Barry Lytton
STAMFORD — Two large-scale South End developments that could further reshape the neighborhood will go before the Planning Board on Tuesday.
The neighborhood’s largest landowner, Building and Land Technology, seeks to change the city’s Master Plan map to allow a more than 20-story tower and neighboring housing block at the site of an old garbage facility, B&S Carting, on Woodland Avenue
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The other development is an omnibus proposal for several special exceptions and approvals needed to change a swath of waterfront properties, some vacant, into a “media village” office campus with a parking garage.
The office campus proposal, 860 Canal St., comes from two development groups who together own three large properties along Stamford Harbor’s east side. It calls for 10 special exceptions to the city’s zoning code that would permit taller buildings and exempt the building from some parking requirements, among other requests.
“The objective of this project is to restore a blighted, vacant waterfront property and enhance it with incredible waterfront access and amenities and superior architectural design,” developer Stamford Media Village wrote in its application.
If approved, the new campus will create more than 450 jobs, some from Wheelhouse Entertainment, the application said. The plan calls for an additional 48,030 square feet of floor space and 249 new parking spaces.
Economic Development Director Thomas Madden lauded the two projects as proof of “the expansion of digital media in Stamford” and the housing needed to support the growing sector.
Last year, when the $7.6 million sale of 860 Canal was reported, the developer said the plans were to renovate the building for multiple tenants and build a production hub.
The plan also calls for some public access to amenities such as a first-floor food hall and landscaped rooftop replete with a pergola — a shaded walkway — and bar.
The old B&S Carting site proposal could prove contentious with some longtime residents denouncing BLT’s slow march from its Harbor Point development into their historic neighborhood.
If the re-mappings are approved, which would change portions of the block between Walter Wheeler Drive and Woodland Avenue into higher-density housing categories, it sets the stages for more BLT applications that are needed to see the large-scale development built.
The plan replaces a “noxious use,” Madden said, and “having the young talent and housing nearby is huge ... you have an ecosystem that allows companies to essentially take their pick.”
The builder, in separate project proposals approved earlier this year, pledged to maintain the Zoning Board’s requirement that 10 percent of all units built on the site be set aside for those making half the area’s median income, but has otherwise not discussed the final plans.
The hearing on Tuesday will be the first time the project comes before city panels, and although the application is rather sparse on information, included renderings portend what could become a lively back-and-forth between the developer and the Zoning Board in the near future.
The renderings call for the facade to be predominantly plastic-foam-like EIFS, which stands for exterior insulation and finish system. Zoning Board members earlier this month bemoaned the perceived overuse of the material in the South End and around downtown.
The height of the tower and size of the development could also rile some residents, who this fall circulated a petition to prohibit the builder from constructing more high rises.
The Planning Board meeting and hearings are slated for 6:30 p.m. in City Hall’s fourth-floor cafeteria.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the Building and Land Technology development is planned for Woodlawn Avenue.
Brookfield finance board approves Huckleberry Hill school project
Julia Perkins
BROOKFIELD — The finance board unanimously approved Wednesday night the $78.1 million proposal to build a new Huckleberry Hill Elementary School, sending the project to a special town meeting.
The vote brings the town another step closer to holding a referendum in March on the highly anticipated project. The special town meeting will be scheduled for January, but a public hearing will be held before that.
If the town receives the state grant it plans to apply for before the end of June, the new school would cost Brookfield $63.3 million. The school would serve students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.
Board members agreed the project is necessary because the existing school, which was built in 1960 and added on to in 1993, is in bad shape.But they debated the possibility of scaling back the price tag on the 138,000-square-foot school to be built on the existing Huckleberry Hill site.
Finance board member Dan Devorsetz said he was worried the town would be unable to manage the project’s additional debt and be forced to cut operating budgets to prevent tax increases.
“I simply fear for the financial flexibility, that this bond offering is going to hamstring us and not let us do literally anything else for a long time,” he said. “When we look at annual budgets and try to get annual budgets passed, they're not going to be cut from the debt service. They're going to be cut from other stuff. Every single other aspect of the town will be impacted.”
Town officials have presented the board with various models showing how the project may affect debt service and taxes.
First Selectman Steve Dunn said these models show the town can handle the extra debt, especially with a plan to pay for more capital items with cash, rather than borrowing.
“That doesn’t hamstring us,” he said.
If the project is approved, pre-kindergarten through first grade students would move out of the 80-year-old Center Elementary School, saving the town an estimated $400,000 in energy and operations costs.
Fifth-graders would leave the middle school, allowing the district to demolish the old portable classrooms, which would cost $700,000 to replace.Dunn added he is not expecting any major budget increases next fiscal year on the town side.
It would be difficult for the town to reduce the cost of the project because everything in the plan is necessary, finance board member Eileen Koch said. The size of the school is based on state requirements. CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE
Monroe bridge construction to start early next month
Tara O'Neill
MONROE — The state Department of Transportation plans to start construction on the bridge on Route 34 on Dec. 3, weather permitting.The work is to rehabilitate the bridge over Boys Halfway Brook in Monroe.
During the bridge replacement, the contractor will maintain an alternating one-way traffic operation. There will be a traffic light temporarily installed allowing one lane traffic to pass through the construction zone near the Lake Zoar Drive-In.
The bridge was built in 1915 and reconstructed in 1930.The single-span bridge carries Route 34 over Boys Halfway Brook in Monroe. It is about a quarter of a mile west of the Oxford town line.
DOT walks Norwalk through Walk Bridge replacement
Robert Koch
NORWALK — A Connecticut Department of Transportation engineer laid out to the public Wednesday night a year-by-year timetable for replacement of the Walk Bridge over the Norwalk River.
Despite a lawsuit, the DOT plans to begin replacing the 122-year-old railroad bridge in late 2019 and take four to five years to finish the project.“The first year, you’re really not going to see a lot as far as construction … because it’s mostly in-water work,” said Domenic A. LaRosa, district engineer for DOT Districts 3 and 3A. “You’ll see some of the trestles being built here. You’ll see the relocation of the IMAX (Theater) will be going on at the same time ... some of the staging yards will be built out, relocation of the vessels to the south.”
More than 50 people, including many DOT engineers and consultants, attended the public information meeting at the Walk Bridge Program Welcome Center at 20 Marshall St. on Wednesday. An identical afternoon session attracted about 35 people.
The public was invited to visit display stations set up on various aspects of the larger $1.2 billion program, and ask questions of the engineers and consultants. A presentation, including LaRosa’s year-by-year walkthrough, followed at each session.In year two, construction activity will pick up with removal of the southern two railroad tracks from service. The reduction from four to two tracks along Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven Line will continue eastward to the Fort Point Street Bridge, which will be rebuilt to the west to align with South Smith Street, as well as at the Osborne Street Bridge, which will be rehabilitated, and the East Avenue Bridge, which will be rebuilt. In year three, the DOT will float in, install and open the new Walk Bridge span that will carry the two southern tracks, according to LaRosa.
“The majority of this project, we’ll be able to maintain two tracks at all time,” LaRosa said. But “this will be one of those extended weekend closures where all four tracks will be out of service.
In year four, the DOT will float in, install and complete the north span of the new 240-foot, vertical-lift Walk Bridge and open its two tracks. At the same time, the DOT will build the north halves of the Osborne and East Avenue bridges.
The public information meeting came as the Walk Bridge replacement is 60 percent designed but remains under the shadow of a lawsuit filed early this year by Norwalk Harbor Keeper, a local conservation group that maintains the DOT didn’t adequately consider a smaller, less-expensive fixed bridge.
DOT Commissioner James P. Redeker, who also attended the meeting, said he wouldn’t predict how the lawsuit might affect the project.“We believe the right course of action is to proceed, as we are, to keep the schedule because schedule implies costs,” Redeker told Hearst Connecticut Media. “Any minute delay costs money, so we want to keep this project on schedule.”
During a question-and-answer period after the presentation, several people weighed in on DOT’s preference for a vertical-lift bridge.
Mark Wilson, who lives at Washington and North Water streets, rejected assertions made by Mayor Harry W. Rilling and the DOT that replacing the existing Walk Bridge with a fixed structure would limit future development north of the bridge. CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE
Garage demolition paves way for development on Middletown’s Connecticut River front
MIDDLETOWN — The demolishment of the downtown parking garage positions the city a step closer to securing interest in prime real estate that would best suit Middletown’s sweeping views of the Connecticut River.The city has replaced nearly three-quarters, or 171, of the 225 spaces lost when the Arcade lot on Court Street was knocked down in May. It was replaced by a temporary gravel surface lot with 90 spaces for permit-only use from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays on Dingwall Drive. Use is free from 8 p.m. to midnight and all weekend .
An additional 81 spaces with meters were created on Melilli Plaza Drive, Court Street, DeKoven Drive, William Street and Dingwall Drive, according to Middletown Parking Director Geen Thazhampallath.
The lower level of the arcade was closed in December 2013 due to crumbling concrete and other hazards. The entire structure was closed to traffic in early March. The 50-year-old garage had been experiencing damage from crumbling concrete for years and posed a significant safety risk.
That danger was realized once heavy equipment operators began knocking it down, prompting Mayor Dan Drew at the time to say “We were expecting major chunks to have to be ground down, but the structure is falling apart as it’s being demolished,” he said, comparing the concrete to “flaky plaster.”
“It’s a beautiful piece of property. It faces the water, it has tens of thousands of cars going by on Route 9, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you see something really positive happen in that location,” Thazhampallath said.“It won’t have all the bells and whistles of a full-fledged parking lot, but it will be functional, and our goal is to get as many parking spaces back online as quickly as possible,” Thazhampallath said in April.
The well-lit space includes security cameras. “If you’re coming downtown, we encourage you to go ahead and use that parking lot. It’s free of charge, you don’t have to feed a meter, you don’t have to worry about the amount of time you’re there,” said Thazhampallath, who cautioned motorists about leaving their cars there overnight — which would risk a ticket or tow.
“We feel that we’ve alleviated some of the short-term stress that existed and created a viable way for people to enjoy the downtown and not worry about their parking after 4 p.m. and on the weekend. We did a nice job of squeezing out as many spaces as we could. It’s the perfect use,” Thazhampallath added.
Now, visitors can also take advantage of the private Middle Oak tower on Court Street, as well as other public city lots. “We believe we have effectively weathered this supply/demand issue for the time being,” the director said.
He often hears from those exasperated by Metro Square’s customer parking policy. The owner of that lot has aggressively towed vehicles after people leave their cars and don’t patronize a business in the plaza. However, Thazhampallath said, “It’s a private parking lot. [The owners are] not doing anything wrong.”In early April, after hearing from many business owners, customers and others looking for a place to park, Larry McHugh, president of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce, wrote a column addressing what he termed a “serious” problem at the time. CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE
Middletown’s sewage pump station project 75 percent complete
Cassandra Day
MIDDLETOWN — Work on the East Main Street pump station, which by next summer will connect the city’s sewage to the Mattabassett District wastewater treatment plant in Cromwell, is about 75 percent complete.
The $55 million project, which broke ground in May 2014, is now in its second phase, and construction is estimated to wrap up by July 2019.
Phase 1 involved installing a force main, or pressure pipe, from the area of Connecticut Rental Center, reaching all the way to Cromwell. Phase 2 is building the plant under Route 9 at Hartford Avenue on city land. Sanitary sewage will eventually be pumped from the Patnaude plant to the Mattabassett District, according to Water & Sewer Department Director Joe Fazzino.
The treatment facility processes waste from Middletown, New Britain, Cromwell and Berlin. In early 2013, the city paid $13 million to join the district.
Voters first approved what would have been a $37 million project in 2012. In 2014, the common council approved an additional $3 million. In 2015, voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot question allocating an additional $15 million, bringing the total budget to $55 million.
The district recently spent close to $100 million on renovations. Updating the River Road facility would have been a lot more expensive than $55 million, Fazzino said.Once work on Phase 2 — construction of the Francis T. Patnaude Inter-municipal Pumping Station — and decommissioning of the current River Road facility takes place, the city will finally be able to take advantage of its sweeping views of the Connecticut River and free up valuable real estate.
Mattabassett Regionalization Building Committee Chairman Phil Pessina is trying to contain his eagerness for what the project’s completion will mean for the riverfront.
He and Planning Conservation and Development Director Joseph Samolis went up on the roof of the River Road facility recently to survey the area from that vantage point.“It’s got a beautiful view of the riverbend and the riverfront. It is a key piece of where the mayor and council want to go with the harbor development. I’m getting really excited about it. I’m trying to hold my excitement down, because our ultimate goal is to get it within — and maybe under — budget,” Pessina said.
“Not only is this a unique and great project for both the Mattabassett District and our city, it opens up the gateway to our riverfront,” he said.
The decommissioning and demolition of the River Road facility will clear the way for Middletown to reclaim valuable riverfront property for leisure, recreation, entertainment and dining opportunities projected to boost local quality of life and even the city’s finances.Joining the wastewater regionalization project is far less expensive than rehabilitating the city’s 40-year-old sewage treatment plant, Fazzino said. So far, project costs are at $33.73 million.
Presently, Phase 2 of the project is about two months behind schedule. That’s because the city had to go out to bid a second time after the first estimate came in over budget. The general contractor, Walsh Construction, based in Canton, Mass., is doing the work for $26.19 million.
“If the original bid was within budget, we would probably be finishing up right about now,” Fazzino said.
Dale Aldieri, chairman of Middletown’s Water Pollution Control Authority, also sits on the building committee. He is pleased costs are close to the original estimate.Another reason for the two-month delay, he said, was the builder laying the pipe had more difficulties than anticipated. “Underground piping of that sort is very technical, and we were dealing with, on a daily basis, guesstimates along the way. There’s really no exact science as to what’s underground and what you may encounter.”
The station is named for the late common councilman and deputy director of the water department who died in 2012. Patnaude, the city’s longest-serving councilman — took office in 1985 and sat on numerous commissions, including the Water Pollution Control Authority.
The architect’s plans include the installation of two relief panels on the front of the finished building — one for the city seal and the other, a bust of Patnaude that could be comprised of bronze or precast stone, Fazzino said.
What passersby see is only half of the facility’s operations. As is typical, a good portion of the equipment is set underground, including the pumps and pumping apparatus, Aldieri said.
Right now, crews, including electricians, plumbers, laborers and masons, are on site five or more days a week, excavating, installing the foundation and walls for the lower level, pouring concrete for the first-floor elevation slab (which is 30 feet above sea level), laying structural steel for the structures’s framing, and building the brick and concrete outer walls.
The new system will have the same capacity of 26 million gallons a day.
All sewage from downtown, South Farms and other areas presently travels to the River Road facility by a combination of pump stations and gravity sewers. In the Westfield portion of town, waste already flows to the Mattabassett District, Fazzino said.
Pessina hopes some portion of the decommissioning and machinery removal will happen simultaneously as the project approaches completion.For information, visit mattabassettdistrict.org.