The Norwalk Planning & Zoning Commission approved a restoration plan for trees and vegetation following the unauthorized clearing of about 15,000 square feet at 284 New Canaan Avenue, requiring replanting, monitoring and performance security under conditions agreed with the Inland Wetlands commission.
Civil consultant Brian Carey said the clearing occurred in October 2024 after the applicant sought to build a landscape berm for neighbor sound attenuation but misinterpreted the wetland setback (now 100 feet) and exceeded a 10,000-square-foot threshold that requires Planning & Zoning approval. The conservation commission later approved a restoration plan; the planting plan proposes replanting 65 native trees (2.5–3-inch caliper), about 250 native shrubs, and understory species on roughly 21,000 square feet (restoration area exceeds the cleared footprint with additional transitional plantings).
At the public hearing, multiple neighbors said the removal had produced persistent noise and lighting impacts from an adjacent contractor yard, and they urged faster, more direct sound mitigation than plantings alone can provide. Several neighbors described nighttime machinery, truck idling and dust, and said the planting would take years to mature and did not restore the immediate sound buffer neighbors had lost. Their attorney asked that the commission require a recorded landscape maintenance agreement, inspection rights for city staff, measurable performance benchmarks, and an acoustical analysis comparing proposed mitigation alternatives.
Applicant counsel and consultants said the restoration plan was the option approved by the Inland Wetlands commission, that the plan includes a one-to-three tree replacement ratio and monitoring provisions, and that a bond and monitoring schedule are conditions of the conservation permit. The applicant also said it planned a parallel application to adjust the contractor yard layout (moving material bins) to provide a near-term noise buffer; that related application was opened for public comment and continued so the applicant could provide an acoustical study and details.
The commission voted to approve the restoration plan with conditions mirroring the conservation permit: a bond, a monitoring and maintenance schedule, a requirement to install the replacement plantings in the upcoming planting window, and a staff condition specifying a planting completion target to allow establishment before winter (applicant indicated December 1 as achievable). Commissioners and staff also asked the applicant to return with a detailed sound-attenuation plan as part of the related application; the commission continued that second hearing to the October meeting to allow the applicant time to hire an acoustical engineer and submit a plan for review and public comment.