Residents push Stamford Planning Board to finish long-delayed Bukowski Park

The Stamford Planning Board heard sustained public calls on Jan. 13 to allocate money to finish Bukowski Park, a park project residents say has languished since its master plan was completed in 2017.

Tony Soufas, president of the Dolphin Cove Association, asked the board in a written letter read into the record to “find the necessary funding to support the completion of Bukowski Park development,” saying eight years of intermittent work have left residents with “a half finished project.”

Why it matters: Speakers said the unfinished park has community-safety and equity implications for nearby neighborhoods. Several residents and an elected representative pressed the board to use available capital funds — or identify cuts elsewhere — to complete the park’s design and construction so the city can take advantage of a matching National Park Service grant.

At the hearing, Board of Representatives member Virgil Dela Cruz (District 2) said Waterside’s roughly 6,000 residents are “entitled to equal treatment” and urged the planning board to recommend full funding to complete the master plan. Resident Zach Bradley said he believed “about $4,000,000” has been spent to date with little visible progress and asked for financial transparency and, if necessary, a probe into spending and delays. Bradley also raised concerns about soil contamination and safety in the park area.

Board staff clarified project entry CP3159 is managed by the engineering department and is currently in design; staff said funding at this stage would allow plans to go to bid and put the project on track for a 2027 groundbreaking, and that a matching grant from the National Park Service is associated with the project.

Planning board members reiterated that tonight’s hearing was for public comment and not for final decisions. The board noted the Board of Finance has advised a $35,000,000 “safe debt” target for overall capital bonding; members said they will weigh public testimony, grant timing, and department priorities as they prepare a recommendation to the mayor.

Quotes that mattered: “After 8 years, I believe the community should expect and deserve that its community leaders find a way to deliver on their commitments,” Tony Soufas wrote in his letter, which the board read into the record. Zach Bradley told the board: “Love to know where the money’s going.”

What’s next: The board said written comments and letters will be included in the public record. Members will meet again to consider revisions and draft a transmittal to the mayor; staff invited questions for departments ahead of the board’s next scheduled meeting to inform that work.

Notes on names and transcript variants: The transcript used multiple spellings for the park (Bukowski, Bucozy, Bekozi). This article uses “Bukowski Park” for consistency and because the CP3159 project entry and several speakers reference that spelling or close variants in their comments.