Norwalk’s 2050 sustainability plan looks beyond climate change

NORWALK, Conn. — Ten thousand new residents. A roughly 80 percent increase in median income. A 700,000-square-foot mall full of high end retailers. Thousands of new units of housing.

Norwalk has changed in many ways in the past two and a half decades. How it will transform in the next 25 years — and do so as sustainably and resiliently as possible — is the subject of a task force made up of dozens of Norwalkers working on the city’s 2050 Sustainability and Resilience Roadmap. About 25 people attended a meeting Tuesday night at the Maritime Aquarium to discuss the plan.

It’s a complicated work in progress, Jodi Trendler, the city’s director of sustainability and resilience, said at the beginning of the forum. And about a lot more than “just hugging trees.”

The draft plan covers nine areas of city life, including clean energy, buildings, transportation, waste and materials, and health and happiness.

“It is really about making our entire community function more holistically in a more integrated fashion, so that the efficiencies are built within the community and not externally to the community,” she said.

And while the city can help marshal resources toward lofty goals like transforming to net-zero emissions in the next 25 years, municipal government’s reach is limited in terms of direct impact.

Of the hundreds of thousands of metric tons of carbon emissions emitted in Norwalk every year, the city is directly responsible for only 1.3%, Trendler said. Mobility — mainly from vehicles on local roads and two major highways — accounts for more than 40%, with household and commercial energy use accounting for another roughly 50%.

“The majority of the work has to come with dealing with community-wide buildings and transportation,” Trendler said, naming things like weatherizing homes and adopting renewable energy as two examples to help bridge the gap. “A lot of it requires action by citizens and residents, so that’s one thing with this roadmap…This is not a city plan. This is a community-wide plan because the city does not have jurisdiction over a lot of things.”

A questionnaire distributed at the forum outlined the goals of making the city “vibrant, resilient, regenerative, and sustainable,” and asked attendees what outcomes mattered most to them, what is missing from the plan’s nine major subjects, which actions could create multiple benefits, what should happen soonest, and how to measure whether residents are better off.

Feedback from Tuesday’s workshop, along with an upcoming community survey, will be added to a draft of the report due to the mayor by Oct. 15. The City Council is scheduled to get a look at the document at a meeting Dec. 8. 

For Andrew Anello, a city resident since 1996, the answer to a lot of the most difficult questions on the path forward is a simple one: Do whatever it takes to get energy costs down. He offered the concept of a new generation of nuclear power plants as one promising option.

“To really get everyone on board ‘Follow the money’ works,” he said, describing the transformative nature of cheaper energy. “You get close to 2 cents a kilowatt hour, it’s going to be so tough to stick with a gasoline powered car.”

“That is exactly what we are trying to figure out and decide, and those are the choices that the city is going to have to think about when it comes to how we want to move forward,” Trendler said, asking Anello to join the task force.

The plan will also tackle more abstract concepts, like social cohesion, civic trust and belonging. Tony Bacigalupo, a member of the task force, said reducing social isolation can help build a stronger community and encourage civic engagement.

“People who don’t know their neighbors or really care much about where they live are less inclined to care about making it better or care about doing their part,” he said. “So it follows that if we can get more people to care about their neighbors and care about Norwalk and be proud of the fact that they live here, then they’re maybe going to be a little more likely to pay attention to what affects them and their neighbors in our city.”

While Tuesday’s forum focused largely on the long-term, short-term issues are also at play. Trendler was hired as a result of the city’s 2024 Sustainability and Resiliency Plan. But her position is funded by a grant that runs out in December.

Anne Wennerstrand, a City Council member who serves on its Ad Hoc Sustainability and Resilience Committee, attended Tuesday’s forum and said that carrying the roadmap into the future will require additional resources going forward.

“We need to keep advocating for either a dedicated position or some dedicated resources to make sure that we can implement this plan,” she said, noting the money for Trendler’s hiring came from the federal American Rescue Plan Act and the city budget has many competing priorities. “There’s no easy answer for keeping the focus on it.”