FLOOD PLAN MIGHT OPEN SOUTH END OPPORTUNITIES
In a new plan to address flooding in the South End of Bridgeport, city officials see an opportunity to kick- start private investment and development in the waterfront area.
“I think there are many things that our project is directly addressing, but also I think we’ve been able to bring together a lot of different stakeholders and spark conversations within the neighborhood that are leading to other projects as well,” said Rebecca French, director of national disaster resilience and rebuild by design for the state Department of Housing and project manager for Resilient Bridgeport.
After several years of drafting, the state Department of Housing released a draft of its plans to address flood risks in the South End. The proposal is part of an environmental impact evaluation funded by a pair of national resiliency grants under the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery following Hurricane Sandy.
Barrier to development
Flood regulations have been a barrier to development in South End for years, particularly with projects requiring public assistance.
“It’s an impediment that has been there for some time, but one that, I think with Hurricane Sandy, really impacted the mar- ket in a way that we hadn’t seen,” said David Kooris, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
Along with being the former director of the Office of Planning and Economic Devel- opment for the city of Bridgeport, Kooris served as point person for Resilient Bridgeport prior to French.
Most land in the South End is said by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to have a 1 percent chance each year of a serious flood, which guides state statutes. Connecticut agencies have ruled that projects in a flood zone that fail to provide means of evacuation will be blocked from receiving state funding — including for the cleanup of contaminants.
For projects like the Remington Shaver site at 60 Main St., which has long been slated for redevelopment into waterfront apartments, such regulations have stalled its transformation since 2016.
“The south end has been essentially cut off from investment for the last several years, which in many ways was the impetus for our seeking this funding when I was with the city,” Kooris said.
Years in the making
Bridgeport received more than $ 50 million in federal grants in the last four years to funding the flood protection project in the South End.
Most of that time has been devoted to community meetings and outreach focused climate change, which puts the South End and other coastal neighborhoods at increased flood risk.
“We wanted to have something that really reflected their input already,” French said.
“We didn’t want to wait to this point to get input on the project; this also provides an addition formal opportunity for the community to put further input into the project.”
The plan calls for a coastal
“I think there are many things that our project is directly addressing, but also I think we’ve been able to bring together a lot of different stakeholders and spark conversations within the neighborhood that are leading to other projects as well.” Rebecca French, director of national disaster resilience and rebuild by design for the state Department of Housing