BRIDGEPORT ---- Zoning officials will likely
decide the fate of Remington Woods next week following a hearing where dozens
of people spoke passionately in favor preserving the more than 400-acre tract
along the Stratford border.
The Planning and Zoning
commission has scheduled a meeting for Monday, November 29 at 6:30 pm to
continue discussion on and likely vote on the proposed new city zoning
regulations, which include a rezoning of the Remington Woods tract from
industrial to commercial.
If approved, that change is likely to pave the
way for a subsidiary of the DuPont Corporation to develop the woods for
corporate offices. DuPont is the owner of the property, which has sat untouched
for decades after the Remington Arms company used the woods for munitions testing.
Preservationists from
Bridgeport and other communities attended a zoning hearing on the new regulations
on November 16 and 17 to adamantly oppose the zone change for the woods and
demand that the area be kept as a natural wildlife preserve. The speakers said
preserving the mature hardwood forest is vital in the battle to combat climate
change and reduce the effects of air pollution which triggers health problems
such as asthma.
“The woods are home
to endangered box turtles, a family of bald eagles, fox, deer, over 70 species
of birds and thousands and thousands of trees,’’ said Beth Lazar of Bridgeport.
The Remington Woods
area, Lazar said, “should be zoned in its entirety as a nature preserve and not
as a park as they are two different things. Parks have roads, picnic areas and
spaces for events. Remington Woods should be a protected living community for
plants and animals.”
A member of the group Preserve Remington Woods, Lazar noted that 17% of the office space in
Bridgeport is now vacant and there are many vacant lots. “Why doesn’t
Bridgeport rehab the spaces for commercial use rather than knocking down the
forest?”
Lazar said over
1000 people have signed a petition asking that the Remington ship Woods forest
be preserved.
She told the
commissioners “in this age of climate change crisis, high pollution and asthma
rates in Bridgeport, it is unconscionable to knock down the forest.”
Some top elected officials have swung their support behind efforts to save
Remington Woods. Councilwoman Maria Pereira, who represents the area where the Remington
forest is located, said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D – Connecticut, has sent
a letter to both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, requesting that Remington Woods be protected as a nature and
wildlife preserve.
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| The lake at Remington Woods |
But the city’s
proposed plan appears to strike a compromise between those who want to preserve
the woods completely and the corporate owners who are seeking development. The zoning
plan calls for changing the area from light industrial to residential-office
center.
City Planner Lynn Haig, from the Office of Planning
and Economic Development, said the Sporting Goods company, DuPont’s subsidiary
which is now remediating the site, has said it prefers to maintain some form of
light industrial zoning because “it is the most permissive current code we
currently have.”
According to the
Connecticut Post, Haig told the commission that the current zoning
classification “allows intense development without any conservation. We have
proposed a clean mixed-use zone that requires the owner to submit a master plan
to the planning and zoning commission for its review and approval.”
Haig said that any
such plan would have to include open space.
According to the Post, Haig said “The city cannot take the
further step some would advocate and just zone the property as parks and open
space.”
She said that not
only would that remove the economic potential from the Remington site, but such
a classification might be legally challenged as a form of “reverse condemnation.”
But several
speakers, including some from out of town, expressed astonishment that
Bridgeport was on the verge of allowing such a beautiful and extensive forest
area, which includes a lake, to be developed.
Stanley Heller of
Danbury, from the organization Promoting Enduring Peace, said it was vital to
preserve mature trees in the battle against global warming. “Preservation of
mature woods like the one in Bridgeport is essential. It would be an outrage to
destroy the thousands of trees there to develop some office park or cemetery or
dump.”
He added, “With what
we know about the growing perils of the world climate the destruction of
Remington Woods could be considered a possible international crime. Preserve
the woods intact. All of it.”
Scott Ward of West
Haven said it was his understanding that the Remington Woods site contains some
archaeological significance. “That alone should stop everything,” he said.
Ward said that when
all factors are taken together --- the fight against climate change, improving
air quality, preserving a beautiful forest and wildlife, together with the
possible archaeological considerations, it’s clear that the Remington Woods
forest should be completely preserved.
“It’s almost
embarrassing your town is in this situation,” he commented.
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| A road into Remington Woods |
Speakers said Bridgeport officials should take
heed of what came out of the recently concluded COP 26 conference on global
warming in Scotland. World leaders there pledged to end deforestation --- a process which leads to carbon build-up and rising temperatures.
Bridgeport Mayor
Joseph Ganim attended that conference and was quoted in the Connecticut Post as
justifying his overseas trip because municipal leaders, he said, have a “role
to play” in setting policies relating to climate change.
But Callie Heillman,
of Bridgeport Generation Now, took Ganim to task. “While the mayor is correct
that there is a role that we all play, the reason why there is such a
groundswell of people testifying on this issue tonight and submitted comments
is there is a complete lack of commitment from the administration to fully
preserve the woods.”
She added, “To say we will work with the property owners
to develop a plan which will include open space is not the same as a commitment
to working with organizations here on the ground… to come up with a plan that
would acquire and protect the woods.”
Pereira criticized
the zoning commission for failing to make sure that all the phone lines were
working for the hearing which was done by Zoom. She said that some of her
constituents were not able to get through on the toll-free numbers.
“This is a violation
of public hearing access laws under the Freedom of Information act. This
meeting is illegal,” she said.
Commissioners said later that they had
addressed the problem of the phone lines.
Pereira also spoke in
favor of preserving Remington Woods and described how the construction and
remediation work that has gone on so far has exacerbated flooding in the upper East
Main Street area in the district that she represents.
Spokesmen for the
Sierra Club and the Greater Bridgeport NAACP also lent their support to the
preservation effort.
A spokeswoman for the
Sierra Club testified that “Bridgeport has some of the dirtiest air in the
country and high rates of health disparities that make Bridgeport residents
highly susceptible to health crises like Covid 19 and we know that in
situations like this frontline communities suffer the most,”
She added “although
development of the woods is being touted as an economic gain for the area the
communities will ultimately gain no benefit and potentially will have to pay
the cost for over development.”
