Council urged to accept Army move

It’s time for the Stratford Town Council to back down. After the town fumbled and flailed for 11 years without getting anything done at the former Army engine plant on Main Street, the Pentagon decided it had had enough, and will go ahead with development without the town. Town officials still haven’t gotten the message.
It’s been depressing watching council members and the town’s development partner, a group calling itself Team Stratford, try to reassert some semblance of control over the situation. However, the Army has made its position clear — Stratford dawdled for too long, and the owners are moving on. It’s hard to see what’s so complicated about that.
Certainly, southern Stratford is going through some turmoil. With the fate of Sikorsky Memorial Airport undecided and potentially headed for state control, the town is facing big changes. With next-door Bridgeport in control of the airport, Stratford has been reasonably secure that nothing much was going to change there; the neighbors had problems of their own. The state, though, could have major expansion and development in the plans.
Nearby at the Army engine plant site, nothing is going to be easy. The area is severely polluted, and cleanup is likely to cost tens of millions of dollars. The Army, though, is moving forward, and says it has opened bidding to companies across the country to remediate and rebuild. As one official said, it’s unclear why the Town Council still has not gotten the message.
It’s understandable Stratford is frustrated. This prime location has gone through innumerable false starts and failed plans over the past 11 years, and it is hard to imagine that the town has, after all this time, lost control of its final outcome. But the Army is not going to be swayed. And if the town wants to play a role in the development, and have a voice beyond a potential veto by the Zoning Commission, working with the Army from the beginning would be a good start.
As Army housing official Bill Birney says, “the sooner the town cooperates, the easier it will be to get this project moving for major economic development.” Unfortunately, the town appears headed in the other direction, with talk of trying to enlist the state’s congressional delegation to take action on behalf of the council and its chosen team.
That is a bad idea. It’s tough to swallow, but the Army is moving on. The best course of action is to work with the planners, try to get the best possible proposal for Stratford’s future and drop any plans for obstructionism. Given the way the project has stalled for more than a decade, this is the best chance the town will see to get something going on this long-neglected site.