NORWALK, Conn. – A relentless Norwalk zoning commissioner fought ardently Thursday night to get more information regarding traffic near a proposed big box store, earning repeated applause from some audience members and angry tones from a lawyer representing the applicant.
Zoning Commissioner Mike Mushak debated Norwalk Corporation Counsel Bob Maslan for about 30 minutes, insisting, as he has often in the recent past, that a study that cost the city $500,000 should not be ignored. Maslan replied that it wasn’t being ignored, that it was being used appropriately, by the Department of Public Works. Mushak was free to express his opinion, he said, but the Zoning Commission needs to apply zoning regulations, not a recommendation made for planning purposes. Zoning regulations cannot be changed while an application is in progress, he said.
Mushak was campaigning to get the commission to invest some city money in getting independent traffic analysis regarding the application to put a BJ’s Wholesale Club at 272-280 Main Ave., the former site of ELINCO (Electric Indicator Co.), long vacant due to pollution concerns and a government cleanup in progress. The “peer review” would encompass a much greater area than just the six intersections near the proposed BJ’s.
“We don’t know how much that’s going to cost. But, just to pick a number, if it’s $10,000 or $20,000 for a fee, to me that’s the cost of a funeral of someone who may get hit, if you want to put it in terms of cost to the city if we don’t do peer review,” Mushak said.
Attorney Frank Zullo, there to represent BJ’s, took note of that quote, asking associates to write it down.
Mushak referred to both the Norwalk Transportation Management Plan completed in September and the Westport-North Main Corridor Study and Plan completed in December 2006.
Mushak mentioned other documents as well. He said the city’s master plan recommends a maximum building size of 10,000 square feet on Main Avenue, a stark contrast to the 109,908 square feet planned by BJ’s. The South Western Regional Planning Agenc y (SWRPA) had done a study that declared that Main Avenue has “one of the poorest bicycle pedestrian safety records of any state highway in the region,” he said.
Mushak had brought up the Norwalk Transportation Management Plan and it’s $500,000 price tag over and over again at last month’s committee meeting, asking why the city was ignoring it. On Wednesday, he said he had learned that the DPW and other city departments are using it, and asked why it wasn’t being used by zoning.
Maslan said the plan is “a guidance document, not a regulation per se.”
“I don’t think it was ever intended to be incorporated into administrative regulations of planning and zoning department or the traffic department of public works,” he said.
The Zoning Commission has one major concern when it makes a decision, he said.
“The ultimate question is, is this going to hold up in court?” he said. “So, for example, if you were to require an analysis of an intersection that’s a mile from the site, a judge is going to look at it and say is there any evidence or any reasonable basis for that requirement. If the answer is no, and you’re turning it down because of traffic, that’s not going to be upheld, it’s probably not going to be upheld on an appeal.”
Mushak said he wasn’t satisfied by answers provided by BJ’s traffic consultant Michael Galante of Frederick P. Clarke Associates at last month’s committee meeting. Galante studied the six intersections near the proposed BJ’s, based on requirements stated by the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CDOT), he said. Another employee had had a conversation with DPW engineers, he said.
Both the state and the DPW would study the applicant’s traffic study, as per standard practice, Mushak was told.
Mushak protested that the DPW is run by an official appointed by Mayor Richard Moccia, who supports the BJ’s, Mushak said. Zoning Commissioner James White protested the mention of politics.
Mushak argued that the commission could make a special requirement to look at the traffic impact on a wider scale.
“There’s going to be, I believe, very substantial impacts much further out,” he said. “… To just look at the stretch on Main Avenue, in front of the project, and not further out to me is not doing our due diligence.”
Maslan told him that the recommendations had not become regulations, and therefore not binding.
“You have the ability as a commissioner to ask questions and see what the answers are. If you’re not satisfied … you have a vote along with everyone else,” he said. “You’re entitled to your own opinion, basically. That’s why commissions are made up of more than one person.”
Finally, Mushak asked why the 2006 study had not been used to come up with different regulations.
Planning and Zoning Assistant Director Michael Wrinn said that was up to the commission.
“The Zoning Commission takes up what they want to take up,” he said.
Maslan had the last word on the topic.
“For one thing, it’s not mandatory, it’s a recommendation,” he said.
Mushak, prompted by an audience member, said that part of the requirements of a special permit was that it comply with the city’s master plan.
“I think the residents of Norwalk want us to consider it,” he said, getting his first round of applause from four or five people in attendance.
He said he wasn’t looking for applause, but he got it again when he mentioned another recent project that was endorsed by a traffic engineer, the Dunkin Donuts on the corner of New Canaan Avenue and Main Avenue.
“I think the city should be doing its due diligence so we don’t end up with – what we have is a Dunkin Donuts on the corner with a bad left turn – times a thousand,” he said. “That’s really what we’re talking about here, is a project that’s going to have an impact, that’s going to be much greater than that Dunkin Donuts, which has really affected everyone’s life, even though it’s just a Dunkin Donuts.”
A vote on additional traffic studies would have to be held in a meeting of the full commission, Mushak was told.
Zoning Commission Chairwoman Emily Wilson, Commissioner Jill Jacobsen and White indicated they wouldn’t vote for it because it would entail changing the rules in the middle of the game.
Laura Lamorte, a Rolling Ridge Condominium resident, was among those sitting in the audience, applauding Mushak. She said she didn’t think it fair that BJ’s has been working on the project for more than a year and the residents of the area had just found out about it.
The commission plans to hold a hearing on the project next month, but Lamorte was not comforted, because, she said, “It’s a fait accompli.”
About 10 people, many of them Rolling Ridge residents, gathered in the corridor after leaving the meeting, making plans to organize to fight the project.
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