Common Council Supports Rowayton Ave. Project—Barely

The Norwalk Common Council—with seven votes in favor, three opposed, three abstentions and several members absent—approved on Tuesday the overall plan to lower Rowayton Avenue around the Metro-North railroad bridge.

The approval came in the form of a resolution required by the state in order for the state to continue its part of the funding the $2.8 million project. Such resolutions are standard procedure, city Public Works Director Harold Alvord said.

The project would add some inches to the clearance under the bridge, making it just over 12 feet above the Rowayton Avenue roadway, add sidewalks to make the Rowayton Metro-North Station safer for pedestrians, and lower a nearby high spot on Rowayton Avenue by about two feet.

The somewhat higher clearance and road lowering near the bridge would allow one particuarly large Norwalk Fire Department truck to get under the span, city officials have said. Although the Rowayton Volunteer Fire Department covers the area, for some fires it seeks the assistance of the city Fire Department.

Lowering the high spot would allow drivers leaving the station parking lot to see vehicles for a longer distance, rather than be confronted with a speeding car as the driver is pulling out onto Rowayton Avenue.

Proponents of the project, including the council's Public Works Committee Chairman Andrew Conroy, said they favored it as a safety measure.

Some of those design changes would mean nearby property owners would lose strips of land, or they would need to have driveways lowered. The state would need to either buy or take through eminent domain the bits of land it says it needs to finish the project and make the area safer for pedestrians and cars entering and leaving the station.

The taking of land through eminent domain bothered Council member Kelly Straniti, she said, and that was one of the principal reasons she gave for abstaining from the vote.

The three council members who voted against the project, all Democrats, said little or nothing about their vote, but Norwalk Democratic Town Chairman Marc Bradley was the only member of the public to speak on the project, and he spoke against it. (His remarks can be found .)

Council Member Nora King of Rowayton, a vociferous opponent of the project, was not present for the meeting, although she's argued against it in Public Works Committee meetings and public meetings in the past. A property King owns on Rowayton Avenue sits adjacent to the station, and its property value might potentially be affected because of the project.

The resolution contained language stating that the Common Council could reconsider its support in the future based on particular design details, when the design is "50 percent" completed.

Alvord told the council that state officials had seen the language of the resolution, and they were satisfied with it. Alvord said that certain safety standards for the roadway must be met for the state to continue funding the project, however areas that did not concern safety, such as the aesthetic nature of retaining walls and other details, could be changed and certainly could be expected to change until plans eventually are finalized.

Conroy gave a five-minute history of the project to Council members, noting that commuters at the station had strongly pushed for the project years ago, and that the project only got this far along in the process because the city and the state had both compromised on certain desires.

At one point, city officials changed their mind on whether to allow for a stop sign at a nearby road, pleasing residents. At another point, the state agreed to drop its demand that the roadway under the bridge get a clearance of 14 feet. But in each case it took years for officials to change their minds.

The roadway underneath the bridge was widened, which pleased city and state officials, but if the project goes forward, a temporary sidewalk must be built, the road must be lowered a bit under and near the bridge, and certain other changes would need to be made, like lowering the driveways of some homes nearby (to avoid steep access to the newly lowered road), as well as adding retaining walls and more sidewalks for people walking into and out of the station.

Some area residents have expressed concerns that with the clearance under the bridge raised, more trucks would move along Rowayton Avenue, a problem that residents have already complained about.

Conroy has said he didn't think more truck traffic was likely to be added, since the additional clearance under the bridge would only amount to a few inches.

In the end, Council members David Jaeger, Travis Simms and Carvin Hilliard, all Democrats, voted against the resolution; Kelly Straniti, Joanne Romano, both Republicans, and Laurel E. Lindstrom, a Democrat, abstained.

Voting in favor were Fred Bondi, Andrew T. Conroy, Douglas Hempstead, John Tobin, Richard Bonenfant, Nicholas D. Kydes and Clyde Mount, all Republicans. Council President Richard McQuaid, a Republican, and King, a Democrat, were both absent.

Editor's note: This article was updated at 9:46 a.m. Wednesday, with minor changes in writing and a bit of additional information.