Donna Smirniotopoulos is a 34-year Fairfield County, Connecticut resident with over thirty years of dedicated community service, including leadership positions with the Westport YMCA, Staples Task Force, Staples Tuition Grants, and the Coalition of Norwalk Neighborhood Associations. In 2017, she helped lead Quintard neighbors opposing a Federal Bureau of Prisons Residential Re-entry Center for 20 Federal prisoners in a family neighborhood. Thanks to these efforts, the application was rejected by Norwalk’s Zoning Board of Appeals. In 2018, Donna exposed the relationship between the City’s preferred Wall Street redeveloper and then-Governor Danel Malloy, including the redeveloper’s history of giving to the Democratic State Central Committee and clear evidence of pay-to-play in large-scale City development. Through her work with CNNA, Donna organized and moderated multiple community events, focusing on Wall Street, ordinance and blight enforcement, water quality issues, and the 2019 Norwalk city government reorganization. Most recently, Donna served as Secretary of her neighborhood association and helped lead the charge in South Norwalk to roll back proposed upzoning. Donna has been a Norwalk homeowner since 2012 and a resident of South Norwalk’s historic Shorefront Park since 2016. She is the mother of three and a devoted Yiayia to one grandson.
Following are the League of Women Questions:
What are the three greatest challenges facing the city, and how will you address them?
1. Achieving true environmental resilience. 2. Developing compassionate and comprehensive approaches to housing. 3. Addressing the downward spiral of the Norwalk Public Schools. We have been misled by our elected officials. Our environmental issues cannot be solved by banning plastic bags but by adopting waterfront development policies that focus on stormwater management and infrastructure investments BY developers. Government-run housing often hurts the most vulnerable while lining the pockets of crony developers. I will focus on protecting Norwalk residents from gentrification. Our public schools are underfunded by Hartford while elected official are silent. That will end.
Norwalk residents are about to be affected by a variety of major planning initiatives: city charter revision, zoning code revision, sustainability and resilience, parks master plan, and more. If elected, what will you do to reach out to residents to help everyone understand the changes that are being discussed or implemented.
My approach to the Common Council will be the same one I’ve used throughout my 30+ years of community service. I will solicit public feedback and be unafraid to address all Norwalk bodies, whether elected or appointed, on the issues my constituents care about most. We all want the same things from our City government. Responsible spending. Clean and safe streets. Good schools. We are getting none of these things today. Those who know me know I will fight for District B just as I fought to protect Quintard Avenue in 2017. District B residents will have an ally on the Common Council, not someone beholden to a political party or to City Hall for their job.
Do you support Norwalk’s P&Z proposed zoning changes directed at increasing density ? Why or why not?
Norwalk P&Z’s proposed zoning changes reflect Governor Lamont’s stated goal to double the size of Connecticut’s cities. Even our Citywide plan reflects Hartford’s goals, not the desires of Norwalk residents. Amending the code will not reduce traffic, will not improve public safety and will not reduce flagrant code violations, nor will the resulting overdevelopment help pay the bills or mitigate flooding. We need a vision for Norwalk where the waterfront is protected and accessible to residents without forcing us to sell out to political donors/developers who today have more control over this City than we do. A nationwide housing shortage won’t be solved by Norwalk P&Z. Don’t be duped.
How would you balance development and increasing infrastructure needs with the needs of the environment?
A city cannot grow and develop without prioritizing the environment. We’ve all seen the catastrophic results of ignoring both environmental and infrastructure priorities–more street flooding and the WPCA dumping raw sewage into Norwalk Harbor. I welcome development provided developers pay for their own infrastructure needs and include stormwater management plans. The City must enlist non-conflicted third-party consultants paid for by developers to determine ROI on developments to ensure that as we grow, we can pay the bills. We cannot pay the bills today despite rapid growth over the past ten years, including the unprecedented growth of local government with little to show for it.