STAMFORD -- After a decade of spectacular growth within and around the downtown and South End, a new city master plan is looking to rein in the most intense levels of development in burgeoning surrounding neighborhoods. Begun last year, the prospective plan restricts the decisions of land-use officials when determining whether proposed new projects meet the city's established land-use goals. Several neighborhoods bordering the central downtown district have been placed in a new land-use category calling for significantly lower density than downtown, where regulations allow the most intense development. Jay Tepper, a Planning Board member, said choices to control density in and around downtown are some of the most important economic tools in the plan.
"To me the downtown of the city is the core of the city," Tepper said. "I hate to say that it is more important, but changes to the downtown has radiating effects on surrounding neighborhoods and has an impact on whether you have a vibrant downtown." Included in the new so-called urban mixed-use category are areas of the South End on Washington Boulevard where the city's largest developer, Building and Land Technology, is in the midst of a $3.5 billion development known as Harbor Point. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
CT seeking upgraded freight rail line
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — From the port of New London on Long Island Sound north through Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and into Canada, a 390-mile freight rail system linking New England to the rest of the Northeast lacks a key element: a 21st-century rail line in Connecticut.
Elected officials in Connecticut, backed by regional business owners and Genesee & Wyoming Inc., owner of New England Central Railroad, are lobbying federal transportation officials for $8.3 million to upgrade railroad tracks to accommodate heavier freight and move more products to market. New England Central is contributing $2 million. Officials say it would be the first north-south heavy rail capacity corridor in Connecticut and could lead to expanded passenger rail service in eastern Connecticut. "You can see point-blank the rail line is rusty, bolted together, not that stable in terms of bearing weight," said Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., one of several elected officials lobbying for the federal money. The New England Central Railroad moves commodities such as lumber, panels, plywood, newsprint, printing paper, compressed gas, chemicals, fuel oil and construction debris. The Great Recession hit New England hard, but business is returning, said Charles Hunter, assistant vice president of government affairs at Genesee & Wyoming. Rail also looks attractive in comparison with truck transport, which relies on rising gasoline prices, he said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
POMFRET — Justin Dingle installed windows after graduating from Meriden’s Wilcox Technical High School in 2013. But Dingle wanted something more and approached a group of construction workers at Platt High School about getting a job on the $111.8 million renovation project.
Dingle could soon be one of 10 Wilcox graduates to work on the city’s two high school renovation projects. The group is spending four weeks in Pomfret at the Laborers’ International Union of North America training center. After that, they will begin apprenticeships on the projects. Later, there’s a good chance they will be hired to work on both schools. “I wanted to be involved in more hands-on work,” said Dingle, a Meriden resident. “We are learning a lot here that is getting us prepared for the real world.” The high school projects opened opportunities for union construction workers from Meriden. The combined projects total close to $220 million and will include interior and exterior renovations and new additions at Platt and Maloney High School. The Meriden City Council agreed, in a divided vote, to use a project labor agreement for the school work. The PLA sets hiring goals, including 30 percent Meriden residents, 15 percent minorities, 5 percent veterans and 5 percent women. Those opposed to the PLAs argued the agreement drove up costs because work is directed toward union workers. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
MERIDEN — A downtown housing and commercial development received a financial boost Friday when the state Bond Commission voted to support a $6 million loan to help construct the four-story building. The proposed 24 Colony St. development will have 64 housing units, including 56 that are considered affordable housing. There will also be about 11,000 square feet of commercial space.
The development is estimated to cost $22.865 million. In addition to the $6 million loan, there will be other funding sources. A total of $12.74 million will come from federal low-income housing tax credits, $3.67 million from the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, $158,000 from energy rebates, and $297,000 from a deferred developer fee. Branford-based Westmount Management, doing business as Colony Residences LLC, is the project developer. The company is working closely with the Meriden Housing Authority, as about 25 percent of the housing units will be replacement units for Mills Memorial Apartments. MHA Executive Director Robert Cappelletti and Westmount Management Director Rick Ross could not be reached for comment Friday. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
WATERBURY — The car parked across the street from Lisa Lessard's Pearl Lake Road home on a recent weekday was not hers. It belonged to one of the many workers reconstructing the road.
Lessard, a type-1 diabetic, needs to walk several houses down the rocky, bumpy road under construction to get to her own car. But when she asked the worker if he would mind switching spaces, she said he told her he needed to be there to access his water bottle, because it was hot out.
Down the street, the top of Kim Wilkins's driveway was cracked; the result, she said, of heavy construction equipment using it to turn around. But when she pointed it out to a worker, he simply replied, "We got to tear it up, anyway," she said. Across the street, Marc Morgan's front yard has been sliced into like a wedge of cheese, leaving a precipitous drop he said poses a danger to his children. He said he hopes it will eventually be graded properly, but a resident up the street said her yard was left the same way when workers moved on. While officials have said reconstruction of the heavily traveled road is proceeding smoothly and on time, neighbors say what little interaction they have had with the workers has usually been nasty. "You know what it is? There's no respect," Wilkins said. "They're rude." LAST WEEK, CITY OFFICIALS praised Dayton Construction for its handling of the complex task of reconstructing the key thoroughfare between the South and East Ends of the city. It's a massive, two-year project, stretching a mile and costing $5.3 million. Lessard and fellow resident Susan Cegelka have long spoken out against the project. Officials said they have heard complaints from few others. But a short walk through that neighborhood one afternoon last week turned up several who were upset not just by the project itself — which some acknowledged as necessary and beneficial — but by how it's proceeding and a lack of positive communication between the workers and the residents. "They broke my water about three times since it started," said Effiong Esenyie, who said he has lived on Pearl Lake Road for about 20 years. "It's really inconvenient, I'll tell you now." In Wilkins's yard, the stump of a tree sat partially cut, its logs strewn about after having been felled as part of the road reconstruction. No one ever came back to haul them away.
And, she said, it was her understanding that when workers repave her driveway, it would be in a way that provided for proper drainage, instead of pooling at the bottom. But when she asked the project foreman about it, she said, he told her he knew nothing of that. Wilkins said she has been living on Pearl Lake Road for more than 50 years, and will be sad to see her front hedges, which are at least that old, removed as part of the grading portion of the project. "Granted, we need all this," she said. "But there was, I believe, a better way of going about it." NOT ALL NEIGHBORS are convinced the project was needed. "A lot of us protested the whole idea initially, but eventually they won their way," local businessman Marc Morgan, a Pearl Lake Road resident since 1999, said. Morgan, who has a new baby and a 9-year-old, said the amount of noise that comes from the construction job — sometimes as early as 5:30 a.m. — disrupts the children's sleep and at one point shook the house so violently it seemed like an earthquake. His car always is covered in dust and stones are constantly hitting the undercarriage, especially, he said, when it hits at the bottom of his driveway, where there is now a dip. "I'm not pleased with the amount of land they've taken," he said, standing at the edge of his yard, where the grass gives way to a steep pitch of dirt and rubble. "The thing I'm concerned about is the degree to which it drops off." Cegelka said she had been concerned about the same thing. But when the construction project moved down the street, her land was left that way. "They did a terrible job at the bottom of my yard," she said. "I have a sloping front yard... my yard goes in and drops a 90-degree precipitous drop." Her neighbor's yard, she later wrote in an email, looks even worse. "He has a very steep slope verging on 90 degrees that is now full of grass that can't be mowed," she wrote. "I don't think that it can even be weed-whacked because of the severity of the slope." WHILE THE CITY DISTRIBUTES a daily email update about the project, Cegelka was one of several who said communication to the residents has been spotty to nil. On a single day, she said, sanitation workers told her they couldn't negotiate the street through the construction, her water was turned off unexpectedly, then a Connecticut Light & Power worker rang her bell to inform her the house's electricity would be shut off. "I said, 'When?'" she recalled. "They, said, 'Now.'" None of this, she said, had been communicated to her in advance. Lessard said her house lost water unexpectedly five times. But what angers her most, she said, is a lack of consideration and courtesy by the workers, who she said have littered her yard with trash and construction debris, and have her home blocked in so badly she needs to take a circuitous route just to get in her front door. At one point, she said, she found twisted metal bars jutting out of a rock in her driveway, which could have potentially injured someone or damaged a car. "They just leave stuff. There's pipes and stuff. They just throw it in your yard and leave it there," she said. "They just don't care. There's no respect for us." City Engineer Mark Pronovost said most of the neighbors his staff and inspectors have talked to on Pearl Lake Road are pleased with the project. "Their attitude was, the contractor is working hard, very accommodating, doing a good job," he said. "I'm not sure you have a representative example of everybody out there." Pronovost suggested residents who have concerns should direct them to the appropriate people. He said he has two full-time inspectors on the project who would be able to answer questions, and that the construction company's foremen would more likely know about the ins and outs of the project than a day laborer or truck driver would. A person who answered the phone Friday at Dayton Construction said its president, Alan Dayton, had left for the day.
Lessard, a type-1 diabetic, needs to walk several houses down the rocky, bumpy road under construction to get to her own car. But when she asked the worker if he would mind switching spaces, she said he told her he needed to be there to access his water bottle, because it was hot out.
Down the street, the top of Kim Wilkins's driveway was cracked; the result, she said, of heavy construction equipment using it to turn around. But when she pointed it out to a worker, he simply replied, "We got to tear it up, anyway," she said. Across the street, Marc Morgan's front yard has been sliced into like a wedge of cheese, leaving a precipitous drop he said poses a danger to his children. He said he hopes it will eventually be graded properly, but a resident up the street said her yard was left the same way when workers moved on. While officials have said reconstruction of the heavily traveled road is proceeding smoothly and on time, neighbors say what little interaction they have had with the workers has usually been nasty. "You know what it is? There's no respect," Wilkins said. "They're rude." LAST WEEK, CITY OFFICIALS praised Dayton Construction for its handling of the complex task of reconstructing the key thoroughfare between the South and East Ends of the city. It's a massive, two-year project, stretching a mile and costing $5.3 million. Lessard and fellow resident Susan Cegelka have long spoken out against the project. Officials said they have heard complaints from few others. But a short walk through that neighborhood one afternoon last week turned up several who were upset not just by the project itself — which some acknowledged as necessary and beneficial — but by how it's proceeding and a lack of positive communication between the workers and the residents. "They broke my water about three times since it started," said Effiong Esenyie, who said he has lived on Pearl Lake Road for about 20 years. "It's really inconvenient, I'll tell you now." In Wilkins's yard, the stump of a tree sat partially cut, its logs strewn about after having been felled as part of the road reconstruction. No one ever came back to haul them away.
And, she said, it was her understanding that when workers repave her driveway, it would be in a way that provided for proper drainage, instead of pooling at the bottom. But when she asked the project foreman about it, she said, he told her he knew nothing of that. Wilkins said she has been living on Pearl Lake Road for more than 50 years, and will be sad to see her front hedges, which are at least that old, removed as part of the grading portion of the project. "Granted, we need all this," she said. "But there was, I believe, a better way of going about it." NOT ALL NEIGHBORS are convinced the project was needed. "A lot of us protested the whole idea initially, but eventually they won their way," local businessman Marc Morgan, a Pearl Lake Road resident since 1999, said. Morgan, who has a new baby and a 9-year-old, said the amount of noise that comes from the construction job — sometimes as early as 5:30 a.m. — disrupts the children's sleep and at one point shook the house so violently it seemed like an earthquake. His car always is covered in dust and stones are constantly hitting the undercarriage, especially, he said, when it hits at the bottom of his driveway, where there is now a dip. "I'm not pleased with the amount of land they've taken," he said, standing at the edge of his yard, where the grass gives way to a steep pitch of dirt and rubble. "The thing I'm concerned about is the degree to which it drops off." Cegelka said she had been concerned about the same thing. But when the construction project moved down the street, her land was left that way. "They did a terrible job at the bottom of my yard," she said. "I have a sloping front yard... my yard goes in and drops a 90-degree precipitous drop." Her neighbor's yard, she later wrote in an email, looks even worse. "He has a very steep slope verging on 90 degrees that is now full of grass that can't be mowed," she wrote. "I don't think that it can even be weed-whacked because of the severity of the slope." WHILE THE CITY DISTRIBUTES a daily email update about the project, Cegelka was one of several who said communication to the residents has been spotty to nil. On a single day, she said, sanitation workers told her they couldn't negotiate the street through the construction, her water was turned off unexpectedly, then a Connecticut Light & Power worker rang her bell to inform her the house's electricity would be shut off. "I said, 'When?'" she recalled. "They, said, 'Now.'" None of this, she said, had been communicated to her in advance. Lessard said her house lost water unexpectedly five times. But what angers her most, she said, is a lack of consideration and courtesy by the workers, who she said have littered her yard with trash and construction debris, and have her home blocked in so badly she needs to take a circuitous route just to get in her front door. At one point, she said, she found twisted metal bars jutting out of a rock in her driveway, which could have potentially injured someone or damaged a car. "They just leave stuff. There's pipes and stuff. They just throw it in your yard and leave it there," she said. "They just don't care. There's no respect for us." City Engineer Mark Pronovost said most of the neighbors his staff and inspectors have talked to on Pearl Lake Road are pleased with the project. "Their attitude was, the contractor is working hard, very accommodating, doing a good job," he said. "I'm not sure you have a representative example of everybody out there." Pronovost suggested residents who have concerns should direct them to the appropriate people. He said he has two full-time inspectors on the project who would be able to answer questions, and that the construction company's foremen would more likely know about the ins and outs of the project than a day laborer or truck driver would. A person who answered the phone Friday at Dayton Construction said its president, Alan Dayton, had left for the day.