Fairfield kicks off townwide flood and erosion master plan to prioritize projects and costs

Fairfield officials opened a public kickoff meeting to begin a townwide flood and erosion resiliency master plan, saying the effort will compile past studies, prioritize practical projects and produce cost estimates to guide capital planning and grant-seeking.

“The reason we're having these meetings is that we are kicking off a master plan to look at flooding across all of basically, all of the town of Fairfield,” Becky, a town staff member, told residents. The plan will address coastal flooding, riverine flooding, underpass and downtown stormwater flooding and aim to produce both permanent and deployable (temporary) solutions.

Town staff and consultants told the audience the master plan will collect earlier work that has not been brought together, produce prioritized project lists with cost estimates and identify where projects should enter the capital improvement plan or the town's hazard-mitigation/grant pipeline. David Murphy, a core team member assisting the process, said, "This is your chance to get it all on the table, early on." The consultants on the contract include Weston & Sampson; the meeting also referenced coastal modeling by RACE Coastal Engineers and prior modeling from the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation (CIRCA).

The meeting reviewed decades of studies and recent storm experience. Speakers recalled multiple Rooster River and coastal studies, post-Superstorm Sandy grant work, and…