Case Study Cos Cob Power Plant, Connecticut

Introduction to Case Study Cos Cob Power Plant, Connecticut 

The Cos Cob power plant brownfields site is located in the Town of Greenwich, on the banks of the Mianus River in southern Connecticut, 35 miles (56 km) north of New York City. The Town of Greenwich has a relatively low population density, with approximately 62,000 citizens (in 2005) living in an area of 47 square miles (mi2) (124 km2), or 1,320 people per mi2 (500 people per km2). Greenwich is one of the most affluent towns in the United States, with an economy based largely on the service and financial industries, several of which have relocated from New York City in recent years. 

In 1905, Westinghouse, Church, Kerr Company began to construct the coal-powered Cos Cob plant on a 5-acre (2 hectares) site on the banks of the Mianus River. It was the first power plant to be built exclusively for a railroad, and was constructed in the Mission Style, with scalloped gables at both ends and a red tile roof (Fig. 14.1). The plant was a multilevel concrete and metal building, and housed a variety of electrical generation and distribution equipment, including boilers, transformers, circuits, and breakers. 

In 1987, Connecticut s Commissioner of Transportation conveyed the Cos Cob power plant and the land on which it was located to the Town of Greenwich in return for payment of 1. The state stipulated that 25% of the land was to be used for senior, low-, and moderate-income housing and 75% for open space that would be accessible to all citizens of the state. This idea was not popular with some of the town s residents, who preferred that all of the land be used for recreation and greenspace, and others who wanted to restore or preserve the historic power plant. 

Fifteen years after purchasing the Cos Cob power plant site from the state, the Town of Greenwich had undertaken many of the steps necessary to move redevelopment at the site forward. The town had already performed multiple limited environmental assessments and cleaned up some of the most obviously contaminated areas within the site, tom down buildings and other structures contaminated with asbestos and other materials that threaten human health, and achieved a high degree of community consensus that the site should be converted for recreational use. The cleanup and demolition actions had cost the Town of Greenwich close to 2 million, yet the site still needed to be fully assessed, cleaned up, and readied for reuse. 

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