South Norwalk school OK’d

Still needs state, federal approvals for parkland swap

NORWALK — The Norwalk Zoning Commission has approved plans for a new South Norwalk school, but state and federal approvals are needed before construction can begin at Springwood Ely Park.

“The approval was part of the many steps we need to get there. We still have some other steps that we need to get through, so we are by no means done, but it’s progressing,” Norwalk Board of Education Chairman Michael Barbis said Monday. “There needs to be this open-space swap, and that is partly under the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the National Park Service.”

After a two-part public hearing that concluded Oct. 17, the Zoning Commission approved the school board’s plans for a new two-story, 60,000-square-foot, pre-K through 8th grade public school on a portion of Springwood Ely Park behind the former Nathaniel Ely School.

The commission resumed and concluded the hearing after the Norwalk Conservation Commission approved a wetland permit, which was also needed for the plan to advance.

Part of the school board’s Facility Improvement Plan, the building will serve as the new Columbus Magnet School and eliminate an approximately 900-seat deficiency at the elementary school level.

At the same time, the new school construction project will dig into a portion of Springwood Ely Park, requiring that the lost space be compensated in accordance with DEEP and National Park Service guidelines.

Alan Lo, Norwalk’s building and facilities manager, said the new school plan will result in a net loss of approximately 3.2 acres at Springwood Ely Park. That’s after factoring in the city’s acquisition of two

adjoining properties on Tito Court.

Lo said the land-swap plan designates as park space approximately 10 acres of city land behind Norwalk Community College. He noted the exchange extends beyond acres to include the value of the various land parcels.

“In the state’s mind, we’re swapping 3 acres for 10 acres, but the dollar values are the same,” Lo said.

Lo said a survey of the land behind NCC will be done this week before the land-swap plan is submitted to the state and federal governments for consideration.

“It used to be Magrath (Elementary) School,” Lo said of the area behind NCC. “We gave a portion to Norwalk Community College, but what’s left was never surveyed.”

Barbis said the school board hopes to see the new Columbus Magnet School under construction in 2019 but, referring to the state and federal approvals, added, “at this point, these circumstances are beyond us.”

Plans for the new school received strong support from educators and opposition from some elected officials and community leaders in South Norwalk.

In May 2018, the Norwalk Common Council approved the land-swap plan on a 12-2 vote with District B Democrats Travis Simms and Phaedrel Bowman voting ‘No.’ Simms said the school project would “take away these people’s open space park — neighborhood park — and move it six miles away behind Norwalk Community College.”

Proponents reject that argument, saying the project will add usable open space at Springwood Ely Park.

“There’s abandoned garbage,” Barbis said of a wooded portion of the park. “All those woods, for the last four or five months, you couldn’t back there, so it isn’t really usable open space.”

Conceptual plans presented by architects in January showed the new two-story school in the area of the park’s existing softball field, or alternatively, built partly into the hillside to the east.

Both plans call for leaving the existing Nathaniel Ely School, now an early childhood education center, maintaining the basketball court, expanding the tennis courts and creating a soccer/ multiuse field on the north end of the Springwood Ely Park.