Plan to rebuild Hartford highways gaining support, waiting for DOT
Tom Condon
If brought to fruition, it could be the most ambitious
public works project in Connecticut this century, a radical redesign and
reconstruction of the infrastructure in the core of the capital region.
But first, everyone has to agree that it’s a good idea — and
a key state agency has yet to be heard from.
The project, announced two years ago, is called Hartford
400. It calls for the removal of the massive highway interchanges in Hartford
and East Hartford, the construction of new bridges and tunnels, more parkland
and the reconnection of North Hartford to downtown, among other things.
It is a daunting endeavor: preliminary estimates predict it
will take 15 years and cost $17 billion. But some of that money is in the till.
Counting more than $6 million in the recently enacted
Consolidated Appropriations Act, the project has drawn more than $10 million in
public and private funding for economic analysis, preliminary engineering and
specific elements of the overall project.
With more federal infrastructure funding becoming available,
“this is becoming achievable,” said Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin at a recent
press conference at which U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, announced a
$900,000 federal earmark for the project.
Also, the project’s design, by Hartford native and Los
Angeles-based urban designer Doug Suisman, has won wide local praise and this
fall garnered two major awards.
The potential benefits to the region are plentiful, said
Larson, an ardent supporter, who ticked them off at the press conference: the
project will open large swathes of downtown land in Hartford and East Hartford
for economic development and recreation; improve mobility and alleviate the
worst traffic bottleneck in the state; repair the decaying dikes along the
river to prevent a Katrina-like catastrophe; and improve air quality and public
health.
But keeping a complex, multi-year project on track is a huge
challenge.
“Long term continuity is in short supply,” architect and
planner Patrick Pinnell observed. Supporters could leave office, business
interests could object, funding could dry up, and so on.
The first challenge, at this point, is that the state
Department of Transportation, indispensable to the project, has yet to sign off
on it.
Suisman said in a recent interview that along with the
funding, the keys to bringing a long-term project to fruition are vision,
leadership and a deadline.
A deadline, Suisman said, helps focus the effort and make it
easier to organize the work. He cited as an example preparations for the 2028
Olympic Games in Los Angeles, on which “everyone is working like crazy.” The
deadline is in the title: it would be more than a little embarrassing if the
city weren’t ready to host the 2028 Games in 2028.
The deadline for the Hartford project is 2035, The city’s
400th anniversary, hence the project’s name. It is an ambitious timeframe.
As for leadership, the governor and his commissioners of
transportation and economic development must be on board. Gov. Ned Lamont has
indicated support for the project, as has House Speaker Matt Ritter,
D-Hartford. Larson has garnered support from other members of the state’s
Congressional delegation.
But since many of the current officeholders will leave and
be replaced over the course of a long project, it may be necessary to create an
agency or authority to oversee the project, Suisman said.
But how it is run likely will depend on how the vision comes
together. It is still not unanimous, in part because we’ve reached this point
via two separate but more or less parallel planning processes, one of which is
not yet complete.
The 1960s-era highway system in Hartford was criticized
almost as soon as it was built, for isolating parts of the city, poorly
designed ramps and generally sacrificing too much of the place, including
historic buildings, for the ability to drive to or through it.
About two decades ago, the DOT began planning to replace the
2.5-mile series of viaducts that carry I-84 through much of Hartford. The DOT
first considered simply repairing the viaducts as they stood, but a citizens
group urged the department to broaden its thinking and undo some of the damage
the highway did to the city.
Department planners first considered bringing the elevated
highway down to grade level as an urban boulevard. This would have cured the
walling effect of the viaduct, but would not have solved the traffic congestion.
I-84 was designed to carry 55,000 cars a day but by then was carrying more than
three times that number, 175,000 vehicles. Add 100,000 on I-91, and the
interchange was seriously overburdened.
In 2016, then-DOT Commissioner James Redeker initiated a
study of the I-84/I-91 interchange, looking for a way to reduce the congestion.
Shortly thereafter, Larson himself came up with a plan to
bring the highway traffic through an elaborate series of tunnels and asked DOT
engineers to study it. They didn’t think it would work. They came up with a
different solution, a “northern alignment,” which would bring I-84 on a new,
capped connector through the city’s Clay Arsenal neighborhood to the North
Meadows, then over a new bridge over the Connecticut River to reconnect to the
existing highway in East Hartford.
Larson didn’t think that plan went far enough to recapture
the river. Finally, in 2019, DOT pulled back the I-84 study and replaced it
with a three-year regional mobility study, saying the region’s infrastructure
needed a more “holistic approach.”
That study is due to be completed in 2023.
In 2007-08, leaders of the Bushnell Center for the
Performing Arts initiated an urban design effort to better connect downtown
Hartford’s arts and cultural institutions and make the area more inviting for
pedestrians and bicyclists.
They hired Suisman, who proceeded to design the iQuilt, a
loose-footed “green walk” of public spaces, some new and some restored, running
from the river to Bushnell Park and the Capitol. A nonprofit, the iQuilt
Partnership was created to execute the plan, which has quietly made downtown a
more pleasant and less intimidating place to walk.
The iQuilt folks decided to keep the their project going,
with a broader scope. Suisman recalled that Hartford was nearing its 400th
anniversary, in 2035. Using that as a deadline and the river as a focus, the
group, backed with a grant from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving,
created a vision.
Suisman said in a recent interview that the DOT’s decision
to study the possible relocation of the I-84/I-91 interchange opened the door
to bigger thinking about how the region could evolve.
Studying earlier plans, taking parts of the DOT plan and
Larson’s tunnel concept, Suisman created Hartford 400.
One of several issues with the current highway system is
that it was never finished. It was supposed to include a ring road, but only a
small portion of it, from Windsor to Manchester, was built. Thus both local and
through traffic are funneled into the choked downtown interchange.
The Hartford 400 plan would create a kind of inner ring,
though roughly triangular in shape. The base of the triangle would be
I-84 in a tunnel running east from the Flatbush Avenue entrance to I-84; it
would pass beneath South Hartford and surface just in time to cross the river
via the Charter Oak Bridge. It would then rejoin the existing I-84 roadway
through East Hartford towards Boston.
The second part of the triangle would run roughly where the
I-84 viaduct is today. It would be a capped highway, below ground, emerging
around the XFinity Theater. It would allow an eastbound driver on I-84 to
connect to I-91 north towards Springfield.
The third leg of the triangle would run north-south below
ground in East Hartford, connecting both Route 2 and I-84 west across a new
Connecticut River Bridge and connecting to I-91 at an enlarged Jennings Road
interchange.
The triangular configuration allows the removal of both the
I-84-I-91 interchange and almost all of the Mixmaster in East Hartford, freeing
up more than 100 acres of prime urban land.
I-91 would run through through the middle of the triangle,
on its current route but lowered and capped from Coltsville to Riverside Park.
The cap above the highway would carry a new thoroughfare called River Road,
bordered by new development on one side and new parkland on the other —
effectively a 1.5 mile southward extension of Riverside Park. Thirteen streets
would connect to River Road, allowing local traffic, bikes and pedestrians to
connect to the river along the city’s entire riverfront.
With the triangle pattern in place, there would no longer be
a need for the portion of I-84 from Union Station to the Bulkeley Bridge — now
an elevated curve that drops into a 200-foot-wide trench — that walls off the North
End from downtown. Morgan Street, now little more than a highway access ramp,
could again become a street, connecting Main Street to the riverfront.
The project also includes a 7-mile linear park, to be called
the HartLine, that would be built from Bloomfield along the little-used Griffin
rail line to downtown and then to East Hartford across the Bulkeley Bridge. A
branch of the HartLine would cross over I-91 near Dunkin’ Donuts Park via a new
ramped bridge called RiverLink, replacing the present desolate structure with a
more welcoming path from North Hartford and downtown directly into Riverside
Park.
The Hartford 400 plan has been well received by local
planners and officials and has received national attention. He and the iQuilt
Partnership have been selected to receive the prestigious 2022 Witte-Sakamoto
Family Medal in City and Regional Planning from the Weitzman School of Design
at the University of Pennsylvania. The judges called Hartford 400 an “exemplary
plan.”
The project also just received the 2022 Honor Award in Urban
Design from the California chapter of the American Institute of Architects, who
called the plan “transformative.”
Will the DOT’s mobility study endorse and support Hartford
400?
Strategic communications manager Shannon King Burnham
responded to a CT Mirror inquiry with a guarded but positive statement:
“The Greater Hartford Mobility Study’s vision for enhanced
mobility through an integrated, resilient, and multimodal transportation system
shares many common goals with Hartford 400. The study includes similar concepts
and recommendations in its universe of alternatives — several of which are
moving through the screening process for detailed modeling and analysis.”
So, we’ll see.
Some may find it unusual that a public infrastructure plan
can emanate from a private source, but Suisman said it happens as often as not.
Good ideas are where you find them. For example, the hugely popular Belt Line
in Atlanta, a 22-mile loop of multi-use trails and transit, was imagined by a
graduate architecture student at Georgia Tech.
Locally, Riverfront Recapture, which has built a system of
parks and amenities along both sides of the river that Hartford 400 would
enhance, was founded by an executive at the Travelers Cos. Riverfront is a
nonprofit that continues to expand parkland and trails. Similarly, iQuilt is a
nonprofit that would help raise funds and coordinate the Hartford 400 effort.
Jackie Gorsky Mandyck, executive director of the iQuilt
Partnership, said nonprofits such as hers play a regional coordination role
that counties might play in other states.
Indeed, projects that cover more than one municipality often
are challenging in Connecticut. But in this case the two primary towns,
Hartford and East Hartford, are on the same page, in full support of
Hartford 400, said Bronin and East Hartford Mayor Mike Walsh.
Obviously the funding is a sine qua non for the project, but
the federal government appears to have rediscovered large-scale infrastructure
investment, evidenced by last year’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which will
provide $550 billion over five years. Larson’s office provided a list of more
than a dozen other possible sources of government infrastructure funding that
could support Hartford 400, including such programs as the Community Project
Funding acts of 2022 and 2023 and the Reconnect Communities pilot program.
Larson’s full-fledged support is vital to the project. He
has long taken an interest in the region’s infrastructure and shepherded a
relatively major project, the Coltsville Historical Park in Hartford’s South
Meadows, to fruition.
At 74, the Congressman has represented the First District
since 1999. Hartford 400 could be his legacy, or a large part of it. He calls
the project “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Is it all a pipe dream? Anyone who thinks so should look at
Fall River, Mass., where a “very similar” project just broke ground, Suisman
said in an email. It involves the removal of a four-lane elevated highway to
reconnect downtown to the Taunton River waterfront. It will free urban land for
housing and economic development and reconnect the city’s North End
neighborhood to the river.
Suisman compared the Hartford highway system to the frame of
a house. He said while the frame and its foundation are important, you don’t
live in the frame, you live in the rooms. Hartford’s rooms are its streets,
squares, parks and buildings. But you can’t build those rooms with an old frame
that blocks the outdoors and isolates family members from each other.
“We need a new frame.”
Finally, it is ironic, or perhaps unfortunate, that if
Hartford 400 moves ahead, the major infrastructure project of the 21st century
in Greater Hartford will involve correcting the errors made in the 20th
century’s biggest project. Said Larson: “We have to get it right this time.”
This reporting was made possible, in part, through generous
support from Robert W. Fiondella and the Fiondella Family Trust.
Downtown Windsor revitalization project secures $3 million for 'road diet'
WINDSOR — The town has received $3 million in federal funds
to complete a "road diet" project on Broad Street.
The $3 million, which was included in the year-end $1.7
trillion federal spending bill, will be combined with $1.2 million from the
state to reduce the number of lanes on a segment of Broad Street running from
Batchelder Road through the center of town, a distance of approximately 25,050
feet. The project is one piece of a downtown
revitalization vision for Windsor, which includes a redeveloped
Windsor Center Plaza led by Windsor native Greg Vaca.
The First Town Downtown group spearheading these efforts
hosted U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, in March for a tour of
downtown, which Vaca believes led to the $3 million appropriation.
"We went through with him, 'What is the road diet? What
development is happening around Windsor?' to get him excited for the
promise of improving the streetscape and how much value that would add to
residents."
Broad Street in Windsor is part of a road extending from the
North End of Hartford to downtown Windsor Locks. The segment in downtown
Windsor has a speed limit of 30 mph and two lanes of traffic in both
directions. In 2014, the town put together a transit-oriented development
master plan that included many strategies for improving the downtown area that
sits directly beside the Hartford Line train station. Some suggestions in the
plan involved on-street parking and reducing the number of lanes.
In addition to federal and state funding for construction,
the Windsor Town Council, at a meeting Tuesday, accepted additional state
funding for the design phases.
On Dec. 21, 2020, Windsor Town Council approved $85,000 for
a preliminary design of the Broad Street road diet. Council reviewed the
designs from this phase and selected a consultant to work with on the final
design. The state awarded Windsor a $200,000 urban action grant for the final
design phase, which will include a reduction from four lanes to two, on-street
parking, left-turn pockets, bump-outs to help pedestrian crossing and traffic
signal modifications. The council accepted these funds Tuesday.
A traffic study from 2014 and updated in 2020 shows the
Broad Street corridor is expected to operate at an acceptable level even after
a road diet, according to Town Engineer Robert Jarvis.
Road diets are happening in the Greater Hartford area with
increasing frequency. Hartford is working on a road diet for Asylum
Avenue. According to city planners on the project, the theory is that
fewer, narrower lanes naturally slow traffic.
"The problem with the speed limit of 30 miles an hour
is speed limits don't matter, right?" Vaca said. "I mean, unless
you're one of the few people that like just stares at your odometer, you
basically drive as fast as you feel comfortable. Unfortunately, it's probably
about 45, 50 miles an hour."
Final construction and design documents are expected to be
completed in the fall, with construction anticipated to begin in the spring or
summer of 2024, Jarvis said Tuesday.
Vaca, who will develop the Windsor Center Plaza as a
separate part of the downtown revitalization, celebrated the new funding for
the road diet as an opportunity to increase pedestrian safety and help downtown
businesses.
"Downtowns are suddenly coming back to life with
development," Vaca said. "I think 2023 is going to be a significant
year in moving those initiatives forward."
LAURA GLESBY
Local legislators signed off on two decade-plus tax break
deals for two different affordable housing plans that will see 129 new
apartments built in Beaver Hills and West River.
Alders approved those tax breaks Tuesday night during the
latest full Board of Alders meeting in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second
floor of City Hall.
One tax break went to the West
Ridge Apartments, a planned new 65-unit apartment complex for seniors and
people with disabilities that the Branford-based Queach Corporation is set to
build at 7 – 17 Stone St. in the shadow of West Rock.
The 17-year
tax abatement freezes the Stone Street development’s taxes at $350 per
unit per year for each of the 52 below-market-rent units. (The 13 market-rate
units will not receive tax breaks.) Taxes for each below-market-rent unit will
then increase during that period only if the landlord chooses to raise the
rent; taxes will go up by the same percentage as rents.
According to the property owner’s local tax break
application, 14 of the new apartments will be reserved for renters making no
more than 25 percent of the area median income (AMI), 12 units will be reserved
at 30 percent AMI, 26 units at 50 percent AMI, and 13 units will be
rented out at market rates.
Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate, whose ward includes the
proposed new West Ridge building, urged his colleagues to support the tax break
on Tuesday night. “This is clearly in line with our legislative agenda,”
he said. “This is great for the neighborhood.”
Queach plans to provide wraparound “supportive
housing” services for disabled tenants of 14 of the apartments. Those tenants
will be identified by the state Department of Social Services.
The developer also plans to knock down four single-family
houses and relocate and renovate a fifth single-family house on Stone Street
to make way for the new apartment complex. The developer already owns all of
the properties in question.
The other tax break approved by the alders on Tuesday night
was for a planned new 64-unit, entirely below-market-rent apartment
building called The
Monarch at a former laundry facility at 149 – 169 Derby Ave. in
West River.
The 15-year
tax abatement deal will let the Avon-based developer Honeycomb Real
Estate Patners pay $450 per unit in taxes in its first year, with taxes
increasing by 3 percent annually for each year of the agreement
after that.
The planned new four-story complex will comprise a mix
of one, two, and three-bedroom apartments. Three will be reserved for tenants
making up to 80 percent AMI, or $72,080 for a two-person household;
48 for tenants making up to 60 percent AMI, or $54,060 for two people; and
13 for tenants making up to 50 percent AMI, or $45,050 for
two people.
The income requirements will apply to tenants at the time
they sign their leases. According
to Honeycomb, tenants will be able to increase their income and earn
up to 140 percent of the AMI while remaining in the building.
Fair Haven Alder and Tax Abatement Committee Chair Jose
Crespo spoke up in support of the Monarch agreement.
“It’s gonna bring life to this side of the community,”
he said.
Norwich hiring first position to help with multimillion-dollar school building project
NORWICH— After voters approved the city’s referendum to demolish most
of the existing elementary schools in Norwich and build four new ones, the
project is moving on to its next step.
On Dec. 22, Norwich opened a
request for proposals for an owner’s representative position for three
of the planned school buildings, those on the sites of the John B.
Stanton and Moriarty elementary schools, and the site of the
former Greeneville Elementary School. The city will accept
applications until Jan. 27.
The owner's representative is the first service provider the
city will select for the school building project. This role will help the city
pick an architect and other roles on the project, according to the request.
The first reason the request has gone out now is that the
project is on an aggressive schedule, School Building Committee Chair Mark
Bettencourt said.
A 2022 presentation from the school district states that the
new Stanton Elementary and Greeneville schools will open January 2026, and the
new Moriarty and Uncas elementary schools will open fall 2028.
Many of the school buildings in Norwich are past their
intended lifespans of 30 years, some nearly a century old. The School
Building Committee found maintaining the current schools for 20 years will
cost $160 million. In contrast, discontinuing use of the current elementary
school buildings, building four larger school buildings and renovating Teachers
Memorial Global Magnet Middle School would cost the city about $149 million,
after expected state reimbursement reduces the project costs from $385 million.
Also, the longer the project takes, the more likely it is to
become more expensive, said Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom.
Second, the city wants the school building project to be a
priority for the state in 2023. This includes dealing with state reimbursement
rates. For parts of the school building project that qualify, the city can
currently be reimbursed up to 67%, Nystrom said.
However, the city is working on improving the reimbursement
rates, working with state Sen. Cathy Osten and her colleagues to see if it can
be done legislatively. Other towns in the state were able to increase their
rates to as high as 90%, so it’s possible for Norwich, also a distressed
municipality, to have a reimbursement rate increase, she said.
The city will also meet with the state Office of School
Construction on Jan. 18 to talk about the reimbursement matter further,
Bettencourt said.
Quality and experience with school building projects are the
most important factors to be considered for the owner's representative
position. To that end, the School Building Committee is developing a grading
rubric to evaluate interested contractors, Bettencourt said.
“Money will be part of the issues in the end, but initially,
we are more interested in the quality of the service provided,” he said. “It
behooves us to have the best possible assistance in that endeavor.”
As of Dec. 29, no submissions had been filed, but more than
two dozen companies have downloaded documents from the request. The school
building project in Norwich is enticing to a contractor because it guarantees
years of work, Nystrom said.
Lyme-Old Lyme Selects Committee to Oversee School Construction, Excludes Chief Critic
Emilia Otte
LYME/OLD LYME — Board of Education members were split over
who should be elected as the ninth member of the building committee that will
oversee the renovation of four of the district’s schools, with some members
arguing that the committee needed a greater diversity and, in particular, more
women.
A project cost of as much as $57.5 million was approved by
voters in a November referendum, and will include replacing boilers, installing
HVAC systems, and code upgrades at Mile Creek, Lyme Consolidated, Center School
and Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School. It also includes the addition of classrooms at
Mile Creek Elementary School.
The only requirements for the committee, which consists of
nine members and three alternates, is that at least one person has experience
in construction. The committee will be responsible for recommending an
architect, construction manager and possibly an owner’s representative. They
will then oversee the entirety of the project as it progresses.
The Board of Education received 23 applications for the
committee. Each member of the board was asked to review the applications and
rank their top nine choices.
Many of the initial applicants had worked as project
managers or had backgrounds in engineering and construction. Others worked in
fields like real estate, communications, interior design, architecture, and
education. Several said they had children in the school, or worked for the
school district themselves.
During the meeting, board member Mary Powell-St. Louis said
she’d noticed that only four of the 23 applicants were women. She also noted
the large number of applicants who had backgrounds in engineering, saying she
wished there was a greater diversity in the experiences of those who applied.
She suggested that the board re-open the application process and do more to
encourage people from different backgrounds to apply.
Board member Laura Dean-Frazier said that she would also
like to see more women applying, but she felt that reopening the process
wouldn’t necessarily result in more female applicants.
Based on a ranked-choice voting — the initial procedure —
the top nine applicants would include David Kelsey, a member of the town’s
Board of Finance, a real estate developer, and a frequent critic of the
planning process so far. But based on total votes, there was a four-way tie for
the ninth seat.
Board member Anna James suggested that the committee give
the position to Cara Zimmermann, a Democrat, and one of the people who tied for
ninth place, as a way to have more female representation on the committee and a
greater diversity of experience.
But other board members argued that, based on the ranked
voting, David Kelsey actually ranked the highest and should be given the open
seat.
“We did this weighting, the chips fell as they lie,” said
Board member Chris Staab. “In my opinion, I think Dave should have the 9th spot
because he is weighed at the ninth.”
Board member Jason Kemp said he agreed with James that
Zimmermann should be given the position. He said that the board already had a
member of the Board of Finance — Andy Russell — who had been chosen for the
building committee. He also said that he felt Kelsey wasn’t supportive of the
project.
“Dave Kelsey was very strongly against this project in any
way, shape or form,” said Kemp.
Board member Steve Wilson disagreed, saying he felt that
Kelsey would be a good member to have on the committee.
“He was on the top of my list,” said Wilson. “He really
seems to do his homework and brings out issues that other people have
overlooked.”
In a phone call with CT Examiner, Kelsey said he was
“disappointed” by Kemp’s words. He said that although he disagreed with the
process the board had used, he was not against the project itself.
“That’s just patently false. I absolutely support these
extensive renovations as required commensurate with the high quality of
education that we give our kids,” Kelsey told CT Examiner.
Wilson said he felt that the committee should have
diversity, he said he didn’t want “token people” taking the place of people who
were qualified. James pushed back that Zimmermann was qualified as a
professional.
Zimmermann’s resume shows that she has experience as an
interior designer and project manager, including managing budgets for
furniture, fixtures and equipment, and managing contractors. She also has three
children in the school system.
“My experience as an interior designer has prepared me to be
familiar with the bidding process, project management, as well as current codes
related to IBC, NFPA, ASHRAE, OSHA and ADA,” she wrote in her application
letter.
Zimmerman told CT Examiner that she looked forward to being
on the committee and adding her perspective.
“I appreciate the members of the board that saw the value in
including my voice on the committee, and I look forward to adding to the
conversation as we improve the buildings and enrich the educational environment
for our town’s students.”
The board eventually voted 6-2 in favor of Zimmermann, with
Jenn Miller and Chris Staab voting against. Wilson did not vote.
The other members voted to the new committee include Board
of Education members Steve Wilson (R) and Mary Powell-St. Louis (R); Old Lyme
Board of Finance member Andy Russell (R); Lyme Board of Finance Chair Alan
Sheiness (unaffiliated); retired architect John Hartman (D); Kenneth Biega,
Part Owner of Noble Construction & Management in Essex, CT, which specializes
in education construction (unaffiliated); Richard Conniff, a science writer who
has written for multiple outlets (D); and Sara Hrinak, chief engineer for the
Cross Sound Ferry (R).
The three alternates chosen were Kelsey — who said he plans
to decline the position — Thomas Kelo and Darren Favello.
Board member Suzanne Thompson also asked whether teachers
and staff members would have the opportunity to weigh in on the project.
“The last thing you want is you don’t have the chief cook
getting to design the kitchen,” said Thompson.
Superintendent Ian Neviaser said that as part of the design
phase, the architect would meet with school staff and talk about what does and
doesn’t work. He said it also might be possible to have representatives from
the buildings be able to express their opinions to the committee.
The board appointed Wilson as chair of the Building
Committee and Powell-St. Louis as vice chair.
Torrington OKs 20-year, $5M solar deal
SLOAN BREWSTER
TORRINGTON – The city is locking into a solar program that
could bring it $200,000 in energy savings annually over the next 20 years for a
total of about $5 million and essentially shift it to clean energy.
The City Council on Tuesday night authorized Mayor Elinor C.
Carbone to sign a nonresidential Renewable Energy Solutions Auction Program –
State Agricultural and Municipal Solar Program Service agreement. Through the
program, the city will be matched with a solar project for which it will become
the “virtual off-taker,” attorney Paul Michaud said in a presentation.
“There’s no cost to the city,” he said. “There’s no
liability to the city whatsoever.”
Michaud represents TRITECH Americas, which will develop the
project to which the city will be paired, assuming the company is awarded an
appropriate project through an Eversource Energy auction. He said the city’s
energy usage would be matched with a solar project that will draw an equivalent
amount of energy. The city would then get a share of revenue from that project
and every year would receive quarterly checks.
Energy created through the project goes into the gird and is
“virtually outlaid to the city,” Michaud said.
He learned through Eversource the city uses about 12 million
kilowatt hours and, based on that, determined it could receive about $204,000
per year for the next 20 years, he said.
“Over 20 years, you get almost $5 million,” Michaud told the
council.
TRITECH, an American subsidiary of a Swiss company that
completes solar projects all over the world, has several in various stages of
development in Connecticut, Michaud noted. Projects it completed in Bristol are
drawing revenue to that city.
The six-year program is a response to a state law requiring
a zero-energy carbon grid by 2040, Michaud said.
A competitive program, projects are awarded via Eversource
auctions, the first of which will be scheduled in early February, Michaud said
Wednesday. There will be more auctions over the next five years. The attorney
said he’s optimistic TRITECH would be awarded a project to match with
Torrington.
“The client is extremely competitive, so we’re pretty
optimistic,” he said.
Council member Paul E. Cavagnero said he was not convinced
it was a good idea for the city to enter into the agreement and did not support
the motion. He said he would like someone at the city level to give a
presentation about the program.
Facilities manager Jamie Sykora, who recommended the program
to the council, said Eversource programs are constantly changing and pointed
out that rebates he had gotten for the city in 2022 have been cut in half for
2023.
Carbone, who said she also was still learning about the
program, said the city was not changing how it does business.
“Our usage gets changed from a fossil fuel to clean energy,”
she said.
The motion passed 4-2 with Anne L. Ruwet, Drake L. Waldron,
Armand Maniccia Jr. and Keri L. Hoehne in favor, while Cavagnero and David L.
Oliver opposed.