Luther Turmelle
WALLINGFORD — Residents opposed to two giant warehouses being built on the former Bristol Myers Squibb complex on Research Parkway have upped the ante in their efforts to get development scuttled.
About 50 residents showed up at Tuesday’s Town Council meeting to urge councilors to oppose the project, which is currently before the Town’s Planning and Zoning Commission
The project needs a special permit from the PZC. And while the decision on whether to approve the project solely is the purview of the PZC, opponents urged council members to use what ever personal influence they might have with members of the zoning board.
Many who live in the residential neighborhood east of the proposed warehouse complex say they are troubled that Massachusetts-based Calare Properties, which bought the 180-acre corporate campus in February from Bristol Myers Squibb, isn’t identifying who the tenants are for the two warehouses that are being proposed. Calare’s plan calls for tearing down the 915,000-square-foot pharmaceutical research and development center and replacing it with two warehouses with 1.1 million square feet between them.
“What I find most disturbing ... is that developers have provided no numbers, no specifics,” said Hillary Greene, who lives on Marie Lane.
Jack Arrigoni, who lives on Martin Trail, said he is skeptical of claims by Calare representatives that the company doesn’t know which businesses will occupy the two warehouses.“For them to claim they don’t know who is going in there is nothing short of obfuscation,” Arrigoni said..
Dennis A. Ceneviva, a Meriden-based attorney representing Calare, told PZC members during a hearing earlier this month that the proposed warehouse complex “is not a tenant-driven project.”
“This is driven by e-commerce, and e-commerce is booming,” Ceneviva said.
James Heilman, who lives on High Hill Road, said the Muddy River flows through the former Bristol Myers Squibb property into Spring Lake and is ultimately part of the watershed of the town’s MacKenzie Reservior. Heilman said that when the company’s corporate complex was built more than three decades ago, construction of the facility had an impact on the watershed.
“It wasn’t that long ago that the town spent a lot of money dredging its water resources,” he said. “The Bristol Myers complex hurt them terribly. Knowing that, you should be rattled by this
Scott Gray, who lives on Oxford Trail next to Spring Lake, said the body of water has never fully recovered from when Bristol Myers was built.
“The upper portion of the lake is only a few inches deep because of all the silt that came from the site,” Gray said. “That complex was built at a significant cost to the environment.”Ed Bradley, who lives on Hampton Trail, said the proposed warehouse complex might increase runoff from rainwater in the area.“We have a lot of flooding in that area already,” Bradley said.
Newington town manager outlines vision for development around proposed Cedar Street train station
Kathleen McWilliams
A brewery, a diverse range of restaurants, offices, boutiques, art galleries and even a makers space are just some of the things Newington Town Manager Tanya Lane envisions for the area around the proposed Cedar Street train station.
At Tuesday night’s town council meeting, Lane shared her vision for the proposed Hartford Line stop.
“The DOT has shown us in the most simplistic terms what they would like to see developed. However, I have a bigger vision, one that can be transformative — building a village transit district,” she said.
Lane said she’d like to see Newington develop an attractive area around the station with “a vibe that attracts people to eat, drink and linger.”“And a brewery. I would love to see a brewery,” she added.
Lane said the area would include apartments, restaurants and shops that would attract residents and CTrail passengers.
“It has enormous potential for our grand list growth,” she said. “This would be a positive for Newington.”
The state Department of Transportation has proposed 565 Cedar St. in Newington as a potential location for a new Hartford Line stop. No formal timeline has been set for the project, but Lane said it would help if the town developed a village transit district zone to show interest in the project.
Lane asked the council on Tuesday to give her permission to draft regulations for the new zone so she could pass it on to the town plan and zoning commission. The council agreed to vote on the issue at its next meeting.
“I think the council needs a say in what is going to happen with the train station,” councilwoman Carol Anest said. “This is a great economic development opportunity to grow our grand list.”Anest said town needs to start planning for the development of the area around the proposed station.
“We do need to have a master plan. We can’t just put in a kiosk and see how it grows,” she said. “The problem going way back in this community is that we don’t have a master plan. … I think it is important to get ahead of this project and figure out a plan for the future.”
Councilwoman Gail Budjreko said she wasn’t sure that planning the development is the best idea.
“I’m not a dreamer, I’m more of a realist,” she said. “We could just see what developed naturally with some direction around it. I’m just not comfortable tonight to say yes this is what we should push for.”Councilman Jim Marocchini said he thought that development was a “fantastic idea.”
“This is the way I see Newington going,” he said.
New Haven planners approve Pirelli hotel conversion amid ‘turf war’
Mary E. O’Leary
NEW HAVEN — Visitors looking to stay in New Haven in the near future could have the choice of bedding down in the famous Marcel Breurer Modernist building on Sargent Drive, but it took a heated discussion Wednesday before a vote was taken to allow conversion to a hotel.
The debate was over jurisdiction and why an assertion from aldermanic leadership that it needed to first deal with the reuse of the building — something that for two months failed to generate a legal review — the City Plan Commission ultimately voted 3 in favor of the new use, one against and one abstaining.Attorney James Segaloff represented the owner of the property, Ikea , the Swedish furniture store, which sought to get all the necessary site plan approvals for the conversion in place so it would be an attractive investment for an interested hotel operator.
Segaloff said they had a high-end hoteliere who wants to run a 165-room hotel in the building, but he could not talk about that at this time. The potential delay in the approval Wednesday had all the hallmarks of the last fight involving a hotel plan before the commission, when an upgrade of the Duncan Hotel stalled over pressure to unionize the staff there that came from persons affiliated with UniteHERE. It eventually was approved.
The application for the reuse of the striking architectural structure, known locally as the Pirelli building, was signed off by the commission staff as having met all the necessary criteria.
The Ikea property was developed as a Planned Development District in 2002 and it has always been assumed that the Pirelli building would be put to a new use. A hotel reuse was among the potential conversions contained in the PDD.
The concrete Breurer tower originally was built as the headquarters for the Pirelli Tire Co., before the site was sold to Ikea.The proposal first was submitted to City Plan in early September, but approval was put off over extensive discussions about storm drainage and parking.
By this point, a vote had to be taken on the plan within about a week, according to zoning law, unless the developer requested a time extension. It would be approved automatically without an extension, if there was no voteAn angry Segaloff told the commission repeatedly over the hour that it should not abdicate its jurisdiction over this detailed site plan approval to alders, but there was concern from some members that it not generate a legal battle.
“The approval of the PDD in 2002 specifically allows for a hotel. .... I don’t get this. It is all very clear. We have been here for two or three months; we have had four or five meetings with site plan review. We have three of our people here — one came in from New York. We are ready to go and it is a clear black-and-white item,” the frustrated attorney said.
Seven leaders of the aldermanic board wrote to Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson Sept. 17 asking that the use change for the Pirelli building be sent to that body.“As you know the practice is for changes to current uses in a PDD to be communicated to the Board of Alders so that it many get proper consideration,” they wrote. The letter says it was copied to commission Chairman Edward Mattison, but he said he never got it.Segaloff said this turn of events was a complete surprise.Acting City Plan Executive Director Michael Piscitelli, after the meeting, said the letter did go to the corporation counsel’s office, but there was no ruling. “I think there was a lot of anticipation that if we could just get it resolved ... it was sort of a timing thing.” Piscitelli, when asked by Mattison earlier in the meeting, if they could discuss the plan, even if they never took a vote, said they could as a lot of people had come to the meeting.“But it is not something the city is prepared to recommend that you vote on tonight,” Piscitelli said. He said the technical review was done, but “in terms of where the city is as a corporate body, it is going to take a little bit more time to sort that out.”He offered that he did not think it was as big a dispute as “it is being played tonight.”
“I don’t mean to be obtuse here, but the idea that you can’t vote on it. What is the issue that the board is grappling with? Some internal amorphous issue? There is no issue,” Segaloff said. “What is behind this? What is this all about?”
“What is it really about?” another attorney asked from the audience.
Mattison said in other instances, if there was an internal city disagreement, “we want it resolved before we vote on it. We are not going to do it,” he pledged at that point, but admitted he was not sure what the issue was.
Anne Hartjen, senior project manager on the City Plan staff, commented: “I will say, and I will get in trouble for saying this, we would not have brought in a report if we did not feel it had met” the applicable requirements.
“I have heard absolutely no rebuttal” to the principle that the hotel is an acceptable use under the zoning laws, Segaloff’s partner advised the commission. “Your obligations are clearly set forth,” Segaloff said. He added that detailed plans do not go to the alders.
“If you walk away from this on some theory that it has got to go back to the alders to review it, then I think you have really abrogated your rights as a City Plan Commission,” Segaloff said.
Commission member Leslie Radcliff led the commission out of its dilemma by making a motion to approve the plan based on the expertise of the staff versus the unsubstantiated assertion by aldermanic leaders as to their purview over the matter.
Commission members Jonathan Wharton and Mattison, in the end, also voted to approve the plan; Elias Estabrook voted against it and Alder Adam Marchand, D-25, abstained.
Marchand and Estabrook both have connections to UniteHERE. Marchand at the beginning of the discussion said there was no determination whether the application required a major amendment to the PDD and it was “most prudent to keep it tabled.”
Earlier in the evening, Mattison, Radcliff and Wharton voted to allow the discussion on the site plan to occur by voting to take the hotel plan off the table.
OSHA to Increase Awareness of Trenching, Excavation Hazards, Solutions
Working in trenches and excavations can be hazardous, and trench collapses pose great risk to workers. To raise awareness of preventable incidents, compliance assistance specialists with OSHA in the Southeast are conducting outreach to educate employers and employees on the hazards associated with trenching and excavation work.
OSHA area offices in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi are reaching out to excavation employers, industry associations, equipment rental organizations, water utility suppliers and national and local plumbing companies to educate them to identify trenching hazards. Compliance assistance specialists will also remind employers of the requirements to implement methods to prevent collapses, such as sloping trench walls, shoring the walls with supports or shielding walls with trench boxes.
"Employees can be seriously or fatally injured in a matter of seconds when a trench collapses," said OSHA Regional Administrator Kurt A. Petermeyer, in Atlanta. "Trench-related injuries are preventable when employees are trained properly and the required protections are in place."
In October 2018, OSHA updated its National Emphasis Program (NEP) on Trenching and Excavation to continue support for compliance assistance and inspection programs that address trenching and excavation operations. The Agency provides a series of compliance assistance resources to help keep workers safe from trenching and excavation hazards, including a "Protect Workers in Trenches" poster, hard hat stickers in English and Spanish, trenching operations QuickCard and updated Trenching and Excavation webpage.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to help ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education, and assistance.
For more information, visit https://www.osha.gov.
Whittemore Memorial in Naugatuck has bricks issues
NAUGATUCK – The bricks lining the newly-reconstructed Whittemore Memorial Bridge will remain intact through the winter, but likely not much longer than that.
The borough recently completed a $6 million reconstruction of the bridge that spans the Naugatuck River along Maple Street. The project was designed to restore the bridge to how it looked before the Flood of 1955, including laying bricks along the bridge rather than paving the road.
The bridge reopened to two-way traffic again this spring after most of the work was completed. But shortly after both lanes reopened, the bricks along the bridge shifted, creating bumps and depressions along the road.
The issue stems from a drainage problem that officials initially thought was caused by the way the bridge was constructed. However, Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess told the Board of Mayor and Burgesses during a recent special meeting that officials now believe the issue stems from the design of the bridge.
Mohawk Northeast, the Plantsville-based construction company that did the work on the bridge, redid the northeast corner of the bridge at no cost to the borough in October
Siefert Associates, LLC, an engineering firm with an office in Naugatuck, inspected the bridge when the project was completed.
The bridge had gravel and stone under the bricks when it was originally built, which allowed for proper draining. After the Flood of 1955, the bridge was paved.
During the reconstruction project, the bridge was filled with concrete under the bricks to ensure it lasts 100 years, Siefert said.
Doing so made the bridge significantly sturdier, Siefert said, but it also changed the bridge’s permeability.
CHA Consulting, Inc., an engineering consulting firm, designed the bridge. Since concrete was used under the bricks, Siefert said, CHA had to design an innovative drainage system for the bridge.
The consensus of the board was to remove the bricks and pave the bridge.
Public Works Director James Stewart presented the board with four options on how to proceed: putting down typical black asphalt, putting down colored asphalt, stamping the asphalt to look like bricks, or putting a product known as thermoplastic over the asphalt to protect it.
The cost estimates to remove the bricks and pave the bridge range from about $35,000 to approximately $181,000, depending on the option, according to Stewart.
Since the original design did not work as planned, Seifert said CHA Consulting representatives have told him the company is willing to work with the borough on fixing the problem.
Burgess Robert A. Neth felt Naugatuck shouldn’t be saddled with the cost since the design didn’t work.
“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t expect the borough to pay a dime on what we have to do to fix that bridge,” Neth said. “It is a design flaw. Why should we pay for a flaw?”
Hess said that’s the borough’s position and officials are in talks with the company.
A message left with CHA Consulting wasn’t returned.
The board took no action on the options Stewart presented and is expected to make a decision at a later date_
Regardless of what the board chooses to do, the bridge will have bricks through the winter because it’s too cold to lay asphalt this year, Stewart said..