Stamford Master Plan 2002: Economic Development Report

Implications of Three Growth Scenarios

Low Growth

• There will be more stability during periods of economic expansion as there will be less pressure on neighborhoods and on city services. But Stamford will also be more vulnerable to downturns in the national economy and neighborhoods will be more susceptible to decline during slow economic times
• Stamford and its residents will be somewhat wealthier, although there will not be resources for significant investments in open space, housing and infrastructure.
• There is less population growth to accommodate but there is a greater disparity between ages because there are fewer working-age families.
• There are smaller increases in traffic, but because population does not keep up with job growth, housing and traffic remain the big challenges.

Trend Growth

1. In a trend scenario, most employment growth, with the proper policies, can be contained in the downtown. However, housing and transportation are significant obstacles.
2. Stamford and its residents are wealthier, allowing some choices as to how to direct new resources. But disparities between rich and poor increase.
3. Disparities between population and job growth worsen, although age disparities are reduced with more workingage families.

High Growth

1. Stamford, will be wealthier – both its residents and the municipality – allowing more discretionary spending on a variety of quality-of-life initiatives; improvements to schools, more parks and affordable housing, completion of the downtown and neighborhood centers.
2. However, aggressive strategies are needed to improve transportation, expand housing options, and educate more workers to enter the labor force. Also, Stamford’s diversity is threatened by a growing disparity in incomes. It will be difficult to protect the neighborhoods and the industrial districts from unwanted intensification.

SUMMARY OF GEOGRAPHY OF GROWTH

Where Should Stamford Grow

1. Retail and office encroachment in the industrial growth districts should be halved from the levels suggested by the build out study, to no more than 5% of the total growth in these sectors.
2. In all of the scenarios, manufacturing employment declines, making these districts vulnerable to retail and office encroachment. To stem this trend, and to support diversity, a smart growth strategy would redirect some of this office development to flex industrial, high-value-added production activities (5% and 10% of total office growth respectively for the Trend and High Growth scenarios).
3. In a Trend or High Growth scenario, a combined 80% of new housing should be directed to the ​“Greater Downtown” (Core, Corridor and Collar) and South End. Most of the remainder should go to neighborhood centers. Undirected neighborhood intensification should be avoided in favor of targeted efforts at neighborhood revitalization.
4. In a Trend or High Growth scenario, a combined 70% of new office development needs to be directed to the ​“Greater Downtown”: 60% in the Core and Corridor, and 10% as intermediate scale development in the Collar, including portions of the South End immediately proximate to the train station.

SUMMARY TABLE OF MAJOR POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

Attached is a summary of the major policy recommendations and findings emerging from the Growth Management exercise, including several meetings with senior staff at the Land Use Bureau and Economic Development office. The following general observations should be noted:

• An attempt is made to distinguish between the policies for each of the three growth scenarios. While there are certain policies that are particular to each growth scenario, in large measure the differences are a matter of degree – all of the policies are worth pursuing regardless of the levels of future growth and some policies are the same regardless of how much Stamford grows (for example, policies relating to the elderly).
• For each higher level of growth, the policies are progressively more ambitious both for traffic mitigation and in terms of how much housing and office development is directed to downtown and transit-accessible centers.
• In progressing from the Trend to the High Growth scenario, economic diversity policies shift from an emphasis on exploiting new opportunities within the New York City metropolitan market to exploiting connections to new national and international markets. This reflects Stamford’s progression from a satellite of New York City to an employment center in its own right.