MERIDEN — Developing the former NRG Energy site will take considerable roadway and utility work first, members of the Planning Commission and Economic Development, Housing and Zoning Committee learned Tuesday.
Representatives from Cheshire-based Milone and MacBroom energy company presented a study on the feasibility of building on the 300-acre plot off of South Mountain Road. While light industrial and office space — including use by energy production companies, medical care organizations, and general office space — is an option for the site, existing road conditions will need improvement, and utilities will need to be extended throughout.
Kwesi Brown, project manager from Milone and MacBroom, said that the study — a $60,000 venture funded by the South Central Regional Council of Governments — revealed challenging existing conditions.
The 300-acre site will need to be at least half open space, and is seated on a steep slope. More than seven acres is already considered wetlands, and 36 is still owned by NRG. Additionally, water, sewer, gas, and electrical utilities connect to the former NRG site off of Sam’s Road, but don’t extend north through the entire property.
Brown said that streets surrounding the area, including Kensington Avenue, Lewis Avenue, and Chamberlain Highway will need to be widened and traffic signals installed, if all 1.22 million square feet of proposed development space is filled.
Milone and MacBroom estimated that in total, these “offsite construction costs” would be roughly $13.1 million. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
No one is predicting a bright future for Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun, with Massachusetts poised to siphon off so much business, a new straw next to the New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island straws, which have already been drawing down a pool of gambling dollars the Connecticut tribes once had all to themselves.
Still, there is a lot of positive development on the two eastern Connecticut reservations.
At Mohegan, a big yellow contraction crane, the beginning of a new $120 million hotel scheduled to open next fall, stands almost as tall as the existing hotel tower and dominates the skyline.
At Mashantucket, the Pequots have just opened, with their new retail partner, Tanger Outlets at Foxwoods, a dazzling 80-store indoor retail mall that connects the two casino towers.
It's encouraging to see such an impressive project, one that required a busy jobs fair to staff, come on line at the sunny end of the recession.
The new mall certainly strikes a new era of retail at Foxwoods, which, after it first opened as the only casino in the northeast, offered only a few newsstands and some Indian-themed stores selling dream catchers and turquoise jewelry. The focus was on adding ever-more slots. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Colchester school project gets go-ahead
COLCHESTER – The $48.9 million William J. Johnston Middle School renovation project got the green light from voters Tuesday, as they overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to fund the plan.
The town now will have the authority to use a mix of long-term borrowing through bonds and state school construction reimbursement money to go ahead with the work, expected to be complete in the fall of 2017, Building Committee Chairman Thomas Tyler said. The vote was 1,657 for the proposal, with 1,210 against it. The town now has to meet a June 30 deadline to submit the project with the state, Tyler said. "Then we'll have to start design of the project, go through the bid phase, award the contract, then the phased construction," he said. Of the $48.9 million total, the town would pay $20.9 million, with the expectation the state will grant a $28 million construction reimbursement. Town officials say the project will not impact the town's mill rate, which is the figure the town uses to calculate annual property taxes. Tyler said the town's management of prior debt would make this possible, because the debt from older projects has been paid off. Vincent Rose is a strong supporter of the new school proposal, and voted for it Tuesday. He has a daughter heading to the middle school next year, and a son a few years from entering. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Power plant stacks won't hinder pilots
OXFORD — The Federal Aviation Administration has determined that two 150-foot smokestacks at a proposed power plant on Woodruff Hill Road would cause no hazard to pilots flying in and out of the nearby Waterbury-Oxford Airport. The FAA report is another win for Maryland-based Competitive Power Ventures, which has been granted approval by the Connecticut Siting Council to build an 805-megawatt plant contingent upon favorable reviews from the FAA and a stormwater permit from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. CPV wants to build the project in an industrial zone about a half-mile east of the airport.
Braith Kelly, a CPV spokesman, said the company made significant improvements to the project relative to the airport and the FAA did an exhaustive analysis of the proposed plant, "which has improved from the last determination of no hazard in 1999, when it was initially approved as a smaller, 512-megawatt plant."
"We're ultimately confident that the FAA did what they are required to do and came to the right answer," he said.
While CPV welcomed the news, opponents were not pleased with the report. Even though the FAA investigated to the extent required by federal guidelines, opponents maintain the agency did not address their concerns about effluent that would come out of the stacks. They hinted at an appeal but had not filed it as of Tuesday.
Burt Stevens, a Woodbury flight instructor who represented the Oxford Flying Club as an intervenor during the Siting Council hearings, said the FAA report only discusses the structures of the stacks themselves, not the plumes of heated effluent they would emit. The plumes, he said, can be dangerous to pilots.
The FAA responded specifically to what they feel their mandates are, which are just the physical obstructions," he said. "And from what I understand, there is some consideration to have further discussions with the FAA to expand their pursue, but that's only informal discussions right now."
He said this is exactly what the FAA did when the plant was approved in 1999, so they were "pretty much going on precedent."
The study states that 150 feet for the smokestacks is within the regulations to be safe, but "any height exceeding 150 feet above ground level will result in substantial adverse effect and would warrant a determination of hazard to air navigation."
It also states that "to date, current FAA policy does not consider stack effluents to be germane to an airspace study."
Melanie Bachman, acting executive director for the Connecticut Siting Council, said CPV has not yet submitted the FAA report to be included in its file.