metro-North railroad tracks. Traffic would enter from Norden Place. Allowing
emergency vehicles to enter via Hiawatha Lane in Westport is under
consideration.
The Industrial Zones Committee last
month approved a draft report recommending allowing multi-family housing on the
Norden site and requiring that 15 percent of the
resulting units be priced affordably.
That's roughly four-dozen units, assuming that 316 units are built.
Fowler said changing floor plans — not
adding square footage — allowed Spinnaker to boost the portion of affordable
units from 12 percent to 15 percent. Fowler said 10 percent of the affordable
units would target individual or families earning 80 percent of the state median
income; the remaining 5 percent would be available to those earning up to 60
percent of the state median income. Within the latter group would be about a
dozen studio apartments, he said.
That would leave condominiums priced at
$239,000 for the 80-percent group and $178,000 for the 60-percent group;
market-priced units would run about $500,000.
"We've lost a city council member in
Norwalk because of affordable housing," said Zoning Commissioner David A. Watts,
referring to District B Councilwoman Leona Williams' move to Bridgeport last
year. "We're losing revenue. We're losing a lot of good employees, and they're
taking their kids with them."
The shift to 15 percent affordable
housing comes as the Zoning and Conservation commissions continue their review
of the Norden development. The Zoning Commission has scheduled a public hearing
for March 6 in the concert auditorium of City Hall. An independent consultant is
expected to deliver its wetlands impact report to the Conservation Commission by
Feb. 21.
Residents blasted the development as a
potential traffic nightmare during a presentation by Spinnaker Cos. at the East
Norwalk Library Jan. 31. Stress on municipal services and public schools was
another concern.
On Thursday night, Donald Klepper-Smith,
chief economist with DataCore Partners LLC, gave Zoning commissioners projected
school enrollment, municipal services costs and projected tax revenue from the
Norden development. The figures, he said, anticipate the uppermost "measure of
municipal services."
"We calculated a maximum of 107
students," Klepper-Smith said. "I doubt very very seriously that you're going to
see 107 students."
Klepper-Smith predicted the actual
number of Norden Place children attending the public school system will be less
than 107, based on some families relocating within Norwalk, and others sending
their children to private schools.
Robert Hard, zoning commissioner, said
families relocating in Norwalk is not a "net wash." More housing will result in
more people and more students, he said.
"What would be the impact of having age
restrictions?" Hard asked. "If it were to be a requirement, would it be a deal
breaker?"
Answered Fowler: "Yes, it would."
Fowler said the development was designed
to include a variety of housing types. While Spinnaker Cos. officials do not
expect that families with children will be the main residents of Norden Place,
Fowler added that some units will house families and that "our community needs
to remain vital by having kids in school."
Klepper-Smith projected the cost per
pupil to be $12,179. That includes dollars received through the state's
Education Cost Sharing formula. He said the development would yield $13.9
million in tax revenue over a five-year period.
Andrea Light questioned how Klepper-Smith
arrived at the $13.9 million figure. She and other commissioners received a
summary of Klepper-Smith's 100-page report. He promised to provide them
background materials supporting the numbers.
In another request, Light asked for
confirmation by the Department of Public Works that the Norden Place development
will not strain the city's wastewater treatment plant.
NORWALK -- A public hearing for a major condominium project has been rescheduled
to give the city more time to hire a consultant to review the plan.
The developer of the proposed 316-unit site at NordenPark will pay for the
consultant based on a new law the Conservation Commission adopted and recently
used for the first time.
The commission voted unanimously to impose the technical review fee on Jan. 10,
but as of yesterday had not hired a firm to conduct it.
The city got bids from two firms by the due date, Jan. 29, but has not picked
one because it did not have the developer's fee money to pay for the consultant,
officials said.
The review is expected to take two weeks, and was supposed to be done by Feb.
14, the next commission public hearing on the plan.
But with the date approaching and a firm not chosen, the applicant, NordenPlace
LLC, agreed to move the public hearing to Feb. 28, said Alexis Cherichetti, the
city's senior environmental officer.
Cherichetti said yesterday she expected the city to have the funds to hire a
firm by early next week.
Representatives for the developer said they were not opposed to paying the
technical review fee, and that it is done in other municipalities.
Gerald Foley, the city's purchasing officer, said the city should revise the
process in the future so it can hire a firm and then get reimbursed by the
applicant.
The two firms that bid on the project are GZA GeoEnvironmental, which has an
office in Vernon, and Eastern Ecology, of New York.
The commission added the technical review fee after amending regulations last
year. A state law allows wetlands agencies to charge fees "sufficient to cover
the reasonable cost of reviewing and acting" on applications, which has been
interpreted to mean the cost of hiring outside assistance.
Conservation Commission members said expert help is needed to review a project
as big as the housing plan. It would create three condo villages on a 41-acre
parcel between Metro-North Railroad tracks and Interstate 95. _________________________________________________________________________________
Advocate
February 1,2006
Cuts sought in capital budget
By John Nickerson
Staff Writer
February 1, 2006
NORWALK -- Finance Director Thomas Hamilton yesterday recommended a $12.5
million capital budget, trimming $17.7 million from the $30.2 million in
requests by department heads.
The recommendation is nearly 24 percent increase in capital spending over this
fiscal year, and includes funds to design a new central fire station and begin
upgrading infrastructure.
But the proposal also continues the policy of the past three years of holding
down the amount of capital spending paid for through general obligation bonds in
order to continue to finance the city's school reconstruction project, Hamilton
said.
The amount of new debt that would be bonded and paid for through property taxes
would be $5.2 million, Hamilton said.
The Planning Commission will hold a 7 p.m. hearing today in City Hall on the
budget. The Planning Commission will make recommendations next month on the
capital budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The Fire Department is one of the big winners in the proposed capital budget.
Hamilton recommends funding a controversial $1.7 million request by fire Chief
Denis McCarthy to design a new fire headquarters and tear down the Charles A.
Volk Central Fire Station on Connecticut Avenue.
Mayor Richard Moccia said last night that the money may not be spent if an
evaluation of a newly proposed $14 million fire station at the former Wheels bus
barn on Fairfield Avenue doesn't recommend that a new station be built.
"Everybody is making this a fait accompli that a new facility will be built. All
we are trying to do is put the numbers together to see if we can make the
Fairfield Avenue location work," Moccia said, adding that a hold has been put on
all appropriations until the evaluation on a new building is done.
But there is no guarantee that the evaluation will be done before the Common
Council votes on the capital budget, Moccia said.
Democratic Council President Michael Coffey, who crossed swords last week with
the mayor on a $5,000 appropriation for an appraisal of the Volk station, said
he believed the money could be better spent elsewhere.
"We have to determine what the priorities are for the city. Those of us in the
Democratic caucus are dedicated to completing the school renovation project, and
we he have to determine how much money we have to put into the upkeep of the
roads in the city, which are in terrible shape," Coffey said.
Under Hamilton's budget, the Fire Department would also receive more than
$500,000 for a new rescue vehicle and building repairs at other station houses.
Moccia agreed with Coffey that roads were an issue. The mayor pointed to
Hamilton's recommendation that the city spend $2.55 million on road
reconstruction and paving -- an amount which is $250,000 less than the Common
Council allocated for roads last year.
In Hamilton's budget, the Department of Public Works would get the largest chunk
-- $5.4 million. Public Works Director Harold Alvord requested $13.5 million.
In addition to road reconstruction and repaving, $100,000 would be spent for
sidewalk and curb repair, $350,000 to repair the Perry Avenue Bridge over the
Silvermine River and $350,000 to upgrade the city's storm water management
infrastructure, among other items.
Alvord said he wasn't sure what to make of the recommendations until his staff
reviews them over the next few days.
The Water Pollution Control Authority would only get $2.4 million of its $7.5
million request -- a request to begin funding an anticipated $39.5 million plant
and sewer line upgrade.
Hamilton said that the city should wait for a WPCA consultant's long-range
financial model before providing more money.
In his 10-page recommendation, Hamilton wrote that $5.2 million of the proposed
$12.5 million capital budget would have to be bonded and repaid through annual
property taxes.
The remainder would come from city revenue and $3.7 million would be withdrawn
from the city's capital fund balance -- more than double the $1.75 million that
was taken out of the fund to finance $10.1 million in capital expenditures this
year.
Hamilton justified the nearly 24 percent capital spending increase: "It is
short-sighted to allow vital city infrastructure to deteriorate or to fail to
invest in projects that have a demonstrable economic payback or which promote
the city's long-term economic vitality."
After seven hours of meetings with Hamilton over the past month, Moccia said:
"I'm in total agreement. I think it is responsive to the needs of the city, but
it also is responsible as far as taxes are concerned. . . .It strikes a good
balance."
Over the past four years during the administration of former Mayor Alex Knopp,
the finance manager's recommendations closely mirrored what the Common Council
eventually approved.
But this year, with a Republican mayor and a Democrat-controlled Common Council,
all bets may be off.
"I don't know what to expect," Moccia said. "I hope they accept what the finance
manager says and what the mayor says."
Coffey said Hamilton's proposed budget might endanger the city's AAA bond
rating, which allows Norwalk to borrow money at the lowest interest rates.
"I don't think it makes financial sense to extend ourselves to the point where
we have no flexibility should any crisis or catastrophe arise. We should not do
things that place the AAA bond rating on the verge," Coffey said.
Hamilton said bonding $5 million to $6 million over the next two years, with an
increase to $8 million for the next five, would be the "maximum amount of
additional debt the city can safely assume, while maintaining debt ratio
benchmarks within the range acceptable to the bond rating agencies."
Parks and Recreation Director Mike Mocciae said he was pleased with Hamilton's
decisions.
Hamilton said Mocciae should receive $710,000 of his $2.9 million request. Of
that, $110,000 would be to improve lighting at Veterans Memorial Park; $250,000
would be allocated for a project to light the Brien McMahon baseball field;
$100,000 would be to finish a renovation of the Calf Pasture Beach bathrooms and
$100,000 would be spent to replace and add playground equipment to Veterans
Memorial Park, Marvin School and Meadow Gardens.
Hamilton recommended $600,000, or about 70 percent, of the Board of Education's
request for technology funding.
Hamilton recommended the library system receive less than half its request of
$521,000. Hamilton's budget allocates $125,000 for a new entrance to the Main
Library on Belden Avenue as well as $85,000 on new air conditioners and $26,000
for bathroom renovations.
Hamilton recommended allocating $295,000 of the Redevelopment Agency's request
of $995,000. He recommended spending $175,000 for affordable housing and
$120,000 for intersection improvements to make the Washington Street side of the
Stroffolino Bridge more pedestrian-friendly.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Advocate
February 1,
2006
Man found near tracks was killed by train,
police say
By Matt Breslow
Staff Writer
February 1, 2006
NORWALK -- The death of a Stamford man whose naked body was found two months ago
next to railroad tracks behind a strip club was ruled an accident.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority police believe Brandon Rizzi, a 1994
Westhill High School graduate, died after being struck by a train.
Rizzi, 29, died of multiple blunt traumatic injuries, according to the state
medical examiner's office. The office listed multiple drug toxicity as another
significant condition.
Rizzi was found dead Dec. 1, behind Mermaids Gentlemen's Club & Spirits. Police
said they were told he had been drinking heavily, and a club employee said Rizzi
locked himself in a bathroom at the Liberty Square club for a half-hour before
the 1 a.m. closing. Another employee said Rizzi left wearing a sweatshirt, with
his pants tied around his waist and a tank top on his head.
Shortly after Rizzi's death, police said his injuries were consistent with an
accident. Blood found near the railroad tracks indicated Rizzi was struck by
something on or very close to the tracks before tumbling down the north side of
the railroad embankment, where his body was found.
MTA police yesterday said Rizzi's injuries were consistent with being struck by
a train.
They believe Rizzi may have been walking too close to the tracks and may have
been sideswiped. MTA police said it is believed Rizzi was struck by the train on
the side of his body where he suffered a head injury and broken ribs.
The MTA yesterday said the investigation remains open pending police review of
the toxicology results.
Vito Colucci -- a private detective working for Rizzi's family -- said the
family is still offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest
and conviction of anyone responsible for Rizzi's death, despite the medical
examiner's ruling it was accidental.
The family has requested a full autopsy report, Colucci said.
He said he wants to read the report and explain it to the family before
commenting.
_________________________________________________________________________________
The New York Times
January 30, 2006
New Laws Crack Down on Urban Paul Bunyans
By
PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 29 — As trees go, the pair of scraggly-looking Monterey
cypresses sitting on a crest on Telegraph Hill are somewhat pitiful, even
downright forlorn. But in a city where some movie stars bear wings, even
ordinary trees can be transformed into a cause célèbre.
The trees are a favorite feeding spot and hawk lookout point for the
now-famous wild parrots of Telegraph Hill (see the movie, read the book). In
recent weeks, the removal of three adjoining trees by an absentee property
owner and the resulting brouhaha — including the spectacle of the parrot
author Mark Bittner throwing himself in front of a chain saw — prompted San
Francisco officials to amend the city's Urban Forestry Ordinance to allow
significant trees to be designated landmarks, including those on private
property.
The amendment, which takes effect in February, treats trees much like historic
buildings. It would place San Francisco squarely in a growing movement, from
suburban Washington to Los Angeles, to protect mature urban trees — and in
some communities, make it a crime to chop them down.
Once a cause for genteel women's clubs bent on beautification, the new
get-tough stance on trees is largely a result of real estate. A study of three
dozen cities using satellite imagery by the nonprofit group American Forests,
completed two years ago, found that over the past 25 years, cities have lost
up to 30 percent of their tree canopy to development.
San Francisco's tree canopy hovers at a slim 11.9 percent of the city's
surface area, compared with New York's 21 percent and Washington's 28.6.
The loss of the so-called urban forest, said Deborah Gangloff, the group's
executive director, is the result of sprawl, budget cuts and street widening,
among other factors. The average city street tree lives 7 years compared with
60 years in a park and 150 years in a forest, the group's research shows.
"They're stuck in a concrete box, get bikes chained to them, with dogs
relieving themselves and cars hitting them," Ms. Gangloff said. "They don't
have room to grow because of power lines and sewer pipes. It's a hard life."
The avian drama in San Francisco follows a tree war that unfolded along the
Potomac River in Montgomery County, Md. Last month, the Montgomery County
planning board reached a settlement with the Washington Redskins' owner,
Daniel M. Snyder, and his wife, Tanya, for clear-cutting some 130
view-obstructing dogwoods and other trees on their verdant riverfront estate.
The couple's neo-Georgian palazzo sits on land bounded by the C Chesapeake &
Ohio Canal National Historic Park, which is run by the National Park Service.
The county fined Mr. Snyder $37,000 for clear-cutting without a permit and
ordered him to plant some 600 saplings. A spokesman for Mr. Snyder declined to
comment.
Inspired by Mr. Snyder's Paul Bunyan move, the Montgomery County Council voted
to triple the penalties for willfully violating the county's Forest
Conservation Law and make it a criminal offense punishable by up to six months
in jail.
"This problem is enormous and growing," said Howard A. Denis, a Republican
Council member. "It's a quality of life issue. No one has the right to
desecrate property and leave the county with a net loss of trees."
The tear-down phenomenon, in which trophy homes subsume suburban lots, has put
new pressure on large "patriarch" trees, said Dave Docter, the managing
arborist for Palo Alto, Calif. "Communities are scrambling to enact laws to
mandate proper review," he said.
Named for a 1,000-year-old redwood, Palo Alto is a microcosm: in 1992, the
demolition of a beloved Queen Anne Victorian and its surrounding oaks, planted
in the 1920's on then-dirt streets, prompted an emergency oak-tree-cutting
moratorium; six years later, spurred by the unprecedented demolition of older
homes, the city expanded its tree ordinance to include private property.
The concerns are not just aesthetic: over the last decade, a host of studies
have underscored the role of trees — especially mature ones — as "green
infrastructure" that help reduce air-conditioning and energy costs, intercept
storm water runoff, capture dust and other pollutants, curb the effect of
greenhouse gases and increase property values. A study by the University of
Washington even found that people shopped longer and more often in tree-lined
retail areas and spent about 12 percent more money.
"Cities are beginning to recognize trees as capital assets just like roads,
bridges and schools," said James R. Lyons, executive director of the Casey
Trees Endowment Fund, a tree canopy restoration advocacy group based in
Washington, and an under secretary of agriculture in the Clinton
administration. "They're a significant investment that provides value to the
city and residents. People don't think about them until they're gone."
A result, said Buck Abbey, an associate professor of landscape architecture at
Louisiana State University, is "a kind of tree socialism" — a growing
recognition "that a community's interest does not stop at the property line."
Professor Abbey has surveyed tree loss from Hurricane Katrina and written
extensively on municipal tree ordinances. He said: "It's part of the
recognition of community. The line between public and private property is not
visible if a massive live oak is gone."
The tree wars seem likely to escalate along with stricter tree laws. In Los
Angeles, for instance, the City Council is about to consider an amendment to
the city's oak tree ordinance, which protects native oaks at least eight
inches in diameter. The expanded ordinance would include three other species —
black walnuts, California sycamores and bay laurels — and protect more trees
by reducing the diameter of a landmark tree to four inches.
Most notably, violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and, in extreme
cases, have their building permit withheld for up to 10 years. The ordinance,
moreover, would require developers to get a permit to knock down protected
trees and replace them with new trees at a ratio of at least 2 to 1.
Paula Bagasao, co-founder of Proh-LA, a group dedicated to protecting property
rights on hillsides, especially vacant lots, called the ordinance "a backyard
building moratorium" that would delay projects and add unnecessary costs. She
finds the inclusion of black walnut trees particularly irksome.
"These nuts fall all over East L.A., sending up all this black stuff and
giving birth to little walnut trees," she said. "The nuts fall on peoples'
heads at parties. The walnut tree is not an endangered species."
The City of Charlotte, N.C., requires developers to preserve 10 percent of a
subdivision's area in trees and also save all "heritage trees" approaching the
size of those in the North Carolina state list of "champion trees." The state
lost 1.2 million acres of urban forest between 1990 and 2002, nearly
three-quarters of it because of urbanization, according to American Forests.
Mark Baldwin, executive vice president of the Home Builders' Association of
Charlotte, said the policy "creates an inconvenience for the developer as far
as density, but it certainly pays off in the price of the homes." The extra
costs of "tree saves," he added, are passed on to the homeowner.
Here on Telegraph Hill, the ruckus over the parrots' cypress trees — leafy
equivalents of the mansions of the stars — has underscored the somewhat
precarious status of the city's trees. Despite its green, tree-hugger
reputation, San Francisco, built partly on windswept sand dunes and deforested
during the Gold Rush, has never been lush with trees. In contrast to New York,
the majority of street trees here are not maintained or even planted by the
city; it is up to individual property owners to plant trees.
The new ordinance would allow the Board of Supervisors to designate landmark
trees anywhere in San Francisco, including those harboring significant
wildlife. John Cowen, the property owner who cut the three cypress trees, said
he felled them for safety and liability reasons.
"Everyone is freaked out about the urban canopy producing oxygen and habitat
for this and that," Mr. Cowen said. "But these trees are rotten."
The skirmish between Mr. Cowen and Mr. Bittner, the author, and Judy Irving,
the maker of the parrots film, became so fraught that Mayor Gavin Newsom sent
his director of city greening, Marshall Foster, in as an intermediary.
Mr. Foster said that he had worked out a five-year plan to eventually replace
the cypress trees with new ones, and that a community group had offered to
subsidize pruning in the meantime. He conceded that the soap opera among the
cypresses was a human one. "The parrots are oblivious," he said.
Facing
housing boom, city focuses on potential woes
By Brian Lockhart
Staff Writer
January 29, 2006
NORWALK -- More than 2,000 apartments and condominiums have been proposed to
be built across the city and officials are questioning whether the potential
flood of new residents can be absorbed.
The Redevelopment Agency hired a consultant on Friday to determine the
possible strain on schools, police and fire departments, sewage and garbage
service.
RKG Associates Inc. of New Hampshire
will be paid $40,000 to perform a housing and retail market analysis for the
next five and 10 years. The study will look at existing housing units, review
plans for new developments and analyze trends and demographics.
A subsequent, $10,000 analysis will be awarded to estimate the fiscal effects
associated with multi-family housing development on city services.
Redevelopment Director Timothy Sheehan said the goal is to "get a handle on
the marketplace" and determine "when is enough, enough."
"Quite frankly, there have been a number of concerns expressed to me by public
officials and general citizens about the housing units we're introducing to
the urban corridors who want a better understanding as to what the overall
absorption of those will be," Sheehan said.
Funding for the study was approved earlier this month at the same meeting
where developer 95/7 Ventures proposed to halve the 1 million square feet of
office space long planned for the Reed Putnam Urban Renewal project.
A recent Redevelopment Agency analysis of the office market bolsters 95/7
Ventures' position that it is not feasible to introduce 1 million square feet
of office space. But some city officials who have been attached to the office
plan for the past 20 years are cautious about replacing 60 percent of it with
335,000 square feet of housing, plus stores, a hotel and health club.
While looking at the entire city, RKG is also being asked to focus on the West
Avenue and Riverwalk plans, and Sheehan said the findings will play a big part
in determining whether officials embrace 95/7 Ventures' vision.
Clayton Fowler of Spinnaker Cos., 95/7 Ventures' controlling partner, said the
study "will be important for all of us to move forward."
But, he added, "studies are studies. They aren't necessarily real life."
Douglas Adams, director of development for the Stanley M. Seligson Properties,
called the analysis "important." Seligson has been working for several years,
with three different city administrations, to develop a plan for new housing,
retail and office space along West Avenue.
The company was not enthusiastic when 95/7 Ventures offered a new vision for
Riverwalk.
"We have spent many years and many millions of dollars planning a project with
the city based on a set of assumptions for all projects under the
Redevelopment Agency," Jacobs said. "And we feel to change one now, this late
in the game, dramatically impacts us and would be counterproductive to our
project and the city."
Sheehan's hiring of RKG Associates, along with plans for the $10,000 housing
study, also come at a time when the city revising its 10-year Master Plan of
Conservation and Development.
Walter Briggs is chairman of the Planning Commission, which has the ultimate
responsibility of crafting the master plan. He said he has spoken to Sheehan
and intends to incorporate RKG's findings.
"It just makes my job a lot easier," Briggs said. "I'm thrilled he's doing it.
It saves me a lot of time, trouble and money."
Panel urges city to relax rules on industrial land
By Brian Lockhart
Advocate Staff Writer
NORWALK -- A task force wants the city to loosen its zoning regulations to
promote new commercial uses within most of its 200 industrial properties.
The draft recommendations unanimously approved yesterday by the Industrial
Zones Committee also support a developer's plans for housing at the city's
largest industrial property -- NordenPark -- but want a greater percentage of
it to be moderately priced.
Earlier this month, NordenPark owners Spinnaker Cos., Greenfield Partners and
Summit Development Co. offered to make 12 percent of the proposed 316
condominium units affordably priced to families earning less than 80 percent
or 60 percent of the state median income.
But the Industrial Zones committee is pushing for 15 percent -- the same
amount being requested by the Zoning Commission, which will have to grant a
zoning change to allow housing at the 80-acre industrial site.
"We feel if you're taking industrial property off the rolls that would bring
in jobs, you should provide housing for those who are here for jobs," said
committee chairman Walter Briggs, who also heads the Planning Commission.
The 11-member task force was formed by former Mayor Alex Knopp in October 2004
to consider expanding uses at some industrial properties to stimulate economic
activity. Members included city planning officials, business owners, industry
representatives and residents.
Last winter and spring, the group heard testimony from Spinnaker officials and
other industrial property owners, and the leaders of the Manufacturing
Alliance of Connecticut and Connecticut Development Authority.
"We loosened it a little. Not greatly. There will be some people who are
upset, but that's the way life is," Briggs said. "We're trying hard to make it
work for everybody."
The recommendations cover two building zones: restricted industrial, which
includes the Martin Luther King Jr. Drive neighborhood, a section of Woodward
Avenue and NordenPark; and Industrial 1, which includes sites along Lexington
and Wilson avenues and Day and Bouton streets in South Norwalk, Commerce and
High streets in the city center, and properties in East Avenue along the train
tracks.
Multifamily housing would be considered on a case-by-case basis on industrial
properties of 10 acres or more.
Ten percent of housing units on parcels exceeding 25 acres would be required
to be affordable to families earning less than 80 percent of the state median
income, or $65,000 for a family of four. An additional 5 percent would have be
set aside for families earning less than 60 percent of the state median
income, or $49,000.
Out of the 200 properties within the city zoned for some sort of industry,
five are larger than 10 acres. Only NordenPark exceeds 25 acres.
Kim Morque, a partner at Spinnaker Cos., attended yesterday morning's meeting
of the Industrial Zones Committee.
"Their recommendations seem to be pretty balanced," Morque said. "I commend
them for doing the work and taking a look at it."
For the past few years, Spinnaker has held up NordenPark as a prime example of
what can be done to revive dormant industrial properties.
The developer purchased the Cold War-era industrial complex five years ago,
including an existing, 660,000-square-foot building, from MetLife for $40
million.
The sole tenant was Norden Systems, which for 40 years built radar and other
electronic systems for the military. It has downsized but remains on the
premises.
Spinnaker found nonindustrial tenants such as Gibbs College, Tauck World
Discovery travel company and baker Pepperidge Farm Inc. to fill the vacancies.
Morque said Spinnaker was not ruling out making 15 percent of its proposed
condominium project affordable, per the industrial zones study.
"Certainly, it's still a work in progress, and we're addressing a number of
questions and comments to the application, from land use to affordable
housing, traffic, drainage," Morque said.
The Zoning Commission has scheduled a March 1 public hearing on the NordenPark
housing. The Planning Commission also will review the proposal; the
Conservation Commission will hold a Feb. 14 public hearing on Spinnaker's
plan.
