Manresa Wilds gets key approval from Norwalk zoning board

A billionaire couple’s ambitious proposal to transform a shuttered power plant overlooking Long Island Sound into a park and event space cleared an important hurdle on Wednesday with the approval of the project’s “master plan” by zoning officials in Norwalk.

The Norwalk Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to approve a special zoning district for the proposed Manresa Wilds development, which covers a 125-acre peninsula that was for decades home to a coal and oil-burning power plant.

The approval clears the way for the project’s developers, Austin and Allison McChord, to continue finalizing their designs for the site within a framework that includes allowances for private events, live music, boat rentals and a restaurant or brewpub. The McChords have committed $410 million to the project, including environmental remediation.

Future phases of the project will require additional approvals from zoning officials, along with more detailed traffic studies, before construction can begin.

“We founded Manresa Island Corp. to take responsibility for this site’s cleanup and create something enduring for Norwalk and the region,” the McChords said in a statement following the vote. “Thousands of people have helped shape Manresa Wilds over the past two years, and we’re grateful to the community and the Commission for the care they’ve brought to this process. This vote brings us one step closer to unlocking a remarkable stretch of Norwalk’s waterfront to the public again.”

While the project was initially hailed as philanthropic endeavor to create park space while preserving the old plant buildings, Manresa Wilds also attracted criticism from neighbors who said it would lead to traffic jams, noise pollution and other disturbances within nearby residential communities.

More than 200 residents signed a petition urging Norwalk’s P&Z Commission to reject the application for a special zoning district and for the McChords to come back with a more toned-down version of the project.

In order to ease community concerns, the Manresa Wilds team hosted multiple meetings and received more than 4,000 comments on the project’s design, according a press release. The McChords also agreed to drop proposals to allow a hotel on the property, in addition to reducing outdoor lighting and capping parking at 200 spaces available through a reservation system.

Ed Haas, a resident of South Norwalk, said he was among the initial skeptics of the project when it was first proposed. But after meeting with the McChords’ team and encouraging them to incorporate murals and other art installations in the design of the project, Haas said he is now “leaning towards” supporting the project.

“It seemed like they were trying to do too much,” Haas said. “Now that I’ve met with them a couple of times, it seems to be evening out with the community’s input.”

Under the rules approved by Norwalk’s P&Z Commission, Manresa Wilds will be limited to hosting no more than four events each month that draw between 150 and 400 guests. Larger events, with crowds up to 800 people, will be limited to four times a year. On days when multiple events are scheduled, the maximum overall capacity will be capped at 1,000 people.

At one point during Wednesday’s meeting, the commission also debated limiting outings by school groups to Norwalk students, an idea that was rejected by commissioners such as Ana Tabachneck. The commission tabled the idea of exempting school groups more broadly from Manresa Wilds’ event permitting requirements.

“I think this is a gift to all,” Tabachneck said. “We reap a lot of the benefits, we also handle some of the downsides or have to grapple with some of the challenges. But overall this is a benefit to us.”

Jan Schaefer, president of the Manresa Association, a neighborhood group, responded to a request for comment Thursday with a statement saying the commission was “seeming to give great consideration to neighbors’ concerns, and they made modifications to address the issues that were raised about noise, lights, and traffic.”

“The McChords were also sensitive to the impact for neighbors, and they made several changes throughout this process to scale back the scope of the park. While traffic remains a big concern, we hope this will be addressed by the City as they consider applications for the future phases,” Schaefer said.

The first phase of the project — a collection of walking trails, open fields and outdoor classrooms known as the Northern Forest — is already under construction and is expected to open next year. That phase had been approved prior to Wednesday’s meeting under the site’s prior residential zoning designation.

The next phase, which includes the renovation of the old power plant’s turbine hall and administration building, is targeted for completion in 2032.