North Stamford residents push back on potential new commercial development
Developers are looking to re-zone the parking lot next to the old Lord and Taylor building at 110 High Ridge Road
Residents of North Stamford are pushing back on attempts from developers to re-zone the parking lot on the north end of the old Lord and Taylor building at 110 High Ridge Road, in an attempt to build more retail space.
"It (would) continue the successful revitalization of this property," which already has a Whole Foods in it, and will have a Guitar Center opening next year, Lisa Feinberg, an attorney for the developers, argued at a zoning board public hearing earlier this week.
Unlike the rest of the property, the parking lot is currently zoned for residential use and developers are asking for that to be changed to commercial use.
Monday's public hearing saw over 30 speakers and around 40 emails with concerns about the proposal.
"They have basically invited themselves into our community, when we have been pushing and pushing and pushing back," said Ria Iparraguirre, who lives across the street from the lot.
While the developer's plans have not been finalized, initial plans shared at the meeting called for two buildings - one near the bottom of the lot and another in the top corner.
News 12 is told the bottom building would have stores, and the top building would be a restaurant - likely a Texas Road House - and would be right next to the Stamford Cross Road Residences, which is a housing complex for senior citizens and people with disabilities.
"If you have a restaurant, you have noise early in the morning, you have noise late at night," said Jeanne Courter, the President of the Cross Road Residences board of directors.
Many residents also raised concerns about increased traffic in an area already prone to congestion.
Iparraguirre says she would not feel safe walking across the street, as "I've witnessed so many close calls."
Feinberg said developers take the safety concerns seriously, telling attendees of the hearing that "we know how important the sidewalks are to this community, and are prepared to do our part."
Developers have not done a fully comprehensive traffic study on the impact the project would have on the area yet, which Feinberg said is both because they are not required to until later in the process, and because it is hard to do an accurate study until they know exactly what is being build.
However Ryan Mazzeo, a planning consultant working with the developers said at the meeting that he expected the increase in traffic from the proposal to be minimal, and that "it's reasonable to assume that a lot of the people going here would not be new traffic trips, but folks that are traveling this corridor anyway."
The other feat from residents is that the two buildings being proposed are just the start, and that once the lot gets rezoned, developers will just keep building more and more.
However Feinberg said if the rezone is approved, developers will write a deed restriction that will limit the size and scale of what can be built on the lot.
Neighbors are not sold on this though.
Courter says the words do not have much behind them, and that "looking at it, there's no enforcement side."
Iparraguirre had a similar take, claiming the deed is "extremely hollow, there's a lot of loopholes."
The Stamford Zoning Board will discuss the change more at its meeting on Nov. 23 and could vote on it then.
