Senators say trillion-dollar infrastructure bill will be 'transformative'
Ken Dixon
Connecticut’s two U.S. senators anticipate major investment
funding will be coming to Connecticut, including rail, highways, bridges,
coastal resiliency and Veterans
Affairs programming, in the pending trillion-dollar infrastructure
compromise bill they expect to vote on by the end of the week.
During a morning virtual news conference from Washington,
U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy said that once President Biden’s
infrastructure legislation is passed in the Senate and House of
Representatives, an even larger follow-up will be pursued by congressional
Democrats under so-called budgetary reconciliation rules.
“This bill will be transformative for Connecticut,”
Blumenthal said of the trillion-dollar package. “It will mean billions of
dollars that make our roads, bridges and rail so much better.”
While funding numbers are subject to change this week during
the Senate’s amendment process, the legislation released Sunday night would
give Connecticut about $30 billion over five years for repairs to rail lines,
and a $106 million increase for New York and Connecticut’s Long Island Sound
water quality programs, including cleaning rivers and coastal restoration
projects to prepare for climate change.
“Our goal is to finish this bipartisan proposal by the end
of the week and then very, very crucially move to a second package,” Blumenthal
said, describing the follow-up legislation as “much bigger and broader.” He noted
that transit infrastructure has been deteriorating for decades, stressing that
the first round of funding does not include the $117 billion needed over 15
years to upgrade the Northeast Corridor for high-speed rail.
“The best way to view this bipartisan proposal is that it is
a very profoundly significant down payment,” Blumenthal said. “It’s a start. A
good start, but only a first step.” More funding for day care, continuing the
child tax credit and funding free community college will be the focus of the
follow-up legislation. “We have a once in a generation opportunity,” Blumenthal
said. “We are under a moral and historic imperative to move forward with these
two tracks.”
“We have the chance to do something historic this week,”
Murphy said, adding that he would spend most of Monday reviewing the
trillion-dollar compromise agreed upon by five top Republicans and Democrats in
the Senate. “This bipartisan bill represents the biggest one-time investment in
infrastructure in this country’s history, and we should get it done. This
infrastructure bill has a potential to be an economic game-changer for
Connecticut.”
He and Blumenthal agreed that the $30 billion rail
investment, including $24 billion for the joint federal and state partnership
on train tracks in Connecticut, plus $6 billion for Amtrak, is no where near
the commitment needed for high-speed regional rail service.
Murphy recalled that not that long ago, Connecticut would
get about $4 million a year for Long Island Sound projects. In recent years it
has increased to $30 million. The additional $106 million over five years would
improve water quality while funding storm-surge, coastal-restoration, sewage
treatment and storm water runoff projects on both the New York and Connecticut
sides of the Sound.
The U.S. Coast Guard would get about $50 million in new
investments, including $6 million to improve the home of the historic cutter
Eagle at the City Pier in New London.
Murphy and Blumenthal said they expect proposed amendments
to take most of the week, unlike the period where the former Republican
majority, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, offered little chance for
changes to legislation.
“This is a bill that has been under negotiations for over a
month,” Murphy said in response to a question. “The broad outlines of the bill
are widely known. I don’t see any reason why it won’t be a big bipartisan vote
at the end.” Blumenthal said that the legislation stands a better chance for
passage because states around the country would similarly benefit.
“Obviously we can’t disregard the fact that Mitch McConnell
has said he is 100-percent focused on making Biden fail,” Blumenthal said.
“That’s a reality of our lives here. There are areas where we can come
together. This one is perhaps the best example, because every state - red or
blue - has roads, bridges, rail, ports that need upgrading and modernizing, and
there is a core of Republicans who want to get that job done.”
During an unrelated, ceremonial bill signing at the U.S.
Navy’s Submarine Base in Groton on Monday morning, Gov. Ned Lamont pointed to
the nearby Gold Star Bridge in the distance - carrying Interstate-95 traffic
over the Thames River, calling it a big priority.
“I know how important that is to Electric Boat,” Lamont
said. “I know trucks can only go over it in one direction when they’re fully
loaded. I know we want to get the railways speeded-up in any way we can. I want
to fix those bridges that are not in a state of really good repair and at least
make sure they are safe. Those are some of the real priorities we have.”
Developer plans retail-and-hotel project across from Clinton Crossing outlets
John Moritz
CLINTON — The developer behind a mixed-use, retail and hotel
project across from Clinton Crossing Premium Outlets said Monday that he hopes
to complete the first phase of the development around the end of the year.
Ken Navarro, a partner at Greylock Property Group, said
construction of the firm’s Indian River Shops at Clinton project has continued
during the pandemic, despite the disruption it caused to the retail market. The
project’s anchor, a
Big Y World Class Market, is currently finishing interior work and could
open before New Year’s Day, Navarro said.
The project’s only other named tenant , a Starbucks, could
open in early 2022, Navarro said. Crews are laying the foundation for a third
building that is part of the first phase of the project, which will be home to
several shops.
While the first phase of the project contains about 75,000
square feet of retail space, Navarro said that planned later phases of the
development could push the total size to around 200,000 square feet, including
six additional buildings housing shops, restaurants and a hotel.
Still, Navarro said the development is expected to be
“complementary” to the existing outlets at Clinton Crossing, which draw
millions of shoppers each year to its dozens of stores.
“From a size and development standpoint, they’re very much
the anchor, not us,” Navarro said.
John Allen, the chairman of the Clinton Economic Development
Commission, said Monday that town officials viewed the Indian River project as
an opportunity to keep out-of-town shoppers in Clinton longer, allowing them to
spend money at restaurants or even on a hotel room.
“It really does make that area north of [Interstate 95’s]
Exit 63 a destination,” Allen said.
The property, which is formerly the site of Clinton’s Morgan
High School, was sold to Greylock last year after an earlier planned
development of the former school grounds fell through, the
news site Zip06 reported.
Navarro said the developers had reached a “handshake deal”
with a potential hotel operator around March of last year, before the pandemic
prompted the unnamed group to back out of the project. More recently, Navarro
said there has been some renewed interest in the hotel portion of the site,
which Greylock hopes to sell to a “mid-priced” national hotel chain that would
build and operate the hotel.
Greylock is engaged in conversations with other potential
tenants interested in signing leases for the first phase of the project,
Navarro said. That phase will also include site upgrades and landscaping work
throughout the former school property.
“With COVID and all that, retail development has been an
adventure to say the least,” Navarro said. “We’ve had a fair amount of
interest.”
As part of the project, Greylock agreed to build a park and
nature trail along the Indian River that the company will then donate to the
town, Navarro said.
Navarro said the group is still engaged in discussions with
town officials over the replacement of traffic lights at the entrances to the
development site along Route 81, as well as road enhancements and re-striping
at both entrances. Greylock is also seeking permits from the state Department
of Transportation for that work, Navarro said.
In a press release from Big Y announcing its intent to
anchor the project last year, the Springfield, Mass.-based company said it
planned to employ 150 full and part time workers at the store.
CT Supreme Court to hear land use lawsuits against Stamford's Board of Representatives
STAMFORD — This fall, the Connecticut Supreme Court will
take up two of Stamford’s land use-related lawsuits, signaling a new phase in
the local battle over who builds what and where in the city.
Board of Representatives Attorney Patricia Sullivan of Cohen
& Wolf said that the cases, one involving a potential Life Time Fitness gym
and the other about a parcel in the South End, will skip the appellate courts.
Instead, Connecticut’s top legal authority opted to hear arguments during its
next session, which starts Sept. 7 and runs until Sept. 17.
“The matter is tentatively scheduled,” Sullivan told the
board. “And I say tentatively, because the Supreme Court will put matters on
its agenda, and then, depending on how many matters are ready, you know you
might get heard during that session and you might not.”
Sullivan announced the move last week at the first Outside
Counsel Committee meeting in a year and a half before the committee retired
into executive session, which state statute explicitly allows for the board to
discuss “strategies and negotiations about pending claims or pending
litigation.”
In both cases, the Board of Representatives backed
resident-led petitions against developers looking for a variance to build
denser buildings than the statutes allowed, something neighbors claimed would
erode the character of their neighborhoods.
And in both cases, real estate firm George Comfort &
Sons and developer Building and Land Technology respectively argued that the
representatives lacked the authority to acknowledge and act on the petitions.
George Comfort & Sons, owner of High Ridge Office Park,
sought to build a 100,000-square-foot, indoor-outdoor facility for gym chain
Life Time Fitness on a parcel once occupied by Frontier Communications. While
the city’s Zoning Board appeared to look favorably on adapting one of
Stamford’s vacant office parks for new tenants, homeowners in abutting
Turn-of-River took issue with what they said were the disruptions a building of
that magnitude could create.
A legal back-and-forth between the property owner and the
board, bolstered by residents’ concerns, ensued. Finally, the challenges
culminated with a state Superior Court judge deciding the residents’ petition
was void, in part because so many of them live in condominiums and the rules
governing petitions are very specific.
All owners of a property must sign a petition to be legally
valid, Superior Court Judge Marshall Berger maintained. If two people own a
house, both people must sign the petition. They count as one signatory. If 50
people own condos on a property, all 50 people must sign the petition. They also
count as one signatory, according to Berger, an assertion backed up by legal
precedent.
The Board
of Representatives is looking to challenge that precedent and ask
whether condo owners are considered landowners and whether the board has the
power to verify protest petitions.
The battle over the former B&S Carting site was similar.
The Planning Board in 2019 approved changes to the Master
Plan — Stamford’s governing planning document — that would allow BLT to put up
more than 650 units on a South End block between Woodland Avenue and Walter
Wheeler Drive.
The move garnered fierce pushback from some South End
neighbors, who filed a petition that the Board of Representatives ultimately
affirmed. Like George Comfort & Sons, BLT upheld that not enough neighbors
signed the document to make it valid. In BLT’s case, Judge Berger also decided
that the board lacked
jurisdiction over whether petitions are valid or not.
The city has appealed both decisions.
Even though the legal challenges are still pending, the
Zoning Board in November 2020 approved a high-rise
for the Woodland Avenue parcel. The proposed building would be 25 stories
at its tallest point. If the state Supreme Court agrees with the lower courts,
BLT can move forward with construction.
The lawyers for the Board of Representatives, BLT and George
Comfort & Sons could not immediately be reached for comment.
Waterbury spends $523,000 for study of needed school construction and upgrades
Michael Puffer
WATERBURY – City officials have agreed to pay a consultant
$523,000 to, among other things, develop a plan outlining which schools need
renovations and how many buildings should be added to the district.
The Board of Aldermen approved a contract with the SLAM
Collaborative on July 19. The contract gives the Glastonbury-based firm a
little more than eight months to deliver.
Waterbury public schools could use a portion of $131.2
million in pending COVID-relief and economic recovery funds to further building
plans. Superintendent Verna Ruffin said district officials were considering a
facilities study even before this huge influx of federal dollars.
“Even before ARP and ESSER II (the new federal funds), my
staff and I talked about the need to discuss how we could use our space and put
together a schedule of preventive maintenance and long-term projects that we
knew would be very costly,” Ruffin said.
The study will help the district make the best use of
available space in its 32 schools, and decide if more buildings are needed,
Ruffin said. Among other things, this could help officials decide if they want
to continue creating more pre-kindergarten through eighth grade schools, she
said.
SLAM will study the district’s current buildings, develop
enrollment projects and factor the district’s educational programs into the
final plan.
The last “school facilities study” undertaken in Waterbury –
completed in 2004 – resulted in a proposal for a $1.4 billion construction
plan. That ultimately failed, with residents and officials opting to perform
school construction project in smaller bites stretching out to the present.
The city has spent hundreds of millions, mostly provided by
state assistance, on building renovations and construction in the past 15
years. In that time it renovated portions of its three comprehensive high
schools and put on additions of various sizes. It built a new technical high
school, renovated an alternative education center and built five new
pre-kindergarten through eighth grade schools.
The city bought the former Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic
School last December. It will open later this month as a new elementary school.