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HUD plans Monday tour in South Norwalk – and likely a $30M announcement

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NORWALK, Conn. – The feds are playing it close to the vest, but it appears that good news is coming Monday for South Norwalk and the Norwalk Housing Authority (NHA).

The Housing Authority’s application for a $30 million U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Choice Neighborhoods Initiative grant for the Washington Village makeover was selected as one of six finalists in March. Word was expected in May or early June, and while NHA Executive Director Curtis Law still professes not to know anything, he said, “The folks are coming down from Washington Monday for a press conference, but they haven’t told us why.” Prompted further, he said, “My guess would be it may have something to do with the grant we applied for.”

A source said that, yes indeed, Norwalk is getting the grant.

The grant would be spent over a five-year period with the goal of lifting the entire area around Washington Village by encouraging development. It would include $550,000 for public safety initiatives and a $1.5 million NHA endowment fund, which Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Tim Sheehan said is scholarship money. Educational opportunities are planned to take place at the South Norwalk Community Center and in a workshop built into the new development, he said.

For more information, read this story.

NHA’s proposal for Washington Village was developed in conjunction with Trinity Financial. The proposal was one of 44 applicants for a $30 million grant.

The project does not come without cost to the city. In February 2013, the city gave the NHA the right to buy 13 and 20 Day Street for $1. Phase I will be built on 13 Day St.

There are also infrastructure improvements required in the plan, including extending Day Street as a one-way street from Hanford Place to Elizabeth Street and raising the intersection of Day and Raymond streets to 12 feet to allow egress in the event of a flood.

Sheehan said all the public infrastructure improvements are expected to cost about $5 million.

Construction on Phase I of the project is expected to begin this fall with or without the grant. Current Washington Village residents will stay where they are and move into Phase I when it is complete, according to NHA Deputy Director Candace Mayer.

Comments

6 responses to “HUD plans Monday tour in South Norwalk – and likely a $30M announcement”

  1. srb

    Transformative! With PTECH and current
    Projects from waypointe, ironworks and a host of other projects norwalk may have that Renaissance. I’m never a big fan of huge subsidies to hedge funds but if just a portion can go towards bridgewater in the 95/7 space that’d be great! That would largely be consistent with the original plan put forward by spinnaker

  2. ellen

    I am a somewhat confused, maybe someone can help me understand. The total grant is 30 million, the bullet point list on the previous report – https://www.nancyonnorwalk.com/2014/04/hud-choice-neighborhoods-grant-for-norwalk-would-fund-more-than-mortar/ – equals half that grant amount at just under 15 million. How much is projected construction costs and infrastructure? Day street to be raised 12 feet, 12 FEET? Nearly two stories? Really? Difficult to envision that engineering feat. Btw, briefly glancing at that bullet list brings many questions to mind like what exactly is the half million for public safety for, walking signals? bike lanes? Truckload of shotspotters? What about the 800,000 for Ryan park, An indoor pool going in? And what exactly does nearly a million buy for technical assistance? 675,000 for blight removal??? 1,2 million for three administrators? Wait, what? 1,2 million for three managers? Really? And what does a 250,000 fund developer actually develop? Can envision an elf working late in a basement, cranking out bejamin’s from the high tech, technical assistance office’s copier. And where does one apply for all these very well compensated positions? Look, it is great that improvements are coming but just hope down the road, that poor planning, shoddy construction workmanship and materials, and too many hands in the cookie jar that promotes sticky fingers and scandals, prevents what could truly be a transformative development and badly needed economic shot in the arm. One thing is for sure, everybody is going be present for the photo op. Cmon, everyone together now, say, CHEESE !!!

    1. Mark Chapman

      @Ellen

      quoting from the linked story:
      :… raising the intersection of Day and Raymond streets to 12 feet to allow egress in the event of a flood.”
      Raising it TO 12 feet refers to raising it an elevation of 12 feet, as SRB suggests in a followup comment. We probably should have been more exact with the wording. I am not sure what level is now.

  3. Srb

    I’m sure 12 ft refers to the elevation after raising. That means probably raising a few feet. As for the remixed costs, they may seem exorbitant but they’re not coming from norwalk or ct. And if they’re not spent here they’re going elsewhere. I dealt with south wood square ten yrs ago and it too cost far more than arguably it should but it also helped to transform th area. This is a win win for norwalk, vastly improved infrasture and housing and a good chunk of funds comes into the community . These infrastructure costs are enormous. Just take a look at what one extra lane on i95 costs

  4. ellen

    Still confused on much of this plan but thanks for trying to clarify some of it Mr. Chapman. Still waiting on the big announcement. See no one is posting anything about today’s scheduled event. What happened?

    1. Mark Chapman

      @ellen
      Stay tuned

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