The Army Engine Plant Cleanup Is Done. December's Filing Will Shape What Stratford's Waterfront Becomes.

The hardest physical job at the former Army Engine Plant is finished. On August 6, Governor Ned Lamont, Mayor David Chess, and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro marked the completion of the tidal-flats cleanup along the Housatonic. Developer Point Stratford Renewal says that work was originally estimated at four years and $135 million. It took 18 months and cost $74 million.

The next big decision about the site is a document, and the developer expects to hand it to the Town in December. Under Stratford's zoning, that document does more than describe the project. On a site this size, it proposes the density and parking standards the project would be held to, subject to Zoning Commission approval. The waterfront access people asked for most and the density they worry about most will be proposed in the same filing and reviewed together.

What the bulldozers have left to do

The cleanup is done, but the site isn't empty yet. At the September 2 community open house, the Point Stratford Renewal team said abatement was finished in every building on the property. Demolition was about 70 percent done, with roughly 1.5 million square feet to take down in total, and the team expected to finish by the end of the year. A later update from the developer, posted after the September 8 State Bond Commission meeting, said full site clearing should be done by spring 2027. The two dates fit together if the buildings come down by December and site prep runs into the spring.

The team also gave a tip for anyone who wants to see the progress. Drive down Sniffens Lane and look left. The buildings along Main Street were left standing on purpose to keep dust from blowing toward the road, so the open ground shows up from Sniffens first. When the Main Street buildings come down, the team said, the site will look "pretty wide open."

Coastal resiliency work is moving more slowly. The team put it at about 60 percent complete, with the end of 2027 as the target. Some of the sediment dredged from the tidal flats is being reused on the upland part of the property for that work. The fill has a set target. Stratford's waterfront redevelopment zoning requires the entire project, apart from detention basins, to be graded so its design flood elevation is at least 16 feet NAVD88.

The 50-acre line in Stratford's zoning

The site has its own set of rules. Stratford's Waterfront Redevelopment District is an overlay zone whose starting boundary is the Army Engine Plant property itself. Its stated purpose includes turning the site into "a multiuse waterfront destination and economic centerpiece for Stratford." Multifamily housing is allowed, along with anything permitted in the Waterfront Business and Retail Commercial A and F districts. Heavy industry, pawn shops, kennels, funeral homes, and adult-oriented businesses are not allowed.

The key detail is a size threshold. For developments of up to 50 acres, density and parking follow the underlying zoning. For developments larger than 50 acres, density and parking standards are whatever the applicant proposes in its General Development Master Plan, subject to Zoning Commission approval. The former plant covers 76.7 acres.

On a project that size, the overlay sets only a few hard limits:

• At least 10 percent of the project must be open-air recreation, seating, or landscaped space, such as greenspace, plazas, walking and biking paths, or green roofs. The Zoning Commission can waive this.
• No floor-area-ratio limit applies.
• More than one principal building may sit on a single lot.

The plan goes to the Zoning Commission as a special permit. Once approved, it "creates vested rights as to bulk, dimension, density and use," and later site plans are reviewed for how closely they match it. The application also has to include proposed parks and plazas, pedestrian and vehicle circulation, preliminary architectural plans, and a traffic report from a professional engineer. That report must look at whether the streets around the site can handle existing traffic, traffic from the project, and traffic from other approved developments.

That makes the December filing the most consequential document in the project so far. It is where a housing number, building heights, and a parking count will first appear in a form the Town can approve. None of those numbers has been published yet.

Why the park and the density are one decision

The developer has done a lot of listening. Nearly 500 people came to the town-wide forum at the end of June. The team then held meetings in each of Stratford's council districts and collected more than 1,000 survey responses. At the September open house, the planning team summarized the results. Public waterfront access was "clearly number one," followed by gathering spaces, year-round restaurants and local retail, and keeping what the team called "authentic Stratford and coastal character."

The concerns were just as specific. The team said the housing feedback focused on quality, including a concern about "cheap housing." One planner said traffic congestion came up with about nine of the ten people he talked to that evening. Flooding came up as an infrastructure concern, and residents also asked the team to honor Stratford's history of innovation.

The planners tied the top priority and the main concern together directly. Explaining how they are testing building heights, one said that to unlock "the public waterfront access, parks, environmental restoration, the businesses, stronger tax base, there needs to be enough activity and density there to support those investments." He said the team is studying the street-level experience, "18 feet and below," more closely than the height of any single building.

Here is what the waterfront could hold. Point Stratford Renewal describes new parks and a continuous promenade along the Housatonic, currently planned at about 1.5 miles of public access along the site's 4,180 linear feet of riverfront. The developer says the master plan will confirm the final route and program. State and local officials have described a next phase that would connect the restored tidal flats to Short Beach, Stratford Point Lighthouse, and the Birdseye Street Boat Launch area by boardwalk or nature trail.

The other pieces are less firm. At the open house, Mayor Chess listed parks, recreation, housing, a hotel, a conference center, and a sports center as part of the vision. A marina is still being studied because of dredging, permitting, and cost challenges. The direction has already changed once. The earlier concept called for three industrial buildings totaling up to 1.1 million square feet before the owners moved to mixed-use planning.

The calendar from here

The developer has hired a master planning team led by Corgan, which acquired Cooper Robertson. Field Operations, the firm behind New York's High Line, is the landscape architect, and the developer describes a plan built to be carried out over five to ten years. Here are the dates on record as of early October 2026, listed by how firm they are:

1. December 2026: building demolition expected to wrap up, and the General Development Master Plan submitted to the Town.
2. Spring 2027: site clearing expected to be complete.
3. Mid-2027: the approval process for the master plan expected to conclude.
4. December 2027: coastal resiliency work scheduled to finish.
5. 2028: Mayor Chess said at the open house that he hopes to break ground on a waterfront park on the site by then.

Money is lining up behind the schedule. The State Bond Commission approved $2 million for the redevelopment on September 8. At the open house, Chess also said the Town had "visibility to $5 million" for further cleanup to bring the property from commercial-grade to residential-grade standards. That remediation step matters because housing is part of every version of the vision presented so far.

The 2028 park date is a hope, not a scheduled milestone. Every date before it depends on what the December plan proposes and on how the Zoning Commission responds. The Town posts land-use applications and public hearing materials through its land-use meetings page, which is where the plan should appear once it is filed. The full September 2 open house video is also online, including the planners' explanation of how they are testing heights and density.

This ground built Sikorsky's first helicopters and Chance Vought's Corsairs, and Avco Lycoming made engines here until 1997. Peter Cabrera of Point Stratford Renewal said the 4,180 feet of waterfront has been "inaccessible for nearly a century." The December filing will show how much density the developer believes is needed to reopen that waterfront.

If you own a home near Main Street, Lordship, or Sniffens Lane and want to know how a project this size could affect your property's value as the plans take shape, The Hill Team at Coldwell Banker Realty is glad to talk it through, and we'll keep an eye on the filing as it moves forward. Get a Free Home Valuation, and we'll show you where your home stands today.