Norwalk's Planning & Zoning Commission is considering approval of a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Transportation Maintenance Terminal at 10 Norden Place in East Norwalk.

The Commission has scheduled a Public Hearing on May 8th at 6pm (see City meeting calendar for agenda, meeting room and zoom link) and they DO NOT intend to have a complete presentation of the plan to the Commission prior to that evening - instead they may only have a "brief overview" of the plan prior to opening the hearing up for Public Comment.  Norwalk's P&Z Director suggests residents educate themselves on the proposed plan by reading documents posted online:

https://www.norwalkct.gov/3551/10-Norden-Place---2024--14-SPR

According to the Feb. 23rd 2024 P&Z Staff Memo to the Commission: "The applicant is proposing to use ~ 115,000 SF of the 635,000 SF building as an MTA
maintenance yard. The yard will be used to store equipment and materials related to maintenance
operations at their existing sites. More specifically, this includes the storage of trucks and equipment as
well as internal and external storage of bulk materials such as rails. Of the 150 employees, ~ 1/3* of the staff will be office and technical support who remain on-site, while the remainder arrive in the morning, receive
their assignments, load up their vehicles and leave for the day, returning at the end of the day."

*Subsequently corrected by traffic impact study to be approximately 30 on site employees.

PLEASE READ THE PETITION INFORMATION BELOW AND JOIN OTHER NORWALK RESIDENTS IN:

1) Urging the Commission to postpone the May 8th public hearing until such time as a full presentation is made to the P&Z Commission & public, and provide at least 10 business days between the presentation and the Hearing.

2) Requiring the City to consider the environmental and safety impacts associated with generating more truck traffic through our neighborhoods and on our Safe Routes to School road (Strawberry Hill Avenue).

3) Requesting this Application be DENIED due to negative environmental impacts to abutting residents and the negative quality of life impacts to all East Norwalkers who live work and travel through our neighborhoods and the lack of any economic or community benefits to Norwalk.

If after reading the important information below you agree with the 3 requests above, please sign the petition and start sending emails to the P&Z Commission to urge them to deny this application ( to P&Z Commission in care of skleppin@norwalkct.gov ).

To stay informed on this application and hearing, and to learn more about what else YOU can do to oppose this site plan, sign up for East Norwalk Neighborhood Association email newsletters at www.eastnorwalk.org or by emailing info@eastnorwalk.org.

FOR THE REASONS OUTLINED BELOW, WE, THE UNDERSIGNED RESIDENTS OF NORWALK, STRONGLY URGE OUR PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION TO DENY SITE PLAN REVIEW APPLICATION 2024-14SPR 10 NORDEN PLACE

1. The Tighe & Bond Traffic Impact Study that concluded his MTA facility "...is not expected to have a significant impact on traffic operations in the study area..." is questionable at best and misleading at worst and warrants further scrutiny, especially as to the exclusion of East Avenue in the study area and that the MTA route for large trucks (and tractor trailer deliveries) intersects with Safe Routes to School Strawberry Hill at Beacon, Norden and Fitch.
2. The Safe Routes to School and Complete Streets programs will be critically and irrevocably breached and the mission to promote pedestrian and cyclist safety negated by FOUR daily commutes of employee vehicles and MTA vans, pick up trucks, 36-passenger bus, large trucks & heavy equipment. 
3. The Traffic Impact Study (TIS) failed to include East Avenue and I95 in the analysis, ignoring a major factor of concern during the applicant's previous 2020 submission. Gridlock and congestion exist there today and despite future planned improvements the limited left turn options will result in 100% of the associated northbound I95 traffic using Fitch exclusively or cut thru Raymond and Myrtle.
4. The TIS fails to adequately account for future development at the Norden parcel and suggests a large Data Center would be most appropriate for modeling increased traffic - this is ludicrous and insulting to residents as Data Centers, by their very nature, are among the LEAST impactful land uses when it comes to workforce size and traffic.
5. The traffic analysis data is outdated and does not appear to account for increased construction vehicles for the construction of Norwalk High; the Cemetery  Street 77-unit development; the future Transit Oriented Development on and along the East Avenue corridor; or the multi-year East Avenue Improvement reconstruction.
6. We strongly oppose any City concessions that would alter turning radius and curbs for the purpose of enabling large trucks and tractor trailers to pass. This bias in favor of the Applicants exhibited ahead of the full Site Plan Review, the public hearing and the P&Z vote, coupled with the usual traffic conclusion of "no significant impact" suggests this application has a predetermined outcome regardless of its negative impact on our community. 
7. P&Z Director Kleppin has repeatedly refused to approve ENNA's requests to remove objectionable uses for this parcel, including the use before us now: Transportation Maintenance Terminal. In fact, this use did not exist prior to Mr. Kleppin creating and including it in the October 2022 Industrial Zoning Regulations rewrite. This, too, suggests the City was  working behind closed doors with the property owner and  co-applicant to "spot zone" for the purpose of approving this 2024 application. It should be noted that Mr. Kleppin added this new use as a "Site Plan Review"  which has a less intense quality of life scrutiny than does a Special Permit.  Coincidentally, this Application was in the works at least as far back as 2023, and was filed in February 2024 literally several days before another NEW set of zoning regulations went into effect that prohibits this use.
8. The Tighe & Bond study states "...the MTA uses local gas stations to obtain fuel for its fleet..." yet failed to include East Avenue where FOUR gas stations exist. Large trucks and other site vehicles obtaining fuel at these locations will back up onto Fitch or Winfield and exacerbate the existing East Avenue traffic problem.
9. Lengthy tractor trailers and "logging" trucks cannot make the turn radius onto Fitch from East Avenue without jumping the curb on to the gas station parcel, while cutting into Fitch oncoming traffic. 
10. The proposed MTA fleet routes include Beacon @ Strawberry Hill, Norden @ Strawberry Hill, Fitch @ Strawberry Hill along with Winfield and Triangle streets. These routes are comprised of tight residential roads with narrow lanes and inadequate turn radiuses and large trucks traveling them daily will contribute to increased hazardous road safety issues, especially in winter when lanes can be even narrower due to snow.
11. Although this application was submitted prior to the Feb. 19 2024 regulations which now prohibit this use, we believe the Commission has the ability and authority under Site Plan Review to DENY it based on the negative traffic & environmental impacts.
12. This proposed use will erode our quality of life and negatively impact the environment with increased truck traffic, much of which is expected to be diesel-emitting large trucks and equipment. Increased air and noise pollution has been proven to contribute to physical (including asthma) and mental health issues (including anxiety). Norwalk children walk & bike on Strawberry Hill and the surrounding neighborhood streets on a daily basis, and our cherished seniors and memory care patients at Maplewood Assisted Living are directly ON the vehicle & truck route. 
13. No consideration of the application should be scheduled in the absence of the required Environmental Impact Study (and ad 3rd party peer review of such). At a minimum the City should be requiring professionally-generated models of Co2 and greenhouse gas levels at various times of the year. Residents have a legal right to be informed by environmental study experts as to which environmental pollutants we will be exposed to.
14. Along with virtually no effort to reduce pervious surfaces or stormwater runoff and apparently no reference to the existing "heat desert", the Plan even proposes to REMOVE a number of existing trees, and appears to provide for only for a bare minimum of buffer trees and planting. 
15. Approval of this site plan runs counterintuitive to the March 2024 announcement of the "City of Norwalk Sustainability & Resilience Plan", described as serving as a "..roadmap that builds on the City's... climate resilience efforts while placing Norwalk on fast track to becoming the greenest City in CT." This application flies in the face of the plan's key initiative to "reduce greenhouse gas emissions." 
16. The deliberate introduction of more tractor trailer trucks on the Safe Routes to School corridor is in direct conflict with Mayor Rilling's mission statement "..it's our responsibility to take a proactive approach by implementing the steps in this Sustainability and Resilience Plan on behalf of our children, grandchildren and future generations..."
17. In addition to MTA fleet operations and onsite materials storage (rail, wood, steel, etc.), the application states the building itself will also be used for "...steel fabrication of MTA items." Residents have yet to learn of the type, volume and weekly frequency of what the applicants' attorney referred to as "fabrication or small, light manufacturing."  Even less information was provided as to the environmental impact of the raw materials, fabrication and waste.
18. The application states that MTA vehicles will be working ON the tracks with regularity, which will create a steady stream of noise pollution and at certain times of year also light pollution. Both will negatively impact the quality of life of residences across from or near the facility.
19. Nothing in the zoning regulations would prohibit the future expansion or intensification of this use, and the public can assume the MTA or other tenants could store even more materials and have more trucks & employee vehicles to the extent the size of the parcel itself allows.
20. This site plan and proposed use is OF NO DIRECT BENEFIT to the Norwalk community - not in services, tax revenue, job creation or economic community impact. This facility is a regional maintenance site that benefits the regional MTA rail system and as such should only be considered in industrial zones that do not have residential dwellings within several hundred feet on three sides, as does Norden Place (abutted by properties on Norden Place, in Norden Place, and across at Heron, Fordham, Howard and Pequot). 

FOR THE REASONS OUTLINED ABOVE, WE, THE UNDERSIGNED RESIDENTS OF NORWALK, STRONGLY URGE OUR PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION TO DENY SITE PLAN REVIEW APPLICATION 2024-14SPR 10 NORDEN PLACE.

 

{NOTE: ENNA thanks volunteer Mimi Chang for her engaging & persuasive writing skills and collaboration on this petition.  ENNA is consulting with a prominent land use attorney and has already engaged the expertise of both a Transportation/Urban Planner and a Civil Engineer to support our case that this proposed use of Norden Place will NEGATIVELY impact Norwalkers.  If you can help to defray the costs please visit our website today to donate at www.eastnorwalk.org