Making Use of the Land in a ‘Smart’ Way
By Soule, Alexander
A horde of bats escaped into the surrounding hills, after the Georgetown Land Development Co. let the wrecking ball swing several weeks ago on its massive brownfield redevelopment in Redding.
By the time developer Steve Soler is finished, he may have done more to dispel the darkness surrounding adaptive land use than anyone in Fairfield County.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s budget proposal contains nearly $600 million for “smart-growth” initiatives surrounding land use and economic development.
Not to be outdone, Democrat legislators led by state Sen. Bill Finch of Bridgeport introduced a proposal this month to pour $1 billion over 10 years into initiatives to rehabilitate mildly polluted properties and other existing developments. Both proposals hinge on the goal of warding off sprawl and preserving the character of Connecticut’s lands as they exist today.
In Redding, Soler picked one of the most underdeveloped towns in Fairfield County for his $300 million project, due to the existence of the 55-acre Gilbert & Bennett property, an abandoned wire mill. just 12 percent of Redding’s 20,500 acres have been developed, according to the Center for Land-use Education and Research (CLEAR) at the University of Connecticut. Furthermore, between 1985 and 2002 just 1.5 percent of Redding land came under development; during that period, the only towns in Fairfield County to have experienced a slower pace of development are Greenwich, New Canaan and Sherman.
Still, Stamford has developed just 1.7 percent of its property since 1985, illustrating the fact that urban projects can founder on fears of overdevelopment.
The Redding project and Antares Investment Partners’ proposed $4 billion redevelopment of brownfield sites in Stamford’s South End are the two most significant economicdevelopment projects in Fairfield County, said Floyd Lapp, executive director of the South West Regional Planning Agency. SWRPA focuses on transportation issues in the area between Greenwich and Wilton
“Both are promoting smart growth, which means walking, alternative transportation, transit – not being reliant on automobiles and in turn conserving energy,” Lapp said.
If such projects require massive resources, towns are steadily receiving more tools to help them weigh relatively small-scale projects.
The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and the University of Connecticut. recently unveiled a new Web site that maps geographic features of towns. Using the Community Resource Center, one can generate maps depicting:
* topographical features such as elevation, forest and soil types.
* watersheds, surface and ground water, and water quality.
* fragile habitats and regulated lands.
* transportation and utility infrastructure.
More help may be on the way for planners. Buried in Rell’s $18 billion budget proposal was a $1.6 million allotment to provide enhanced global satellite positioning information for towns as they make land-use decisions.
An annual study by University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School shows that Connecticut has the 15th strictest controls on land-use in the nation; in the Northeast, only New York has measurably looser restrictions on the use of land.
Fairfield County, which has the highest per-capita income in the United States, is another matter.
“The severity of the degree of control is highly correlated to the wealth of the economy,” said Anita Summers, who coauthored the Wharton study. “Obviously this could be occurring because people have made big investments in their homes and they want to protect them. It could be because these people are more educated and so have more concerns about environment.”
Time will only tell whether Antares’ and Soler’s big investments will change the environment for adaptive land use in Fairfield County. But the projects already are serving notice that massive public funding may not be needed to get projects to take wing in Fairfield County, whether in the city or in the countryside.
“Steve Soler wasn’t looking for a handout,” said Eric Brown, an associate counsel with the Connecticut Business and Industry Association who focuses on landuse. “He said, ‘Look, I don’t need your money. I just need buy-in at the municipal level, and I am out of the chutes like a racehorse.’ “
Copyright Westfair Communications Feb 26, 2007
(c) 2007 Fairfield County Business Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.