For the third time is as many months Shelton residents packed a public meeting Tuesday to voice their feelings on a mega-development proposed on a 121-acre property off Bridgeport Avenue.
And for the third time, their message was a clear and resounding “no thanks.”
For more than two hours residents urged the zoning commissioners to reject the application.
Thirty-one people spoke out against the proposal, with some submitting petitions with dozens of other names.
Many pointed out the abundance of development that already exists in Shelton, and the traffic jams caused by it nearly every day.
Others called the nine-story apartment building envisioned as the development’s centerpiece a “monstrosity” that would loom ominously over Mill Street, the city’s first scenic road.
Background
The proposal — called “Towne Center at Shelter Ridge” — would be one of the largest development applications Shelton has seen in years.
It calls for a 450-unit, nine-story apartment building and more than 300,000 square feet of retail space on the property, which fronts Bridgeport Avenue opposite Long Hill Cross Road. It also borders Buddington Road, Mill Street, two city-owned open space properties, and several private properties.
The project would be divided into five sections. The apartment building would be its focal point. Other parts of the proposal include plans for a medical office building and assisted living facility, a mixed-use development similar to the Split Rock Shopping Center, and two separate retail complexes.
A public hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission to change the zoning of the land from light industrial to a “planned development district” began last month and continued Tuesday at Shelton Intermediate School, where more than 200 people showed up.
Click here and here for previous stories.
Please Don’t Approve This
Mill Street resident John Simonetti said Tuesday the building would ruin the view he and his neighbors have. Approving its construction, he said, would be “reckless, haphazard, and against everything the PZC was elected to do.”
Don Scarpetti, who lives on Buddington Road, noted that at last month’s hearing, a representative of the project’s developer had called the proposal one of the largest in Fairfield County.
That shouldn’t be seen as a good thing, he said.
“Maybe there’s a reason there’s no other project like this,” Scarpetti said. “Some things are better off as dreams.”
Many others said they had moved to Shelton from highly developed areas in New York’s Westchester County or from lower Fairfield County for a more suburban way of life.
Linda Ramos said she and her husband moved to a home on Patriot Trail from New York and within 15 minutes had fallen in love with Shelton.
“After living many many years in New York, we said we’d never want to leave Connecticut again,” she said. “To turn it into something we escaped from just goes against everything we believe in.”
Dave Ramos said he has to leave his house at different times of the day for his job, and traffic is “always, always busy. If they decide to do this it’s going to get even worse.”
Traffic was the topic most often brought up by residents at Tuesday’s hearing.
Jeff Forte, a Nells Rock Road resident and city business owner for nearly 30 years, noted that the concern isn’t the typical “NIMBY (not in my backyard) issue.”
The increased traffic from the development “would cause serious quality of life issues for everybody in town,” not just neighbors, he said.
Ken Huzi said the threat of a potential lawsuit from the developer shouldn’t deter the zoning commissioners.
“As you see here, all of Shelton says ‘We’re willing to go to court,’” Huzi said. “And we’ll win … This is the time to draw the line in the sand and say ‘If you want to be a good neighbor, then play by our rules.’”
Joseph Bienkowski, a member of the city’s Citzens Advisory Board, read a statement on behalf of its members in opposition to the zone change.
Thomas Harbinson, the chairman of the city’s Conservation Commission, said that commission was also opposed — and gave a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation showing potential impacts to the area’s bevy of natural resources that could occur if the zone change happens.
Article continues after the presentation.
Natural Resources of Shelter Ridge
Commission Questions
Tuesday’s meeting began with the PZC’s Virginia Harger reading a letter from City Engineer Robert Kulacz, who raised concerns about potential impacts to traffic, water runoff and sewers that the development would cause.
Chairman Ruth Parkins then read a list of concerns the commission’s members had thought of themselves for the developer’s lawyer to respond to when the public hearing continues.
Commissioner Jimmy Tickey asked for more information amount possible impacts to the nearby Far Mill River and other bodies of water, as well as more details about parking on the property, saying he was worried about “so much blacktop that’s being put on what is pristine land.”
Alternate Frank Osak also listed a number of concerns, most notably with a fiscal impact study submitted with the application. He said he thought the study overstates the tax benefit to the city.
Opposition Hires Lawyer
The public comment Tuesday went beyond just the usual neighbor opposition. The opposition to this project is organized, and they’ve hired a lawyer of their own.
The first to the podium was the neighbors’ lawyer, Keith Ainsworth, who was hired by “Save Our Shelton,” a grass roots group which has attracted more than 1,000 “likes” on Facebook.
Ainsworth said the existing zoning on the property, light industrial, is one of the best uses it could be for the city — even developed it wouldn’t generate much traffic or any impact to local schools, and it would add to the tax rolls.
A mix of high-density residential and commercial uses, on the other hand, would make traffic along Bridgeport Avenue — which is already bad — even worse.
Ainsworth went on to decry the “set-aside” areas of the property proposed as open space, which totals roughly 20 percent of the acreage, as scant compensation, noting it includes utility right of ways, and “unusable, unbuildable, waste property.”
“You’re not supposed to take all the land that we just can’t build on and throw it back,” he said.
Click the play button below to listen to the meeting, which will continue June 28.
The lawyer also said the commission shouldn’t just approve any development that has the potential to increase the city’s tax base.
“You’re trading your birthright for taxes, and you’ve got to be really careful about that,” Ainsworth said. “Balance is what this should be about, and balance is what you should demand in this PDD. You need to deny the PDD and make them go back. They can do an awful lot better than this.”
Minority Report
One city resident, Ron Pavluvcik, of Aspetuck Village, spoke in favor of the proposal. He derided concerns raised by others as “hysterical” comments of “tree-huggers,” prompting jeers from the rest of the crowd.
It wasn’t the first time he’s found himself outnumbered badly at a public hearing.
He compared opposition to the proposal to previous opposition to the Split Rock Shopping Center, a mixed use development at Bridgeport Avenue and Old Stratford Road, which “turned out to be beautiful” and provides thousands of dollars in taxes per year.
He said his only concern with the current proposal is that it might be too small.
Instead of a nine-story apartment building, why not 18 floors, he wondered.
“Let’s think big.”
What’s Next?
Tuesday’s hearing ended with dozens of residents still waiting to offer comments on the project.
The commission has not made any ruling on the zone change application.
The public hearing will resume June 28 at Shelton Intermediate School, 675 Constitution Blvd. N., at 7 p.m.
