Parkway Walking Trail Plan Rejected By Stamford Board Of Reps

STAMFORD, CT — Plans for a Merritt Parkway Trail stretching 38 miles from Greenwich to Stratford hit a snag last week when the Board of Representatives rejected a $40,000 city contribution toward a $160,000 state grant for the design of the trail's first mile.

The planned trail would be a section of the East Coast Greenway, a 3,000-mile walking and biking route running from Maine to Florida.

According to an Aug. 26 report by the Fiscal Committee, the trail would be located along the southern part of the parkway, within the 300-foot right-of-way owned by the state. It would be no more than 10 feet wide and contain a buffer on each side.

The request was submitted to the board by Mayor David Martin, who expressed disappointment over the outcome of Tuesday's vote.

"Most other communities have found that pedestrian and bike trails, like this one proposed near the Merritt Parkway, make the city more livable, enhance the community and even increase property values," Martin said in an email to Patch. "If this trail were to be built, I am confident the public would see it as a valuable asset to Stamford, but the concerns raised over this trail by a few members of the public can only be answered after a design is complete. It is unfortunate the board chose to reject this opportunity, turn down the 80 percent of non-city grants that would fund this project and reject the community participation process that would occur during the design."

Prior to the vote, a number of residents voiced their opinion on the planned trail. North Stamford resident Chris Dawson said he supported it, and also asked that the vote be held until after a public hearing on the matter.

"For those who live...in North Stamford, you know how dangerous it is to walk and to bike," Dawson said. "A lot of families with kids want a safe place to walk, and that's what I see this trail as; an opportunity to build something for the future."

Conversely, city resident Patrick Sasser said he opposed the trail.

"Stamford is very unique in the fact that we have trail systems that already exist that are probably underutilized," Sasser said, pointing to trails at the Stamford Museum and the Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens as examples. "I think these are areas that people can look into to utilize the systems that already exist, where we don't have to spend this crazy amount of money to create a new trail system."

Wes Haynes, Executive Director of the Merritt Parkway Conservancy and a resident of Stamford, also expressed a "lack of support" for the planned trail, the idea for which he said had been around for decades.

Hayes said the state Department of Transportation did a feasibility study in 2017 that concluded a trail would only be feasible if it utilized a chain link fence, which he did not think would "enhance the experience of driving on the parkway."

"It's just the wrong place for it," Haynes said.

Following the public participation portion of the meeting, many board members voiced their concerns and, in some cases, support regarding the trail.

Rep. Benjamin Lee brought up the need to bring more amenities for millennials to North Stamford.

"I believe that is a key consideration that we should not sell short," Lee said. "We often hear about property values in northern Stamford and how they are suffering, and then we talk about how do we get more millennials to buy those houses in northern Stamford, and now we have a thing which millennials have come out and said sounds like a good idea."

Rep. Eric Morson agreed the concept was a good idea to explore, but said he would not be voting in favor of it due to a lack of engineering reports that satisfied him.

Rep. Steven Kolenberg made a motion to hold the item to another meeting, however it failed by a vote of 9-22 with one abstention.

"There is very little untouched green space left in Fairfield County," Rep. Nina Sherwood said regarding the motion to hold the vote. "I think engaging in something like this is not something we should be doing as a city, and that won't change tonight or next month, no matter how much conversation there is."

The board ultimately rejected the proposal by a vote of 3-25 with two abstentions.