Jordan Grice
Finding housing in southwestern Connecticut is never easy. For families below the area median income, the search can be even more arduous.
Demand for affordable housing in Fairfield County continues to outpace supply, leaving some towns looking for ways to boost their inventory. With hundreds of units of apartments slated for construction in the town of Fairfield, officials in the coastal town are looking to address the demand for affordable housing any way they can.
“The lack of affordable housing in Fairfield County is at a crisis level of need,” said Carol Martin, executive director of the town’s housing authority.
While the state maintains a goal of affordable housing accounting for 10 percent of the housing stock in municipalities, Fairfield, like most towns, lags most of the region at about 2.5 percent, according to reports from the state.
Fairfield’s housing authority and its affiliates currently maintain three separate wait lists for its affordable housing and rental assistance program.
“The average wait time on any of these lists are six to eight years,” said Martin in an email to Hearst Connecticut Media. “My office receives approximately three to five calls a day from individuals and families needing affordable housing.” To Fairfield’s director of economic development, Mark Barnhart, the current state of affordable housing in Fairfield is “very much a work in progress.”
He said town officials have been working to address the issue for years, citing the town’s affordable housing plan that had previously been updated in 2014.The Representative Town Meeting adopted an ordinance establishing a housing trust fund during the spring. The trust fund was included in recommendations in the updated housing plan.
The ordinance allows for funds gathered from state and federal grants, donations and more to go to facilitate construction of affordable housing.
In recent years the committee has adopted an inclusionary zoning regulation that requires developers constructing 10 or more housing units to allocate at least 10 percent of their apartments as affordable or below market rate.
Ongoing projects like the second Fairfield Trademark development on Commerce Drive are slated to bring more than 500 rental units to the Fairfield’s market and, with it, a boost to the affordable housing stock.
“It’s an ongoing need,” Barnhart said. “There are some units that are not subject to need restrictions, but still meet affordability criteria. But still the need and demand outweighs the supply at this time.”
Statewide, as well, demand for affordable housing remains a serious issue.In the last eight years, however, the issue has hit some long-awaited momentum, according to Daniel Arsenault, legislative program manager for the state Department of Housing.
Since 2011, the state has invested $1.42 billion in the development of affordable housing, matched by roughly $2.5 billion in non-state sources in the development of affordable housing including the private sector. As a result, the department has funded nearly 25,000 units of affordable housing, according to Arsenault.
“In almost 30 years we didn’t have a state focus on building affordable housing and we need to make up for that,” he said.
There are still several barriers to address, according to Erin Boggs, executive director of Hartford-based nonprofit Open Communities Alliance, which addresses opportunity disparities, including in housing.
One long-standing barrier, she said, concerns outdated and exclusionary zoning ordinances, especially in the suburbs. The vast majority of affordable housing in southwestern Connecticut is in the cities.
“In addition to land costs are all kinds of zoning barriers, so the number of towns that have serious restrictions where multifamily and affordable units can be built is significant,” she said. “Until we see start to see a change in that element of how local government runs in Fairfield County, it’s hard to imagine that we are going to see a change in where affordable housing is located.
Work on Route 6 in Bristol faces further delays
BRIAN M. JOHNSON
BRISTOL - Construction along Route 6 is expected to be delayed until next fall due to relocation of shallow utilities says project engineer Juan Ruiz with the Department of Transportation.
“The project is going a little slower than we would have liked,” said Ruiz on Thursday. “We encountered a lot of utilities that were in the way and had to be relocated. The water main around the Camp Street area had to be relocated. We also relocated a portion of the gas main around ShopRite. Eversource will be continuing a significant portion of these works throughout the winter months.”
Ruiz said utilities underneath the road are “too shallow.”
“Back in the day, no one worried about how deep they were going and took the path of least resistance, and 20 or 30 years later, we are paying the price,” said Ruiz. “These utilities are buried too shallow to protect them from rust and they need to go deeper.”
Construction crews are finishing temporary driveways, sidewalks and curbing. However, during the winter, a temporary patch will be put on the road, traffic lines will be drawn and it will be reopened to the public. Work is expected to resume starting next spring.
The project was originally slated to wind up in November. Ruiz said the new estimate is next year, around August or September.
“The overall goal is to widen the road, add an extra lane and make safety improvements,” said Ruiz. “Traffic lights will also be upgraded and coordinated in order to improve the flow of traffic. They will all turn green at the same time.”
The stretch of Route 6 affected by the project runs from its intersection with Carol Drive in Bristol to the Peggy Lane intersection in Farmington.
The planning for the project took into consideration input from an online community survey conducted in 2016.
Only 1 percent of those who filled out the survey said they felt the corridor was fine as is. Seventy percent said there should be additional turning lanes and half said travel lanes should be added. Thirty-five percent said improvements to sidewalks and crosswalks were needed in some areas.
The project was awarded to Empire Paving in fall 2016, at a cost of $12.87 million. Eighty percent of the project cost is covered by federal funding and the rest is matched by municipalities.
Opening Of Third Travel Lane On I-84 in Waterbury Pushed Back To Sunday Night
Kenneth R. Gosselin
The opening of a third lane on I-84 westbound in Waterbury — expected to ease congestion — has been pushed back until at least Sunday night, the state transportation department said Saturday.
The third lane was expected to open Friday night, but this week’s heavy rains delayed completion of the section of the highway stretching from Washington Street to Austin Road, said Kevin Nursick, a DOT spokesman.
“We’re almost there,” Nursick said. “The weather has pushed us back a tiny bit.”
At the latest, the third travel lane will be open by the Monday morning commute at 6 a.m., Nursick said. Chris Zukowski, a DOT project manager, said the rainy weather delayed the painting of new stripes to mark the travel lanes on the roughly 3-mile stretch of highway.
For years, drivers endured back-ups in Waterbury while construction was underway. Last month, state officials announced the opening of a third eastbound lane.
D.C. judge deals setback to East Windsor casino
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A federal judge dealt a significant blow over the weekend to the ability of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations to jointly build a casino in East Windsor that would compete with MGM Resorts’ new casino in nearby Springfield.
In a 58-page decision filed Saturday, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia ruled that Connecticut and the Mashantucket Pequots have no legal standing to compel Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to accept revisions to the state’s existing gambling agreement with the tribe.
Connecticut’s authorization of the East Windsor casino in 2017 was contingent on Interior accepting the revisions as a means to guarantee the new project would not jeopardize the state’s current revenue sharing deal with the two tribal casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. Without Zinke’s approval, the East Windsor project is blocked indefinitely.
Contreras approved the federal government’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit by Connecticut and the tribe, and he granted MGM the right to intervene if the state and tribe appeal his decision.
“The thorough and unambiguous federal court ruling can only be seen as a clear rejection of the Tribes’ insistent efforts to obtain a no-bid commercial casino license in Connecticut,” MGM said in a statement Sunday night. “It has become increasingly apparent that the Tribes’ promises of legal victory, no matter how often they are repeated, prove hollow.”
The tribes’ spokesman could not be reached for comment.
The state attorney general’s office said, “We are disappointed with the Court’s ruling, which we are continuing to review as we evaluate possible next steps.”With lobbying and litigation, MGM and the tribes have been fighting for years in Connecticut and Washington over casino expansion. The East Windsor casino, which would be the first in the state off tribal lands, was conceived by the tribes as a way to blunt the loss of market share to Springfield, just a dozen miles away.
A revenue sharing deal struck in the early 1990s complicates any new gambling in the state. In return for 25 percent of the gross slots revenue at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, the state granted the tribal owners exclusive rights to all forms of casino gambling — meaning open competition for a new casino could cost the state millions.
The revenue-sharing deal produced a high of $430 million for the state in 2007, but revenues dropped in the face of new competition in New York and Rhode Island to $270 million in 2017. With MGM Springfield opening in August and a second one under construction outside Boston, the slots revenue is projected to drop precipitously.
Failing to bock the East Windsor authorization at the General Assembly, MGM has lobbied Interior, arguing that it has no obligation under IGRA, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, to facilitate a commercial casino off tribal lands, even if owned by federally recognized tribes.
It was Connecticut that put Interior into the decision process, not IGRA, the federal government argued.
“Because the Court concludes that the IGRA does not require the Secretary to take the steps asserted by Plaintiffs, the Court must consider Defendants’ argument that Plaintiffs have failed to state claims upon which relief may be granted,” the judge wrote.
When Interior did not act on the revisions to the state’s gambling agreements with the two tribes, the state and tribes sued in the federal court. Members of the state’s congressional delegation also sought an investigation by the Inspector General about whether the department was improperly influenced by MGM.
Interior seemed to relent in May, accepting revisions to the Mohegans’ gambling compact with Connecticut. “We are pleased that the department is taking this step and we expect similar action on the Mashantucket Pequot tribal amendments in the very near future,” Andrew Doba, a spokesman for the tribes’ joint venture, said at the time.
But it turned out Interior had no such intent.
For technical reasons, Interior had less discretion in dealing with the Mohegan revisions. The Mohegans conduct their gambling operations under a negotiated state-tribal compact. Revisions to those compacts must be accepted or rejected within strict time periods.
But the Pequots, whose federal recognition came first, were unable to negotiate a compact with the state. Its deal with the state came after a federal lawsuit and was negotiated under the alternative terms using what are called “secretarial procedures.” The court said Interior is under no obligation to act on revisions to an agreement adopted vs secretarial procedures.
Late last year, MGM created a new complication, striking a deal with a Bridgeport property owner to build a $650 million gambling resort on the city’s waterfront. The deal is contingent on the General Assembly opening Connecticut to casino competition, ending its exclusivity deal with the tribes.
MGM says it could match or exceed the benefits of the tribal deal with a commercial casino.
“Connecticut residents are best served by the state spending less time in court and more time on real opportunities to maximize economic development and job creation,” MGM said Sunday. “That’s why each passing month makes it more obvious that the most productive path forward for Connecticut is to pass legislation calling for competitive bids on any new commercial casino in the state, and to get started on that process.”
Nearly 2,000 Bidders Participate in Ritchie Auction in North Franklin
More than 1,850 bidders participated online and in person at Ritchie Bros.' multi-million-dollar unreserved public equipment auction in North Franklin, Conn., on Sept. 21, 2018.
With bidders from 36 countries, approximately 80 percent of the equipment in the auction was sold to out-of-state buyers, from as far away as Korea, Peru and Australia. Online bidders purchased approximately 47 percent of the equipment sold (by dollar value).
More than 1,000 equipment items and trucks were sold in the auction, including excavators, compactors, skid steers, loaders, dozers, aerial work platforms, truck tractors and more.
Ruiz said utilities underneath the road are “too shallow.”
“Back in the day, no one worried about how deep they were going and took the path of least resistance, and 20 or 30 years later, we are paying the price,” said Ruiz. “These utilities are buried too shallow to protect them from rust and they need to go deeper.”
Construction crews are finishing temporary driveways, sidewalks and curbing. However, during the winter, a temporary patch will be put on the road, traffic lines will be drawn and it will be reopened to the public. Work is expected to resume starting next spring.
The project was originally slated to wind up in November. Ruiz said the new estimate is next year, around August or September.
“The overall goal is to widen the road, add an extra lane and make safety improvements,” said Ruiz. “Traffic lights will also be upgraded and coordinated in order to improve the flow of traffic. They will all turn green at the same time.”
The stretch of Route 6 affected by the project runs from its intersection with Carol Drive in Bristol to the Peggy Lane intersection in Farmington.
The planning for the project took into consideration input from an online community survey conducted in 2016.
Only 1 percent of those who filled out the survey said they felt the corridor was fine as is. Seventy percent said there should be additional turning lanes and half said travel lanes should be added. Thirty-five percent said improvements to sidewalks and crosswalks were needed in some areas.
The project was awarded to Empire Paving in fall 2016, at a cost of $12.87 million. Eighty percent of the project cost is covered by federal funding and the rest is matched by municipalities.
Opening Of Third Travel Lane On I-84 in Waterbury Pushed Back To Sunday Night
Kenneth R. Gosselin
The opening of a third lane on I-84 westbound in Waterbury — expected to ease congestion — has been pushed back until at least Sunday night, the state transportation department said Saturday.
The third lane was expected to open Friday night, but this week’s heavy rains delayed completion of the section of the highway stretching from Washington Street to Austin Road, said Kevin Nursick, a DOT spokesman.
“We’re almost there,” Nursick said. “The weather has pushed us back a tiny bit.”
At the latest, the third travel lane will be open by the Monday morning commute at 6 a.m., Nursick said. Chris Zukowski, a DOT project manager, said the rainy weather delayed the painting of new stripes to mark the travel lanes on the roughly 3-mile stretch of highway.
For years, drivers endured back-ups in Waterbury while construction was underway. Last month, state officials announced the opening of a third eastbound lane.
D.C. judge deals setback to East Windsor casino
|
A federal judge dealt a significant blow over the weekend to the ability of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations to jointly build a casino in East Windsor that would compete with MGM Resorts’ new casino in nearby Springfield.
In a 58-page decision filed Saturday, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia ruled that Connecticut and the Mashantucket Pequots have no legal standing to compel Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to accept revisions to the state’s existing gambling agreement with the tribe.
Connecticut’s authorization of the East Windsor casino in 2017 was contingent on Interior accepting the revisions as a means to guarantee the new project would not jeopardize the state’s current revenue sharing deal with the two tribal casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. Without Zinke’s approval, the East Windsor project is blocked indefinitely.
Contreras approved the federal government’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit by Connecticut and the tribe, and he granted MGM the right to intervene if the state and tribe appeal his decision.
“The thorough and unambiguous federal court ruling can only be seen as a clear rejection of the Tribes’ insistent efforts to obtain a no-bid commercial casino license in Connecticut,” MGM said in a statement Sunday night. “It has become increasingly apparent that the Tribes’ promises of legal victory, no matter how often they are repeated, prove hollow.”
The tribes’ spokesman could not be reached for comment.
The state attorney general’s office said, “We are disappointed with the Court’s ruling, which we are continuing to review as we evaluate possible next steps.”With lobbying and litigation, MGM and the tribes have been fighting for years in Connecticut and Washington over casino expansion. The East Windsor casino, which would be the first in the state off tribal lands, was conceived by the tribes as a way to blunt the loss of market share to Springfield, just a dozen miles away.
A revenue sharing deal struck in the early 1990s complicates any new gambling in the state. In return for 25 percent of the gross slots revenue at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, the state granted the tribal owners exclusive rights to all forms of casino gambling — meaning open competition for a new casino could cost the state millions.
The revenue-sharing deal produced a high of $430 million for the state in 2007, but revenues dropped in the face of new competition in New York and Rhode Island to $270 million in 2017. With MGM Springfield opening in August and a second one under construction outside Boston, the slots revenue is projected to drop precipitously.
Failing to bock the East Windsor authorization at the General Assembly, MGM has lobbied Interior, arguing that it has no obligation under IGRA, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, to facilitate a commercial casino off tribal lands, even if owned by federally recognized tribes.
It was Connecticut that put Interior into the decision process, not IGRA, the federal government argued.
“Because the Court concludes that the IGRA does not require the Secretary to take the steps asserted by Plaintiffs, the Court must consider Defendants’ argument that Plaintiffs have failed to state claims upon which relief may be granted,” the judge wrote.
When Interior did not act on the revisions to the state’s gambling agreements with the two tribes, the state and tribes sued in the federal court. Members of the state’s congressional delegation also sought an investigation by the Inspector General about whether the department was improperly influenced by MGM.
Interior seemed to relent in May, accepting revisions to the Mohegans’ gambling compact with Connecticut. “We are pleased that the department is taking this step and we expect similar action on the Mashantucket Pequot tribal amendments in the very near future,” Andrew Doba, a spokesman for the tribes’ joint venture, said at the time.
But it turned out Interior had no such intent.
For technical reasons, Interior had less discretion in dealing with the Mohegan revisions. The Mohegans conduct their gambling operations under a negotiated state-tribal compact. Revisions to those compacts must be accepted or rejected within strict time periods.
But the Pequots, whose federal recognition came first, were unable to negotiate a compact with the state. Its deal with the state came after a federal lawsuit and was negotiated under the alternative terms using what are called “secretarial procedures.” The court said Interior is under no obligation to act on revisions to an agreement adopted vs secretarial procedures.
Late last year, MGM created a new complication, striking a deal with a Bridgeport property owner to build a $650 million gambling resort on the city’s waterfront. The deal is contingent on the General Assembly opening Connecticut to casino competition, ending its exclusivity deal with the tribes.
MGM says it could match or exceed the benefits of the tribal deal with a commercial casino.
“Connecticut residents are best served by the state spending less time in court and more time on real opportunities to maximize economic development and job creation,” MGM said Sunday. “That’s why each passing month makes it more obvious that the most productive path forward for Connecticut is to pass legislation calling for competitive bids on any new commercial casino in the state, and to get started on that process.”
Nearly 2,000 Bidders Participate in Ritchie Auction in North Franklin
More than 1,850 bidders participated online and in person at Ritchie Bros.' multi-million-dollar unreserved public equipment auction in North Franklin, Conn., on Sept. 21, 2018.
With bidders from 36 countries, approximately 80 percent of the equipment in the auction was sold to out-of-state buyers, from as far away as Korea, Peru and Australia. Online bidders purchased approximately 47 percent of the equipment sold (by dollar value).
More than 1,000 equipment items and trucks were sold in the auction, including excavators, compactors, skid steers, loaders, dozers, aerial work platforms, truck tractors and more.