Fairfield–Black Rock station

Fairfield/Black Rock Metro Center (planned)
General information
Location	21 Black Rock Turnpike Fairfield, CT
Line(s)	Metro-North:   New Haven Line
Construction
Parking	1,500
Services
Preceding station   MNRR   Following station Template:MNRR stations toward Template:MNRR stations Template:MNRR lines Template:MNRR stations toward Template:MNRR stations

Fairfield Metro Center is a future station and massive commercial building complex on Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line in eastern Fairfield, Connecticut. The project has been heavily subsidized by state, federal and local taxpayer funding. Once completed, it will be the town's third railroad station and largest commercial development, located between Fairfield station and Bridgeport station. The station and commercial complex will be accessible by exit 24 of I-95, Kings Highway and several existing two lane roads. The project has been designated as a "major traffic generator" by the CT State Traffic Commission eventhough the proponents of the project have represented that it would make traffic conditions better. As a special accommodation to the Metro Center owner, the town created a special high density / high volume zoning district just for this project. The special district allows the planned buildings to tower higher than anything built to date in either the entire town of Fairfield or the neighboring Bridgeport section of Black Rock. The landsacpe of the area will be changed forever including as it will be viewed from the adjacent Long Island Sound.

Part of the plan had included building four office buildings and a Hilton Hotel next to the station but Hilton has reportedly dropped out with ensuing discussions about revising the plans to include high rise residential units that are now in demand from the market. The street address of the site is 21 Black Rock Turnpike. The government owned station will have 1,500 parking spaces built on top of material stockpiled as part of the remediation of the former brownfield site. Groundwater monitoring facilities will be in place for thirty years to assure no further remediation will be required. The commercial/residential complex will have its own parking garages as well.

Actual construction of the train station and associated commercial space has yet to begin. Site clearing did begin under questionable circumstances in spring 2007and continues today. [1]

The station is expected to open in late 2009 or early 2010 but numerous projections for completion have been wrong in the past. [2] [3]

The project has been exteremely controversial for a number of reasons including the fact that it was originated by ConnDOT during the administration of the disgraced former Governor John G. Rowland [4]who was sentenced to federal prison for corruption. The contract for the project was negotiated by Rowland's Public Transportation Bureau Chief, Harry Harris, who was summarily dismissed by Jodi Rell amid allegations that his government business practices seemed to intersect with his personal interests.[5] And more recently in early 2008, numerous local citizens are questioning the project because the well established environmental regulatory processes have been short circuited without question by anyone other than concerned citizens. [6] [7][8] [9] [10]Other concerns with the project go to the negative impact on the adjacent neighborhoods of Grasmere in Fairfield and Black Rock in Bridgeport. While property values have been rising in anticipation of the coming train station nobody is dealing with the problem of increased traffic and traffic congestion that will acompany the commercial development. The politicians are dismissing the problem while the residents just hope the problems will somehow magically get solved.[11]

External links

• Fairfield Metro Center
• Fairfield Retail Partners
• Metro Center public meeting event video
• Fairfielders' Protecting Land and Neighborhoods -FPLAN