Lure crowds to the lonely farmers market. Do something with the abandoned factories that eat up space downtown. Bring more attractive tenants to Main Street. Get boards and commissions to work together better.
Ansonia officials gave Hartford-based consultant Richard Stoltz those goals and others Thursday night as he embarked on a mission to create a development “master plan” for the city.
He has his work cut out for him.
Stoltz got a run-down of efforts thus far from members of the Economic Development Commission and a handful of Aldermen at a gathering Thursday night in City Hall.
Thursday’s session was to be Stoltz’s official introduction to the EDC, but when not enough members had shown up by a half-hour after the meeting’s 7 p.m. start time to make up a quorum, officials decided instead to “informally” chat with Stoltz about their vision for the city.
Time and again, they stressed how much there is to see and do and experience in the city: a picturesque nature center and more than 1,000 acres of woodland. The country’s oldest opera house. A beautiful Riverwalk. There’s even an annual bicycle festival.
But just as often, they expressed frustration at projects or initiatives that weren’t as successful.
A farmers market that opened in July, for example, attracted a flurry of initial interest but traffic soon dwindled.
“The farmers market did not draw the people we were hoping for,” said Vinnie Scarlata, the EDC chairman. “Our seniors patronize it like crazy. We still can’t get upper Ansonia down here. We can’t get the Hilltop downtown.”
And, several there noted, for every success story the city can brag about, there are just as many seemingly intractable problems.
Keith Murray, a Main Street lawyer who sits on the commission, ran down a list of great restaurants and shops downtown but noted that sandwiched between them all are vacant storefronts or defunct businesses.
“It’d be nice to have a Main Street where people want to walk up one side and then down the other,” Murray said.
Perhaps the city could identify types of desirable businesses and then try to entice certain tenants specifically, he said.
“What do we need here?” Murray wondered. “Let’s find these people and sell to them.”
And then there’s the city’s “big elephant in the room,” as Alderman John Marini put it: the acre upon acre of downtown real estate taken up by the mostly dormant factories of Ansonia Copper and Brass and Farrel Corp.
“You have a large amount of factory space, old mills, old office buildings, that are just not being used,” Marini said. “The obstacle is what becomes of these properties? No one party’s going to be able to solve this themselves.”
“There’s a lot of big ideas, but what we’re lacking is the path to get us there,” Marini added.
Others echoed the sentiment.
“Economic development has happened by accident over the past 10 years,” Scarlata said. “If it happened, it happened. I don’t think there was any mission statement, or plan.”
Another Alderman, Charles Stowe, said the city’s boards and commissions could better work together to attract new business.
“It’s almost like these boards enjoy making it hard for businesses to move in,” he said.
Enter Stoltz.
The city brought his firm, Bartram and Cochran, onboard to spend at least 14 weeks working with the city to create a development “master plan.”
At the end of Thursday’s gathering, he thanked those present for their input and gave them a brief summary of how what he’ll be doing over the next few months.
A video of his remarks is below. Article continues after the video.
Among other things, Stoltz said he’ll research the city’s demographics and also examine downtown properties to determine their “highest and best uses.”
He said the work will entail a “surplus and leakage” report on just what types of businesses succeed and where, in addition to finding out what types of companies are leaving the city.
The process will also include two public hearings to get input, he said.
“It’s not just what you want,” Stoltz told officials. “It’s what other people want to do in Ansonia.”
Scarlata said Friday he has been impressed in his initial dealings with Stoltz and his firm.
“They definitely have a direction in mind for us, and they’ll fine-tune that as he starts noodling around the city,” Scarlata said. “They know how to do what we need to have done.”
“The skeptics are going to say, ‘This is the same old thing,’” Scarlata went on. “I’m not going to let this be the same old thing because this is a very valuable opportunity for us.”
