CT Department of Transportation to get a new leader
The administration of Gov. Ned Lamont chose a railroad
station Wednesday to say goodbye to Joseph J. Giulietti, the railroad lifer
lured out of retirement four years ago to run the Department of Transportation,
and ratify his choice of a successor, Garrett Eucalitto.
Giulietti, 70, who went to work on the railroad as a
19-year-old Penn Central conductor and left the industry as the president of
the Metro North commuter rail system, only laughed when interrupted by the
announcement of an arriving train at Union Station in Hartford.
“No, no, it’s OK,” Giulietti said. “It’s music to my ears,
anyways.”
The press conference formalized what has been set for
months: Giulietti will step down as commissioner in December, and Lamont
intends to nominate his well-regarded deputy, Eucalitto, to run ConnDOT at a
crucial juncture for the rebuilding of highways and mass transit in America.
Federal transportation funding is at an all-time high,
available to Connecticut under formula and competitive grants. Virtually all of
the state’s rail improvement priorities were included in the $24 billion in
funding approved for the Northeast rail corridor.
But the DOT’s engineering ranks are understaffed, the state
must provide matching funds, and the construction industry long has complained
that Connecticut moves too slowly on infrastructure.
Eucalitto, 41, who grew up in Torrington and lives in New
Haven, is a departure as commissioner, neither a highway engineer nor transit
executive. He is a self-described policy nerd, schooled in complexities of how
to best finance massive infrastructure projects as well as how to assess their
impact on what it means to commute and live in Connecticut.
“My decision to leave the DOT would not have been possible
had I not known that Garrett Eucalitto is here to step up and step in,”
Giulietti said. “No one is more passionate and committed to transportation,
equity, inclusion and roadway safety than Garrett.”
Eucalitto had an unsatisfying stint as an underutilized undersecretary for planning and intergovernmental policy at the Office of Policy and Management, researching and developing transportation, environmental and regional planning initiatives for the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
He left OPM in 2017 to become the transportation program
director for the National Governors Association in Washington, where he
previously had been a policy aide for U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Eucalitto
said he had no intention of returning to Hartford until approached by Giulietti
in late 2019.
Eucalitto was hired as deputy commissioner in January 2020.
Lamont praised Giulietti for recruiting his eventual
successor.
“Garrett had, I thought, a really appropriate resume,”
Lamont said. Then he smiled and glanced sideways at Eucalitto. “Worked for Joe
Lieberman, Dan Malloy. What could go wrong with that?”
Lamont lost a Senate race to Lieberman in 2006 and a
gubernatorial primary to Malloy in 2010.
In Eucalitto, the agency is getting a leader with a holistic
view of transportation, from what it means to be a pedestrian to how to replace
19th-century rail bridges that were designed during the administration of
William McKinley and contribute to slower times today than when Giulietti punched
his first ticket.
“We need to make our transportation network safer for anyone
using our systems, which means continuing to improve our roadways, building out
sidewalks and crosswalks, roundabouts, bike lanes, cleaning up our
transportation system — making transit easier and more appealing for
passengers,” Eucalitto said.
Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, D-Fairfield, the co-chair of
the legislature’s Transportation Committee, said she was sorry to see Eucalitto
leave OPM in 2017 and thrilled when Giulietti brought him back as his deputy in
2020. She called him a big-picture “systems thinker.”
Giulietti hired him in part for his expertise in
transportation financing. Connecticut is one of the few states that wholly rely
on state bonding to finance transportation infrastructure, eschewing
competitive federal loan programs such as TIFIA, the Transportation
Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act.
TIFIA loans require dedicated revenue sources, but they are
cheap and can be paid back over as long as 75 years, an appropriate span for
financing major rail bridges that remain in use for a century, Eucalitto said.
In the last budget, the General Assembly agreed to the
administration’s request to create 206 new positions for the DOT, many of
which will go to an Office of Innovative Financing. About 150 have been filled,
he said.
Connecticut eliminated highway tolls in the 1980s, and
Lamont failed to bring them back in 2019 to stabilize a nearly insolvent
special transportation fund that relies on gasoline taxes and a share of the
sale tax. A highway use tax on trucking that goes into effect in January will
provide a new funding source.
Lamont and Eucalitto each responded quickly and curtly when
asked about whether the administration would revisit tolls. Each said, “No.”
Eucalitto added, however, that every state that relies on
gasoline taxes will have to find other revenue in 20 years as electric vehicles
become the norm.
To help consumers cope with rising gas prices, the state
suspended its 25-cents-a-gallon tax on gasoline in April through Dec. 1,
costing about $30 million a month in lost revenue. Next week, the General
Assembly is expected to meet in special session to pass a bill adding a nickel
back every month until the full 25 cents is reinstated.
The state has made up the difference with federal pandemic
relief money, as well as the higher revenues generated by a price-sensitive
gross receipts tax on fuel. But Lamont said the state cannot afford the gas-tax
holiday indefinitely.
“I’m pretty sensitive about the special transportation fund,
especially given where we were four years ago, and given the increased
demands,” Lamont said. “With all the additional money coming in from the feds,
we still have to make a 20, 30, 40% contribution, depending on the competitive
grant.”
Donald Shubert, the president of the Connecticut
Construction Industries Association, said Eucalitto is well-positioned to take
over the DOT.
“I’ve known him since he started doing transportation with
Sen. Lieberman two decades ago, and he has has worked diligently towards this
his entire professional career,” Shubert said.
The DOT is currently has 700 openings, and it is competing
for engineers and other professionals in a tight labor market.
“We definitely need more engineers. We’ve tapped I think
every engineer that works in the state of Connecticut,” Eucalitto said. “We’re
going to job fairs all across the tri-state region now as well.”
Historically, hiring has been slowed by the involvement of
two other agencies, the Department of Administrative Services and the Office of
Policy and Management.
Eucalitto said the process has improved, with DAS quickly
posting job openings.
“It’s night and day compared to when I was at OPM. There’s a
much better relationship between our sister agencies,” he said.
CT’s next transportation commissioner differs from his predecessor. Is he a good fit?
The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CDOT) is
getting a new Commissioner. After four years on the job, Joe Giulietti is
retiring.
Gulietti has spent more than 50 years in transportation,
starting as a brakeman and conductor on the old Penn Central Railroad while
still a student at Southern CT State University. He graduated to road
foreman and then assistant manager for operating rules before joining the new
Metro-North in 1983 as superintendent of transportation.
In 1998 he pulled up stakes and moved to Florida where, for
14 years, he ran the Tri-Rail commuter rail system. Then Metro-North
called him back to become President of the railroad from 2014 to 2017, when he
retired after a health scare.
As he likes to tell the story, Giulietti got a cold call in
2018 from newly elected Governor Ned Lamont, beckoning him out of retirement
(again) to become CDOT commissioner, his “job of a lifetime”.
Giulietti accomplished a lot in his tenure, delivering
projects on-time and on-budget while being constantly pushed by his boss to
speed up rail service to fulfill Lamont’s pipedream of “30-30-30” service. The commissioner also took one for
the team, serving as front man for Lamont’s unpopular tolls initiative, long
since abandoned.
Insiders tell me Giulietti is heading south again to warmer
climes, but I’m guessing he may resurface in some consulting role. He
knows too much to just sit on a beach.
The 70-year-old Giulietti’s successor is Garrett Eucalitto,
his former deputy commissioner, a self-described “policy nerd”, not a railroad
or highways guy. Eucalitto, who’s in his 40s, may be the perfect guy for
the job because the challenge at CDOT has changed.
The task now is finding the money and the talent to execute
on long-planned transportation improvements. While Connecticut is getting
$5.38 billion in federal funding, the new commissioner has to match those funds
with state money and compete with other states for $100 billion in additional
funding for specific projects.
Eucalitto knows funding like Giulietti knew railroad
switches. The new commissioner spent time at OPM, the state’s Office of
Planning and Management, which controls the budget purse strings. And he
worked for the National Governor’s Association, turning transportation wishes
into funding realities.
But finding the money is only half the battle that Eucalitto
will face. He also needs to find talent to execute on the plans.
After years of attrition under the Malloy administration, CDOT still has 700
unfilled jobs.
Eucalitto says the agency is attending jobs fairs and
scouring the region for engineers. The CDOT is even having trouble hiring
truck drivers, competing as it must with the private sector.
Eucalitto inherits an agency with a strong direction and
good momentum. The all-important Special Transportation Fund (STF) which
subsidizes these projects is coming back from life support, the current “gas
tax holiday” notwithstanding.
Asked if tolls were back on the table as a funding source
for the STF, Eucalitto said “No… but…” In 20 years when we’re all driving electric vehicles, a tax on petroleum
products to pay for transportation will be an odd footnote in history.
Danbury moves ahead with ‘very exciting’ career academy after buying, rezoning west side hilltop
DANBURY — The city has acquired a 24-acre hilltop on the
west side, moving forward its ambitious plans to open the first
career academy of its kind in Connecticut by 2024, and provide badly
needed classrooms for a student enrollment that has outpaced projections.
“The city of Danbury — I don’t want to use the desperate,
but I am going to — desperately needs more schools,” said Paul Rotello, the
City Council’s Democratic Minority Leader, during a meeting earlier this month.
“I have high hopes for this.”
Danbury closed on the Apple Ridge Road property formerly
used by Cartus Corp. on Tuesday afternoon and rezoned the light industrial
campus into residential zoning on Tuesday night, clearing the way for the city
to take the next step for the $164 million project.
“We are moving ahead with the rest of our approvals,” said
Antonio Iadarola, Danbury’s engineer and public works director, during a Zoning
Commission meeting earlier this month. “We are in the middle of seeking several
approvals from the state for this project … to facilitate a well-developed,
well-designed school that meets all the needs of the Board of Education and the
state.”
Details about Tuesday’s closing were not immediately
available on Wednesday, except that the city took ownership of the property
shortly before 3 p.m., Iadarola said.
The closing is the latest development in the city’s
emergency plan to catch up with runaway
enrollment by converting the 270,000-square-foot office complex into a
high school and middle school for 1,400 students. The new west side high school
in conjunction with Danbury High School would incorporate Connecticut’s first
“wall-to-wall” academy to provide career and college training for every high
school student.
The career academy, which would be adjacent to the Wooster
School to the south, is part of a larger $208 million spending plan approved by
voters in June to build more classrooms across the city — including $27 million
for a 16-classroom early
childhood education center at Great Plain Elementary School.
The state has agreed to reimburse Danbury for 80 percent of
its classroom construction costs.
“This is a very exciting project for the city of Danbury and the Board of
Education,” Iadarola said.
The city’s land purchase clears an ownership hurdle that was a key obstacle
with Danbury’s previous plan to build its west side academy in three pods of
the sprawling Summit
office building development near the New York border. Although the
city initially thought it would work to have a condominium-style arrangement
with the owners of the Summit, that agreement
fell apart in February, forcing the city to switch gears.
The new career academy would overlook a west side that continues to lead
Danbury’s economy with large-scale residential development and new business
activity. To get the academy plans off the ground, the city needed to revert to
the zoning that was in place 40
years ago when the biggest thing on the west side was the Danbury
Fair.
The 24 acres bought by the city, which was zoned light industrial, needed to
revert to its 1979 status when the land was zoned residential, like the
surrounding neighborhood.
“The zone change is a slight shift in the zone line that exists between the
(residential) and the (light industrial) district that is to the east,”
Iadarola said during a Nov. 10 Zoning Commission meeting. “This is not an
isolation of a segregated zone, this is actually a shift of the existing zone
line that exists.”
Rotello agreed.
“This is not spot zoning — it’s contiguous with other zones of a similar
nature,” Rotello said. “As good as Cartus and Hologic were as neighbors, there
is no crystal ball for determining what the future use of this parcel could be,
and turning it into residential zoning and putting a school there is probably a
much better fit and certainly for the existing school that is there at Wooster,
which has been in Danbury for 100 years.”
ANDREAS YILMA
NAUGATUCK – The mixed use development project for Parcel B
is moving ahead after a new downtown zone was created by town officials.
The Zoning Commission on Nov. 16 approved text changes to
the land use regulations that creates a special development district for a
“combined working, service, shopping, retial, restaurant/dining, entertainment,
recreation, residential, hotel, medical, technology, industry, educational,
energy creation, office and other compatible uses in a coordinated
environment.”
“We’re trying to revitalize downtown and turn it into a
combined downtown living, working, pedestrian friendly multi-mobile restaurant
dining, entertainment, recreation residential and office use zone,” Mayor N.
Warren “Pete” Hess said.
The text change has an effective date of Dec. 5. The
commission also accepted a special permit application and set a hearing for
Dec. 14 at Town Hall for the proposed mixed use residential and commercial
development for Parcel B.
This comes after the Planning Commission, on Nov. 7, approved
sending a positive referral to the Zoning Commission for both the text change
and the zone change to six properties: 0 Maple St., 83 Maple St., 87 Maple St.,
98 Water St. and 0 Elm St.
Along with the approval, the Planning Commission gave three
recommendations – to add the word technology, to add research facilities in the
area of alternative energy production and not allow drive-through commercial
windows.
Earlier this year, the Board of Mayor and Burgesses chose
Pennrose, a real estate development company headquartered in Philadelphia, and
the Cloud Company, a Hartford-based firm, to develop 7.75 acres at the corner
of Maple Street and Old Firehouse Road, also known as Parcel B. The borough
board also approved a few months ago to select Bridgeport-based Corvus Capital
Partners as the preferred developer for Parcel A, or the Naugatuck Event
Center, at 6 Rubber Ave.
The new zone will incorporate Parcels A and B as well as
Parcels Y and Z which are further south of the Naugatuck Event Center, and
where there’s abandon vehicles and junk, Hess said.
“We’ve put together the engineering and development teams
from Pennrose, from Corvus and from the town with all of our staff to come up
with a regulation that will fit the needs so that we can develop these projects
in a manner consistent with the regulations,” Hess said.
While those two projects begin to move ahead, the borough is
spending its American Rescue Plan Act money to redo the infrastructure by
bringing in all new sanitary sewers and storm water systems and the complete
rebuild of Maple and Church streets, Hess said.
Hess said the borough has waited years to have a real
commuter line on the Waterbury Branch Line which began this year. Changes to
the demographics of downtown makes it much more attractive to investors and
developers.
Pennrose Developer and Project Manager Karmen Cheung said
the Parcel B development will be divided into three phases with 60 units for
each. Developers plan for in the range of high 70s of parking spaces per 60
units. The parking lot will be located between the proposed building and the
train station.
“I don’t envision that being an issue for our residents,”
Cheung said.
“You’re going to see allocated just for the state of
Connecticut, nothing to do with the parking for this project, on Parcel B, 70
parking spaces allocated just for the users of the train line,” Hess said.
Town Planner Lori Rotella said Pennrose Cloud submitted a
special permit application on the week of Nov. 7 for the mixed use development
of Parcel B.
“We want a vibrant downtown, a livable, a workable one and
we want a lot of people walking around, going to restaurants buying things and
have a lot more activity in downtown Naugatuck.”
GREENWICH — In an initial review by town planning officials
of a proposal to make the retail and restaurant complex at the Greenwich train
station more inviting and accessible, the architect of the redesign said it
would offer "an entirely different feel."
Architect Frank Prial Jr. walked the Planning & Zoning
Commission through the proposed reconstruction of Greenwich Plaza at Railroad
Avenue and spelled out the new look planned for the key gateway to Greenwich.
It's "an entirely different sense of space," Prial
said of the redesign that would feature large windows and materials drawn from
the natural world.
Commissioners did not raise any major criticism over the
proposal during its first review last Tuesday. "Everybody is pretty
happy," Chairwoman Margarita Alban said after asking members whether there
were objections to the plan.
The proposal calls for the demolition of the Bow Tie Cinema
movie theater, which is now closed. A 7,879-square-foot building of mixed-use
space would be built at that site, including a 4,975-square-foot restaurant
with a large outdoor patio, Prial said. Also, 2,170 square feet of retail space
would be added next to the restaurant.
Developers said a movie theater is no longer economically
viable at the site, due to changing consumer preferences.
The large new restaurant would have large sliding glass
doors, "very welcoming, very inviting," said Prial, who worked on a
renovation of Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan and a number of other
railroad stations.
A major redesign of the exterior and interior of the
Greenwich train station would be carried out, including new and improved
pedestrian access, as part of the project, he said.
The train station itself, Prial said, would be given a new
glass facade with a large clock in the center and an extended canopy over the
sidewalk, a design reminiscent of railway stations in Europe, the architect
said.
"It's a more modern approach, cleaner," he said,
calling the current train station "a lost opportunity" in welcoming
travelers to town.
The redesigned station would enjoy more natural light, Prial
said, and a large electronic sign on the inside, a "zipper," would
post train times and announcements.
New stairways would be added to access the train platform,
replacing what Prial called the unattractive and difficult stairs now in use at
the station.
The cladding of the new structure would be in granite and
limestone, along with cedar and a metal alloy that looks like bronze. The goal
would be to reference the other significant buildings in central Greenwich that
use those materials, Prial said.
The Ashforth Co. owns the site and is seeking approval for
the new construction at the complex in the center of downtown.
Alos, a traffic consultant, John Canning, told the
commission that Metro-North ridership has dropped substantially at the
Greenwich train station in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has made
traffic flow less of a problem in the area.
The proposed development, he said, would have little impact
on the nearby streets. "It's not generating a lot of traffic, and it's
dispersed," Canning said.
Alban, the commission chairwoman, said she had concerns about
traffic problems if and when ridership returned to previous levels on the
commuter train line, acknowledging that it was hard to predict with more
residents working from home or on hybrid schedules.
Commissioner Peter Levy encouraged the development team to
tone down an "urban" feel at the station and aim for "a little
bit more of a small town" aesthetic.
The application was directed to go for another review at the
Architectural Review Committee for additional input and the notes from the
P&Z Commission, on fairly minor points about the redesign.
Prial, the architect, said the input from the P&Z
Commission and the ARC had been beneficial. "The project is much better
than it was," he said.
A vote on whether to approve the plan could come at a later
meeting after another session with the architecture committee.
West Haven still awaiting Beach Street permit, hopes for April start
WEST HAVEN — A city official says the city is still waiting
for a state permit
that would allow for the raising of Beach Street, a holdup that has left a
swath of the city's shoreline languishing.
The project to raise the street, an effort to protect
against shoreline flooding, began five years ago. The city
obtained the funding for the current phase in 2020. New owners of abandoned
Beach Street properties have said they are waiting until the completion of the
road raising project before beginning development.
City Engineer Abdul Quadir told the Planning and Zoning
Commission that the city hopes to begin the project on April 1, 2023, using
regular fill to raise the street about two to six feet, with a bike path and
some sidewalks on city-owned property. Commission Chairwoman Kathy Hendricks
said using natural fill materials would be an advantage, as the installation of
retaining walls would create a risk that water from a major storm event would
not recede back into the ocean if it were to breach the wall.
Earlier this year, city officials projected they would have
the necessary state permits by fall. However, officials discovered a protected
species of plant along the street, which requires a conservation plan that much
be approved by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's
Wildlife Division.
The road-raising is expected to provide protection against
stormwater for planned restaurants, housing and hotels along that stretch of
the city's beach. Chick's
Drive-In, an iconic city eatery that closed in 2015, flooded during Superstorm
Sandy and Tropical Storm Irene.
Owners of the sites of the former Chick's Drive-In and
Debonair Motel said last month they are eager to develop at those sites. but
told the Register they are awaiting the completion of the road-raising project
before moving forward.
Chris Marone, owner of the former Chick's, said project
engineers advised them to wait so that the business does not open next to what
is projected to be several months of construction. Sim Levenhartz, owner of the
former Debonair Motel, said he is waiting to see what the sight lines of the
beach from the property will be, as well as how much grading would be required
for a parking lot, before development.
Marone said that he does not expect the road-raising project
to have any impact on a plan to add 12 townhouse units to a section of the
former Chick's parcel that had been used for restaurant parking.
On NIMBYISM and ‘opportunity’: Private developer tackles public problem of housing affordability
Elizabeth Reganr
Affordable housing developer Harold Foley’s latest project
is not in anybody’s backyard.
The $16 million, 40-unit Brookside Commons affordable
housing development is going up on 16 acres next to the Target store on Route
85 in Waterford. The commercial strip stands in stark contrast to the
neighborhood around the former Cohanzie Elementary School where, several years
ago, Foley made a failed bid to construct four new apartment buildings while
saving the historic school from demolition.
The Georgia-based developer has leveraged 20 years of
experience in multiple states to emerge as a success story in obtaining federal
tax credits to help solve the affordable housing shortage in Connecticut.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition puts the gap at
85,403 units: That’s how many more low-income households there are than places
for them to comfortably live.
Foley, owner of HF3 Group LLC, said he’s built about 25
affordable housing developments in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and now in
this state. His Connecticut projects include two in Waterbury as well as East
Lyme’s Rocky Neck Village.
Foley said community opposition remains one of the largest
impediments to affordable housing projects, whether in the South or North.
In a phone interview with The Day, Foley said he abandoned
plans for the Cohanzie development due to what he described as “a tremendous
amount” of not-in-my-backyard resistance, or NIMBYism.
Foley’s plan for the site, vacant since the elementary
school closed in 2008, included 35 apartments marketed at reduced rates to a
mix of seniors, veterans and families making less than $58,000 a year. The nine
remaining units would have been rented at the full market rate of $1,200 to
$1,400.
An apartment is considered affordable by state standards
when low- and moderate-income tenants don’t spend more than 30% of their income
on rent and associated expenses.
While offering rents lower-income earners can afford is not
a money maker on its face, federal and state programs seek to make the
proposition more enticing through the use of tax credits. A developer who is
awarded the tax credits from the government can then turn around and sell them
to investors for the funding needed to make the project financially feasible.
Foley said the majority of Cohanzie neighbors who opposed
the project were concerned about putting apartments in a neighborhood of
single-family homes.
But there’s more to it, he added: “I think there are
underpinnings, if you will, that pertain to neighborhoods not wanting to have
families or individuals that do not earn enough money, if you will, to stay in
the more traditional apartment complexes.”
About a hundred residents came out in 2019 to implore
members of the Waterford Planning and Zoning Commission to reject the developer’s
plan for the Cohanzie School site.
The lone person to speak in favor of Foley’s application was
met with jeers and cries of “go home” from attendees. One woman openly wept at
the idea of losing the small-community feel that she described as characteristic
of Waterford. Others said they were concerned about the strain renters would
put on traffic, public safety and the school system.
The commission struck down the application in a 4-1 vote
because the development didn’t fit with the surrounding environment. Cohanzie
School remains vacant.
A public problem in private hands
The federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program
was established under the Tax Reform Act of 1986 to engage private interests in
solving the affordable housing problem after public efforts failed.
The program is administered in this state by the Connecticut
Housing Finance Authority (CHFA).
Since then, a movement has emerged to address housing
segregation with tax credits. Led here by the Open Communities Alliance and
Connecticut Fair Housing Center, advocates are working to direct more financing
for affordable housing to suburban areas so lower income earners have options
outside cities.
The scoring process used by CHFA to administer the federal
tax credits awards points in several categories to prioritize sustainable
developments that serve more lower-income people in places with the most
“opportunity” for them to thrive.
A new map laying out the “opportunity” landscape of the
state was unveiled last year. The authority’s aim is to support development in
areas that are desirable to live in but which do not currently have many
affordable options.
Both the Brookside Commons and Cohanzie sites are in the
section of Waterford identified as a “high” opportunity area by the funding
authority. The second highest ranking on the opportunity scale, it represents
some combination of school quality, proximity to community colleges, job
availability and access to public transportation.
The scale spans “very low” to “very high” areas of opportunity,
with the most concentrated areas of highest opportunity occurring in wealthy
enclaves of Fairfield and Hartford counties.
Waterford, along with Bozrah, Franklin, Old Lyme, Stonington
and portions of East Lyme and Groton, are the only other high priority areas in
a region critics argue has been overlooked by the funding authority.
Based on the map, New London and Norwich provide the least
opportunity to help spread affordable housing options more equitably across a
broader section of the state.
Nandini Natarajan, CEO of CHFA, said in a phone interview
this past week that the scoring system for low-income housing tax credits
allows more people to live where they choose.
She has said her agency typically finances about 1,300
housing units per year.
“We’re not necessarily dictating where people need to live,”
she said. “We’re not saying you have to live in Old Lyme versus New London.”
She reiterated “opportunity rich” towns have crucial
resources like good schools and job availability.
“That could be a good thing for some families,” she said.
“Maybe other families don’t want to avail themselves of it because they like
where they live. And that’s okay. I don’t think we’re dictating that. I think
we’re providing opportunity, is how we look at it.”
‘Steering the money’
New London Mayor Michael Passero is a vocal critic of the
LIHTC scoring process he said makes it difficult for developers to secure tax
credit financing in the small city. In an interview with The Day earlier this
year, he pointed to the proposed redevelopment of the vacant Edgerton School
that was repeatedly rejected for tax credit financing.
The 124-unit Edgerton proposal was conceived to provide
living quarters for some, if not all, of the residents who were displaced from
the Thames River Apartments when the federally-subsidized high-rise complex was
authorized for demolition in 2018. While the federal government had gotten out
of the housing business with a 1998 law effectively halting new public
construction, residents were provided with housing vouchers they could use on
any qualifying rental, including affordable housing developments like The
Edgerton.
The Edgerton developers tried for three consecutive years to
get low-income tax credits but fell short of receiving enough points.
Passero said one of his roles as mayor is to try to get the
state to understand “that people who require subsidized housing need to live in
the urban centers because that’s where the services are, that’s where the
transportation is.” That means reconsidering the points system, according to
Passero.
“I mean, you can push the subsidized housing out into the
suburbs, but I don’t know if that necessarily helps the families,” he said. “I
still think there’s a need to build more housing and density in a city like New
London. We support that here. My administration supports that. It just doesn't
seem like state policy or federal policy is on our side right now.”
Passero said the scoring system has gotten “incrementally
worse” for the city from the days of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to Gov. Ned Lamont’s
current administration.
“Lamont, I think, is really steering the money to other
communities,” he said. “I see a lot of building in Waterford.”
Natarajan, appointed to her post in 2019, described the
LIHTC program as “very competitive.”
She put the amount requested by developers in a given cycle
at two to three times the available tax credits.
She responded to concerns from those like Passero by
emphasizing there are other funding mechanisms through state agencies that can
help finance projects. But she acknowledged LIHTC financing is the most sought
after.
The scoring system is a way to put state housing priorities
into practice, according to the CEO – and that’s “never going to please
everybody.”
“There’s a certain encapsulation of the housing policy
goals, and if you don’t meet it it’s not going to be a happy situation for you,
unfortunately,” she said. “I don’t know what to say except come and talk to us
about what you’re looking to do and we’ll work with you.”
Opportunity rich
For Foley’s Brookside Commons development in Waterford, CHFA
documents show 80% of the 40 one- and two-bedroom units will be set aside as
affordable. The largest chunk, at 16 units, is reserved for households that
make from 25% to 50% of the area’s $102,700 median income. Eight units are
reserved for those who make up to 80% of the median and another eight for those
who can pay the full market rate. The units are deed restricted to remain
affordable for 50 years.
Eight units are reserved for homeless families being served
by regional social services providers. The proposal includes an on-site
coordinator to provide support services to help the families, who must make
less than 25% of the median income, remain stable in their new homes.
A family of four making $28,150 annually would pay $633 a
month in rent for a two-bedroom apartment, based on state-mandated income
limits for tax credit properties.
A family of four that makes $67,560 — or 60% of the area
median income — would pay $1,521 per month for the same sized unit.
Reserving units for families experiencing homelessness and
offering support services gave Foley the maximum number of points in categories
that show the state’s preference for providing housing options for the
lowest-income households.
Foley used “challenging” to describe a LIHTC application
process that changes every two years.
“There are myriad various characteristics that one has to
incorporate into their development in order to prevail in obtaining the tax
credits,” he said. “All of these boxes have to be checked.”
Foley scored 74 points out of a possible 106 points for his
Brookside Commons development in Waterford, according to the points calculation
worksheet provided by CHFA. That includes six points for developments located
in towns with less than 10% of their housing stock designated as affordable and
eight points for being in a community of well performing schools with access to
higher education and jobs.
The Brookside Commons development garnered unanimous
approval this year from the CHFA Board of Directors for more than $9 million in
loans and $900,180 in federal tax credit financing. The project was approved
separately for $500,000 in tax credits from CHFA’s own state tax credit
contribution program.
Foley said the job influx contributed significantly to his
decision to build a mix of low income, moderate income and workforce housing in
this part of the state.
“Southeast Connecticut was prioritized for affordable
housing development because of the many well-paying employment opportunities
that were emerging. That’s what drew us to Waterford and it drew us to East
Lyme as well,” he said.
Foley recounted getting into tax credit development in
Jackson, Miss., in 2003. He said the need remains for affordable housing for
people of all incomes.
“Everyone’s not privileged to make $250,000 a year,” he
said. “There are many residents that earn less than $60,000, $50,000, $40,000
annually. And those citizens and families deserve the same type of quality
housing as their more affluent counterparts.”