STAMFORD — City officials secured millions of dollar in funding from the state to overhaul the lower half of Atlantic Street, inching Stamford closer toward its longstanding goal of modernizing one of the South End’s main corridors.
Despite promises of fewer traffic tieups, wider sidewalks and more bike lanes, preliminary visions for the redesign have stirred anxieties from some community members and institutions over what a new Atlantic Street could mean for their properties.
The state Department of Transportation committed to funding $3.14 million of the lower Atlantic Street project, which is poised to widen the road to accommodate cars and create a more robust infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists.
But tensions surfaced at a South End community meeting in January when interim Transportation Chief Frank Petise presented the city’s initial vision for Atlantic Street to a handful of neighbors. Printed alongside the department’s preliminary vision for the corridor was a note next to a handful of lots noting potential “property impacts” that ranged from 23.7 to 1.3 feet on the eastern side of the road.
To city Rep. Terry Adams, D-3, it spelled out one thing: eminent domain, where an entity takes a homeowner’s land for the public good.
“This is a chess play,” Adams said. He said he sees the city’s plan for Atlantic Street as a grab at properties along the road, which he says would harm the owners and the road itself.
Eminent domain in recent years has triggered bitter battles in the South End. After years of debate, the Board of Representatives in 2020 approved a plan to expand Washington Boulevard and Pulaski Street by purchasing several properties, a plan that Adams and 11 other representatives resisted.
The city’s 2019 application for state transportation money stipulates that “property acquisitions will need to occur on the eastern side of the roadway to accommodate the widening of Atlantic Street” and that “19 properties are expected to be impacted by minor property takes.”
Even though the current plan could mean significant losses to some Atlantic Street properties, Petise rejects the idea that eminent domain will definitely be part of the process.
“I told them at the time it was just a concept plan, and I was going to meet with everyone individually,” he said. “That’s still our plan.”
Promises of a new, modified plan do little to convince Monika Twal, whose mother Maria Pawlik owns two properties on Atlantic Street. One was her late husband’s furniture restoration workshop; the other was their family home.
Where the city sees road improvements, Twal sees a project that could forever change the house where she grew up. The concept plan shows the new Atlantic Street cutting right across her family’s property line. The house’s front steps sit in the middle of the potential sidewalk.
Even if the department reconfigures its plan for Atlantic Street, Twal said she is still resistant to the idea of a new streetscape.
“They already widened the streets back by the train station,” she said. “Why are they widening over here? What is their interest in this?”
The improvements to Atlantic Street include pedestrian-oriented features like curb extensions, which shorten the distances that pedestrians spend crossing the street, and medians to break up the road. It also creates space for alternating left-turn lanes that slice through the center of the road, something the department says would alleviate congestion along the street. Bike lanes would line both sides of the road, tying into lanes added further up Atlantic Street and Bedford Street to the north.
But none of those additions are set in stone, Petise said. He pointed to the turn lanes and median specifically as examples of road features that the city could cut in the name of lessening individual property impacts.
It’s now a priority, Petise said, to move beyond the concept. Once a plan is created, the public will be invited to weigh in. Officials have already started to crowdsource input on improving lower Atlantic Street more generally. The city Transportation Department recently launched a virtual survey that asks what improvements people want to prioritize when redesigning the road, among other things.
“I’ll go back to the individual property owners who might be affected … and revisit what we can do to lessen that,” Petise said.
Near the southern end of Atlantic Street, the Holy Name Athletic Club — a Polish cultural society founded in the South End almost 100 years ago — is eyeing the streetscape changes with caution. The club property stands to lose 23.7 feet — the max — under the current rough sketch.
The club relies on renting out its space for parties, club manager Jaroslaw Rokicki said, arguing that the Atlantic Street concept would eat at parking spaces it uses to accommodate events. Holy Name also leases out part of its lot to a landscaping company to help cover expenses, he said, and losing 23.7 feet cuts into that space too.
“They’re going to kill a 100-year-old organization without even blinking an eye,” Rokicki accused the city.
Further up the road, Maria Monterosso has similar concerns. The lower Atlantic Street proposal would take 7.8 feet from her property on the corner of Woodland Avenue and she’s not happy about it.
“It’s my backyard,” said Monterosso, pointing out from her pastel green porch. Even an extra sliver of green space is a plus in a dense neighborhood like the South End, she said.
The city Transportation Department says widening Atlantic Street has been a city priority for more than a decade. Mentions of improving the road date back to at least 2007, when Stamford flagged widening Atlantic Street from Interstate 95 to Washington Boulevard as its top transportation project. The 2015 City Master Plan, the 2018 South End Neighborhood Study and 2019 Citywide Bicycle Pedestrian Master Plan also mention improving the roadway. On top of that, the current plan adds on-street parking to Atlantic Street, something that South Enders have asked for repeatedly over the years.
veronica.delvalle@hearstmediact.com
