NOW will you believe we’re in a flood zone?

A 2013 FEMA study showed that virtually all seven miles of U.S. 1 in Fairfield were in a flood zone or soon will be. This corridor runs from the Sasco Creek border with Westport through the Mill River watershed and the Pine Creek tidal marsh to the Ash Creek border with Bridgeport. It is framed by five miles of contiguous beach which, importantly but unmentioned, forms part of the American coastline. Since that hydrology report 13 years ago — the last FEMA analysis for Fairfield’s ZIP codes — there have been 13 consecutive years of rising global temperatures and sea levels. Fairfield is literally in the first wave, as evidenced by a “flood” of photos showing underwater roads in recent storms.

As reported here and elsewhere, this 2013 report is just one of many obsolete or fabricated maps vendors use as the foundation for Fairfield’s Town Plan. Proceeding with deeply flawed maps that ignore global climate change and invent entire neighborhoods out of whole cloth (like Commerce Drive) is not in Fairfield’s best interest. The insurance and reinsurance industries have repeatedly stated they will not issue policies in unmitigated flood zones. Nature can be a Mother – and she is sending a clear warning that these storms were just an appetizer. Remember that bizarre 80 MPH windstorm that came and went in an eyelash last month? Even God warns in his only book, “Foolish man builds his house upon the sand.” 

Fairfield must consider it an urgent matter to correct the Town Plan before its year-end deadline. This includes scrutinizing the gerrymandered 10-district system installed over roughly 25 traditional neighborhoods. In one stark example, the entirety of Black Rock Harbor was removed from town maps and replaced with District 6. This is how developers build in a flood zone: they simply change the map.

The town also relocated Fairfield’s recognized second Town Center from Tunxis to the Transit Oriented District (TOD) around the new railroad station. Fairfield was born out of Bridgeport, and Tunxis was historically where thousands could work in the city and live in the country of Fairfield. It is embedded in the town’s DNA. Yet the State and developers changed Fairfield’s true second Town Center simply by moving a pin on a digital map. Design standards, architectural guidelines, and the entire Department of Ecology watchdog staff have been systematically dismantled. The Voice has posted an extensive review of the current Plan with over 250 comments that document this and other transgressions, yet the Town refuses to accept it as a legitimate contribution. 

Like an invasive species sending insidious rhizomes beneath a native perennial garden, the roots of this manipulation date back to 2000, when upstate vendors replaced in-house planning. The very first image in the newest Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) is a manufactured illusion: it labels half of Fairfield an “Urban Core” and the other half a “Suburban Transition.”

The fact that town employees actively defend and forward these errors is deeply disturbing. Whose side are they on?