THE CONNECTICUT SOCIETY OF
CIVIL ENGINEERS HAS INVITED US TO JOIN THEM
FOR THE RELEASE OF THEIR 2022
CONNECTICUT INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT CARD
DATE:
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2022
TIME:
10AM
PLACE:
METRO-NORTH RAILROAD WATERBURY STATION
333 MEADOW STREET, WATERBURY CT.
SOUTH END OF THE OVERFLOW LOT –
ADJACENT TO THE TRACKS
WITH THE RTE.8 / I-84 MIXMASTER
REHABILITATION PROJECT IN THE BACKGROUND
Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal
Waterbury Mayor Neil O’Leary
I HOPE THAT YOU AND OTHERS FROM YOUR ORGANIZATION CAN JOIN US FOR THIS RELEASE
THIS WILL BE AN IMPORTANT
DISCUSSION ON THE CONDITION OF CONNECTICUT’S INFRASTRUCTURE
THE TIME TO INVEST IN
INFRASTRUCTURE IS NOW!
Saying 1.5 million square feet is way too big, Willington rejects ‘gargantuan Godzilla’ warehouse
In a major victory for hundreds of Willington homeowners,
town planning officials unanimously rejected a Texas developer’s proposal for a
1.5-million-square-foot warehouse along I-84.
The project that opponents dubbed a ”gargantuan Godzilla”
had targeted 160 acres of hillside woodlands for a TradeCenter 84, a mammoth
warehouse with 228 loading bays and parking for 700 trailers and 500 cars.
“This was a big win,” Kerry Bagley said Wednesday morning.
“We didn’t want this for our town, it’s just not the place. I think companies
will get the hint that we’re not just some podunk little town that they can
push around.”
“I’m very, very excited. That could have changed the whole
landscape of Willington,” resident Nick Tella said. “I know some people were
even looking at selling their houses if this passed.”
Tella said he was concerned that a Hillwood victory would
set a precedent, and said “It could turn Willington into mega-warehouse town.”
After three long nights of public hearings that featured
many dozens of residents speaking passionately against TradeCenter 84, the
planning and zoning commission on Tuesday night unanimously rejected the
proposal.
Hillwood Development Co., a Dallas-based company that has
built mega-warehouses around the country for Amazon and other clients, wanted
to change the land’s zoning from residential to Strategic Development.
Town residents objected to clearing and flattening the
wooded hillside by Exit 70, and warned of noise and light pollution.
Neighbors in Stafford and and other nearby towns also balked
at the prospect of increased truck traffic using back roads to reach I-91 or
I-395.
Residents jammed into hearings over the summer to oppose the
plan, saying it was far too large for their small, semi-rural town. An online
petition to block the project had gotten just over 2,000 signatures as of
Wednesday.
Hillwood billed TradeCenter 84 as a source of hundreds of
new jobs and potentially up to $3.8 million a year in fresh tax revenue to the
town.
At Wednesday’s session, the local attorney representing
Hillwood and its partner, The New Haven Group, also cautioned the commission of
other development possibilities for the site if the warehouse idea failed. Tom
Cody of Robinson & Cole’s Hartford office said the landowners might take
the rejection as a signal to pursue selling to other developers, possibly for
single-family homes.
“This is 160 acres, R-80 zone (with a) roughly 2-acre
minimum lot size, you could probably get 50 o 60 single-family lots on the
property,” Cody said.
“Even a residential subdivision involves extensive tree
clearing, grading and site disruption. It would involve construction of quite
an extensive length of public streets which would have to be plowed, paved and
maintained by the town,” Cody said.
“And of course, a residential subdivision would certainly
generate a considerable number of school-age children that would need to be
educated,” he said.
Commissioners concluded the size and scale of the project
wouldn’t be consistent with the town’s development plan.
“This is a massive development with the potential to change
the face of the town,” Chairman Walter Parsell III said, acknowledging that the
vast majority of speakers at previous hearings were against the plan.
On Wednesday, Cody emailed a statement but did not respond
when asked if his clients will continue pursuing the TradeCenter84 plan.
“While the development team is disappointed with the
outcome, we appreciate the planning and zoning commission’s time and review of
our application, as well as the engagement and feedback we received from town
residents,” Cody wrote.
Resident James Marshall, who called the TradeCenter84
proposal “absurd” for a town of Willington’s size, is proposing modifications
to the Strategic Development Zone.
The town established that zoning provision recently as an
economic development initiative, but Cody wants Willington to impose caps on
the size of new commercial or industrial projects. The FedEx distribution
facility in town is about 200,000, and Marshall said no new use should exceed
that.
He also wants the town to require developers to provide
significantly more information to the commission in the early stages of review.
In addition, the zoning code should specifically define the different types of
warehouses that it covers, he said.
“This zone was brand new and untested. As is the case with
many new things, the full ramifications aren’t really known until it’s put into
practice,” Marshall said. “Now that we’re done dealing with the crisis, I hope
the application process can be improved so we fix the problem.”
UConn’s new $48M hockey arena, set for completion early next year, named after Toscano family
Anew $48 million ice hockey arena at the University of
Connecticut in Storrs, which has been under construction since last April, is
set to open in January 2023 and will be named after Board of Trustees Chairman
Dan Toscano and his family.
Toscano, who lives in Darien, graduated from UConn in 1987
with a bachelor’s degree in finance. He works for Morgan Stanley & Co. as
the managing director of global leveraged finance.
The new arena will have a capacity of 2,600. The name was
approved by the Institutional Advancement Committee of the UConn Board of
Trustees on Tuesday and will go before the full board at its meeting next
Wednesday.
"Dan Toscano and his family have been remarkable
friends and supporters of UConn and our athletics programs for many years, and
are passionate hockey fans," said David Benedict, director of athletics.
"Our men's and women's programs compete in the strongest hockey league in
the nation, and with the help of this gift they'll now be playing in one of the
best campus ice arenas.”
Benedict said the arena is a state-of-the-art facility that
will “transform the fan experience and provide every resource for our
student-athletes and coaches to compete at a championship level.”
The arena will host games by UConn's men's and women's
Division I hockey teams and also be used by its club hockey programs. The team
facilities have full training and support for women's and men's
student-athletes, including team lounges, locker rooms with video displays,
training space with a hydrotherapy area, and a strength and conditioning
room.
It will also have a large center-hung display scoreboard
with perimeter ribbon boards and modern sound and lighting features.
The environmentally sustainable design makes the facility as
efficient as possible in energy and water use, the university said.
Toscano and his wife, Tresa, have made UConn a philanthropic
priority. They’ve supported the School of Business, where they established the
Toscano Family Chair in Finance, the Joseph P. and Rose M. Toscano Memorial
Scholarship Fund, and the Santos and Patricia Mercado Memorial Scholarship
Fund.
The Toscanos have invested toward scholarships and awards to
help students across the school, and have donated money for capital projects to
support the basketball, baseball, ice hockey, soccer and lacrosse teams.
"UConn has had a profound impact on my life, and its
quest for eminence in everything it does has become a passion for my
family," Toscano said. "It's not just giving back for us. We invest
in the ambitions of the next generation and the faculty and staff that show
them the way."
Toscano was born and raised in Bristol. After graduating
from UConn, he spent most of his career at Bankers Trust and its successor
Deutsche Bank. Toscano joined Morgan Stanley in 2010.
In addition to his undergraduate degree from UConn, Toscano
earned his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999.
The new arena is next to the existing Mark Edward Freitas
Ice Forum in the athletics district along Jim Calhoun Way.
Five things to know about the Greenwich school's capital budget as it pursues a $130 million request
Annelise Hanshaw
GREENWICH — The Board of Education took a first look at a
draft of the $130 million capital budget request for the next fiscal year for
the Greenwich Public Schools during a meeting last week.
Blaize Levitan, the district’s new chief operating officer,
said he drafted the request using previous budgets, the town’s budget
projections and the district’s master facilities plan.
It covers multiple large capital projects in the school
district, including the new Central Middle School building, renovations at Old
Greenwich and Julian Curtiss schools and other building updates. The capital
budget would be for the 2024 fiscal year, from July 1, 2023, to June 30,
2024.
The capital budget process has been sped up this year, and
the Board of Education is reviewing the plan two months ahead of schedule.
Here are the highlights from Thursday’s discussion of the
capital budget plan.
This capital budget is shaping up to be the district’s
largest request – possibly ever.
The Board of Education finished discussing the school
building renovations and maintenance it expects in the years ahead and lingered
on its fiscal year 2024 total: $130,153,311. During the last budget process,
the town projected the district’s capital request would be $156,293,000 for
fiscal year 2024.
In the past 11 years, the district’s capital request has
averaged $24,454,612. The highest capital budget in the past decade was fiscal
year 2017, at nearly $44.6 million, when New Lebanon School was under
construction.
Board members were wary of the $130 million amount – which
they believe is setting up the budget to fail before the Board of Estimate
& Taxation. They discussed what the community might think about the request
and whether misconceptions may arise.
“The BET obviously hasn't approved,” board vice-chair Karen
Kowalski said. “If we come to them with a number of $130 million, we're not
going to get $130 million.”
“No, we’re not,” Levitan echoed.
“Not getting caught up in the total means we want everyone
to look at each project individually,” director of communications Jonathan
Supranowitz told Greenwich Time.
He said the large part of the budget can be attributed to
Central Middle School’s $69,187,000 price tag and the $24.5 million in
renovations for Old Greenwich School.
The district plans to spend $5.2 million on accessibility
projects in the next five years.
The capital budget includes $5.211 million in Americans with
Disabilities Act projects. Currently, every school has areas that are not
accessible and not compliant with the ADA, according to the district’s
ADA updates page online.
Of that $5.2 million, just $249,000 is budgeted for fiscal
year 2024. Levitan said the money is slated for an accessible egress and
bathroom renovations at Julian Curtiss School and assured the board that the
money does not overlap with other renovations planned at the school.
The BET allocated ADA funds for Julian Curtiss last year for
an elevator. “There’s been no activity at the moment on that project,” Levitan
said.
The budget draft also includes $1.5 million for the Julian
Curtiss expansion and renovation project during fiscal year 2024 and $29.7
million the following year.
The track at Cardinal Stadium would be resurfaced, not
replaced, under this plan.
Board member Christina Downey pointed out that the current
track at Greenwich High School’s Cardinal Stadium is not a “regulation track,”
which would have eight lanes instead of the current six.
“I think it's a much larger conversation. By adding lanes,
you're pushing bleachers and could be changing possible projects that are
already in the wings,” director of facilities Dan Watson said.
The possibility of adding two lanes was discussed, he said,
because it would allow GHS to host senior and championship track events.
Instead, he decided to request $440,000 to resurface the track, which would
extend its usability, and an additional $10,000 each year thereafter.
“I know how many people use that track,” board secretary
Karen Hirsh said. “It's not just our athletes and not just our track teams. It
is used by every athlete in school and used by many of our community neighbors,
and we have a track past its useful life that can cause a lot of damage to
people's knees, ankles and other parts.”
She asked why the district was looking to resurface when the
budget document says: “This track has exceeded its useful life and should be
replaced, not just resurfaced.”
Watson said he was “editorializing” in that statement.
“Let's be straight about it. The track isn't dangerous,” he said.
The uncertainty on the status of a second phase of the
Cardinal Stadium renovation contributed to the decision, he said.
Board member Joe Kelly, who spearheaded phase one of the
Cardinal Stadium project for the board, said a group is working on attaining
private-public partnerships to fund additional renovations.
Greenwich High School students may have cellphone reception
in the future.
The budget document says Greenwich High School has “a
complete lack of mobile phone service within (its) interior,” which the
district sees as a safety risk.
“We feel like it's really important for that campus in this
day and age,” Superintendent Toni Jones said.
“I myself have been at the high school and not received my
text messages until 6 p.m. at night, text messages which were sent that
afternoon,” said a member of the GHS PTA, who didn’t state his name at the
meeting. “If the Wi-Fi went down, no one's mobile phone would work. If you pair
this with an emergency situation, it could become very bad very quickly.”
The project requires a network of interior and exterior
antennas to provide cell signal at a five-year total cost of $1,071,750. The
district is requesting $630,750 during fiscal year 2024.
The cost to build a new Central Middle School is uncertain.
The district is requesting $69,187,000 in fiscal year 2024
to build a new Central Middle School building, but this amount may change.
Board vice-chair Kowalski questioned the price tag during
the board meeting, asking about the funds for putting in new fields and
demolishing the existing school building.
Board member Downey responded, calling the current figure a
“plug number” estimated because of the state’s reimbursement process.
“I think we want a target number that's sufficient to cover
the costs,” she said.
“Until we really know their soil can support the weight of
the building, we don't know what we'll need for refurbishment,” said Laura
Kostin, board member and liaison to the CMS building committee. “The challenge
with the topography of the site is there's a lot of rock; there's giant
outcroppings right in the front of the school. So, there's a lot of questions
that have to be answered.”
Kowalski wondered whether the cost was correct for the
building’s anticipated square footage. Downey said they’ll “have some
conversations with some people about what’s the right number.”
New Milford makes way for temporary bridge on Cherniske Road
NEW MILFORD – As the town continues taking the steps
necessary for securing a permanent bridge on Cherniske Road, preparations for
installing a temporary bridge began this week. The temporary bridge will be
open to first responders only.
The one-lane, temporary bridge was delivered by the
contractor M&O Construction, who began working on the abutments on Monday.
New Milford Mayor Pete Bass said the abutment work should be completed in about
a week or two, after which time they’ll roll on the temporary bridge.
“It’s all weather-dependent,” Bass said. “It could be three
weeks and then the temporary bridge will be ready for use.”
New Milford Public Works Director Jack Healy said the
temporary bridge's traffic lane width is 13 feet, 7 inches and the cost for the
bridge's installation is $220,000.
The purpose of installing a temporary bridge, Bass said, is
“to give our first responders quicker access to that area.”
Located west of the intersection with Sawyer Hill Road and
Cherniske Road, the one-lane bridge was built in the 1930s. Following an
evaluation by the town, the bridge on Cherniske Road received a poor rating in
2017, and despite the town’s efforts to repair it, it continued deteriorating
until the town closed it in January 2021.
The bridge has remained closed since then, during which time
New Milford officials have been looking into options for reconstructing the
bridge.
Though the town previously proposed widening the bridge to
two lanes, for many years, residents have spoken against the proposal for
several reasons, one of which is they said widening the bridge would violate
the town’s scenic road ordinance.
The ordinance reads in part that “...regulation of future
alterations and improvements of designated highways shall be carried out so to
preserve to the highest degree possible the scenic characteristics of the
highway which are indicated in the records of the Town Council as the basis for
its designation as a scenic road.”
Previously, however, Bass said the town is not violating the
town’s scenic road ordinance by proposing a two-lane bridge.
“If they’re (the state) is saying the bridge currently is an
obsolete design, than that would supersede a scenic road ordinance,” he said.
Once the temporary bridge is installed, the contractor will
work with engineers and other officials to finalize the permanent bridge.
Town Council has previously approved construction of a
two-lane, permanent bridge and in
May, it approved an ordinance limiting the weight of vehicles on the road to
less than 16 tons (32,000 pounds).
Bass said the permanent bridge project still hasn’t gone out
to bid, and the town is working with its engineers on this project.
“I’d like to have it accomplished last week,” he said, “but
obviously there’s government agencies we need to comply with, so this has taken
time, and the good thing about the temporary bridge is it opens up access areas
for first responders. They don’t have to do a half-mile detour while we wait
for finalizations.”
Middletown P&Z Approves Big Y Development on South Main
Brendan Crowley
MIDDLETOWN – Despite concerns from several neighboring
residents, the Planning and Zoning Commission overwhelmingly approved a
proposal for a new Big Y on South Main Street near Randolph Road last week.
The 6-1 decision made last Wednesday will allow Stone Point
Properties to build a nearly 52,000 square foot Big Y supermarket at the site
of the former Frontier and SNET fleet maintenance garage at 850 South Main
Street – including a new traffic light on South Main and a 256-space parking
lot.
That traffic light, which would serve as the main entrance to
the grocery store, will still need state approval. The store might open in
2024, the applicants told the commission.
Several residents of the nearby community – including people
in houses directly across Highland Avenue from the proposed Big Y – voiced concerns
that the traffic, noise and activity from the new supermarket, which would
replace a fleet maintenance facility on the site, would be a radical change for
the neighborhood.
Michael Stone, one of the partners of Stone Point Properties
along with Michael Fleischmann, said that the 1957 SNET fleet maintenance
garage held as many as 65 trucks inside and “countless more outside,” was
unsightly and needed an environmental cleanup.
“The reality is that most of our neighbors realize that the
alternative of an active fleet maintenance facility, operating 20 hours a day,
exclusively using Highland Avenue for access, would be much more disruptive
than our proposed use,” Stone said.
He said the development would bring about 150 jobs, plus
temporary construction jobs, and would add about $20 million to the grand list.
“It will provide access to a modern grocery store in an
underserved corridor,” Stone said. “It is certainly a more appropriate and
attractive use than the current use.”
Several residents from the nearby homes questioned the
location of the store, arguing that it was unusual to have a stand-alone
grocery store in essentially a residential neighborhood. They also questioned
whether the area was “underserved,” given that there is a Stop & Shop about
two miles away on East Main Street.
Kate Wiltsie, who lives on a nearby street, said she was
concerned about the “creep of development” into the residential areas in the
south of Middletown, and that a large, high traffic development was being
squeezed into a place where it didn’t fit.
“I know that was already a developed piece, but a busy
grocery store is really infringing on these residential neighborhoods,” Wiltsie
said.
Neighbors also raised concerns regarding traffic. An F.A.
Hesketh & Associates traffic report estimated
the supermarket could have 4,974 vehicle trips during a weekday, with a peak
afternoon hour of 474 trips. And it could generate 6,275 trips, with a peak
hour of 571 trips, on Saturday.
Neighbors pointed to long-standing issues at the nearby
intersection where Highland Avenue meets South Main Street at a flashing red
light.
Stone said they expected traffic to be a major concern with
neighbors, and that they resolved many of those concerns by moving the main
entrance to the site off of Highland Avenue onto South Main Street, where they
are proposing to install a traffic light.
Traffic engineer Scott Hesketh said that, while the
development would draw additional traffic, it could end up making it easier for
Highland Avenue residents to turn onto South Main Street by creating more gaps
in the traffic.
Commissioner Sebastian Giuliano, who voted in favor of the
application, said that the blinking traffic light has been a problem since it
was installed. He said he hoped that the new development would be enough to
convince the state that it needs to fix it.
“For years, they have not seen fit to do anything about it,”
Giuliano said. “Every time I come across two vehicles trying to make left turns
from South Main to Highland, it’s like your heart’s in your mouth. They don’t
know what to do.”
The commission included several conditions when it approved
the development, including that the developer will build sidewalks along
Highland Avenue on its property.