Oyster Shell Park: The city hopes for a pearl as it tries to
complete a long-unfinished riverfront park
Originally published August 12, 2007
NORWALK —It was a rainy Saturday in June 2001 when the city
held a lavish grand opening for Heritage Park.
The
sprawling project - which connects South Norwalk and Mathews Park
through a series of trails and open space - had been in the works
since 1988, when then-Mayor Frank Esposito announced Norwalk was one
of a few cities to receive funding under a state heritage park program.
For
that June day six years ago, the city had planned symphonies, choirs
and art exhibits. Esposito cut a ribbon to mark the occasion.
One
of the centerpieces of the Heritage Park plan was Oyster Shell Park
- a former municipal dump that was nearly finished being converted
into a park. Five-foot bands of oyster shells and wildflowers were
laid atop the former landfill. Benches carved out of its towering
hillside would be used for future productions of Shakespeare on the
Sound. Murals by local artists were hung nearby beneath the Interstate
95 bridge.
In
the years after the ceremony, the grass grew wild. The park became
littered with trash, and those murals were marred by graffiti. Conflicting
accounts of what triggered Oyster Shell's decline - and of whether
the park was ever officially open - added a layer of confusion to
a complicated tale about a grand project that's had its share of setbacks.
The
story of Oyster Shell is riddled with financial problems and disagreements
among city officials; with contractor snags, illegal dumping and other
twists that have led to the park's abandoned, overgrown state.
But
a pearl might still be found as the city cultures another ambitious
plan. If all goes accordingly, Oyster Shell's waterfront marsh habitats
will be restored. The park will power itself with renewable
energy
sources, and it could be the first truly "green" park in
the country.
Pointing
fingers
This
transformation of a 13-acre trash heap into a park is how Overton,
the controversial self-described "champion" of Oyster Shell,
became involved with the project in the early 1990s.
"It
was in the dead center in one of the most important economic development
centers in Norwalk," Overton said from his office in Middletown,
where he is an engineer with Malcolm Pirnie. "Because it was
not closed or benign, we couldn't sell development space around it.
Closing it became part of our economic development, and public works
got involved to do the technical part of building the park."
The
way Overton describes it, he threw himself into the project. Over
the next several years, he helped plan the capping of the landfill;
he organized a "huge" advisory board for the park; and he
got involved in aspects of park planning that wouldn't traditionally
be in the purview of a public works employee - a fact that still frustrates
and confuses some city officials.
"The
problem from the beginning is that it was supposed to be a landfill
cap," said Michael Moccaie, director of the city Department of
Recreation and Parks. "Then (DPW) got involved in park planning.
They weren't schooled or educated to do that. There were problems
with the original designs because they didn't have the experience.
This was over nine or 10 years ago. The director of parks at the time
didn't get involved either because he didn't ask, or because DPW felt
it was doing the right thing."
Overton
painted a slightly different picture. Because the project lacked a
champion in the parks department and hadn't garnered the political
will needed to be completed, he said he was forced to assume the role.
Neither
former Mayor Alex Knopp nor Esposito returned repeated phone calls.
But Fred Bondi, chairman of the Common Council's Recreation, Parks
and Cultural Affairs Committee, bridled at the notion that city politicians
weren't motivated to complete the park.
"He
was the problem," Bondi said of Overton. "He never really
championed the park, even though he was in charge of it."
Another
dispute came after Oyster Shell Park's grand opening back in 2001.
Overton said the park was opened and used for a long time but was
ultimately shut down because the parks department refused to take
over because of outstanding public safety issues.
Moccaie,
however, said Oyster Shell was never opened. "It was always cordoned
off," he said. That grand opening was only for a walkway between
the Maritime Aquarium and Mathews Park, he said. Now, no clearly marked
signs indicate that the park is closed, and visitors can be seen fishing,
riding bikes or walking pets through the park.
Money
for nothing
Other
problems occurred during Overton's reign over the project, including
a dispute with a contractor hired to dredge clay from Mill Pond that
would be used to cap the landfill.
Overton's
department raised a red flag because the contract's lowest bidder
- Site Remediation Inc. of East Windsor - had a sketchy financial
history, according to department records.
Overton
recently said the company didn't even own its own equipment.
Though
DPW didn't support hiring Site Remediation, that recommendation was
overruled and the company was hired, Overton said. A series of problems
followed during the dredging, leading to lawsuits and countersuits.
"They
didn't know how to use their equipment efficiently," he said.
Former
Common Council member Richard Bonenfant said one of the contractor's
cranes once fell into Mill Pond.
Bonenfant
also recalled a contractor cited for leaking hazardous waste from
his dump truck, which was carrying dredged material from Mill Pond
to the landfill. That waste, he said, was being used for the cap at
Oyster Shell.
Though
Overton acknowledged that the cap material was contaminated with mercury,
he disputed Bonenfant's hazardous waste claim.
"I
was told by a guy from the DEP that there is more mercury in a mercury
lightbulb than in that material," he said. "At no point
was that material ever hazardous."
Overton
said it was a bulldozer, not a crane, that fell in the pond. And Site
Remediation wasn't responsible for that mishap. It was a different
contractor that was promptly fired, he said.
Such
incidents led to cost overruns and requests to the city for additional
funds, Bonenfant said. That made him cynical about the project.
"When
I first got on the city council, there were all kinds of grants,"
he said. "It was a state-supported thing. Then things go over,
and we'd pony up."
The
Heritage Park project initially was financed by several million dollars
in state funds. Back then, said Wilbur Taylor, a former Common Council
member and head of the now-defunct Oyster Shell Advisory Committee,
the city was flush with cash thanks to Patty Rowland, the wife of
former Gov. John Rowland.
"She
was influential in getting us state and federal grants," he said.
Once Rowland was gone, so was the money, he said.
The
projected cost for the entire Heritage Park plan, including Oyster
Shell, was $4.7 million to $6.6 million, according to a plan by a
city consultant in 1991.
Thomas
Hamilton, the city's finance director, said it's difficult to say
exactly how much has been spent on Oyster Shell because it's part
of the Heritage Park project. Of about $5.5 million that has been
spent on Heritage Park, nearly $2.5 million was spent on capping the
landfill, he said.
According
to an Advocate story in 2003, an additional $4 million in state and
federal grants also was spent on landscaping an unfinished amphitheater
and other amenities at Oyster Shell.
Further
setbacks
One
of the most significant hurdles to finishing Oyster Shell occurred
sometime after the park was capped and covered in grass a decade ago.
About
1,200 cubic yards of waste was dumped next to a trail that meanders
alongside the I-95 bridge, according to city documents. Now, a large
rectangle of mostly barren dirt is where piles of construction debris
once sat. No official interviewed knew who was responsible for the
dumping, but Walter Briggs, the former head of the Oyster Shell Advisory
Committee, said the city should have tried to track the dumper down.
"We
threw that back in DPW and Redevelopment's lap," he said.
Overton
- who was laid off in 2004 in departmental restructuring - said the
dumping could have happened on his watch, but he said it can be difficult
to find responsible parties.
"The
landfill was capped and grassed, and ready to be adopted. After that,
people illegally dumped. We did not find who did it," he said.
"Sometimes it's impossible after the fact to identify the source."
That
additional cleanup and capping will cost the city more than $300,000
- $59,000 to design a plan to fix the problem, $259,000 to cap the
area where the garbage once sat and $7,000 for a final survey to make
sure the area is in good shape, said Hal Alvord, DPW's current director.
That
process has held up the park's progress because the city couldn't
obtain a certificate of closure from the DEP, officials said. The
certificate is required for the site to be used as a park.
"One
of the questions I have is if the landfill was capped, why did the
city not seek a certificate of closure?" Alvord said.
Overton
said that's not the way it works: "If you're trying to create
features, you don't close the landfill first," he said. You add
all the park elements atop the cap - such as ponds and trails - then
get the certificate, he said.
Regardless,
that second cap is nearly complete, Alvord said. After years of setbacks
and additional procedural requirements, the project might move forward.
Searching
for a pearl
The
next chapter in the saga, said Susan Sweitzer, a senior project manager
with the city Redevelopment Agency who's overseeing Oyster Shell,
will include construction and park improvements that should begin
early next year. The city now has more than $1 million to spend on
the project - $800,000 from a state loan and $350,000 from state Rep.
Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk.
But
it will still cost an estimated $3.9 million to $4.8 million to finish
the entire park, according to a master plan for Oyster Shell drawn
up last year by a city consultant.
Much
of that could be covered by grants, as the city is trying to build
a park that's the first of its kind, according to Tom Tavella, a landscape
architect with BSC Group of Boston.
"We'd
be looking at photovoltaic solar panels and wind power to generate
light," Tavella said. The city would manage stormwater runoff
to control pollutants flowing into the Sound, and use recycled materials
- including plant material - for landscaping and construction. No
pesticides would be used on the plants, and heat-producing, highly
reflective pavement would be avoided.
Tavella
said there's no other project like it in the country. There's no guarantee
the park will be LEED certified - the system used to rate green homes,
office buildings, schools and other similar developments - though
several organizations are working out a rating system for parks, Tavella
said.
For
Sweitzer, this project makes far more sense now than when it was planned
nearly a decade ago, before the recently opened Maritime Yards condos
- which sit adjacent to Oyster Shell - and when the final portion
of the Reed-Putnam redevelopment project was still far from being
implemented. The Reed-Putnam master plan was recently approved by
the Common Council.
As
long as people are there, she said, the project will flourish.
"The
state jumped in with the Heritage Park concept five to eight years
before it was ready. We were forced out of the box before there was
a living soul in that area," she said. "Now it'll move along
because people want to be there. People want to know what's going
on with Oyster Shell."
