It was only approved by the Planning Board. It will next go to the Zoning Board, which will deny the application. Step 3 will be the courthouse, where lawyers will spend years arguing with each other.
STAMFORD – Side-by-side properties on Long Ridge Road would be the first in the city to be converted from obsolete office parks to housing complexes.
Two developers have similar proposals, though one is larger.
Both proposals were approved by the Planning Board. The first one was then rejected by the Zoning Board and landed in court. The second has yet to face the Zoning Board.
Both have generated significant community opposition because the office parks are surrounded by single-family homes just below the Merritt Parkway, on the edge of woodsy North Stamford.
Developer Monday Properties has proposed 508 rental apartments and 20,000 square feet of commercial space in four four-story buildings. The project on 36 acres at 900 Long Ridge Road is before a judge.
Developer Building & Land Technology is waiting for a date before the Zoning Board on its proposal to build 354 rental apartments and 9,400 square feet of commercial space in two four-story buildings. That 800 Long Ridge Road parcel is 25 acres.
The Stamford Advocate mentioned the complaints of Stamford’s vocal NIMBYs:
During Monday’s meeting, two city residents said they opposed the project because they were concerned about traffic in the area. Judy Norinsky, the president of Historic Neighborhood Preservation, a Stamford nonprofit, disagreed and called the project a “good development.”
I am glad the Planning Board ignored them. But if they listened to them and the old house got demolished, something even bigger and more likely to produce traffic would have been built:
The applicant seeks to rehabilitate the property for a use as a mixed-use development by
constructing an addition behind the existing building for 8 studio apartments.
Also a portion of the existing building will be converted to one studio apartment for a
total of 9 studio apartments. The remainder of the existing building will continue to be
available to commercial tenants (requesting an extension of time).
Largely vacant office park within walking distance of Springdale train station. There is a proposal to rezone it to allow residential. Locals are bitching as always, even though residential will mean less traffic than commercial.
With Shake Shack open on May 23 and Starbucks open last month, Pepe’s pizzeria is the one remaining tenant that will open in the near future at this new retail building about a mile north of downtown.
74 Broad Street
The Burlington Coat Factory in the old Caldor building will close at the end of June. The store will move to the Ridgeway Shopping Center, just north of downtown. Let’s hope that the old Caldor is redeveloped soon. More info here:
Some more details regarding upcoming development on the Caldor site (from article linked above)
Salvatore also confirmed a rumored plan by RMS to develop another Broad Street property, the Burlington Coat Factory site several blocks away on the corner of [Summer] Street. He said that specifics of the plan were still being developed but noted that it will likely be a mixed-use structure with both housing and retail, roughly similar in size to the seven story Asher and equipped with equivalent amenities.
23 Barry Place
A rezoning of the area is requested to allow for new residential to be built on the site of old office/warehouse space. This is in the Waterside area, next to a golf club that straddles the Stafmord-Greenwich border.
At some point UConn Stamford will need to get its act together and build a new dorm in addition to the one they have now (or buy an existing building and convert it to a dorm). This stopgap approach of leasing out random units here and there is not sustainable in the long-term, especially as the Stamford campus for many students is more desirable than studying in Storrs.
One resident who lives more than half a mile away from the proposal said she recently put her home on the market because of the development.
“This is not why I moved here," said Adele Langie. "I moved here to be in a single-level beautiful area.”
Developer Building and Land Technology wants to convert a four-story office building on the 25-acre site into a multi-unit residential complex. The development would include 618 total parking spaces, spread out over existing surface lots and an underground garage. The project also includes about 9,400 square feet of commercial space.
This person is on the other side of Long Ridge Road. The new development will not affect Hunting Lane at all. This isn’t even a single-level home. I wonder what’s really going on here…
“Stamford resident rails against Hope Street townhomes: ‘27 units sound absurd to me’”
This is the headline in The Stamford Advocate. All they do is amplify the yimbys. That’s part of the reason why it’s almost impossible to build anything in Stamford outside of downtown/South End.
The irony is the new development makes their neighborhoods look better and increases the values of their property. But they want to stick with their provincial “small-town” outlook. Sigh.
