NORWALK, Conn. – It looks like General Growth Properties has made a faux pas, not too dissimilar to the one made by Trinity Financial a few weeks ago, though not nearly at the same magnitude.
GGP Senior Developer Doug Adams said Wednesday that the city might want to charge for parking at Mathews Park, where children use a specially designed playground complete with a water feature, once GGP’s upscale mall is built. Not so fast, Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Tim Sheehan said Friday.
“Those are determinations for the owner of the park to make,” Sheehan said.
You may recall that Trinity Executive Vice President Patrick Lee stepped in it three weeks ago when he released a plan to flip-flop Ryan Park and the Washington Village development without consulting Norwalk officials, who have jurisdiction over the city-owned property.
Adams floated his opinion in a Parking Authority meeting. No one said anything.
“Again – a private developer basically saying here’s what you should be doing with your city park,” Sheehan said Friday, in a good-humored way. “Your standing in making that recommendation in a public park is what?”
He shook his head at the idea of charging for parking.
New definition of “park” – don’t touch
Sheehan’s position on the Trinity concept hasn’t budged, in spite of the assertions made Thursday by Diane Lauricella, who, along with Friends of Ryan Park President Ganga Duleep, has locked horns with the city, the Redevelopment Agency and the Norwalk Housing Authority with a challenge to the plan of the Washington Village development.
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“You’re talking about a city asset,” Sheehan said. “It’s a public park, controlled and owned by the city of Norwalk. The city of Norwalk has made no reference that it has interest relative to moving the park. A developer may have provided a plan that contemplated moving the park. I don’t believe that was in consultation with anyone in the city of Norwalk.”
Let’s put it another way.
“That’s like me having a plan for your property without consulting you. I am not even talking about the merits of the plan. How do I know that my plan is what you want to do with your property?” Sheehan said. “Moving the park has issues involved with the South Norwalk Community Center as well. I mean, the park is right outside the door of the South Norwalk Community Center. That’s a tremendous asset to the center if the park was actually made a more usable and recreational asset. I don’t know what the city’s position is today, but I have not heard anyone saying in the city of Norwalk that we want to move the park.”
Kimmel’s “bad”
There’s a general rule in politics, according to Councilman Bruce Kimmel (D-At Large): stick to the issues, don’t guess at someone elses’s motivations.
“It’s a good rule,” Kimmel said at Tuesday’s Council meeting. “I try to abide by that rule as much as I can. We don’t want the kind of speculation or even conspiracy theories that often characterize private discussions with friends or loved ones or even in a caucus. We don’t want that kind of language to become part of the public record.”
You may recall that two weeks ago, Kimmel cast some aspersions on Public Works Committee Chairman David McCarthy (R-District E). “I am very uncomfortable with the way this was handled,” Councilman Bruce Kimmel (D-At Large) said during the Council’s March 10 discussion about the staircase planned for Martin Luther King Drive at Clay Street, suggesting that McCarthy might have tried to kill the project at the committee level.
Kimmel said at Tuesday’s Council meeting that he had violated the general “good rule” of sticking to issues in two ways, by questioning McCarthy’s motives and therefore his integrity, and by doing it when McCarthy was absent.
“I apologized to him for that and it won’t happen again,” Kimmel said.
Later, as he admitted that his earlier predictions that the Joint Committee wouldn’t be able to get new land uses approved for the 95/7 site within 90 days were incorrect, Kimmel said, “I’m eating a lot of crow tonight.”
Information – geometrically expanded
The city’s website is still waiting for an upgrade, but there’s something very different in one spot.
Check out the Council agendas. The one for last Tuesday’s meeting has – in its entirety, all 135 pages – the packet that goes to Council members.
Previously, you had to go into the mayor’s office to read the Council packet, but Mayor Harry Rilling says putting the whole shebang online is going to be standard procedure from now on. Transparency!
Meek filling Chiaramonte’s seat on committees, too
Last week, after Jack Chiaramonte resigned from the Board of Education, it was swiftly announced that Bryan Meek would be appointed to take his place. On Thursday, Board of Education Chairman Mike Lyons said Meek would also take over Chiaramonte’ s committee assignments: He will sit on the Board’s Finance Committee, the Facilities Committee and the Personnel and Negotiations Committee.
Lyons said he is also adding Migdalia Rivas to the Finance Committee at her request.
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Turns out committee assignments are rather fluid – NancyOnNorwalk has taken down last week’s story about committee attendance because Board members move around, a fact that was not readily apparent by looking at the NPS website. When the facts are sorted out, the story will be reposted.
Lyons said that Heidi Keyes came off the Finance Committee at the beginning of the year, so she did not miss meetings as was reported. Shirley Mosby was added to the Policy Committee at the beginning of the year, Lyons said.
Peña raps Morris
Last summer, former Common Councilman and South Norwalk Community Center Board Chairman Warren Peña failed to topple State Rep. Bruce Morris (D-140) in a primary challenge to Morris’ re-election.
On Friday, Peña appeared to be expressing an opinion on Twitter, linking to the Norwalk Police Sgt. David Orr’s rebuttal of Morris’ claim that he had been racially profiled when he was stopped on St. Patrick’s Day.
Three hours later, Peña tweeted: “The racism claims in my home town is getting to be super ridiculous! Take ownership for ur actions n stop blaming others!”
Many of Peña’s Tweets are inspired by his profession, with information about financial management, but others show he hasn’t given up on politics, though he is ambivalent.
“Mayor Rilling promised Latinos appts to boards n commissions, 96 appointments 4 new, 2 reappointed #brokenpromise! We r 25% of population!” Peña tweeted on March 19.
“I would like to commend Norwalk Republicans, as they are paying attention to the needs of the Hispanic Community, we are taking notice!” Peña tweeted on March 15. And, “Norwalk Hispanic Voters will lean towards the candidates that we see helping our community. We will return the favor! The buzz has begun,” on the same day.
“I fight it so bad, wanting to be in politics, diving into my career, wanting to do both,” Peña tweeted on March 7.
On March 1 he tweeted a photo of Fire Chief Denis McCarthy, saying, “Do not be afraid to take a stand on a controversial issue, #ChiefMcCarthy speaking with the Hispanic Clergy!”
Was Dem caucus ambivalent?
At Monday night’s Democratic Town Committee meeting, Lauricella said she wanted Council members not to vote for the proposed range of land uses that would make it possible for GGP to build a mall.
That is, Lauricella specifically asked Councilwoman Phaedrel “Faye” Bowman (D-District B), the only Council member present, if the Democratic caucus could make a move to send the proposed changes back to the Planning Committee so a preliminary traffic study could be done.
“I don’t know where the votes lie at right now, actually, to tell you the truth,” Bowman said. “It actually may go, it may pass or it may not. I know there are some people interested in sending it back. So I don’t know where it is going to lie. From my understanding is there may be an opportunity to get a traffic study and housing is what I am looking for. … I have to talk to the rest of the caucus to see exactly where we are going to stand. But we definitely want to get some things out of it. I mean, Planning has been working with them, so I think that if they feel like there may be another opportunity then it may go forward, but if we feel like there’s not going to be an opportunity then we’ll push back.”
The proposed changes to the Land Disposition Agreement were unanimously approved by the Council the following night. Bowman asked about the proposed hotel that GGP is currently planning to go with its mall, and said, “Maybe we can put our heads together and replace some of that affordable housing that was going to be there.”
Correction, 9:44 p.m., reference to NPS website removed.
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