NORWALK, Conn. – People of a certain age – you know who you are – might recall an actor with an early TV sitcom spawned by a radio show, “The Life of Riley.” The show ran on TV from 1953 to 1958 (hey, I am BARELY old enough to remember…), and the actor was William Bendix.
Bendix played the perpetually beleaguered title role, and turned his signature line, “What a revoltin’ development THIS is!” into a national catchphrase.
More than 50 years later, you still hear that phrase, albeit paraphrased, throughout Norwalk whenever a new building project is proposed. A new Washington Village, Wall Street Place, BJ’s Wholesale Club, the master plan for Oak Hills Park – they all got the treatment.
Now we have General Growth Properties (GGP) and its shopping mall proposal for the erstwhile 95/7 property. The reaction from NancyOnNorwalk readers would make Bendix proud. The voices of gloom and doom drown out the positives with a collective, “What a revoltin’ development THIS is!”
The negative commenters (not comments) outnumbered the positive 12-7 on our original story, with a couple of fence-sitters. There are four (so far) anti-mall Letters of the Editor, two by the same person.
The 95/7 bombsite has become a part of Norwalk’s landscape – or moonscape – over the years. There was excitement in fall 2011 when then-Mayor Richard Moccia joined in a ground-breaking in the run-up to his re-election. He was joined by Sen. Bob Duff and others as it was breathlessly reported that finally – FINALLY! – the mixed-use development would be built.
Oops!
So then, last summer, as another election heated up, Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, the developer, announced it had pulled the permit to pour the foundation for the long-awaited mixed-use development. It was breathlessly reported, again, that 95/7 was to become a reality.
Oops! Fooled again.
Enter GGP, the national mall guru. If early press reports were to be believed, Norwalkers would soon be doing their Christmas shopping at Bloomingdale’s.
Not so fast.
There is the issue of the Land Disposition Agreement. GGP must go through the process of convincing the city boards that it can and should build its mall there. If the company followed the mixed-use plan put forth by Spinnaker, that process would be unnecessary.
And then there’s public opinion.
GGP is working the crowd, as it were, going from group to group, media outlet to media outlet, selling its wares. Monday night it will present to the Coalition of Norwlk Neighborhood Associations (CNNA).
So where, some have asked, is the mayor? Where does he stand?
Candidate Harry Rilling came out against the concept last fall, but recent comments have led to some people questioning whether the mayor has flip-flopped on the issue.
For the record, the mayor says he has not.
Rilling said Friday in a phone interview from Dallas, where he is attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors, “I’m still not in favor of having that location serve as a mall. I don’t believe a mall is the highest and best use. I never have and I still don’t.”
What Rilling believes and what he can do about it may be two different things. The mayor can and should be a leader, making his case to the public, to the developers and to the bodies that will ultimately have the final say in the matter – Planning, Zoning and the Common Council.
Did I say final? If GGP, which owns the property, complies with the rules and regulations, bends to city demands for things like traffic mitigation and transportation to other commercial areas, and still is denied permission to build, the courts could make the final call (see “Al Madany vs. Norwalk…”).
Rilling said it is not clear how public opinion is shaping up, but he said GGP is not likely to be swayed from its plan.
“I think they are pretty committed to a mall. There is no way steering them away from that purpose, their desire to build a mall there,” he said. “They have gone out, they have made many, many contacts and they have swayed some people, they haven’t swayed others. It’s all a matter of where you are on the spectrum. Whether you’re totally for it, you’re totally against it or somewhere in between.
“I don’t think we have our fingers on the pulse of that quite yet,” he said. “I go throughout the city on a daily basis and I hear people in favor of it, people not in favor of it, people who still haven’t made up their mind.”
As for Rilling, he says he still believes the mall is not the best use of the property.
“When I was campaigning, I talked about the fact that I believe that a mall shouldn’t be put on that piece of property because it’s going to be there for generations to come,” he said Friday. “I felt that was one of the most desirable pieces of property, not only in lower Fairfield County but probably all of Connecticut, perhaps all of New England because of its proximity to the city and I thought there’s a the higher and better use for that.
“But,” said the mayor, “we also have to be realistic and determine what the future of that place is going to be. We have to wonder if they didn’t get the LDA approval, the changes to the LDA, what is going to happen to that piece of property? One of the caveats, I guess, is that property left undeveloped for another 10 years is not going to bring in any revenue stream. So I think we have to be diligent and we have to try to make the best decisions for the city of Norwalk.”
But. There’s always a but. If not a mall, then what? Will GGP be convinced to do something it does not typically do? Will it try for a year or two to convince Norwalk, then sit on the property until it can sell for a profit, and the process begins again?
There is always a “but.”
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