P.I. claims lead Norwalk Zoning Commission to delay vote on AMEC transfer station

NORWALK, Conn. – A private investigator helped build a case against expanding a private Norwalk transfer station Wednesday, presenting the Zoning Commission with evidence that suggested there have been violations of the company’s permit.

AMEC Carting LLC will have to wait a month to defend itself from charges levied by Kane Winn as the Zoning Commission elected to continue its public hearing about the transfer station application to give it time to study the evidence, and for the staff to research the compliance of the application with the studies and plans done by the city.

That last request was pushed mostly by Commissioner Nora King.

AMEC is requesting to increase the amount of construction and demolition debris it accepts at its Crescent Street transfer station from 200 tons to 400 tons a day and to do this on a 60-day trial basis so it can study the amount of traffic this generates. The transfer station would be open to the public; everything that goes there now is in trucks owned and controlled by AMEC.

The application comes as litigation between AMEC and the city continues over the Zoning Commission’s refusal in 2011 to allow AMEC to go from 200 tons a day to 600 tons a day.  Attorney Christopher Smith said AMEC had taken the 2011 complaints about the possible effects of the additional traffic and come up with a creative traffic pattern within the transfer station to make it work. The scale would be at the rear of the lot and there would be space for up to seven trucks to sit in waiting, then back up onto the scale and into the transfer station. Leaving the station and going over the scale again would be easy under the traffic pattern that has been devised, it was said, partially because of the paved turning area that is opposite AMEC.

Smith said the Mazzola family had been authorized by the Zoning Commission in 2005 to construct a $2.6 million building, but with the 200-ton condition.

“It’s like having a retail store but you’re limited to who you can sell your products to,” Smith said.

AMEC owner Guy Mazzola described the family-owned business and all of its projects in Norwalk – the four Wall Street buildings owned by POKO Partners are all now rubble, he said – and said that the company wants to maintain its good relationship with Norwalk.

“If we tell you we are going to do something, we take that very seriously,” he said.

Matt Brown of Anchor Engineering compared AMEC’s transfer station with City Carting’s Meadow Street transfer station, zeroing in on the part of the property that handles construction and demolition (C&D) debris. City Carting is authorized to take in 500 tons per day in an area that is only 1.6 acres, he said. The C&D material is handled in half the building, which is about 10,000 square feet, he said. AMEC’s transfer station also is about 10,000 square feet, he said.

But pushback was swift. King said the area, in close proximity to the Waypointe development, the Stepping Stones Museum for Children and the planned Norwalk River Valley Trail, is increasingly popular for pedestrians and bicyclists. The city’s plans call for it to become more active in that way, she said.

“You never want a business owner to not be able to expand their businesses to their full capability,” King said. “However, you have to realistically look at the surrounding neighborhood and all the development and everything that has gone on in the last few years, which I think all of us Norwalkers are pretty proud of, and it’s going to increase traffic going down there. I don’t mean to be harsh, but there’s never a traffic study that I don’t see that talks about it’s not going to happen, but we all know that’s what happens.”

She continued, “My biggest concern, which has not been put to rest in some of these discussions, is the amount of traffic that is going to be coming through things we fought hard in the city for, like Stepping Stones Museum, now Waypointe, and that’s where I feel like all of this information isn’t strong enough to convince me.”

“You are not committing without having a demonstration that will prove it will not have an adverse impact,” Smith replied. “… If it doesn’t work at 300, doesn’t work at 400, we’ll go back to what works.”

King said it would be tough to put the cat back in the bag, but Commissioner Linda Kruk defended AMEC’s proposal, with references to Mazzola.

“It’s done in good faith,” Linda Kruk said. “He’s been running his business for quite a while, he should know what his capacity is and I think it behooves us to give him a shot. It just seems like the right thing to do.”

“I haven’t seen anything like this in 31 years,” Smith said. “It’s somewhat argumentative and a lot of it is ‘well, how are they going to do this’ and ‘how are they going to do that.’ That’s what we’re asking for the opportunity to do. … It’s easy to throw paint at this, but we are here saying we’ll do the study. Let us do the study. We’re going to have real counts, just let us do it.”

Then followed more intense push back.

“The applicant has made a wonderful presentation tonight. Like any other presentation it is a sales job,” said Attorney Joseph Capalbo, representing the family-owned Sclafani Foods, which is next door to AMEC.

“The warehouse that is located right next door to this facility is loaded with food,” he said, expressing concern about possible infestations.

He said the Zoning Commission didn’t have a key piece of information – the City Carting-owned BNS transfer station in Stamford will be closing, he said. That will mean more people looking for a transfer station, and more potential vehicles coming and going to AMEC.

The most damning attack came from Winn, a private investigator hired by Sclafani.

Winn said he had observed AMEC on nine different days, at different times of the day. He had noted several violations of AMEC’s permit, he said – the water misting system wasn’t working and there was a cloud of dust coming out of the bay doors, he said. Two or three of the four doors were open with little or no activity, he said. One door had been open for an hour and 21 minutes during one of his visits, he said.

One door had been open continuously, he said, finally being shut on Sept. 15.

He had parked in the paved turning area that is meant for trucks. AMEC employees are parking there also, he said.

AMEC was open well beyond its 5 p.m. closing time, he said. One day it was open to 5:30 p.m., and, on Sept. 11, it was open until 7:30 p.m., he said.

Winn provided the commission with a DVD that he said had half an hour of videos to back up his claims.

It went on.

Mary Therese “Missy” Conrad suggested AMEC was looking to expand now because the traffic will be increasing with the improvements courtesy of Paxton Kinol and the Waypointe project. The company wants to get established before it becomes obvious that allowing more trucks to come and go will not work in the newly bustling neighborhood, she said.

Diane Lauricella had a more nefarious suspicion – most of the people who came out to speak against the proposal in 2011 were under a court-issued gag order, she said, and could not offer their opinions about this new application.

“I was interested that an application should be being made when they haven’t withdrawn the lawsuit against the city from 2011,” Conrad said. “It doesn’t seem very polite if you are suing the city and then sort of going around it and coming in with a new application.”