Fashion
Donors Say a Scarred Island Could Become a Park
Austin and Allison McChord have pledged to transform an abandoned industrial site into an ecological waterfront park as a gift to Norwalk, their hometown.
On a peninsula projecting into Long Island Sound, an empty road passes through a wild salt marsh where snowy-feathered egrets dot tawny fall grasses and ospreys soar. A small herd of wild turkeys ambles nearby.
This 125-acre tract called Manresa Island, an extension of the Norwalk mainland, offers almost two miles of shoreline that opens to views of the Connecticut coastline.
But the reason for this island’s abandonment is also hard to miss: The desolate bulk of a decommissioned 1960 oil-fired power plant, closed by the energy company NRG in 2013, is visible for miles. The company wanted to sell the acreage but the cost of demolishing the plant and cleaning up pollutants discouraged potential buyers.
Now a Norwalk couple has come forward with their own plan to transform the site into a destination park for the city that combines landscape and shoreline restoration with beaches and boating. Austin and Allison McChord are purchasing the site this fall through their new nonprofit, the Manresa Island Corp., and plan to announce their proposal at a news conference Tuesday in Norwalk with local, state and federal officials.
The pair said they intend to entirely fund the cleanup, as well as the design and construction of the park, which includes the conversion of a multistory power plant to host recreational spaces, a community event hall and facilities that partner with local institutions for shoreline studies. They also intend to endow its operation in perpetuity.
