SOUTHINGTON — Two large subdivisions under construction could be the last of their kind, according to one developer.
Mark Lovley, a home builder and local developer, said he has sold or has under deposit all but nine lots at his 94-lot North Ridge Estates off Welch Road. He said his subdivision. along with Tony Denorfia’s 72-lot development on Loper Street, may be the last developments of their scale in Southington. “Those are going to be the last, biggest ones you’re going to see,” Lovley said Monday.
Denorfia, another local developer, was more cautious about saying the town was out of large parcels to develop.“That’s what they said 30 years ago,” Denorfia said, although he agreed Loper Street and the development off Welch Road could be among the last on larger tracts of land.
Denorfia will close on eight houses in the next few months and has 14 under deposit. They range in size from 2,300 to 3,000 square feet and cost from $440,000 to nearly $600,000. Houses at North Ridge Estates range from 2,500 to 4,000 square feet. Lovley said buyers wanted larger houses than he expected, pushing up the square footage as well as the price. Homes have sold for $640,000 to nearly $1 million.
Lovley was surprised how fast homes adjacent to North Ridge Golf Club have sold.
“The golf course is really what’s pushing that,” Lovley said.
He’s expecting to receive federal approval for a redesign of the golf course’s pond, deepening it and expanding it from half an acre to two acres. He’s also building a new clubhouse with a 200-seat banquet facility and restaurant and working on getting heated golf carts to deliver food to nearby houses.
Lovley bought the former Pine Valley Golf Course in 2014 and got approval to build 94 homes on a portion of the land. He also got town approval to develop half the site in exchange for giving the town 10 acres of open space and development rights on the remaining nine holes. Those development rights keep more houses from being built on the course.
While there are some larger properties off West Street that could be developed, Lovley said, power lines limit how many homes can fit on the parcels. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
According to data from the Census Bureau, spending in these areas totaled 1.4 percent of the country's economic output for the second quarter of this year, the New York Times reported. What's more, governments across 34 states spent less money in 2016 on state construction projects than they did in 2007, and this year, spending on such projects in June was down 9.5 percent from the same time in 2016.
In West Virginia, spending on public works projects has been declining for five years in a row, and Arizona has been cutting back consistently since 2007 to instead use the funds for services such as Medicaid and prisons, the New York Times reported.
While a lack of funds is one issue facing infrastructure projects, a lack of workers also is a concern. Highway construction jobs in July were 2.4 percent below the prerecession level, the New York Times reported. There are fewer workers available to build roads, and the ones who are, already have jobs, making it difficult for the industry to find workers to fill open positions.
Coming Up With the Cash
While states have cut back on new construction, they also have delayed projects to repair and maintain existing infrastructure. Roads take up about one third of annual public works spending, with the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax providing the most funding. But, the gas tax hasn't been raised in 14 years, and would need to be raised to 31 cents per gallon in order to “restore its buying power,” the New York Times reported.
Transportation for America, an advocacy group, said that 31 states have increased transportation funding in one way or another since 2012. Just this year, Indiana increased its gas tax, indexing it to future inflation, California passed its first gas tax in more than 20 years and West Virginia passed a slew of higher taxes, including a gas tax increase, which is slated to increase road funding by $140 million per year. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Trump to sign executive order Tuesday on infrastructure projects
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday "establishing discipline and accountability in the environmental review and permitting process for infrastructure projects," the White House said in a statement on Monday.
Trump, who is visiting his residence at Trump Tower in New York City, will also participate in a discussion on infrastructure and give a statement on the subject at 3:45 p.m. (1945 GMT). The White House did not give additional details on the executive order.
Trump, who was a real estate developer before becoming president, made rebuilding the country's crumbling infrastructure a top campaign issue.
He has proposed leveraging $200 billion in government spending into $1 trillion of projects to privatize the air traffic control system, strengthen rural infrastructure and repair bridges, roads and waterways. In June, Trump said one of the biggest obstacles to new infrastructure projects was "the painfully slow, costly and time-consuming process for getting permits and approvals to build."