NORWALK -- A construction waste
recycling center proposed for Crescent Street near the city's waste
transfer station has officials and nearby business owners concerned it
could hurt efforts to improve the industrial neighborhood.
The
transfer station was the subject of a four-hour Zoning Commission public
hearing.
The station would accept demolition debris, sheet rock and
untreated wood, as well as concrete, brick and
asphalt.
Danbury-based McChord Engineering Associates proposed the
recycling-transfer station on a 1-acre parcel at 1 Crescent St., next to
the Sclafani Italian food warehouse on Butler Street.
The land,
owned by Lubrano Place LLC of New Canaan and zoned light-industrial,
houses a contractors' yard, which stores empty refuse containers.
A
year ago, McChord went through a public hearing to obtain the special
permit needed from the Zoning Commission to put the transfer center at the
same location. But he pulled the application before the panel made a
decision.
Gus Sclafani Corp. President Luciano Sclafani said he
opposes a transfer station next door because he believes it would attract
rats that would get into his imported food products.
Sclafani said
his company was plagued by rats after a construction debris transfer
station opened next to the firm's former Stamford warehouse on Crescent
Street in that city. The company moved to Norwalk six years ago, in part
because of the rodent problem, he said.
Even though the Stamford
station dealt with construction debris, food from construction workers and
neighbors illegally dumping their trash in construction Dumpsters made a
feast fit for a rat, Sclafani said.
When the rats gnawed through
cans to get at his tomatoes while a professional rat exterminator was on
the job, Sclafani decided it was time to leave Stamford and move to
Norwalk.
"I can contend with competition. I can contend with a
strong Euro against a weak dollar, but I can't deal with a four-legged
rat," Sclafani said.
McChord's attorney, Robert Rubin of Westport,
called a rat expert, who told the Zoning Commission on Wednesday night
that the problem could be controlled.
Sclafani had his own rat
expert, who said the vermin could not be easily controlled. The rats could
carry ticks and spread Lyme disease to children using Devon's Place
playground across Crescent Street, he said.
Rats aren't the only
concern.
Timothy Sheehan, executive director for the Norwalk
Redevelopment Agency, told the commission that the property is important
because it is between two redevelopment projects, the Reed-Putnam urban
renewal effort and the proposed redevelopment of West Avenue.
In a
letter written Monday to Zoning Commission Chairwoman Dorothy Mobilia, he
said the transfer station is inconsistent with the city's long-term plans
for the area, which is being fashioned into a pedestrian connection
between South Norwalk and central Norwalk.
Crescent Street is not
an appropriate place for the station, Liz Suchy, the attorney representing
nearby land owner Stanley Seligson and King Industries, said
yesterday.
The street has changed greatly for the better the past
10 years, Suchy said.
She said Crescent Street was once home to a
public works garage, ice rink and ice factory as well as an asphalt plant
and an incinerator.
"The area is changing. The commission is
obliged to review the impact of this particular use on the neighborhood
that is around it," Suchy said.
Rubin said regardless of what was
once there, the parcel and many surrounding properties are undeniably
industrial. The nearby Interstate 95 and Metro-North Railroad's Danbury
Line train tracks, the city's waste transfer station, Sclafani warehouse
and King Industries are in the neighborhood, Rubin said.
"It is an
industrial area. There isn't much that can be done in the area that isn't
an industrial use," Rubin said yesterday. "No one is going to build a
house there or a store or office there. It is very
limited."
Mobilia said the Commission's Plan Review Committee will
review the concerns at its next meeting Sept. 8. The commission could
decide whether to give the transfer station a special permit or deny it as
early as Sept. 21.
Fear of rats fuels opposition to waste recycling center
Date：08-19-2005 Source：
Source: Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc
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