Builders see promise in homes for the aging set
Developers working in the 55-and-older home sector are gaining confidence in the market, based on a third-quarter report issued by the National Association of Home Builders.
Builder confidence in the sector is up over the same period of 2013, jumping 9 points to 59 -- the highest third-quarter reading since the inception of the 55+ Housing Market Index in 2008 and the 12th consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvements.
"Demand for 55-plus housing has never been higher, and this quarter's index clearly demonstrates that," Steve Bomberger, chairman of NAHB's 50+ Housing Council and president of Benchmark Builders, in Wilmington, Del., said in a statement. "Consumers in this market are looking for a home that caters towards their specific needs, and 55-plus builders and developers are able to create homes and commodities that address their needs."
The HMI for single-family homes and condominiums in this specialty sector measures builder sentiment based on a survey that asks whether current sales, prospective buyer traffic and anticipated six-month sales for that market are "good," "fair" or "poor," according to the NAHB. An index number below 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as poor than good.
Builders of over-55 communities across the nation experienced a solid third quarter, and the southwestern Connecticut market followed suit.
"What occurred on the national level is mirrored here in Oxford," said Kathy Ekstrom, project executive of Meadow Brook Estates, an over-55 residential community in Oxford built by Haynes Development, based in Seymour. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Officials request $9M for school renovations
BRISTOL — Though officials insist the number doesn’t mean much, those seeking to renovate the old Memorial Boulevard School as a multi-use facility recently told Bristol legislators they might need $9 million in state aid to overhaul the historic building.
“People should not get the impression that we’re getting ready to spend $9 million,” said David Mills, a former city councilor who’s working on the project.
“It could be plus or minus $9 million,” said Jim Albert, president of the Bristol-based Central Connectcut Chambers of Commerce.
The chairwoman of the Memorial Boulevard Task Force, city Councilor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu, said she’d be happy if the paper reported that “an unknown amount of state investment” may be required.
A clearer picture of what it will take to restore the 1921 landmark and its 900-seat theater should be available within a few weeks upon completion of a report from Drummy Roseanne Anderson, Inc., an architecture firm.
In the meantime, though, city officials thought they should tell Bristol’s delegates to the General Assembly to start looking for money to help with the expense.
Albert said he gave the three state representatives and state Sen. Henri Martin two funding requests for the project.
He said he told them to seek $5 million “for what I call life safety systems,” such as asbestos removal, an elevator, repairing steps and railing and similar items.
Albert said he also asked for $4 million for mechanical systems connected with systems ranging from plumbing to electricity.
The figures are just placeholders for now, he said, and can be adjusted later when firm numbers are available.
Albert said the city’s legislative delegation is ready to help. He said he’s also counting on assistance from those in nearby communities that would benefit from a new center for arts and culture. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
East Hampton high school project funds in question
EAST HAMPTON >> Questions have arisen about the level of the town’s likely reimbursement for the $51 million high school renovation project.
The School Building Committee has a special meeting this week to review and discuss the issue.
Ground was broken on the project in early November, and the normally placid school campus has been turned into a full-fledged construction site. In 2013, residents overwhelmingly approved the $51 million project with the understanding the state would reimburse the town for half the construction costs. What’s more, the General Assembly approved the project last June. But this past week, questions arose about whether the state Board of Education had formally signed off on the project as well as the anticipated level of reimbursement.
The School Building Committee was told during a regular meeting on Jan. 15 about the questions over the level of reimbursement. The building committee then scheduled the special meeting for tonight — appropriately or not at the high school. The Town Council will be joining the building committee, Council Chairwoman Barbara Moore said in an email Tuesday evening.
“I am looking forward to hearing what our options are,” Moore said. An email sent to a building committee spokeswoman requesting a comment on the situation was not immediately answered Tuesday evening. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Public to weigh in on Middletown high-rise plan
MIDDLETOWN >> Permission remains elusive for developers hoping to build a six-story commercial and residential building at 138 College St., on what is now a grassy lot on the corner of Broad Street, next to the Middlesex Corporate Center.
A full agenda at the Jan. 14 meeting of the Design Review and Preservation Board prevented a comprehensive review of the plans, compelling representatives of Massachusetts-based Hajjar Management Company Inc., the project developer, to leave that meeting without resolution. They appeared later the same evening before the Planning and Zoning Commission seeking approval, where the project failed to receive enough votes.
Some commissioners were unwilling to approve the plan without the recommendations of the advisory review board. After some confusion about whether commissioners could table the application, they voted 3-3 with one abstention. Commission vice chair Molly Salafia was among those who objected to moving forward without design review. She said some commissioners feel pressured to vote quickly to approve the project, which was first announced about six weeks ago by Mayor Daniel Drew.
“It circumvents the process & purpose of having subcommittees,” Salafia write in an email after the meeting, referring to the Design Review Board. “Subcommittees are extremely important tools for us commissioners to make our decisions.” City Planner Michiel Wackers cautioned commissioners during the Jan. 14 commission meeting that Hajjar Management’s application met every requirement for the business zone. Two days after the commission meeting, the design board issued a notice of special public hearing on the project to be held Jan. 26 at 6 p.m. in room 208 of city hall.
Vice chair of the board, Marilyn Mills, has already come out strongly for approving the proposed design. In a letter to the editor published by The Press online, “Six-story apartment building boon for Middletown” on Tuesday, Mills, who has an office on Broad Street near the building site and is also a Broad Street landlord, described a healthy demand for market-rate apartments. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
New Endland's energy threatened by natural gas line capacity
The president and chief executive officer of the organization that runs New England’s electric grid said Wednesday that the energy system in the region “is in a period of transition.”
ISO-New England’s Gordon van Welie said the region is facing at least three or four more winters in which a lack of transmission line capacity for natural gas — the predominant fuel used in running power plants in the six states — could create volatility in the pricing of electricity and “serious reliability challenges.” But van Welie stopped short of predicting the region could face brown-outs — reductions in power levels — or blackouts.
“We will continue to see volatility (in electric prices),” he said. “We’ve been very fortunate to have a mild winter thus far. But that’s not something that we can count on in the future.” A combination of factors has led to the volatility of electric prices, van Welie said.
Prior to 2013, New England had a surplus of power plants available to generate electricity. But since then, he said operators of power plants have begun shutting down some of the older generation units, actions that will reduce the region’s generation capacity by 3,500 megawatts through 2017.
New Jersey-based NRG Energy shut down its Norwalk Harbor power plant in June 2013, taking 342 megawatts of generating capacity with it. At the end of 2014, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant was shutdown, which reduced the region’s generation capacity by another 604 megawatts.
Even before the older power plants started to be retired, new power plants were being brought on line, with generating units capable of producing 15,000 megawatts being added. The majority of those power plants run on natural gas, which has increased the usage of natural gas for generation from 15 percent in 2000 to 44 percent in 2014.
But van Welie said construction of natural gas pipelines has not kept pace with the construction of the power plants that run on the fuel. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Council of Governments denied state grant for water project
NORWICH - Eastern Connecticut lost out on a state grant that would have provided redundancy for two of the region’s largest water suppliers, officials announced on Wednesday.During the summer, the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments submitted a application to the state Department of Housing for a $630,000 community development block grant. It would have been used to install pipe to fill a 1,220-foot gap between a 24-inch water main in Preston and a 16-inch main in Ledyard at the Poquetanuck Cove bridge on the Thames River.Jim Butler, the council’s executive director, said the request was not included as part of Connecticut’s $26 million share of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development dollars to pay for the rehabilitation and resiliency of infrastructure in “disaster impacted areas.”The council of governments asked for $637,500 to pay for the total cost, with Norwich Public Utilities agreeing to a 25 percent match, or $212,500. Officials said the project would have created up to 10 temporary construction jobs and taken about 2 ½ years to complete.Although the council didn't get the money to do the work, Preston First Selectman Robert Congdon said it won't affect the existing water supplies or distribution systems. NPU maintains the Preston main, while Groton Utilities handles the Ledyard line. The interconnection would have tied the systems together – linking more than seven communities and providing a backup should one of the pipelines be compromised by a natural disaster. The service area covers 95,000 people. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
$4.9M in capital improvements proposed in Glastonbury
GLASTONBURY — Town Manager Richard J. Johnson has proposed $4.9 million in capital improvement projects, including renovation of town buildings, school upgrades and a study on an addition to the Glastonbury High School field house. Members of the town council, the boards of education and finance and other officials met Wednesday for the annual capital improvement program workshop. Johnson unveiled 24 projects ranging from $1 million for improvements to the intersection of House, Harris and Griswold streets to $25,000 for the design of replacements for the 55-year-old boilers at the police department and town hall. The proposal, which will become part of the town budget, goes next to the town council for review. Johnson said that over the years the capital improvement budget has "served as a continuing success story." "The thoughtful allocation of annual funding combined with state and federal grants, along with community donations, have allowed Glastonbury to effectively maintain existing infrastructure while funding a number of new and ongoing initiatives," he said. "The proposals are intended to build upon successes to date." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Quinnipiac to get two new athletic fields
HAMDEN >> After two tries, Quinnipiac University has won Inland Wetlands approval for two new athletic fields, but now it must go before the Planning and Zoning Commission for a variance and special permit before construction can begin.
The university applied to the commission to reconstruct two existing fields and build a stadium for each that included locker rooms, showers and equipment storage. One of the fields, known as the North Field, is used for women’s field hockey and men’s and women’s lacrosse and is a synthetic field. The other field of natural grass is used for women’s rugby. Last April, the Inland Wetlands Commission initially denied the application for the fields at 275 and 475 Mount Carmel Ave. for a number of reasons, including insufficient buffers between the fields and the wetlands and lighting that would damage the wetlands.The university resubmitted the application last summer. The proposal includes artificial turf for the North Field, which will be used for men’s and women’s soccer and lacrosse, and synthetic material for the South Field, for the women’s field hockey team. The proposed North Field stadium would seat 1,500 and the South Field would seat 500. There would be a 25-foot buffer between the North Field and wetlands, and a 14-foot buffer between the South Field and wetlands.
“The lighting plan for the project has been designed to be sensitive to the habitat and wetlands-dependent wildlife known to the University based on its studies, while at the same time providing the necessary lighting for the playing surfaces,” the application states. “Lighting levels can be adjusted depending upon the nature of the activities on the fields."
There are no other “prudent and feasible” alternative locations for the fields, which the university is required to provide to meet Title IV requirements, according to the application. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE