WEST HAVEN — Construction on Yale New Haven Health Services Corp.’s new 142,000-square-foot medical regional operations center on the former Sursum Corda/Acorn Technology Park property off Route 34 is expected to begin in spring, after the Planning & Zoning Commission approved its application Tuesday night.
Yale New Haven Health bought the property from an affiliate of former Starter Corp. CEO David Beckerman’s Acorn Group last August for about $8 million. Both then-Mayor Ed O’Brien and current Mayor Nancy Rossi hailed the project at the time.
The unanimous approval of the project’s site plan and two special permits came over the objections of a number of area neighbors concerned about possible noise, traffic, light pollution and truck traffic late at night and early in the morning.
They also expressed concerns about possible Native American burial sites in the area and how the project on the 116-acre site on former water authority land might affect their property values.
“No one in the neighborhood has objections to the development of property. It’s the type of development that has caused objections in this case,” said Yates Street resident Lesley Roche Lopes.
Gerald York, also of Yates Street, questioned the applicant’s traffic estimate, saying, “176 trucks per day, into and out of this site, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” and asked, “Does that present a ... burden to someone” who pays taxes and lives nearby. With that much traffic, he said he worries about both diesel and noise pollution, and asked commission members, “Would you purchase a house that’s 800 feet from a facility that has 176 trucks going in and out a day? My answer is no.”
York said he has an investment of around $360,000 in his property, doesn’t think he could sell it for much more than $180,000 right now and worries that once the project is built, he might not be able to sell it at all.
“This will radically alter the quality of life of every person whose property abuts this,” he said.The PZC, after a separate public hearing, also unanimously approved two applications related to The Haven upscale outlet mall, including several zoning regulation text changes and the addition of several properties to the Waterfront Design District zoning map. In a presentation at the start of the Yale New Haven Health hearing, Yale New Haven Health Vice President of Facilities Stephen Carberry, who was joined by lawyer Susan Hayes of Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, at least two architects and several consultants, said the regional operations center would be “more than just a central warehouse center ... This facility will allow us to buy directly from suppliers and then district (supplies) to all our facilities.”
He said it was similar to systems set up by health care systems elsewhere in the country The West Haven site was chosen from 10 different possible sites across the state because it was central to New Haven, where the largest amount of the supplies would be going.
“We’re very lucky that we were able to find this this close,” he said. Yale New Haven Health officials “also want to be good neighbors” so they were “careful about the way we oriented the building,” Carberry said. After initially coming up with a plan that had the facility’s 20 truck loading bays facing Plainfield Avenue, “we flipped it around so that the truck bays would not be facing the residents,” he said.
Development work will be done in a “green” manner, as much as possible, he said.
Architect Daniel Granniss, principal with the SLAM Collaborative’s Glastonbury office, pointed out that while the proposed building would be 142,000 square feet, have 120 parking spaces and employ 102 people on two shifts, it was much smaller than what previously was approved as part of the Acorn application, which totaled about 1 million square feet. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
$55M for arts school: Magnet school closer to state funding
BRISTOL - The Board of Finance appropriate and bonded about $54.8 million for the design of the upgrade and renovation of the Memorial Boulevard School as an intradistrict arts magnet school Tuesday night.
They also voted to make the $13.2 million it appropriated and bonded on July 25, 2017, for phase one of the Memorial Boulevard theater project, part of the $54 million appropriation. It also recommended the matters to the joint board of the City Council and finance board.
The Board or Education filed an application for state funding for the Memorial Boulevard Intradistrict Arts Magnet School project in November, explained Sue Moreau, superintendent of Bristol schools.
The appropriation of $54.8 million is the total cost of the magnet school project, which includes renovating the auditorium at Memorial Boulevard School into a theater, Moreau explained. Having a resolution for that appropriation is the last item needed for that application, she said.
The $54.8 million appropriation will cover construction, renovation and expansion of the entire building, converting the auditorium into a theater, hazardous material work and installing high-performance mechanical building systems, explained Tim Callahan, facilities manager for Bristol schools.
The anticipated reimbursement rate from the state for the project is 68.93 percent of the total cost, however, the school board reduced that anticipated reimbursement by five percent to have a conservative estimate, Callahan said.
The city is expected to spend around “$6.5 million to get the entire building brand new” in addition to the $13.2 million that was previously appropriated, with that anticipated, conservative reimbursement rate, Callahan said.
If the school board does not receive the state funding, the $13.2 million will have to remain bonded, said John Smith, vice chair of the finance board.
Though, the school board plans to continue to pursue funding in the future if the state funding does not come forward, Moreau noted.
The school board hopes to hear back about the state funding in February, but it could take a little longer, Moreau said. The magnet school would not open until 2020-21 or 2021-22 and be for grades six through 12, she added. About 40 people attended the meeting in the Harriet C. North Community Room on the second floor of City Hall.
In a presentation at the start of the Yale New Haven Health hearing, Yale New Haven Health Vice President of Facilities Stephen Carberry, who was joined by lawyer Susan Hayes of Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, at least two architects and several consultants, said the regional operations center would be “more than just a central warehouse center ... This facility will allow us to buy directly from suppliers and then district (supplies) to all our facilities.”The Board or Education filed an application for state funding for the Memorial Boulevard Intradistrict Arts Magnet School project in November, explained Sue Moreau, superintendent of Bristol schools.
The appropriation of $54.8 million is the total cost of the magnet school project, which includes renovating the auditorium at Memorial Boulevard School into a theater, Moreau explained. Having a resolution for that appropriation is the last item needed for that application, she said.
The $54.8 million appropriation will cover construction, renovation and expansion of the entire building, converting the auditorium into a theater, hazardous material work and installing high-performance mechanical building systems, explained Tim Callahan, facilities manager for Bristol schools.
The anticipated reimbursement rate from the state for the project is 68.93 percent of the total cost, however, the school board reduced that anticipated reimbursement by five percent to have a conservative estimate, Callahan said.
The city is expected to spend around “$6.5 million to get the entire building brand new” in addition to the $13.2 million that was previously appropriated, with that anticipated, conservative reimbursement rate, Callahan said.
If the school board does not receive the state funding, the $13.2 million will have to remain bonded, said John Smith, vice chair of the finance board.
Though, the school board plans to continue to pursue funding in the future if the state funding does not come forward, Moreau noted.
The school board hopes to hear back about the state funding in February, but it could take a little longer, Moreau said. The magnet school would not open until 2020-21 or 2021-22 and be for grades six through 12, she added. About 40 people attended the meeting in the Harriet C. North Community Room on the second floor of City Hall.
CT’s clean energy edge: Going, going . . . or coming back?
Michael Brookman, the president and founder of a clean-energy startup in Connecticut, was pretty sure he had a good idea. It was a small unit that could make an existing boiler more efficient and provide heat and power to individual homes – even during a power outage.
From home base in Branford he began looking around for a state partner. He finally found one, so on Feb. 1 Brash Power and its anticipated assembly plant jobs will relocate to a clean energy incubator in Binghamton, N.Y., under the auspices of NYSERDA – the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority.
As for Connecticut: “They just sent us a ‘Dear John’ letter,” Brookman said.
Basically, he said, Connecticut blew it. “I think they did,” he said. “It shows a lack of curiosity on the part of the state that they’re not interested in funding new and potentially better ideas. I think it’s short-sighted.”
The missed opportunity with Brash Power is thought by some legislators and advocates to be symbolic of Connecticut’s current state of clean and renewable energy policy, commitment and business.
Once a national leader in these categories, in recent years the state has slipped behind many others, including neighbors New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, each of which is pursing aggressive, if not radical, clean energy agendas and taking risks with policies never attempted before.
But arguably, the state began slipping only a few years after the initial flurry of game-changing energy programs were instituted at the start of the Malloy administration. Critics blame the kind of short-sightedness that sent Brookman to the exit and often results in too much focus on present high electric rates instead of long-term electricity costs paired with climate change benefits.
The question among clean-energy advocates is whether Connecticut can once again become a leader and gain the economic benefits they believe will follow.
“I don’t think we’ve fallen behind,” said Rob Klee, the commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for the last four years. “I think we’re still continuing the policies and programs started in the Malloy administration. We’ve been, frankly, undercut by the legislature.”
Klee took over from Dan Esty, who created DEEP from the Department of Environmental Protection and who many – while still praising Klee – said had a style of assertive leadership and a bold vision that seems to be missing now.
“He was a thought leader about what things needed to happen. He articulated the argument for Connecticut’s energy future,” said Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, a member of the Energy and Technology Committee. “Certainly we’ve lost our momentum. Are we putting ourselves at a competitive disadvantage? Absolutely. Is it over yet? I think that’s arguable.”
It would take a lot of catching up, according to a new analysis by Acadia Center, the environmental advocacy group that operates throughout New England and New York. Acadia looked at nearly two-dozen benchmarks in four energy categories – electricity, transportation, grid modernization and buildings – and Connecticut tops only one – electric vehicle incentives. Not too many years ago Connecticut topped most of them.
New York, with its Renewing the Energy Vision grid modernization and top-to-bottom re-imagination of electricity generation and distribution, is a clear national and regional leader. Massachusetts, under Democratic and Republican governors, has instituted sweeping policies with aggressive renewable energy projects, including a mandate for 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind.
Connecticut, once the most aggressive states in the country on its renewable portfolio standard (RPS) – how much renewable energy that it requires be used – doesn’t even register on regional assessments anymore. At one time the state was a national leader on energy efficiency, but that is likely to change since $127 million in energy efficiency funding was removed from the two-year state budget to help close the deficit.
“It feels like we’re a little bit back to square one on energy efficiency in Connecticut in 2018,” said Bill Dornbos, Hartford-based advocacy director and senior attorney for Acadia.
Programs like Lead By Example, which was designed to upgrade the efficiency of energy systems in state buildings, thereby saving the state money, have languished. The popular and successful commercial clean-energy programs are a year past their scheduled expiration, have been given a one-year extension and are facing the possibility of another.
Plans for community solar – solar projects that make power available to homes unsuited for their own systems – have struggled for more than three years with a pilot project that’s still barely functional while many states – including Massachusetts – are putting up projects as fast as they can. And legislative battles over whether farmland should be used for renewable energy projects have derailed some and stalled others, while Massachusetts dealt with the same problem quickly with a tiered incentive system.
“We are still very far form reaching our climate goals. It’s not a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination,” said Rep. James Albis, D-East Haven, a former co-chair of the Environment Committee with expertise in environmental management and climate change-related policies. “I think we’ve still struggled in terms of getting as far as we really could in installing clean energy.”
Among the gripes expressed privately by advocates and some legislators, who are reluctant to criticize their colleagues publicly, is that the Energy and Technology Committee is too timid, too willing to accommodate the utilities, overly consumed with the Millstone Nuclear Power Station controversy – to the exclusion of other issues – and not well-versed in the admittedly complicated clean-energy world. All of it has been compounded by many changes in Senate leadership in the last few years.
Lawmakers complain the state’s Comprehensive Energy Strategy update, due to be released in the next week or so – is now a year-and-a-half late. Its draft version was widely criticized – called a failure by some – for policy changes, including a proposal that capped subsidies for home solar power in favor of grid-scale projects, that many felt would set the state even farther behind than it already seemed to be.
“I think our goals remain in place; this budget is killing everything we are trying to accomplish. Let’s be frank,” said Rep. Lonnie Reed, D-Branford, co-chair of the Energy Committee and one its few seasoned members. “I think the ideas are fabulous and the technology is fabulous. It’s a very exciting time. But then it has to play out in the real world.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE