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NORWALK, Conn. The Norwalk Daily Voice accepts signed, original letters to the editor. Letters may be emailed to letters@dailyvoice.com.
To the Editor,
Where does it stop?
The entire Vets Park is an AAA Residence Zone, and Mike Mocciae is trying to justify commercialization with the goal of making the park pay its own operating expense. There is no doubt he is being pressured from City Hall. The decision to make it AAA Residence was obviously made to protect it, as a park, from any commercialization.
The visitor docks were installed for free use by short-term visitors who, it was hoped, would enjoy one of the nearby restaurants. The permits for the docks were very specific about the purpose they would be used for, and did not include seasonal renting of dock space for any commercial use like the Island Belle, clearly a commercial business operating in an AAA Residential Zone, in violation of both zoning and the dock permits, just to save the business owner the much larger expense of renting commercial dock space and customer parking spaces at a commercial marina. Nobody but the owner knows where that ship is dumping the waste from all those passengers, eating and drinking on board.
If commercialization, at any level, is allowed at Vets Park, where does it stop? Will Calf Pasture, Shady Beach or Cranbury be next? Much of our parkland has benefited from open space grants and allowing commercialization will be a direct violation of the terms of those grants. We will be accountable.
John Frank,
retired Norwalk police captain
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