presented its preliminary recommendations to the Industrial Zones Oversight Committee. The firm listed five main recommendations:
Simplify industrial zoning to reflect current industrial uses on the ground as well as 21st century trends and desired uses.
Within the mixed-use residential, commercial industrial districts, incentivize ground floor boutique manufacturing and live workspaces, through height bonuses.
Up-zone within the mixed-use commercial industrial zone to accommodate hybrid industrial, commercial building types.
Distinguish contractor yards from other industrial uses and identify more suitable locations and sites for them.
Two “very special sites” – the Norden Place site and sites along the Norwalk River – needed to be looked at on a “more case-by-case basis” with separate plans for each.
Maggie Tsang of the Boston-based consulting firm Utile shares zoning recommendations Wednesday with the Industrial Zones Oversight Committee.
NORWALK, Conn. Industrial zoning was developed to separate the factories of the 19th and 20th centuries from residential neighborhoods, a good strategy given the toxic waste, air and water pollution, and other hazards that were byproducts of many Industrial Revolution-era manufacturing processes.
No more. Digital technologies are enabling manufacturers of all stripes to reinvent virtually every aspect of their businesses, improving quality, efficiency, safety, and innovation in the process. Industry is undergoing a radical change, most – if not all – for the better.