Council Member Continues Hostile Debate with Public Works Officials

At a public hearing Wednesday night about the project to lower Rowayton Avenue under a Metro-North Railroad bridge, several residents and Rowayton officials expressed concerns or made requests about aspects of the project.

But the most vociferous and tense objections came from Nora King, a member of the Common Council, and her husband, Mark Pinzon, a volunteer firefighter at the Rowayton Volunteer Fire Department.

King brought up various objections about the project and the way city Department of Public Works staff presented it to the public. The meeting followed last week in which she called Public Works Director Harold Alvord a "liar" because she said he misled residents who near the project about how much disruption it would cause.

At Wednesday night's meeting, which was held to give neighbors an opportunity to see the plans to lower the roadway beneath the bridge, she said that DPW staff were misleading the public and at other times implied it.

Early in the meeting, she said a map used for illustrations had some names of previous homeowners attached to certain lots. "Isn't that a little misleading?" she asked. Richard Linnartz, the city's principal engineer, said such maps are often out of date, but that city and state officials both knew the current property owners and had notified them for that meeting and for all other matters related to the project. The exchange continued this way:

King: "That is very misleading not to have the names correct [on the map]."

Linnartz: "No, it isn't. This is a survey of a certain date. That's why the names are there."

King later said that rainwater drainage problems in the area could be worsened by the project, and she asked what those designing it were doing about that.

Linnartz replied that the project should not affect drainage or increase flooding on site or where water flows into the nearby Five Mile River, "so there's no negative impacts on the Five Mile River."

King replied, "That's not true. For everyone who lives there, and I've sat on my porch watching it." When she was living at 294 Rowayton Ave. in a house she now rents out, she saw water build up, she said, and the project could worsen the problem. "That's going to change the course of drainage there," she said.

"No, it's not," Linnartz said. "There's a drain there today, and it will stay there, exactly where it is."

King: "You're changing the grade of the road. That changes drainage issues."

Linnartz: "No, it doesn't. ... We're not building a new parking lot."

King said she'd like to see documentation of some of Linnartz' statements about drainage. He replied, "It's been in the design report since 2001."

Questions and comments from others

Pinzon, a volunteer firefighter in Rowayton, objected to city officials saying that one of the purposes of the project to lower the roadway was to to increase the clearance for fire trucks to get underneath it. 

"Our biggest truck—it clears it with no problem—so you're not doing it for the fire department," Pinzon said.

Linnartz said the road was lowered for a number of reasons having to do with trucks being able to get underneath the bridge, including fire trucks. "It's one of the reasons, yes sir," he said quickly, briefly interrupting Pinzon.

"See, I wasn't done talking. You're talking over me," Pinzon then said. After a bit more discussion with Linnartz, Pinzon added, "So what you're saying is as long as you talk over me, I can't say what I want to say."

Another official from the DPW said some Norwalk Fire Department trucks, including a new ladder truck, could not get under the railroad tracks crossing Rowayton Avenue and might well be needed to assist the Rowayton department for a fire nearby.

No other comments from the public raised objections as strong as those of King and Pinzon. One resident said she hoped more could be done to reduce the number of speeding drivers. Another asked that officials try to preserve an "old drain" in the neighborhood that a farmer had once installed and which wasn't on any maps. Yet another said the speeding problem is so bad that he hopes a pothole now in the street isn't repaired.

Rowayton officials from the Sixth Taxing District asked how the project would prevent some of the parking spaces from being removed at the station, and they suggested that stairwells near the bridge be designed in a way similar to stairwells at a Fairfield station. DPW officials said they would investigate and try to accommodate all of the requests.

Project description

According to a document DPW officials gave to the public, the project is expected to cost $2.6 million, will be done in 2013, "based on the current schedule," and will be paid for by the state and federal governments. The city is only paying for a study and design services costing a total of about $270,000.

The bridge over Rowayton Avenue has been replaced with one that lowers the clearance because the city wanted the space widened underneath the bridge to make it safer, Alvord said after the meeting. Currently the bridge has a posted clearance of 10 feet, 7 inches. The city wants the clearance to be 12 feet (and will post signs with a clearance level somewhat below that).

The road project will widen the street to 28 feet from curb to curb, with 12-foot-wide lanes and two-foot shoulders. Sidewalks near the Rowayton Metro-North staton will be widened and stairwells improved to make it safer and easier for pedestrians to pass through.

With the roadway lowered by as much as 18 inches at some points, the entrance to the train station as well as driveways owned by nearby residents will need to be lowered, some retaining walls will have to be built on residents' yards, DPW officials said. Also, to widen the road the state will need to take some small strips of land by the roadside.

The project extends a total of about 800 feet along Rowayton Avenue—roughly 400 feet north of the railroad bridge and 350 feet south. In addition to city DPW officials, a consultant for the project described the changes it would make, and a state official involved in state land acquisitions described the process used for acquiring strips of land from the residents.

After the hearing, Pinzon said he didn't think public works officials would change the project in any radical way or stop it in response to criticism. "As usual, I think it's [the project] just going to get steamrolled, and it's going to happen no matter what."