[AntonioR]

Originally Posted by Stylo

One factor is fire department capabilities.

Another big one is parking. Stamford is still car dependent.

That may be one of the reasons, but I always found that to be nonsense. What fire department in NYC is able to handle a fire in say the 50th floor of such-and-such building? The fire trucks should point their hoses in the direction of the floor and lets hope at least a drop makes it up there. lol You know how many commercial and residential skyscrapers there are in Manhattan?

In highrises and skyscrapers sprinklers are of much bigger help.

I think the height limit in the downtown area and surrounding neighbors is a result of "just because." Why they decided that will be? Because they did. Probably there is not much else to it.

It could also explain why some roads in Stamford are badly designed. Take for example route 1 which most likely was a narrow dirt road when it was first built considering this road is probably of colonial origin. The part that passes through Stamford goes from at least 4 lanes (2 per direction) to 2 lanes (1 per direction) several times from end to end. The entire road should had been at least of 4 lanes, no less.

[JayCT]

A very interesting article on the impacts of Stamford’s building boom. Ben Barnes, the city’s chief financial and administrative officer developed a presentation on them for the Zoning Board. Theres some interesting information in it.

https://ctexaminer.com/2024/01/24/ba...-zoning-board/

[Connecticut203]

Originally Posted by AntonioR

That may be one of the reasons, but I always found that to be nonsense. What fire department in NYC is able to handle a fire in say the 50th floor of such-and-such building? The fire trucks should point their hoses in the direction of the floor and lets hope at least a drop makes it up there. lol You know how many commercial and residential skyscrapers there are in Manhattan?

In highrises and skyscrapers sprinklers are of much bigger help.

I think the height limit in the downtown area and surrounding neighbors is a result of "just because." Why they decided that will be? Because they did. Probably there is not much else to it.

It could also explain why some roads in Stamford are badly designed. Take for example route 1 which most likely was a narrow dirt road when it was first built considering this road is probably of colonial origin. The part that passes through Stamford goes from at least 4 lanes (2 per direction) to 2 lanes (1 per direction) several times from end to end. The entire road should had been at least of 4 lanes, no less.

I get Stamford didn't wanna become Manhattan....but in the last 20 years, Stamford has gone from "not much to do" to being a livelier place. I remember when Downtown used to close up at 4 pm, and there was not much to offer. Now it's more vibrant than ever. Things had to change to progress. Of course, it has come with an unfortunate price: Lifelong Residents are being pushed out via pricing ranges.

As for higher buildings, Stamford cannot build horizontally anymore, the only place to go is up. I like they have gone past 295 ft Landmark Square and built Parc Tower at 350 ft. I wish we had a couple of buildings in the 450 ft Range. a couple of them where landmark Sq is, would make a nice cluster of centralized buildings.

450 ft, then 420 ft and then 380 and 350 etc. Keep it balanced but pronounced.

[Connetquoter]

100 and 101 Clinton Ave, the vast empty lots near RBS building in downtown are being converted to 7 story apartment buildings. Hope they leave enough space for future Mill river park expansion.

[StamfordRez]

Originally Posted by Connecticut203

I get Stamford didn't wanna become Manhattan.... Lifelong Residents are being pushed out via pricing ranges.

Seems like Stamford has 2 options —
Build more: mostly via converting single family detached homes into multi family, but the big towers help too.
Or let housing prices go up.

There are the only two options a city ever has when population and demand are rising. Maybe in 100 years we’ll be in a different situation - economic malaise or population decline or both. But for now it’s one or the other. Building more doesn’t raise prices but the opposite. The only way to get prices to fall without building more would be to make the city a very very bad place to live, which helps no one.

[masssachoicetts]

Originally Posted by StamfordRez

Seems like Stamford has 2 options —
Build more: mostly via converting single family detached homes into multi family, but the big towers help too.
Or let housing prices go up.

There are the only two options a city ever has when population and demand are rising. Maybe in 100 years we’ll be in a different situation - economic malaise or population decline or both. But for now it’s one or the other. Building more doesn’t raise prices but the opposite. The only way to get prices to fall without building more would be to make the city a very very bad place to live, which helps no one.

I feel Stamford has unlimited demand, though. No matter how much Stamford builds, it will always be desirable.

[CTartist]

Originally Posted by JayCT

A very interesting article on the impacts of Stamford’s building boom. Ben Barnes, the city’s chief financial and administrative officer developed a presentation on them for the Zoning Board. Theres some interesting information in it.

https://ctexaminer.com/2024/01/24/ba...-zoning-board/

“I think the absence of growth is unsustainable,” Barnes replied. “If we do not continue to grow with the obvious demand for housing, it will cause housing costs to rise so high that we will force many longstanding community members to leave.”

Young people will not be able to move out of their parents’ homes, couples who have a child will not be able to move from their studio apartments, and households will double up so people can share the cost of rent, he said."



Awesome! If this happens in Stamford and New Haven we just might end up with two nice little cities like Boston. I would love to see Stamford and New Haven double in size.

The other plus is that the tony Fairfield County and New Haven County towns are blocking denser housing at every turn. It will have to be the cities that do something about the lack of housing.....let alone affordable housing.

Bravo Mr. Barnes.

[AntonioR]

There are some streets in Stamford that I wish would look better both in terms of how the street is designed and in terms of the architecture of the buildings. If city planners were actual city planners, streets like West Main Street, Cove Road, etc would be rezoned at least a line on both sides of the roads to allow the widening of those roads (along with better sidewalks, ahem Cove Road ahem) and a higher residential densities with the first floor facing the street being commercial.

Maybe the city government can unite in purpose with the private sector via some sort of emminent domain where private investors would be interesting in creating new apartment/commercial mix complexes along a particular stretch in any of these roads. Say the intersection of West Main St and Fairfield Avenue opposite the Jackie Robinson Park. That place vould also have nice views of the downtown skyline from many of the hypothetical apartments given it’s the top of a hill. Technically those businesses wouldn’t have to be replaced, as they could occupy the new commercial space. If anything these new commercial spaces may be superior to the current ones on the basis that they are new. They would also gain more parking space for their businesses.









The underwhelming Jackie Robinson Park. The nicest thing there is that statue of Jackie Robinson which in my opinion is too small and not impressive enough. Most people that deive through there have probably never noticed the statue. SMH

I also think the city could improve and or see further development of the arts/culture if it requires from many of these developers that they must include a new sculpture near or on the front sidewalk facing the street or create new parks or improve existing ones. It would be nice if the triangle Jackie Robinson Park would be redesigned which includes a larger statue of Jackie Robinson and perhaps add a few large signs with blackand-white pictures of him explaining the main aspects of Jackie Robinson’s life, that he did called Stamford home and that he did great things like break the color barrier in the MLB. No question this was very important for, among other things, allow the presence and success of several Dominicans in the MLB. The Jackie Robinson Park should be a greater point of interest. As it’s right now it leads to disappointment. Heck, that stretch of West Main St even have the Jackie Robinson Way additional name. I think that route should have more that distinguish it and give more of a Jackie Robinson theme rather than just the name and nothing else.

A similar small but impressive park should be done in downtown regarding Bobby Valentine. Stamford has so much potential to exploit a littke more its touristic/ point of interest side.


I think both West Main St and East Main St suffer from bad road design and simply ugly street, but East Main is slightly nicer than West Main due to having more buildings like the one residential/commercial mix building seen in the photo.

[quiet.flame4221]

I haven't seen anyone post about this yet so...

The new transit garage was officially opened a few days ago. Has anybody used it yet? Where do you enter with your car - off Washington Blvd?

[StamfordRez]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

I feel Stamford has unlimited demand, though. No matter how much Stamford builds, it will always be desirable.

Even more reason to build then. Either that demand bids up the prices of existing rentals or it goes into the new buildings which relieves pressure on existing stock. More people, more restaurants, more tax base, more amenities. Stamford has never been such a great place to live and more people than ever are taking advantage of that. I bet prices on existing rentals in Stamford have risen a lot more slowly than in cities and towns around nyc that didn’t build as fast.