“We’re at that inflection point”: Will Town Officials Reject New Danbury Rd. Development due to Sewer Flow Limits?

It might appear that Wilton is wholly consumed with the FY 2025 budget process right now, but another debate is rapidly unfolding and the stakes are equally high, if not higher, for Wilton long-term.

As GOOD Morning Wilton has reported extensively since last fall, Wilton is nearing the maximum sanitary sewer flow that is allowed under the town’s water treatment contract with Norwalk.

As town officials continue to discuss how to best manage the available capacity, serious questions are being raised about whether the Town is ready or willing to take the action needed for economic growth and new development. Now, that question has prompted at least two prominent former town officials to publicly join the debate, revealing a split between those advocating for more development in Wilton and those opposed.

Pushing The Limit

First Selectman Toni Boucher, who chairs Wilton’s Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA), recently said the expected sewer flow level is “dangerously close” to preventing the WPCA from approving new sewer allocations.

For the first time, the WPCA could conceivably reject a sewer application for new development on the grounds that it could push Wilton over the contractual flow limit.

A critical test case is the pending application for 131 Danbury Rd., a proposed 208-unit apartment building which has garnered favorable reactions from the Planning and Zoning Commission. The application has languished as the WPCA has looked for ways to identify more capacity before deciding whether to approve the sewer application.

Most recently, after lengthy discussions at its Feb. 14 meeting, the WPCA declined to vote on the application, citing unresolved questions about the standards used to estimate the expected sewer flow at multifamily developments.

The WPCA will resume discussion of those matters on March 13. (Selectman Bas Nabulsi proposed a special meeting in advance, to allow ample time to discuss the standards and reach consensus on the methodology for estimating flow before deliberating on the 131 Danbury Rd. application. A special meeting would also ensure the Planning and Zoning Commission could consider the project when it’s due for discussion at the next P&Z meeting on March 11. Boucher declined the suggestion, citing the pressures of budget meetings.)

The WPCA did approve an application from ASML for additional sewer flow, as part of the company’s significant expansion plans at 77 Danbury Rd. Approving the ASML application before 131 Danbury Rd. was an unusual move — one that further shrinks the remaining capacity available to 131 Danbury Rd., but reflects the Authority’s newly adopted policy to prioritize allocation for ASML over new development.

In advocating for the 131 Danbury Rd. application, Craig Flaherty, an engineer and president of the land-use consulting firm Redniss & Mead, argued that the priority given to ASML should not have applied to applications submitted before the new policy was adopted; and 131 Danbury Rd. should be given equal consideration under the priorities that were in place at the time of the applications.

“There’s no question that [ASML] is a priority,” Boucher told GMW after the meeting. “We cannot afford to lose that tax base if they decided to go somewhere else or expand somewhere else.”

ASML has committed to investing $200 million in its Wilton operations, beginning with the $29 million purchase of 20 Westport Rd., plans for expansion of its 77 Danbury Rd. headquarters, a goal to hire 1,000 new employees, and more investment yet to be announced.

Boucher’s Perspective

GMW spoke with Wilton’s top official on two recent occasions about the WPCA’s predicament.

“We’re at that inflection point,” Boucher said, with “[one] application after another after another.”

Her comments reveal her broader perspective on new development in Wilton.

“We now have a Planning and Zoning that seems to be having a focus and a priority on as much development as can be had,” she said.

She compared today’s P&Z to past boards which she said were “keeping the town more of a village and a more of a colonial character of the town, and trying to err on the side of caution when it comes to development.”

“I noticed that they [P&Z] don’t give as much attention to the traffic flow, which is becoming more prominent of an issue,” she continued.

“One of the problems is the first really large, dense development of over 200 apartments has gone up [141 Danbury Rd.]. It’s very austere and looks like it belongs in a city like Stamford or New York or some large metropolitan area, versus what was at one time a more colonial community and village and suburban.” [Editor’s note: 141 Danbury Rd. is planned for 173 units.]

Boucher says, “That’s scaring a lot of people.”

“This area was not built to be Stamford, or Bridgeport, or New Haven,” she said.

Boucher says Wilton was “built to be a small community, [a] residential community, [a] suburban community” and was “not designed to handle large developments of the kind that we’re now increasingly seeing.”

To date, Boucher’s efforts on the WPCA have been to establish “more judicious” priorities for the remaining unallocated sewer capacity. She proposed several amendments to WPCA regulations, taking steps such as prioritizing ASML’s growth needs and imposing a five-year expiration date for WPCA approvals among other steps intended to “fine-tune the priority list that was passed last fall.”

Calls for Raising the Flow Limit

Another solution could be to simply raise the flow limit in the contract with Norwalk. Selectman Kim Healy is among those in favor such action.

“It’s clear to me, we have to go to Norwalk and get more capacity,” Healy said. “We have no choice… unless we don’t want to build another thing in town, we have to do something.”

GMW pressed Boucher on whether she considers a move to renegotiate the contract with Norwalk as imminent. She would only say that is “to be determined” though could be “at some point soon.”

“I can’t really weigh in on that at the moment. But it would appear that it might be wise to at least have an initial conversation,” she said, noting that substantive discussions about any contract negotiation must be handled in confidential sessions.

Even apart from the unknown cost, Boucher has stated it is questionable whether Norwalk would be willing to grant additional capacity to Wilton, given its own development plans and demand from other municipalities.

At the Feb. 14 meeting, Redniss & Mead’s Craig Flaherty, who works throughout the region, sharply refuted “the idea that Norwalk would obstruct Wilton’s desire for economic development.”

“The idea that [the limit] might need to be increased was anticipated by the authors of the contract,” he said, citing statistics about Norwalk’s total capacity and planned investment in treatment facilities. “They have room for growth.”

He also quoted published data sources that describe Norwalk’s system as having “plenty of capacity” even to double Wilton’s current flow.

“I think this builds a very simple case, that if you document your needs and your rights to pursue your economic development goals, that you can get an increase,” Flaherty told the WPCA.

Former Town Officials Weigh In

Former First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice, who served as WPCA chair before her term ended last November, recently submitted a lengthy written statement to the WPCA, weighing in on several matters but notably to encourage the WPCA to act quickly to increase the sewer flow cap.

She sent the letter the day after she publicly appealed to members of the Board of Finance to support that position, too.

Vanderslice is clearly concerned that the WPCA could undo years of economic development efforts and halt progress toward reaching the Wilton Plan of Conservation and Development [POCD] goal to diversify Wilton’s housing stock.

“I will not repeat the almost eight-year history of the significant work of elected and appointed officials and other residents that has led us to this point,” she wrote. “Wilton experienced years of relatively stagnant growth leading up to the adoption of the POCD. No one imagined the dramatic changes that would begin just months after its [2019] adoption.”

Vanderslice urged the WPCA to “proceed with a formal request to Norwalk” to increase the sewer limit without delay, even suggesting a special meeting rather than waiting another month to do so.

She did not mince words, adding that not seeking the increase would be “contrary to the Town’s POCD; make the Planning and Zoning Commission’s recent work on the Wilton Center Master Plan and the taxpayers’ investment in that work a waste; and return Wilton to the stagnancy we experienced for years.”

She noted that applying the current standards for estimating sewer flow (which were developed largely for single-family homes) to multifamily housing would mean the current sewer limit would not permit any further multifamily allocations.

Vanderslice believes efforts underway to identify and remedy possible sources of excess flow (“inflow and infiltration“), as well as to reconsider the standards for estimating flow, sent the right signals to developers. She cautioned that a change in those signals could have negative consequences.

“The fact that the WPCA had been seen to be actively working towards greater capacity meant developers continued to invest the monies required to advance their proposed projects,” she wrote. “With a change in course by the WPCA, one can certainly expect a change in course by those with proposals before the Land Use boards and those perhaps considering future investment in Wilton.”

Scott Lawrence, former P&Z Commission chair who took the lead on the 2019 POCD, also sent a lengthy opinion to the WPCA.

“Sewer capacity is the most important infrastructure prerequisite in realizing Wilton’s development goals under the POCD, whether for residential, commercial, industrial or municipal uses,” he wrote. “Allocating current sewer capacity and expanding future sewer capacity is the first step in unlocking development that the town wants under the POCD.”

Lawrence argued that other town boards are responsible for preventing overdevelopment, achieving desired designs, and other safeguards — not the WPCA.

Like Vanderslice, Lawrence warned “if Wilton preemptively limits current sewer use or allocations, or it fails to improve infrastructure or capacity for future use, then all development will stop… We’ve lived these trends before, between 2008 and 2019, and they do not portend the vibrant Wilton future envisioned by the POCD.”

GMW asked Boucher to respond to the concerns raised by Vanderslice and Lawrence that the WPCA might impede POCD goals.

“Well, they’re giving us their point of view and we consider everyone’s [point of view],” she said. “That view is not shared by everyone.”

GMW also asked Vanderslice for additional comment following the WPCA’s last meeting. She declined to comment publicly beyond what she had already communicated in her letter to the WPCA, but sent the following statement:

“Beyond any current housing applications and ASML’s need for such, ASML is still not complete with their previously announced $200 million investment. I agree with Toni’s statement that ASML is Wilton’s number one business and share her concern that future ASML investments occur in Wilton, as currently planned, rather than being forced to invest in a neighboring town because Wilton doesn’t have the required sewer capacity. It was reassuring to hear the membership’s continued recognition of the need and the urgency of a request to Norwalk. I’m confident in their collective abilities to get it done.”

Board of Finance

It appeared that no BOF members heeded Vanderslice’s suggestion to express support for increasing the sewer flow limit at the Feb. 14 WPCA meeting. No correspondence from BOF members was included with the meeting agenda, and as of noon on Sunday, Feb. 18, Boucher reported she had not received any.

However, BOF Chair Matt Raimondi responded to questions from GMW with a statement in support of increasing the cap:

“Every member of the Board of Finance has spoken in favor of the town increasing revenue to offset both increasing spending due to budgetary and other needs, as well as to prevent shifts in the Grand List like the town is facing this year. As a result, we support and would encourage the WPCA to expand sewer capacity to enable continued investment in Wilton, which will pay dividends for our residents.”

Raimondi referred to POCD goals and P&Z’s role in “opportunities which augment Wilton’s revenue base” and added that the BOF “supports smart projects which enhance Wilton’s taxable base, while simultaneously ensuring that Wilton remains the tight-knit, vibrant community.”

What’s Next for the 131 Danbury Rd. Application?

The WPCA has said it will take up the discussion about 131 Danbury Rd. at its March 13 meeting.

A WPCA decision on the standards used to calculate the estimated flow from the proposed building will be a critical factor. Without agreement on whether and how to change the calculations, “we would have been forced to deny [the application] because we did not have enough information to see where we can get the capacity,” Boucher told GMW.

Flaherty has pointed out that a sewer connection already exists at 131 Danbury Rd. (the former Tracy Locke offices) and reminded the WPCA of its history of approving applications for increased flow where a connection already exists.

He also argued that by the time the project is designed, permitted, built and occupied — which would take at least three or more years — Wilton could resolve the flow limit cap before any flow from 131 Danbury Rd. would begin.

Boucher told GMW she rejected that argument, saying it was “putting the cart before the horse.”

“I do not buy that. It would be totally irresponsible for us to say, we’re going to approve everything that comes forward, and let’s hope in the future that we have capacity,” she said. “We have to make a decision based on the information we have now, where we stand right now… You either have capacity or you don’t.”

“We’re seeing the demise of commercial office space in suburban communities, and that they can be replaced with higher and better uses,” Flaherty told the WPCA. “A vote in favor [of 131 Danbury Rd]. is backed by clear findings by professionals and empirical data based on evidence. It is also a vote in favor of the future of Wilton, [which] has worked for years to spur suburban renewal by encouraging the redevelopment of properties on Danbury Rd. and Wilton Center… It’s time to request additional flow under your contract.”

WPCA meetings are open to the public. To express an opinion to the WPCA, residents may offer comments at designated times during a meeting or email board members using the contact information on the Town website. Agendas, Zoom links and other meeting details are posted on the Town website.