West Avenue In March 2007, the Norwalk Common Council approved plans by Stanley M. Seligson Properties to redevelop a large area along West Avenue. The Council's approval came with conditions including the review of potentially historic buildings (for possible preservation), future approval of a landscaping design consistent with the Reed-Putnam redevelopment area to the south and Council approval on a case-by-case basis of any seizures of land by eminent domain if additional land-purchase negotiations fail. The redevelopment plan extends from Butler Street to Chapel Street along West Avenue and includes 350 homes and more than of office and retail space. Seligson had first proposed redeveloping the area in 1998. Other developers are working on redevelopment farther north on West Avenue and to the east on Wall Street. Wall Street On Jun 15, 2005 the city of Norwalk granted the Poko development company rights to a site in Central Norwalk. The Poko company has unveiled plans to build condominiums and townhomes near the intersections of Wall Street, Belden Avenue, West Avenue, and Isaacs Street; with the development to be called "Wall Street Place" with initial occupancy expected in 2009. Norwalk Town Green Central Norwalk's parks include the Norwalk Town Green, also known as Norwalk Green or simply the Green. A common area until 1851, the Green is now a park owned and maintained by Norwalk's First Taxing District. It features a gazebo, which serves as a bandstand for outdoor concerts; and a historic cannon that was forged in 1881 at Bourges, France, fired at the Battle of Verdun in 1916, and afterward donated by the French government to Norwalk. In 2018, Norwalk's Mulvoy-Tarlov-Aquino Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 603 donated $20,000 for perpetual care and maintenance of the cannon. Surrounding the granite base beneath the cannon are plaques listing local veterans’ names. Irving Freese Park Irving Freese Park, named for mayor Irving Freese, which was created at the intersection of Main and Wall Streets in the mid-1960s as part of reconstruction work following the flood of 1955. On the west side of the park a fenced parapet overlooks the walled-in Norwalk River. Park benches shaded by trees also overlook the river. The park contains a monument to the Hungarian uprising of 1956, placed there by a Hungarian association in the city, and a plaque commemorating the embarkation of Nathan Hale from Norwalk Harbor in mid-September 1776 on his fatal spying mission.