At Hearing, Golden's Plan Faces Flood Mitigation Concerns

A spokesman for developer Tom Golden sought to defuse concerns over flood mitigation Tuesday as he presented a major rezoning proposal for the Noroton Heights commercial district at a public hearing.

Golden, along with the Palmer family, is seeking to update the zoning restrictions that govern the squat collection of shops off of Heights Road, potentially opening the site to a mix of retail, office, and residential development.

Many of the properties in the affected area are under Golden's ownership, including a key parcel occupied by Stop & Shop. For several years, Golden has expressed a strong interest in some form of redevelopment, but significant hurdles—flood mitigation among them—remain.

As he had a week earlier, attorney Bruce Hill detailed the proposed "overlay zone" Tuesday at Town Hall, which would need to be in place before Darien could entertain specific plans for a mixed-use complex.

"It's intended to present flexibility; to allow mixed use ... deemed desirable by the [Planning and Zoning] Commission; to include retail, office, and residential components," Hill said of the new zone. "It's designed to encourage development that promotes safe pedestrian access to the retail uses within the district."

The Noroton Heights Mixed Use Zone, as the proposal terms it, would give the commission the power to raise height limitations on individual buildings from two stories to three and to permit the construction of parking structures of up to one story above ground, among other changes.

A series of renderings presented alongside the proposal, intended as an conceptual version of what could be built, envisions blocks of three-story buildings flanking Edgerton Street and running along the south side of West Avenue. Storefronts in the sketches are concentrated on the first story around a central parking lot, while apartments occupy the upper levels.

Notably, Monday's presentation shed more light on the question of water retention in a potential redevelopment—something not directly addressed in the rezoning application. The issue is very much at the forefront of town officials' minds, as the Heights Road area has been known to flood periodically after heavy rains.

Hill said that while the zoning regulations would not address water retention or flood mitigation directly, any buildings later proposed for the zone would need to satisfy town requirements in that area before earning approval. 

"I think it's cumbersome and really a slippery slope to develop specific drainage regulations for specific districts or areas of the town unless there's a demonstrated problem, a need for it," Hill said. He added that there was no evidence suggesting the site itself was a cause of flooding—only that it is situated in an area where water tends to collect.

Two nearby buildings developed recently by Golden, Chase Bank and Citibank, are the only structures in the area which include some form of on-site water retention, Hill noted.

But P&Z Vice Chairman Joseph Spain pushed back against Hill's reluctance to consider flood mitigation in the rezoning phase.

"The implementation of our existing drainage regulations within the district may be sufficient to achieve that benefit [of retaining local runoff], but we'd still be facing these inflows of storm water from outside the district," Spain said. "I think there's going to have to be more attention given to that aspect of what these new zoning rules would be if we did change the zoning."

In April, the Board of Selectmen heard a proposal to improve drainage in Noroton Heights from hydrology engineer Leonard Jackson. Citing the small size of the pipe that draws water away from Heights Road, Jackson proposed building a $3.5 million "subway station," or concrete cistern, under the Stop & Shop parking lot. 

"[It] is a proposal that we have serious concerns about from the point of view of feasibility, costs, as well as the potential impact on any redevelopment of the site," Hill said.

"It seemed to take the site as it exists and assume that it will always stay that way," Hill added, arguing that it gave "too brief a treatment" to alternative methods of controlling the flow of water. 

A previous proposal to convert nearby Baker Park into a detention pond got a chilly reception from First Selectman Dave Campbell and the board's Republican majority, hence the presentation from Jackson. As recently as this week, Campbell had discussed the town's interest in the subway station strategy directly with Golden.

Tuesday's hearing, which was cut off after questions from the commission, resumes July 13 at 8 p.m. in the Town Hall auditorium.