Habitat Restoration & Protection Database

Long Beach West was once a thriving summer beach community. At its peak, there were about 50 privately-owned summer cottages on the barrier beach owned by the Town of Stratford. The construction of the buildings and the road effectively turned the dune habitat into a small town. Impacts ranged from loss of dune habitat under the footprint of the buildings, lawns, and road, to contamination from household hazardwaste, to PCB contamination from PCB-based paint used on one cottage, to degraded marsh and estuarine embayment habitat from the construction of docks and floats. The bridge connecting this community to the mainland Bridgeport burned down in 1996 and the cottages were condemned by the Town. No longer accessible by emergency services, the area was closed off and the cottages were abandoned. The area was frequented by squatters and became subject to heavy vandalism; some cottages were even set on fire.