Tracing the path of development in Stamford, Connecticut, is no easy task. The South End of Stamford is in the midst of an explosive period of growth. A former industrial and working class neighborhood that suffered with the decline and closure of local businesses, the area has experienced an influx of rental apartment towers and businesses that support the wealthier renters who have moved in. Though the transition has not been an easy one for long-term South End residents, the city, as a whole, stands to benefit from the increase in tax dollars that accompany the expansive growth. It is essential that the city develops a meaningful strategy to guide and manage the developers who are driving the speedy South End transformation.

This week alone, the Stamford Advocate ran two front-page articles and one editorial that dealt ongoing South End development issues. An eight-story state-built parking garage is proposed in a location that frees a site for more lucrative development adjacent to the Stamford train station. Two large proposed South End construction projects, by the two developers responsible for the majority of South End growth, request controversial zoning law revisions from the Stamford Planning Board. Jack Cavanaugh’s editorial highlights the South End neighborhood push back to the new development projects: “BLT (developer Building and Land Technology) has virtually been given a free ticket to defy city ordinances in the process of redeveloping a huge swath of the South End, much of it admirable, but it is now on the verge of going too far.”

Local preservations groups are concerned in particular about the loss of historic structures that are being demolished to make room for the new development. The Historic Neighborhood Preservation Program and the South End Neighborhood Revitalization Zone are two groups working to save both the building structures and long-standing communities that inhabit them.

It appears that the Stamford Land Use Bureau is concerned as well. In order to better manage South End growth and displacement, the Bureau hired a community-minded consultant planning group that includes Collective for Community, Culture and the Environment, and Penn Praxis, to generate a neighborhood study of the South End of Stamford. The stated goal of the study is to allow “residents, stakeholders, developers and the City to take stock of rapid change over the last 5 years, adjust the trajectory of development and preservation, and renew focus on equity, affordability, diversity, and neighborhood character in the South End.” The group’s detailed and thoughtful analysis envisions a South End design that includes greater community and environmental benefits than the current pattern of growth driven by developers. The study includes recommendations with regard to housing, schools, transportation, streetscape and retail, as well as focused planning and policy strategies.

There are many challenges ahead for the city of Stamford in their management of the South End growth. The city has a responsibility to not only seek development for the benefit of increased tax dollars and better use of vacant lands, but to design and plan the city in a way that attends to the needs of the citizens, respects and supports Stamford history and stories, and supports the environment. As is noted by Ralph Blessing, Director of the Stamford Land Use Bureau, in the South End Neighborhood Study, “The South End will define the Stamford skyline for decades to come. We want to get it right.”
 The efforts of the Stamford Land Use Bureau to build a better plan through the recent South End Neighborhood Study should be applauded and supported.