West Norwalk Association Board Meeting
May 5, 2003
Minutes West Norwalk Association Board of Directors Meeting
May 5th, 2003
President Peter O’Hare called the meeting of the West Norwalk Association to order at 7:42 pm
Board Members Present: Peter O’Hara, Sam Jones, Chris Bryan, Gigi Schmidt, Bob Wagman, Manuel llorca, Barbara Andrews, Bill Krummel, Alan Murnick
Presenters Present: Leigh Grant, Anne Carbone
WNA Neighbors Present:, Regina Krummel
Presentations: Leigh Grant head of the Norwalk Association of Silvermine Homeowners gave a presentation with regards to the ongoing concern of the Northeast Utilities power line construction. The association’s current goal is to request Northeast Utilities to bury the new power lines that are being brought into the Norwalk area. An open public forum was held on the issue recently and Leigh’s hope is to continue to rally support for the cause to bury the lines. Norwalk was apparently left behind in an agreement with other towns to bury the lines in certain areas. The new power lines are currently planned to go through most of Norwalk on above ground high power poles. The mayor of Norwalk gave his support at the open forum to bury the lines, but more support is needed to push the issue.
Norwalk itself is possibly being treated unfairly on the issue, as other towns have been able to come to some kind of compromise with Northeast Utilities to burying the lines. It was made evident that most of the above ground wiring that currently was being planned was going to occur in Norwalk.
She suggested for more information to please visit:http://www.woodlandscoalition.com
If individuals wish to write to the Sighting Council to speak against Northeast Utilities they can write to:
CT Sighting Council
Ten Franklin Square
New Britain, CT
06051
Re: Docket #217 Option# 19
Before June 2nd, 2003.
Pre-Meeting:
Pre-meeting discussions began with the announcement of the resignation of Skip Wilhelm from the West Norwalk Association Board.
Regular Meeting
Acceptance of Board Meeting Minutes of April 9th, 2003: The minutes of April 9th, 2003 were presented. A motion was made by Bob Wagman and seconded by Manuel llorca to accept the minutes. The motion passed unanimously.
Treasurer’s Report: David Frishkorn was unable to attend, but Peter O’Hare presented the months activities. Gigi Schmidt made a motion to accept the financial report which was seconded by Manuel llorca. The motion passed unanimously.
Advisory Committee on Re-Evaluation
The mayors office made a request for a West Norwalk Association representative to consult on their advisory committee on the re-evaluation of Norwalk properties. Chris Bryan agreed to volunteer for the representation. Gotz, Harriet is the contact for the mayor’s office.
Prudential: Manny LLorca stated that he had not received many questions from neighbors to ask the attorney Peter S. representing the WNA association on the Prudential Issue. He stated that there were only a few and sporadic number of question, but that they had not been given to the attorney yet as he was still preparing the list. The two main groups of questions came from Mike Coffey and Chris Bryan. It was also mentioned that it could possibly be too expensive to ask the attorney to pull the deed for Prudential as to answer some of the questions himself. Manuel posed that another person might want to take on the responsibility to save the association capital. Chris Bryan volunteered and agreed to get into contact with Manuel Llorca to get the details and acquire a copy of the deed. Manuel would get the question to Peter S. as soon as possible and get his reply.
State Representative Lawrence Cafero’s Letter to the Association:Mr. Cafero wrote a letter to the West Norwalk Association and Peter O’Hare with a suggestion of a new compromise between Prudential and the West Norwalk Association. His letter suggests asking for a larger easement and WNA support. More discussion followed around the letter and questions of who is / would be the current competition for Prudential as well as discussion on what type of usage, and traffic restrictions that Prudential was proposing. The discussions biggest question was whether Prudential should be able to change its type of usage for the property. Another discussion followed of who might occupy the property if it were sold because of a failure to get the changes on the restrictions. It was mentioned that any possible buyer might request a contingency on zoning in the purchase process.
A motion to accept Lawrence Cafero’s letter as the WNA position was made by Bill Krummel and seconded by Bob Wagman. Discussion followed to present both sides to the issue. After the discussion a vote was called on the motion. Chris Bryan and Bill Krummel voted for the position and Bob Wagman, Sam Jones, Manuel LLorca, Alan Murnick, Gigi Schmidt voted against. The motion failed.
Bill Krummel suggested inviting Lawrence Cafero to the next WNA meeting to facilitate further communication. Manuel suggested possibly inviting the mayor as well.
Peter O’Hare suggested trying to come together as an association with a formal position to vote on at the next meeting and stated that he would ask for a clarification on the usage. It was made evident that the discussion on the Prudential issue has been ongoing for quite some time and that a deadline was coming for the West Norwalk to take a final position. He suggested for the WNA to continually make changes and requests to Prudential and ask for their support was unproductive. It was unclear if there would ever be a true consensus even if Prudential could answer all of the neighbor’s and WNA concerns.
Spinnaker: Bob Wagman mentioned that Spinnaker received approval from the Planning and Zoning Board. The final position of Planning and Zoning was that Spinnaker met the spec of the zone and that they should therefore receive approval even if there was a strong concern to the size of the buildings. Bob shared his experience that even if a good argument is made by concerned neighbor over a valid issue they might not be able to sway the board or the applicant if they meet the spec of the property and the applicant does not wish to make the change.
Publicity: Chris Bryan mentioned that he would be putting up a message board on the West Norwalk Association website to help facilitate communication with the neighbors.
Bob Wagman stated that advertisements had been left out of the WNA newsletter and this needed to be corrected in future issues.
A motion to adjourn was made by Chris Bryan. It was unanimously approve. The meeting was adjourned at 9:23 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Chris Bryan
Upcoming Calendar:
Subject to Change Without Notice
Please send all notices of upcoming West Norwalk events to Chris Bryan at [email protected].