Stamford CT South End Neighborhood Plan

Community Vision and Priorities

CCCE’s team worked with stakeholders and participants in a series of public forums and interviews to explore the potential for a shared vision and priorities for the future of the neighborhood, and to develop an action plan for the next steps toward implementation. Across all groups of participants in the South End Neighborhood Study—seven widely shared and linked priorities emerged:

1. Funds and strategies to support affordability, including affordable home ownership, to keep low and middle-income families in the neighborhood.
2. Protection of and reinvestment in the remaining historic district buildings to avoid permanent erasure of character, community culture, and affordable homes and retail spaces.
3. Immediate revision of zoning codes, through inclusive processes, to define an acceptable level of growth, better integrate new development with the neighborhood, and reduce uncertainty.
4. Creation of a new public elementary and middle school and civic campus on public land adjacent to the Lathon Wider Community Center to build a stable, intergenerational and kid-friendly community.
5. Investment in strategic upgrades to transportation infrastructure and management to improve traffic congestion and parking, and better accommodate the growing number of residents and workers.
6. Upgrades to streetscape and lighting to improve safety, bring people out, connect the different districts of the South End, and create lively commercial areas.
7. Zoning and historic preservation measures to create a real neighborhood “Main Street” for the South End that supports significant growth of small businesses and affordable retail.

Development Scenarios

CCCE modeled two development scenarios – high-growth and moderate growth – in which all of the historic district buildings were preserved. We explored the benefits of allowing Transfers of Development Rights (TDRs) in order to preserve more of the existing building stock and affordable dwellings and retail and to steer the tall and dense development away from the low-rise community in the South End.

CCCE’s urban designers recommended diversifying the mix of buildings, especially in the middle scale of new construction, to create a more effective bridge between the existing small-scale residential community and larger new buildings.

To explore community and stakeholder evaluation of the two development scenarios, and overall growth levels, the team presented the high and moderate scenarios at the June 2018 public forum. Participants in that public meeting expressed a preference for the moderate scenario, which they saw as a very high level of development over a short period in a small, historic community.