Break the Dam!

Maybe you heard of “Mill River Park” or the “Mill River Greenway” in Stamford. Then you think hard and ask “what hell are they talking about?’ Then you realize it’s the cement wall pond created by an equally unattractive dam across from Target. It even comes complete with the prerequisite of any urban creek/ stream/ river, the waterlogged shopping cart. From there, untended, over grown green space lines the river in either direction in a line broken by run down housing. There is even a rooster (undetermined if it is feral or simply free range) living in the strip of brush along the river between Tresser and Richmond Hill. I kid you not.

The city however has a plan to create a “world class park” along the river that stretches from the sound all the way to Scalzi Park and possibly farther north. The city, with Olin Partnership, a private landscape architecture firm, and the Army Corp of Engineers has developed a long term master plan for the park. Aside from some decent upgrades in the past few years including a playground and a lighted, tree lined path along the west side of the park between Main St and Tresser, there seems to be little movement in realizing their goal. In the past few weeks alone however there have been two developments that will significantly move the process forward.

The first, the Board of Reps transferred control of the park to a private entity, the Mill River Collaborative. The Collaborative will staff & maintain the park in the short term, and help raise private funds that in conjunction with city, state, and federal funds will help execute the master plan for the park.

The second development was passage of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 by the House and Senate. Bush vetoed the bill, but it was popular enough with Congress for them to send back an override. The bill authorizes funding for water related projects nationwide, among them $10 million to remove the Mill River dam, remove the sediment collected behind the dam (and I’m assuming aforementioned shopping cart) and replace the concrete walls with naturual river banks populated with native plants. Work can start as early as next year and take as long as three years. Full completion of the master plan can take anywhere from 10-20 years from what I understand. The sounds intense, however from what I’ve seen the master plan is rather ambitious and goes as far as removing entire office buildings to make room for the park.

I’m excited for the plan and think it will be a great resource for the city. I hope we’ll see some more short term progress in addition to the long term goals. I’m curious how much land the city already has for the park and how much they intend to go after. I think an unbroken line along each side of the river is ideal. I’m working on a post for the near future that outlines the plan for the park. Until then you can check out some info at these links:

Mill River Collaborative
Olin Partnership