[SteveM85]

Originally Posted by Cambium

Does anyone know if Norwalk has a limit on how tall buildings can be?

7 stories, or under 100 ft. Nothing will be allowed as tall as the Sono building again. Apparently that was a one time anomaly back in the 70s

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by SteveM85

Not quite, it s missing the woodsy-ness. There’s some but not very substantial. I know The Rocks have woodsyness

Why does a city need woodsy areas to have character? See small footprint comment

Prospect Hill, Westville, and East Rock are very much tree lined with nice parks.

And yeah, there’s woods. Some of the best mountain biking in CT is in New Haven.

[JayCT]

Let’s return to the topic of the OP which is Norwalk development. JayCT, Moderator

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by AntonioR

Sprawl is horizontal, not vertical..

Exactly... Stop the Sprawl! Take a look at Norwalk in the 1950s or 1900s and let me know if the sprawl was contained. granted it's not as fast as other cities but #StopTheSprawl goes for any area. It's sad and nasty to see. Sorry

[AntonioR]

Originally Posted by Cambium

Exactly... Stop the Sprawl! Take a look at Norwalk in the 1950s or 1900s and let me know if the sprawl was contained. granted it's not as fast as other cities but #StopTheSprawl goes for any area. It's sad and nasty to see. Sorry

I thought you meant highrises since New Rochelle is all built. I was thinking “where else are they going to sprawl to?” lol

I think the only way to limit sprawl within a municipality is if the government owns a good chunk of the land and declare it a national park, a wildlife refuge, a national forest or something of the sort. Otherwise… I’m not aware municipality governments are able to do that (I can’t see why, maybe they can and just declare them as normal parks rather than a national park though municipal parks do tend to have much “park infrastructure” opposite to leave them entirely as natural areas), but certainly state governments and maybe the national government can.

[norcal2k19]

Originally Posted by AntonioR

I disagree on putting Norwalk in the same sentence as Bridgeport regarding that. Norwalk is actually very modern looking, though the overall urban planning is not as great. That city could had been better planned regarding that.

Bridgeport is an older city with an obvious older infrastructure. Much of Bridgeport was actually built when it was in its heyday before Stamford and even Norwalk reached their respective zeniths. The city is not in its best time and that is mostly the reason why so much of its okd infrastructure still exist. In a way it’s similar to Havana, Cuba. Had it continue to be in its better time, a good amount of what still exist would had been destroyed to make way for more modern buildings, particularly in the 1960’s and 1970’s. This assuming it would follow the trend in the USA, which once the USA begsn to get involved more post the Spanish American War it did. They even created a Coney Island in Havana after the real thing in NYC. At the time of Fidel Castro’s rise in 1959, Havana was actually the wealthiest and most developed city in the world’s entire tropical area.

Right now Stamford is at its best moment ever, but that is not the case with Bridgeport which has seen better days.

First - Norwalk definitely has character and good urban planning within a hybrid city-suburb type of setup. It still maintains a community feel and is an open community without being too pretentious about it. I think of it as a good case study on how to do this in CT and perhaps in the tri-state area too.

Norwalk may be sprawling in some areas, but it definitely deserves credit with being first out the gate with in good urban planning with the SoNo urban design plan. It was ahead of its time and still influences the redevelopment we're still seeing in SoNo and subsequently in New Haven too thanks to Spinnaker.

There's an element of consistency to that part of Norwalk thanks to that urban design plan - everything from the sidewalks to the street signs. There are also some award-winning architectural and real estate firms located in SoNo as well. This is influencing the redevelopment of Norwalk Center near Wall Street too and the waterfront as the city now has a clear playbook to replicate.

Also, Norwalk is working on bringing activating more hotels and residential to SoNo to limit some of the seasonality with the patrons there and also mitigating the wetlands to build resilience to floods, taking advantage of its clutch location thanks to South Norwalk train station.

[norcal2k19]

For anyone curious about long-range planning in Norwalk, it exists.

https://tomorrow.norwalkct.org/

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by norcal2k19

First - Norwalk definitely has character and good urban planning within a hybrid city-suburb type of setup. It still maintains a community feel and is an open community without being too pretentious about it. I think of it as a good case study on how to do this in CT and perhaps in the tri-state area too.

Norwalk may be sprawling in some areas, but it definitely deserves credit with being first out the gate with in good urban planning with the SoNo urban design plan. It was ahead of its time and still influences the redevelopment we're still seeing in SoNo and subsequently in New Haven too thanks to Spinnaker.

There's an element of consistency to that part of Norwalk thanks to that urban design plan - everything from the sidewalks to the street signs. There are also some award-winning architectural and real estate firms located in SoNo as well. This is influencing the redevelopment of Norwalk Center near Wall Street too and the waterfront as the city now has a clear playbook to replicate.

Also, Norwalk is working on bringing activating more hotels and residential to SoNo to limit some of the seasonality with the patrons there and also mitigating the wetlands to build resilience to floods, taking advantage of its clutch location thanks to South Norwalk train station.

Norwalk was on the cutting edge of historic preservation with its 1970’s plan for saving and reusing historic South Norwalk buildings. But it did succumb to bad planning in the 60’s with redevelopment and building of the hideous tower at 50 Washington Street. I think that it was so jarring that city officials knew they had to do better and they did. They were fortunate they have the money to carry out their grand and expensive plans.

[SteveM85]

I don’t know where the chicken sandwich thread went so I’ll put it here.

Looks like the new Birdcode place is a massive failure, send it back to West Hartford.
It won’t last. The place is always empty. You drive by and you go - is it open? There’s never any cars there, meanwhile the Chick Fil A down the street is always packed.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by SteveM85

I don’t know where the chicken sandwich thread went so I’ll put it here.

Looks like the new Birdcode place is a massive failure, send it back to West Hartford.
It won’t last. The place is always empty. You drive by and you go - is it open? There’s never any cars there, meanwhile the Chick Fil A down the street is always packed.

I haven’t tried Birdcode. Isn’t Haven Hot Chicken busy in Norwalk? The city probably didn’t need another.