An Elicker administration proposal to rezone the former English Station power plant site from a heavy industrial to a park district wound up not being heard by an aldermanic committee Tuesday night — despite the proposal’s presence on the meeting’s agenda — after the mayor’s office asked the Legislation Committee to pass over the item until a date yet to be determined. The proposal seeks to change the zoning designation of the highly contaminated 8.6-acre site on Ball Island at 510 Grand Ave as part of the administration’s larger Mill River Park vision — which includes turning the privately owned power plant property into a new public park with an outdoor pool. While the rezoning proposal was listed at the top of the agenda for Tuesday’s Board of Alders Legislation Committee meeting at City Hall, Committee Chair and Wooster Square Alder Ellen Cupo announced at the top of the meeting that the item would not be heard that night after all. Mayor Justin Elicker first revealed the English Station park-pool plan in July; his administration submitted the rezoning request to the alders in August. In a statement provided to the Independent by city spokesperson Lenny Speiller, Elicker said the administration asked the Board of Alders to remove the item from the agenda because “some additional due diligence needs to be completed prior to presenting the proposal to the committee.” “We look forward to rescheduling this discussion to a later date, as we continue to work towards making the vision of Mill River Park a reality for our residents,” Elicker added. When asked to clarify what specific due diligence remains, Speiller wrote on behalf of the mayor’s office, “Additional work needs to be done by the administration related to the proposal and proposed ordinance prior to presenting and discussing it with the committee.” In an interview Wednesday afternoon, Cupo — who is finishing up her last month as alder, and whose ward includes the English Station property — said she got a call from the administration in advance of Tuesday’s meeting stating that they were not ready for the item, and that she decided to honor that request.  “I’m a person who values providing opportunities for public comment,” she said, adding that she wants residents to have the fullest information possible when the proposal returns.  Still, she said, the former power plant remains “an eyesore, an environmental hazard,” and she hopes to see the city help find “a safe way to utilize that land so that current and future generations aren’t exposed to PCBs and it can have an actual functional use so it’s not defunct. I’m excited to see it have a safe functional use.”  Given that context, Cupo said, “I felt like it made sense to comply” with the administration’s request to delay the rezoning-proposal hearing. The post English Station Rezoning Hearing Delayed appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less