Streamlining Norwalk’s Planning & Zoning with Steve Kleppin
A Consistent Development Process Fosters Purposeful City Growth
Steve Kleppin, Director of Planning and Zoning for the City of Norwalk, CT, discusses the recent merger of Norwalk’s Planning and Zoning Commissions and its impact on the city’s development projects. Steve shares Norwalk’s ten-year development roadmap and how his team is focused on rewriting regulations to make the city more friendly for developers.
Key Takeaways
The merger of Norwalk’s Planning and Zoning commissions will streamline processes for developers.
One of Steve’s priorities is ensure the city’s regulations are more user-friendly, including shortening them and adding pictures and graphics for better illustration and ease of use.
The commission is keenly aware of the importance of a citywide plan with a mix of office, residential, and retail/services, where employees can live and work.
“Having more affordable housing options in proximity to where businesses are is something that will benefit the area in the long term.”
Biography
Steve Kleppin is an AICP certified planner, who was hired in October 2016 to lead the City of Norwalk’s Planning and Zoning Department. Upon hire, Mr. Kleppin led the rezoning of approximately 50-acres around the South Norwalk Train Station, while overseeing Norwalk’s update of its Plan of Conservation and Development. Steven has overseen the rezoning along the West Avenue/Wall Street area as well as the preparation of the East Norwalk Neighborhood TOD Plan and its subsequent rezoning as well as a study of the City’s industrial zones. Presently, he is overseeing a study of the City’s industrial waterfront and a comprehensive rewrite of the zoning regulations. Steve oversees a staff of fourteen, who participate in planning studies, issue approximately 1,500 zoning permits annually, and conduct inspections and enforcement of the zoning regulations.
Episode Transcription
Eric Bernheim: Welcome to The Real Estate Roundup presented by FLB Law in partnership with the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce. I am your host, Eric Bernheim, managing partner of FLB Law, a full-service law firm based in Westport, Connecticut. During this focus series of five podcasts, we'll be discussing current real estate trends in the Greater Norwalk region. Our expert guests will discuss topics including local development projects, workforce housing, and the trends in real estate markets, including industrial, retail, office, single-family, and multifamily residential properties. Thank you for listening.
We’re here this morning with Steve Kleppin, who's the Director of Planning and Zoning in Norwalk, Connecticut. Steve thanks for joining us. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about your role in the Planning and Zoning department?
Steve Kleppin: Sure. Thanks for having me. I'm the director of the department. I've been here for a little over five years now. Prior to that I was with the Town of New Canaan. So we have a staff of 14 in the office. And we handle all different aspects of development in the city, ranging from strategic planning where the neighborhoods or specific areas of the city or long term planning, which might be the plan of conservation development to issuing zoning permits, zoning enforcement, conservation measures, and many other small functions as well.
Eric Bernheim: Great. So, pretty much any development that happens in the city needs to run through your office initially, right?
Steve Kleppin: Correct.
Eric Bernheim: Great. And you mentioned the planning function. So Norwalk has long had separate Planning Commission and Zoning Commission. But recently, the two Commissions have merged into one, can you tell us a little bit about the reasoning of why you merged those two Commission's into one commission?
Steve Kleppin: Sure. So, a long time ago in history, they were a combined commission. And the nature of development within the city has changed over time, there used to be a lot more activities that were solely under the purview of the Planning Commission. We don't do many subdivision applications anymore, as the city is pretty built out. A large chunk of the workload that the planning commission deals with, are referrals from the Zoning Commission already. So it makes sense to kind of sync up those two activities. So we just think that the overall flow and process will be sped up and actually be less expensive and more timely for applicants looking to move projects forward.
Eric Bernheim: So essentially more developer friendly, in the sense of not having to stop at two different Commissions on the way to getting a final approval from the zoning department. Is that accurate?
Steve Kleppin: Yeah, I'd say that that's correct. I think for an applicant, it's more of a streamline process and eliminates some kind of duplicative activities between the two Commissions because they were kind of both looking at the same thing, when only one technically had purview over the actual application itself. As we do, we did our citywide plan, and we completed it in 2019. So that's been in effect for two years now. And that's kind of the 10-year roadmap for the city. So we've got our marching orders, and we're following through on that. One of the main recommendations within that plan was a complete overhaul of the zoning regulations. And it also recommended, really looking at and recommending combining the two Commissions so that so many regulations haven't been overhauled in over 30 years. So, as you can imagine, that leads to a lot of piecemeal approaches to the document itself. So we're hoping for a streamlined, more efficient, clearer document that lines up with our overall plan, and I think will make for just, again, very similar to what we're trying to do with merging the Commission's more streamlined workflow and a simpler process for everyone.
Eric Bernheim: So you mentioned that the 10 year plan of conservation and development, which is really kind of the city's plan for the next 10 years, what were the different roles of the Planning Commission versus the Zoning Commission in formulating that document?
Steve Kleppin: So at that time there were the two separate Commissions so that the plan itself was under the purview of the Planning Commission. So it's really kind of their baby, their document. However, considering its scope and the kind of impact it has on everybody, we had a very large kind of oversight committee, over 30 different people that participated. And there were several members of the Zoning Commission who sat in on that process as part of our kind of larger rezoning efforts that go on.
[00:05:00]
The Zoning Commission keeps in mind and understands that whatever actions they take are half the lineup with that plan, since that's kind of our roadmap. I think the two work hand in hand and the two Commissions kind of had an understanding while at the end of the day, though, it was the Planning Commission's job to get that adopted in saw through the process.
Eric Bernheim: Okay. So since it was really the Planning Commission's baby, as he called it, the fact that it said that considering merging the two Commissions was part of that document, really the Planning Commission was in favor of merging with the Planning and Zoning Commission for the reasons that you've already said.
Steve Kleppin: Yeah, I would say that it's in the plan. Obviously, it's there, I'm not sure that every individual member fully thought through or maybe not everybody was entirely on board with that. And I think conceptually, they said, “Yeah, it's a good idea. Let's explore it a little more.”
Eric Bernheim: Okay, great. And what do you hope to accomplish as you rewrite the regulations? I know you said they've been fully rewritten for 30 years, and things have changed. But what particular aspects are you really focusing on as you rewrite these regulations?
Steve Kleppin: It's kind of twofold timing wise. So obviously, since we just did the city-wide plan, there are a lot of recommendations within the plan for looking at different aspects of zoning. So you want to line up your zoning with the plan. So that's one thing. Maybe another very important overarching item that I flagged early on when I arrived here was that the structure of the current regulations was not very user friendly, was very complex. There are a lot of terms in the text itself, in terms that we use daily that aren't defined. So that kind of leads to interpretation and conflicts. And also, there's not a lot of graphics in the book. So if you have to try to think these things through as opposed to having pictures and diagrams that illustrate things. So I'm hoping that the final plan is a lot shorter than the existing document and just a lot simpler for everyone to use.
Eric Bernheim: That sounds great. So essentially more user friendly, I do a fair amount of work, as you know in the city and sometimes trying to get through the regulations. It can be cumbersome and difficult to make sure that you check all the boxes when you're trying to comply with the regulations. So to me, it sounds great to simplify them and make them more user friendly, for sure. I think we'd be doing somewhat of a disservice to the listeners, if we didn't at least discuss the impacts of COVID on the real estate market in Fairfield County in Norwalk, particular. How has the COVID real estate market, the increased volume and residential as well as maybe some decreased volume in office or the such? How has that really impacted your department? And what are you seeing?
Steve Kleppin: For Connecticut, especially Western Connecticut, I think it played out in other areas of the state too, as we had kind of a population influx as a result of COVID. A lot of people left the city, whether that's permanent or semi-permanent, I think we have seen a population influx. So that was good. I think another COVID byproduct was when a lot of people were solely working from home, they were looking around their houses saying, this could use a little TLC, this could use an improvement, it’s about that time we handle some of those things. So we saw a lot of, and we're still seeing a high volume of residential renovation projects and permitting. So our front counter staff is keeping very, very busy trying to keep up with all the permits coming in.
I'd say we didn't really see any kind of a negative impact because of COVID that I can tell. I think office vacancy was a challenge, pre-COVID and I think it's remained so now. I think people are starting to slowly filter back into work, we're seeing that in a lot of different places that whether they go back, everybody back in the office all the time, whether they're part time, kind of a hybrid approach is still kind of being worked out. And one trend we were seeing pre-COVID was that even though some of our larger companies, many of them located up at the Merritt 7 office complex, were actually still adding staff, they were decreasing in space. So they were actually pulling more people into smaller spaces now, because of COVID and other things. Will that trend reverse and will they maybe take more space after things kind of settle out a little bit more?
[00:10:00]
I think there's still some uncertainty there. And there's definitely some challenges in the office market that are kind of our typical mixed-use developments we're seeing in and around the train stations where we've targeted development, we haven't really seen a slowdown in that. And we're pretty active in reaching out to the larger developers to just get an understanding of vacancy rates and how their leasing is going. And there's been no slowdown in that whatsoever. But on that end, it's doing fairly well.
Eric Bernheim: I think that's great news that you haven't seen any real negative impacts. Obviously, I think everybody's aware of the office challenges. So do you know what developers are doing in order to kind of help with some of those office challenges? For example, I know on Glover Avenue, there's a lot of work going on. There's a lot of apartments being built there and the such, is there a real push for the mixed use developments, like you said, to kind of bring people closer to the office units to try to make them more marketable?
Steve Kleppin: Yeah, it's specific to Glover. I mean, it's interesting, just learning the history of how and why that office component was put up there in the first place. So, if you are planning a city from scratch, we have located that complex there, but maybe not. But the city recognizes, and this is within our citywide plan that that area is very important to the economic health of the city, there's a lot of prominent tenants there that we want to see stay. And providing an atmosphere where their employees can kind of live and work in the same environment is something we're keenly aware of. We did a lot of outreach during our planning, where we actually had an open house day at the Merritt 7 Complex, where we got to do a lot of interviews with employees and ask them, what were the challenges from living and working in the area.
I think anybody who's ever seen the Merritt Parkway southbound in the morning, or northbound in the afternoon same with 95 understands the challenges of trying to get to this area in the morning. So particularly if you have some of the like back-office jobs where they're not, not the higher end salaries but they're kind of part of the essential workforce, it's difficult for them to get in the car and drive for an hour if they're only 20 minutes away. And you have to just to deal with that every morning is not something people really enjoy. So we think having more housing, and more affordable housing options in proximity to where these businesses are is something that will benefit the area in the long term.
Eric Bernheim: That's great intelligence there in that area of the city, and I hadn't really thought of it in that way in the past. You mentioned affordable housing. Is there usually an affordable housing component required when you're doing these larger apartment developments are mixed use developments and how does that normally work from the city's zoning regulations?
Steve Kleppin: Sure, so Norwalk has had that program in place for a long time. You should know the state has a requirement that 10% of the housing stock needs to be as they define it as affordable. So we have a workforce housing regulation that's been in place for a long time, Norwalk’s a little over 13% of its housing stock, defined as affordable. We’ve tweaked that recently, we try to make it a little more equitable, a little more fair for everybody. I don't think zoning is placed to solve all the affordable housing problems. I think it's a broader citywide issue in a broader state issue that needs to get addressed on more than just the zoning level. But our program, what we try to do is we require now at all developments of three units or more, they either have to give us a fractional payment for that unit when they're under 10. Or they can provide a unit if they wish when they get over 10 units, they have to give us a unit and then the fractional equation comes back in.
We changed our affordability calculations to go with one of two options. If you do the 10% units at 80% state median income, you're also required to pay a fee that's based on residential construction costs. Or we give you another option where you can give us the units at 60% state median income. And if you do that, we give you a break on parking and a break on one of the other recreation areas' space requirements. Since that's been in place, we've seen a pretty even split between developments on how they want to handle it. So I think it's a win-win for everybody that I think we've gone through some other processes where we've done rezoning around our transit sites where we understand that there's demand and that that's where we should focus our development.
[00:15:00]
We've increased height and density in those areas while getting that workforce housing back to try to maintain some affordable housing for everyone.
Eric Bernheim: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I see that in a lot of municipalities that I do work in where they almost incentivize the workforce housing units, affordable housing units by giving you relief from other regulations that otherwise would be more difficult to comply with, or quite frankly, more expensive to comply with, so that the return on investment for the developer still works and they can still get the project done. You also mentioned the transit-oriented considerations. I know there's a TOD project on East Avenue that's been approved, and probably is almost complete. But I also know that BLT and their Glover Avenue Project was really pushing the state for better train service on the Danbury line. Has your office been involved in that at all, or pushing for better Danbury line service throughout the city?
Steve Kleppin: Yeah, and we have occasional conversations with TOD about that. So there is a new train platform under construction at Glover Avenue right now, which will add some increased parking capacity. One really nice feature of the new platform actually has a pedestrian bridge over the rail tracks. So right now, if you take the train from South Norwalk from Danbury up to Merritt 7, you've either got to walkway around to get to the office complex or get a shuttle from one of your employers. Now, you can just hop over the tracks and you’re right on the Merritt 7 complex and you can walk right to work. So I think that'll be something that's just an added benefit. And hopefully over time, they'll see increased demand for rail service in general through there. The cities talk long range about some kind of, is there a way we could have a dedicated shuttle between South Norwalk and that station? That's kind of a longer-term planning thing that we're thinking about. But yeah, that's definitely something on our agenda.
Eric Bernheim: That's great. If we shift now to South Norwalk, are there any exciting projects that are either under development or in the pipeline for the South Norwalk corridor?
Steve Kleppin: Yeah. So last year, we approved another project, which is, kind of a stone's throw from the south Norwalk train station, another TOD project that should break ground early this spring. And we're in discussions on some other projects right along the train station to the city, for the Redevelopment Agency is looking at kind of the west side of the train station there's some large parcels that are probably not the best use of land for that area. So we're trying to see how we can repurpose those properties in kind to not impact the more traditional neighborhoods on the east side of the tracks, where you have a lot of more historic homes, and still have a lot of great identity and character. So that's kind of the tricky puzzle we're working on is how do we preserve that housing stock while also adding density at the right locations in and around the train station. If you spend time down there now at all, like during the day, it's like you see people walking around the area that you probably never would have imagined a while ago. And there's a lot of vitality in the area now. And especially as we emerge from COVID, you start seeing more of the shops and restaurants open up. I think it's going to just be a great place to be.
Eric Bernheim: Yeah, having grown up in Norwalk and knowing South North very well, I can say it was great when I was in high school and into college, but now it's completely different and really become a lot more developed and friendly to visitors and tourists and the such, which is great for the city. You did mention the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency. So it's a great segue into my next question is how does your office interact and work with the redevelopment agency?
Steve Kleppin: So there are a few areas of the city where there are active redevelopment plans. So as part of those, the Redevelopment Agency has design review authority. So when we rewrote the regulations for South Norwalk, and also West AB Wall Street, we incorporated kind of a dual process where my office with redevelopment staff works with a peer review process on behalf of the Zoning Commission, the redevelopment agency so that way, we're both looking at the same thing with the same reviewer. I think it's led to a better streamline process compared to what the process was previously. So that works pretty well. And we also collaborate on things like the study that they're doing and other studies that we have going on.
[00:20:00]
We're looking at the industrial waterfront right now. So we've moved them in on that to make sure they're on the same page and understand what we're recommending and why and how that impacts some of the areas that they're looking at. So there's a lot of close collaboration between the two groups.
Eric Bernheim: That sounds really great. I think the kind of the common theme here from you, it seems like the zoning department really is trying to streamline the process. I may have said more developer friendly early on, not necessarily meaning that everything's going to get approved, but that at least you can get a decision and you can work with the departments and they're working together so that you're not going to one Commissioner board or agency and getting one decision and then go into the next one and then you have to go back and start over fresh at the first one because the second one says no. So it seems like you're really trying to streamline it so that everybody's kind of on the same page early on, and then you go through the process, which is helpful for developers, is that a fair statement?
Steve Kleppin: Yeah, I kind of have a pretty simple kind of philosophy on this is that, if you put a solid plan together, and I understand not everybody always loves the plan you put together and we went through that in East Norwalk. But if you put a plan together, that plan gets adopted, and it's approved, and you have regulations that are consistent with that plan, then the projects that come afterward shouldn't be controversial, they should be very consistent, and something that was anticipated from the beginning. And then that process on the development side should be pretty straightforward. So long as you're planning your regulations, get things that the city wants at the end, I think it's a good process for everyone involved.
Eric Bernheim: Yeah, I think the key point there is that, you know, I see zoning regulations as the city, or the municipality is the most fundamental tool to invite development into their cities and towns and economic development. And if you don't have a strong set of zoning regulations that allow for developers to know what they can or can't do, then you may miss out on good developments. Or you may get as you kind of said, a bad plan, because you don't really know what you're asking for. And somebody just comes in and proposes whatever they think works for them, as opposed to what works for them and works for the municipality. I think that's a great way to go about it. I think as we start to wrap up here, you did mention in your last comment about the waterfront industrial zones, and that you're looking at those, so what can folks expect based on that report or your findings so far? And what are your goals and objectives with the waterfront industrial zones?
Steve Kleppin: So yeah, we're looking at the kind of the Upper Harbor area and the Lower Harbor area and along Water Street. It's been a really interesting process, because we've done a lot of interviews with all the different property owners and business owners just to try to understand the economic impacts of these whether it's from the oyster industry or the boating industry to see how that's benefiting the city, how many employees and it goes back to the culture and history of the city as well. And at the same time, there's a large desire from anybody, but definitely Norwalk, for people to try to get access to the harbor. So they want to be on the water and get access to the water. So there's a conflict there. And people want to live by the harbor, and by the water too. So how do you kind of accommodate all those things? And we haven't quite come up with that formula yet. That’s the next phase of the study, which we think will probably be done in the March April time frame of 22.
Eric Bernheim: That's great. So we'll be on the lookout for that. And I think the key point there that I really think is important is that it seems like you've sought feedback from the stakeholders of these properties, the business owners and property owners and the such and trying to come up with a solution, which is always the way that I always try to run my practice and counsel to my clients is, there's almost always a problem or but there's also almost always a solution. So how do you include the stakeholders in this entire process even as large as rewriting your zoning regulations? Do you make that conscious effort to include them all of the time?
Steve Kleppin: Yeah, and I think that's one of the trickier things is the outreach component of that when we've done some other planning studies, we had really good participation, but when we did the zoning, we had like a virtual shred that we did for about a week and it was tricky. We didn't get as much participation as we would have liked and so we're going back and kind of scratching your head as to why that didn't occur. I think we reached out to everybody we should have reached out to, but I'm just wondering if maybe we should have reached out two or three times as opposed to just the one time.
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It’s something we're constantly evaluating. And as we've kind of gone through some staff transition over the last year, and I have somebody kind of working on a communications plan, so we have more of a formalized process. So we have lists of everybody we need to contact how many times and when during the process, and whether that's social media through email. We have a couple interesting things we've done that I've had some success. DPW has these little billboards here. And you might have seen by the side of the road warning of a flood or something, we kind of use those to get the word out. The mall did some advertising for us on their digital billboards. So we're just trying different things, and it's constantly a work in progress.
Eric Bernheim: Well, that sounds great. From my perspective, I think you and your staff are doing a great job. I think these new developments in the city are really adding a lot of value and making it a good place to live and visit and work at. So thank you for all that you've done for the city. I appreciate you spending some time with me discussing the zoning department's efforts today.
Steve Kleppin: You're welcome, anytime.
Eric Bernheim: Thank you for listening to the Real Estate Roundup. If you'd like to learn more about FLB Law, please visit our website at flb.law. I invite you to connect with me on LinkedIn to be kept apprised of developing trends in the real estate market both locally and nationally. Thank you again to our expert guests as well as our co-sponsor the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce.
