NEW MILFORD — At a public forum Wednesday on a proposed solar power plant, many people asked why construction was planned on what are now 60 acres of tree-filled land on Candlewood Mountain.
One by one, residents from among the 25 who attended proposed different sites for the Ameresco Solar panel project.
Why not the Century Brass site, which had been in contention for a natural gas power plant earlier this year?
Maybe an old landfill, or open fields, they said.
“Well, why’d you pick this site?” asked Jim Munch, a longtime logger in Sherman. “That’s a beautiful piece of land. It’s a darn shame.”
The project, which aims to create enough electricity to power 2,400 homes, would need about 60 acres of forest land grown over the past century to be cleared.
But that spot is the best fit for solar in New Milford, Ameresco Engineer Michael Zimmer said.
Hidden in the woods
Ameresco representatives — whose company would lease the land and run the panels for the next 20 years — told the audience that the south side of Candlewood Mountain is perfect for solar. It’s only a mile from the Rocky River power station, where power would enter the grid, and trees would largely buffer the 78,000 solar panels from sight.
“It would be hard to find a site to hide solar better than this,” said Joel Lindsay, another Ameresco engineer.
The proposal is for Commercial Services Realty to buy a 307-acre parcel, clear 60 acres of foliage and lease 80 total acres of land to the solar company. Ameresco would put up the panels and maintain them for the next two decades, and electricity produced would channel into Rocky River and enter the grid. After 20 years, according to contracts signed now, the panels would be packed up and hauled away.
Residents who live near the proposed panels, including Town Council Member Katy Francis, have said they worry about the environmental impacts of deforestation on the mountain slope. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
DOT must weigh impact of Walk Bridge project
Bruce Kimmel, Phaedrel Bowman, Michael Corsello, John Igneri and Thomas Livingston made this statement on behalf of the Norwalk Common Council.
The following statement was delivered to the Connecticut Department of Transportation.
We, the members of the Norwalk Common Council, are deeply disturbed by the absence of context in the Environmental Assessment/Environmental Impact Evaluation documents. These documents examine various impacts of the Walk Bridge project in isolation; these documents pay little attention to the other large-scale projects that are already being implemented, or are set to soon begin, in the vicinity of the Walk Bridge.
We, therefore, strongly urge the state DOT to not conclude that a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is appropriate. Instead, we believe the state must further examine the economic and human impacts of the Walk Bridge project in a broad and comprehensive context that includes the projects described below. The cumulative and interactive effects of all of these projects, including the Walk Bridge, will have a severe and possibly long term impact on the very heart of the city. To focus exclusively on the impacts of the Walk Bridge would be a disservice to the residents of Norwalk.
Liberty Square, which is set to become a major staging area for the Walk Bridge project, is across the street from Veterans Park, which is about to experience a major disruption as the city begins to implement a master plan for the park that includes the construction of new docks and boat ramps. The city is currently experiencing a variety of parking and traffic problems in that area due to the recent opening of the SoNo Ice Rink — which is directly across the street from Liberty Square.
Construction of the $300 million SoNo Collection mall is set to begin this spring. This massive undertaking, not far from the Walk Bridge, will undoubtedly cause a variety of traffic and other quality of life problems. It behooves the DOT to carefully consider the impacts on traffic these projects, together, will have on South Norwalk and the rest of the city.
The reconstruction of Washington Village and the construction of Maritime Village, with a combined cost of roughly $140 million, are in their early stages of development. These projects, which will require extensive infrastructure work, and are within walking distance of the Walk Bridge, will soon have a serious impact on the flow of traffic in South Norwalk. Again: We urge the DOT to examine these impacts together in order to minimize the hardships experienced by residents and business owners.
The city is also in the early stages of implementing the Webster Street Master Plan several blocks from the Walk Bridge. This, too, will prove disruptive, alter traffic patterns, and impact businesses in the heart of South Norwalk, as a new parking facility and possibly an office building replace a large street-level parking lot.
SoNo, especially Washington Street and sections of Main, currently has a variety of excellent restaurants, storefronts, housing — even a new hotel is in the works. The city has worked especially hard in recent years to enhance the attractiveness of this area, which is sandwiched between several major construction projects, including the Walk Bridge. The city projects mentioned above were designed to make this rather small area of town a destination not only for Norwalk residents, but a destination for residents throughout Fairfield County.
With the Walk Bridge project added to the SoNo mix, we urge the state DOT to tread carefully, to ensure that all the progress made in SoNo is not destroyed. Five years of gridlock, caused by the cumulative impact of a variety of projects, but most of all by the huge, costly, and complex Walk Bridge project, would lead to vacant storefronts and empty apartments in SoNo. Furthermore, we believe the state should reimburse all business owners, and possibly residents, who suffer financially because of the long-period of construction that the Walk Bridge project will require. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
ISO-New England confident of energy capacity this winter
Officials with New England’s regional electric grid operator say power supplies should be adequate this winter, but they are also hedging their bets.
Holyoke, Massachusetts-based ISO-New England once again is offering incentives to operators of gas- and oil-fired power plants to procure sufficient fuel before winter begins. The grid operator used the program last winter as a precaution if extended periods of cold weather result in shortages of natural gas available to power plants that run on the fuel.“Reliable power system operations depends on sufficient resources, adequate fuel supplies, and available infrastructure for both fuel and electricity delivery,” Vamsi Chadalavada, executive vice president and chief operating officer of ISO New England, said this week in a statement. “The region should have adequate supplies of electricity to meet demand, barring any unforeseen resource outages or fuel delivery constraints.”About 44 percent of the total generating capacity in New England uses natural gas as its primary fuel, according to ISO-NE officials. That’s down from 49 percent in 2015. The network of transmission pipelines that brings natural gas into New England from other regions of the country is having an increasingly difficult time handling demand from both the residential sector and power plant operators. When periods of peak demand occur, capacity in those pipelines is at near-capacity, according to ISO-NE officials. Natural gas utilities serving residential customers purchase secure firm contracts with providers of the fuel, which means that their supply can’t be cut off during periods of peak demand.
Power plant operators who use natural gas to produce electricity, on the other hand, have interruptible service, which means if there isn’t enough capacity in pipelines during peak demand periods, their source gets cut off. A dearth in the development of natural gas transmission lines in New England has only made matters worse. Since 2007, pipeline expansions in the region added about 2.5 billion cubic feet of capacity were added, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But for the five year period from 2011 and 2015, there were no pipeline expansion projects done.That will change this year as the Algonquin Incremental Market Project is completed. The $972 million project, which is being done by Spectra Energy, is largest pipeline project since 2007 to transport natural gas into New England from outside the region, according to the Energy Information Administration. The pipeline will provide an additional 342 million cubic feet per day of pipeline capacity to the New England market.Spectra is also nearing completion of another project that will serve northeastern Massachusetts when it goes into service next June. The $63 million Salem Lateral Project will provide capacity for the Salem Harbor Power Plant, which was converted from coal-burning to operating on natural gas. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Ledyard Board of Education approves school plans
Ledyard — Plans to renovate two of the town's schools were approved by the town education board Wednesday night in preparation for the construction bidding process.The $65 million project will renovate and expand Gallup Hill School to accommodate students from Ledyard Center School, which will be demolished under the project. Ledyard Middle School will accept the town's sixth-graders.
Permanent Municipal Building Committee Chairman Steven Juskiewitz presented the plans developed by Silver + Petrucelli and Associates and a cost estimate generated by O&G Industries. He noted that the committee chose to include a few school features as "alternates" in the bid package to ensure it came under budget and on schdedule.
Board of Education member Rebecca Graeber offered Juskiewitz "big kudos ... for navigating all of the turns and twists that this project has taken," which included a last-minute delay of state funding during the last legislative session.
The final cost estimate was over budget by about $1.3 million, although the project still was carrying more than $3 million in contingency funding, as well as additional contingency funding.
The vote on both projects by the education board was unanimous. Going forward, local agencies such as Ledge Light Health District and the fire deparment will sign off on the plans, which will be presented to the state for a pre-construction review on Dec. 20.
n.lynch@theday.com
State to ask AG for injunction to halt Reid & Hughes demolition
HARTFORD - The State Historic Preservation Council on Wednesday voted to ask the attorney general for an injunction to halt demolition of the Reid & Hughes building, saying in essence that it believes there's a viable alternative to razing the crumbling downtown Norwich landmark.
Norwich city officials including City Manager John Salomone said the structure's condition is too deteriorated to save.
Preservation advocates, including city historian and Norwich Heritage Trust President Dale Plummer, say a $5.5 million plan by the Women's Institute in Hartford to renovate the building into housing will work, especially with a new proposal by New London resident Bill Morse to invest $200,000 to shore up the building until work could begin.
Redeveloping Brainard Airport too costly
A legislative committee has recommended that Hartford-Brainard Airport remain open in its current use.
Though Hartford officials have said the 200-acre airport, which fronts the Connecticut River and has 111 employees on site, could be redeveloped to generate more property taxes for the city, the Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee (PRI) said Wednesday that there's no clear path forward for closing the airport anytime soon.
PRI said in its final report that closure "would be extremely difficult and likely costly," and would require an unlikely federal approval or waiting until 2035, when federal grant obligations expire.
Closure and subsequent remediation and construction -- perhaps of a warehousing facility -- would also require "significant public funds," according to the report, and could take as long as several decades.
While it doesn't support closure, PRI called for higher payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) allotments for the state's general aviation airports. Hartford received a $479,000 PILOT payment from the state for Brainard in fiscal year 2015. That was $734,000 less than the city would have received if the land alone were on the tax rolls, PRI said.
The committee noted that the Connecticut Airport Authority (CAA) and Brainard's operator have invested in the airport and plan to continue to do so. Brainard, which houses a flight school, has secured a new charter service, is building a restaurant, has proposed building more indoor aircraft storage space, and has plans to extend its runway to accommodate larger aircraft. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Developers Planning Apartments in Long Dormant Downtown Hartford Buildings
HARTFORD — The New York firms that converted a decaying hotel on Constitution Plaza into apartments now plan a $50 million rental project for an eyesore in the heart of downtown, a renewed sign that developers remain optimistic and willing to invest in the city.
The partnership of Girona Ventures and Wonder Works Construction and Development Corp. plan to convert two long-vacant buildings 95-101 and 111 Pearl Street, at the corner with Trumbull Street into a total of 255 rentals with parking in a garage around the corner on Lewis Street.
The developers, who collaborated on the recent conversion of the former Sonesta hotel into the 190-unit Spectra apartments, said they remain bullish on Hartford -- even more so than when they purchased the old hotel in 2011.
"Spectra has been a very good experience for us," Jeffrey D. Ravetz, president of Girona Ventures, said Wednesday. "It's been successful in that we are fully leased, it looks beautiful and its been well received as a historic restoration."
Ravetz said he forecasts demand will continue, noting that 75 percent of Spectra's tenants come from out of state, 40 percent of those from outside the country. He doesn't see the downtown rental vacancy rate of 5 percent changing much even as more apartments are added.
Since 2013, rental projects in the downtown area have added more than 600 units, the majority subsidized with loans or equity investments from the Capital Region Development Authority. The conversions have ranged from six units in a historic building on Lewis Street to 286 apartments in a former office tower on Main Street.By next summer, the number will approach more than 1,000 with the conversion of the top floors of the Radisson hotel near the city's new minor league ballpark.
The new apartments are aimed at attracting more people to live downtown and boost vibrancy beyond the traditional work day and on weekends.
The administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has set aside $120 million for boosting housing initiatives in downtown Hartford administered by the authority, with a goal of adding 2,000 new units by the end of 2018. A majority of the authority-backed projects are mixed income, but favor market-rate rents. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Plan to Remake Hartford's Union Station Don't Include Trains
Plans to transform the historic Union Station as part of replacing the I-84 viaduct are sparking criticism, particularly about a new parking garage that could be built next door.
The Greater Hartford Transit District envisions a new train depot farther west on Asylum Avenue. A bigger bus depot would be built on the parking lot across Spruce Street as part of a three-level parking garage with at least 500 spaces. A skywalk from the garage would connect to the new train station on Asylum Avenue.
But the massive scale of the parking garage and the potential of a skywalk removing people from the street — shown in recently released renderings — has caught some off guard.
"I was surprised and disappointed at the lack of thoughtful design for an urban setting," Frank H. Hagaman, executive director of the Hartford Preservation Alliance, said. "You have a big, blank cube that I see as completely uninviting to the pedestrian."
Hagaman said the renderings ignore key elements that Hartford is working to incorporate to make downtown more walkable. The parking garage fails to include shops, restaurants or even residential components at street-level facing Spruce Street or Asylum Avenue — key to making walks interesting and creating a perception of safety, Hagaman said.
Sara C. Bronin, chairman of the city's planning and zoing commission, said she is concerned how the parking garage dominates the design when the city is trying the emphasize the use of other modes of public transportation."These initial concepts need more refinement to ensure that the project better relates to the existing historic fabric, Bushnell Park, Spruce Street and Asylum Avenue," Bronin, wife of Mayor Luke Bronin, said.
The transit district sees its plan unfolding in three phases over the next decade or so.
The first phase is aimed at further boosting the vitality of Union Station, built in 1889 out of rough-hewn brownstone from a Portland quarry and once the grandest train station in the state. Shops and restaurants would be added in the now cavernous great hall, looking forward to a time when the space could be used for banquet or meeting space. As part of this, Bear's Smokehouse is expected to open a cafe, including a menu with wine and beer, early next year. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE