Battle over self-storage facility in Bridgeport

 By Reginald Johnson

  BRIDGEPORT REPORT

 

    BRIDGEPORT --- The fight over whether a 900-unit self-storage facility can be placed in the middle of a residential area in the North End may be coming to a head this Monday night at City Hall.

  The Planning and Zoning commission will meet at 6:15 pm in the City Council chambers at City Hall to discuss the application by Simcove LLC requesting a special permit to build the storage facility at the site of the old Stop & Shop, 2600 Madison Avenue.

  Local residents have been working against the proposal for a number of months but have been frustrated because developer Hugh Scott has repeatedly asked for continuances from the zoning commission and hearings have been delayed.

 However, Planning and Zoning Commission Clerk Gloria Blackwell said Scott is not entitled to any further continuances and the hearing will take place on Monday.

  Scott has maintained that the self-storage facility is the best use for the area and self storage is badly needed in the city.

 But local residents feel the facility is out of place in a residential zone and a much better use of the area would be senior housing.

  Amy Marie Vizzo-Paniccia, a councilwoman who represents the neighborhood, said she thinks the storage facility is not the right fit for the area and likes the idea of senior housing.

 But Paniccia said she’s more worried about the commission granting a zone change through the special permit. “If they do this zoning change, it leaves the door open to anything,” she said.

 

The shuttered Stop and Shop supermarket on Madison Avenue. A developer wants to convert the building into 900 self-storage units.

  Michelle Lyons, the other council member from the area, said people are still determined to fight the project, despite the many delays.

 “People are not giving up, they’re actually getting stronger,” she said.

 The battle over the self-storage facility comes at a time when many residents of the North End are feeling anxious about the future of their neighborhood. Nearby Sacred Heart University in Fairfield has been steadily expanding into Bridgeport, building new facilities southward along Park Avenue. Sacred Heart students are renting houses throughout the North End, in some cases generating complaints about noise.

  Local residents are also worried about how a new housing development will turn out at the site of the old Testo’s restaurant at 1775 Madison Avenue. Builder John Guedes is planning to construct 177 units on the site and many people in the area think the project is too intense.

 However, city officials have already given the green light to the plan and at this stage people appear to be resigned to the construction going through but are hoping somehow to modify it and possibly lessen the density.