Norwich weighs future of scrapyard, harbor

Norwich — The Harbor Management Commission asked the City Council Monday for guidance as it embarks on updating the 20-year-old Harbor Management Plan and an updated vision for waterfront property, including New Wharf Road, where the former Shetucket Iron & Metal scrapyard will be sold at auction July 29.

The City Council went into executive session at the end of its regular meeting Monday to discuss the scrapyard property and invited two attorneys, Mark Block and Paul Geraghty, who represent different members of the Seder family who own the scrapyard, into the discussion. The executive session lasted more than an hour and the council made no decisions when members returned to public session.

The 3.68-acre property will be sold at auction as the final step in the dissolution of the former scrapyard business. All equipment was sold at an auction in January.

The Harbor Management Commission toured the property during a special meeting Friday. Commission member and Alderman H. Tucker Braddock has been leading the effort to have the city try to purchase the property to prevent it from becoming another scrapyard. Although the land is in a high-hazard floodway on new Federal Emergency Management Agency maps, another scrapyard would be allowed as an “existing nonconforming use” of the property, city Planner Deanna Rhodes said.

The land is zoned for waterfront development, but the floodway designation would prohibit any new buildings from being constructed and if any existing building is renovated to more than 50 percent of its value, the building would have to be flood proofed, Rhodes said.

At the start of Monday's City Council meeting, Harbor Management Commission consultant Geoff Steadman gave an overview of the commission's work on updating the old harbor plan, including the $7,500 grant obtained from the Connecticut Port Authority for the update.

The commission's goals include finding a new location for the city boat launch at the Howard T. Brown Park, replacing the docks at Brown Park, and finding “a new vision” for the New Wharf Road area and the former Shipping Street district farther down the Thames River.

The vision statement adopted by the commission in 2011 called for creating a public park with fishing piers and a possible music venue at the former scrapyard site.

“It is not our desire to recommend or not recommend purchasing the property,” harbor commission member Michael Gualtieri said, “There's obviously pros and cons on both. … We're looking forward to direction on that.”