About 20 people showed up to the Long Wharf campus of Gateway Community College Thursday night to express concerns with or support for its planned move to two long-empty spaces downtown. This early step in the nine-month process that will ultimately produce an Environmental Impact Evaluation (EIE) for the massive project was one of two “public scoping meetings,” a term that might have resonated more if there had been much of a public there to scope.
More noticeable were the officials. There were representatives of Gateway College present, including its president, Dorsey Kendrick, who introduced the proceedings by warning that Gateway was “bursting at the seams.” With a population that doubled in the last five years, she said, the aging Long Wharf and North Haven buildings could not keep up. Also, she said, a central location will make the college more accessible.
“We need this move so we can impact more people in the community,” she said.
Also speaking were members of Fitzgerald & Halliday, Inc., the firm responsible for preparing the evaluation, who walked the audience through the process the plan would undergo. Company president Ruth Fitzgerald explained, “This is still before we begin any data collection or analysis,” so people’s comments would be used to choose the study’s priorities.
Scoping, standard terminology in the realm of EIE’s, refers to a kind of brainstorm session in which the company making the study decides what kinds of impact —” like traffic, air quality, or even historical significance —” might be worth more study when the environmental analysis actually takes place. In the case of the Gateway project, Fitzgerald said, this process is represented by a public meeting at each Gateway campus and private meetings with all the regulatory agencies who might have concerns.
At that point came spokesmen for U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro and New Haven’s director of economic development, Wendy Clarke, both of whose prepared statements expressed strong support for the project as long as traffic and parking issues were worked out satisfactorily.
With all the highways, railroads, and buses available nearby, said deputy director of economic development Tony Bialecki, “the location could not be better for long-term planning.”
Finally, three unaffiliated individuals spoke. Geary Corbs said traffic was bad enough downtown even without 11,000 commuting students; he suggested the orphaned highway Oak Street Connector be used as a kind of superdriveway for a parking structure, avoiding surface street entrances altogether. Chris and Todd Nicotra, a father-son team who develop downtown properties as Olympia Properties, Inc., both said they support the project strongly.