Over the next year, viability studies on the addition of rail stations in Stamford and Bridgeport will be conducted and funded through a federal grant meant to foster development around transit centers.
“Everything we can do to focus on development in our cities will help in lowering our taxes, decreasing our carbon footprint and reducing our dependency of foreign oil,” said Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch.
The regional U.S. Housing and Urban Development office will give the New York-Connecticut Sustainable Communities Initiative $3.5 million, part of $100 million in grants intended for 45 different regions to encourage higher density development in cities. The initiative is part of President Obama”™s Sustainable Communities Grant Program, which is based on federal concerns about environmental and resource limitations due to projected population increases in cities.
“Growth is going to have to be vertical,” said Adolfo Carrion, the regional director of U.S. Housing and Urban Development. “The city we knew of the last century, the industrial city that was the urban core, is not the city we know now or in the future.”
The study will explore opportunities for projects in New Haven, Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stamford, each of which are projected to cost between $200,000 and $300,000 to design.
Gov. Dannel Malloy said the facilities could also generate higher density housing along the Urban Transitway. “It would be a boon for places like the developments in the South End of Stamford that are already developing,” he said.
Finch said the study in his city would consider a station on the east side to encourage commercial and residential redevelopment on some 700 acres of land.
The Norwalk plan would consider the redevelopment of the existing South Norwalk railroad station.
