STAMFORD — One of the city’s last vacant lots downtown could
be on the verge of a major redevelopment creating hundreds of new apartments.
Last week, the Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend
plans for two seven-story residential buildings, totaling 471 apartments, in
the 70-100 blocks of Clinton Avenue.
The 4.3-acre site is located along the Rippowam River.
Officials have been working for decades to piece together a riverside walking
path connecting Scalzi Park to Kosciuszko Park — a central facet of long-term
plans to expand Mill River Park.
Zoning Board members will hold a public hearing discussing
the plans at their online meeting Feb. 6.
The new plans, submitted by New York developer Carmel
Partners, have been in the works for at least eight years.
Royal Bank of Scotland previously owned the parcel of
land. But after the 2008 financial crisis, the corporation was looking to lay
off workers and shed properties in Stamford. Part of the cutbacks included
plans to consolidate property to create a large site that attracted residential
developers, according to a November 2015 Stamford Advocate article.
The city owned nearby parcels inland, but not abutting the
river — where it hoped to expand the Mill River Greenway. Seeing a mutually
beneficial opportunity, city officials and RBS agreed to a land swap in August
2016. Officials also approved a general plan for the development that year,
according to the Advocate.
After years of delays, New York developer Carmel Partners
purchased the site from RBS last year.
"This may be the sixth and, hopefully, final time that
we are appearing before you to discuss some aspect of this proposal," Lisa
Feinberg, the applicant's attorney, said to the Planning Board.
The developer also agreed to build out the new stretch of
walking path during apartment construction, she said. It would require an
additional zoning application with the city listed as a co-applicant.
"The idea is that they'll already be mobilized, so they'll
be able to do it faster than the city could do it," Feinberg said.
The buildings would face each other across Clinton Avenue:
176 apartments on the eastern side and 295 residences on the western block. In
accordance with the Stamford Zoning Board's policy, 49 below-market-rate
apartments would be included, distributed throughout both buildings.
Both sides will feature large courtyard spaces. The
developers' plan lends itself toward walking and biking, with close access to
downtown, the Stamford Transportation Center and, eventually, the Mill River
Park walkway.
About 453 parking spots would be available, but they would
be unbundled from monthly rent.
Feinberg, of law firm Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey,
told The Advocate that the project has been a long time coming.
"My firm has been working on this site since
2007," Feinberg said. "It's a great example of a public-private
partnership. There really was a collaboration between us, the city, an important
business in town and the Mill River Collaborative."
From Norwalk High School to the SONO school, here's what to know about school construction projects
NORWALK — The city plans to build three new schools — one
high school and two elementary schools — over the next few years.
Work has already begun on the new $45
million Cranbury Elementary School, while officials are designing South
Norwalk's first elementary school in decades and coordinating the logistics
for the construction of the new Norwalk High School.
Project managers for the three schools shared important
updates on the progress to the Board of Education Facilities Committee at its
Jan. 25 meeting.
"Cranbury School, Norwalk High School and South Norwalk
School are all proceeding concurrently but each school is at its own
phase," Alan Lo, the city building and facilities manager, said in a
statement on Monday.
SONO school
For the new South Norwalk school, Lo said that the city
funded $76
million — $14 million of which was spent “on acquisition of the
property” that was owned by The Hatch & Bailey Co. This school will have a
large capacity, at nearly twice the size of a typical elementary school. The
school is proposed to open fall 2025.
Edward J. Widofsky, from Tecton Architects, said that the
topography of the site has affected the design.“There’s a change of nearly
about 70 feet from south to north, so that’s really driving a lot of how we’re
trying to lay the site out,” Widofsky said.
“The lowest section of the site is too far down. This is a
floodplain that extends into the southeastern portion of the site. Fortunately,
it doesn’t come all the way to the southwestern corner, so there’s still the
opportunity to have a vehicular drive here,” he continued.
The plan is to treat the property as three zones with the
school built in the central area. It will have three floors, an outdoor
learning area on the roof, and a versatile space called a multi-use learning
stair within the media center where students could work and collaborate. Behind
the school on the highest part of the property, the upper area will be used for
fields, after cutting back the hill.
"South Norwalk School is completing schematic design
phase and we are about to proceed with design development phase," Lo wrote.
"Assuming we are able to maintain schedule, we will go out for bids this
winter and start construction in the spring of 2024. Construction would
take about 14 to 16 months with potential school opening fall of
2025."
Polluted materials do exist on the property, which was
confirmed by two tests, but the property is not contaminated, according to
officials. “We are not considered a hazardous site at all, but we are
considered, generally speaking, polluted,” Lo said.
“So we will have to develop a site soil management plan. The
material can’t be left on site unless we cover it, and then, it’s not an
issue,” he continued.
The area around the property has also been changed to be
zoned as residential. According to the presentation, over 50 percent of the students
who will attend this school would walk to it, which is why $1.5 million in
sidewalk improvements are underway by the Transportation, Mobility, and Traffic
Department, radiating outward from the school. The main driveway will be for
cars to drop off and pick up because the school is not expected to have bus
traffic.
Norwalk High
To locate the new Norwalk High School, one need not go far
from the current one. Dan Phillips, the project manager for Construction
Solutions Group, presented the updates to this project. The goal is to start
construction at the end of the football season because the new school is being
built on the existing football field. Construction will take three years, and
then, the students will be relocated. The proposal is for the new school to be
ready at the end of 2026 so that the switch can happen between the semesters of
the 2026-2027 school year. Lo said other communities have followed a similar
plan.
“I think I would like us to look at what other people have
done during this time for us to be able to just have some best practices for us
to pull from and replicate,” said Sandra Faioes, assistant superintendent of
business and operations. “But, that’s the goal… It’s an ambitious goal, but it
would be to actually move everybody over, over winter break.”
The original school will take about two years to demolish.
Diana Carpio, the chair of the Norwalk Board of Education, asked questions
regarding parking locations and how this will conflict with the band practice
location, which the presenters did not have answers for at this time.
The project is scheduled to go to bid in the fall, with
construction beginning in December. While building the school would take three
years, replacing the athletic facilities should take about two, Lo said.
Norwalk High and P-Tech, a STEM program for high school
students, will have separate wings in the new building, which will be three
floors and four floors, respectively. A pool and a media center for the Digital
Media Communication Academy pathway is also featured in the plans. While the
sports teams practice and play offsite, Lo said the construction budget “is
committed to provide buses. Not the regular buses, but specially scheduled
buses dedicated for the sports program." By fall of 2028, the team plans
that students will be on the new football field.
The effort is reportedly still on budget, and the project
manager and team met with the state the same day as the presentation. Faioes
said the team has also conducted frequent meetings with Norwalk High
staff, whose feedback they believe to be reflected. The plans also incorporate
the comments of King Street residents and of nearby Naramake school.
Phillips said that the team met with Planning and Zoning for
a public hearing
“Overall, the planning commission is satisfied with all the
questions, all the concerns that were raised by the neighbors and the public,”
Lo said. “They closed the public session, but they got into this discussion
about energy and solar.”
A meeting for Wednesday with the Planning and Zoning
Commission will focus on the school’s renewable energy efforts, “The public is
welcome to attend that meeting, but it’s only focused on the energy piece, not
about the general project anymore because they closed that portion of
discussion,” Lo said.
During the presentation, Phillips said the renewable options
could include solar panels on the roof and parking lot carports.
"There are many factors that impact on how large of a
system we would install," Lo wrote.
A rooftop solar system would provide about 30 percent of the
total electricity consumption of the building. A carport solar system is being
considered in addition, although that system would cost more to construct, he
said.
Cranbury Elementary School
Most of the 33 acres on the property for the new Cranbury
Elementary School are a wetland, so the construction could only be next to the
existing school, Project Manager Michael Faenz said. The sports fields will
eventually be built where the existing school sits, but that building will not
be demolished until the new school is operational. In the outside learning
area, the team has decided to use turf instead of grass because of the
high-traffic nature.
"New Cranbury School is under construction and
scheduled to be completed this summer," Lo wrote. "Students would
move in for the fall semester. Thereafter, we will begin the demolition of the
existing building."
"The Construction Manager will confirm completion date
by end of April in case there is supply chain and/or trade contractor issue
that we are not aware of at this time," he continued.
During the presentation, Lo said that if the completion date
is maintained, then work on the existing building would begin when school ends.
However, if the new school will not be ready for the next semester, the
existing building will not be touched so that students can return to it for
classes.
Proposed New Britain cannabis warehouse is like a liquor store, officials tell opponents of plan
NEW BRITAIN — The city's Zoning Board of Appeals will
consider the controversial approval of a 133,000-square-foot cannabis
cultivation and distribution site on Slater Road on Tuesday.
Rocky Hill-based developer CCC Construction wants to convert
the old Webster Bank training facility into a cannabis warehouse, a move
that some
residents have condemned due to risk of smell and proximity to
schools.
"I understand their concerns and want to hear the
company address them,” New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart said.
The ZBA's public hearing will consider the warehouse for
special exception and variance approval. The timeline of construction depends
on the approval, according to a spokesperson for Stewart.
"While I recognize that some residents in the area have
expressed opposition to the proposal, I don't believe that their concerns
cannot be adequately addressed by the city and the developer," New Britain
resident Daniel Courtney said.
Courtney said he believes the facility would be a good use
of the Webster Bank facility, which has been vacant for years. The bank is on
the site of the Stanley softball diamond.
"Considering the security measures already in place
there, it's ideally suited to be converted into a production and distribution
center for Connecticut's budding recreational cannabis industry," Courtney
said. "This project promises to bring much-needed tax revenue and jobs to
the city."
Other residents agreed with the financial benefits of the
industry on the city, saying the facility is no more of a risk than liquor
stores.
If approved, the facility will be 0.7 miles from the CREC
Academy of Science and Innovation and 0.6 miles from Gaffney Elementary School.
It would also be 0.8 miles from E.C. Goodwin Technical Magnet School.
City Treasurer Danny Salerno believes concerns about
proximity to schools should also be extended to liquor stores. There is more than
one liquor store within 2 miles of the facility.
"If you want to make comparisons, alcohol is more
accessible," Salerno said. "It's available to people — it is
everywhere. It's part of our culture, and it isn't necessarily better for us
and it doesn't mean everybody who drinks is an alcoholic. That's not at all
what I'm saying. The stigma of marijuana that's been placed on it for 50, 60,
70 years is hard to remove for some people."
Salerno served on city council from 2013 to 2021 when
members created zoning regulations in anticipation of cannabis legalization and
businesses like the proposed warehouse.
"My position is that people need to kind of get over
the issue of the fact that legalization has taken place and now we need to be
able to regulate it as we regulate most anything," Salerno said.
Southington leaders hopeful about Cheshire development
Jesse Buchanan
SOUTHINGTON — A major residential and commercial
development underway in Cheshire has Southington business and town leaders
hopeful about economic growth for the entire area.
In November, Cheshire planners approved special permits for
Stone Bridge Crossing, a 107-acre development bounded by Dickerman Road to the
west, Highland Avenue to the east, Interstate 691 to the south and the town
line to the north.
Plans for the project from Charter Realty, the leasing
agency, show more than 600 housing units in various developments, a hotel and
commercial space. During the November hearing, representatives of one of the
companies involved, Eastpointe LLC, told Cheshire planners that apartments
rents will run from $1,700 for a studio to $3,000 for a three bedroom.
Charter Realty showed on its plans that the hotel is under
contract along with a 300-unit multifamily development near the highway.
Spillover demand?
Diana McDougall, a Southington real estate agent, said
houses in Southington don’t usually sit on the market for long.
“Southington is still in a strong market situation because
the access to highways here for commuters is just awesome,” McDougall said. That’s
a big draw for businesses as well, but both commercial and residential
development can be tough in Southington at this point.
“We’re running out of space in Southington,” McDougall said.
She believes “without a doubt” that demand for highway
access and Southington’s amenities helped prompt the Stone Bridge Crossing
development.
“I think it’s going to bring more people into the
Southington area” as residents of that development visit Southington commercial
areas on Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike and elsewhere.
Business benefit
Barbara Coleman-Hekeler, Southington Chamber of Commerce
CEO, said the addition of hundreds of residents just south of the town line
will be a boost for local businesses. There’s a lot of entertainment and other
attractions to draw people to town, she said, and the Farmington Canal Linear
Trail links towns in a big way.
“I always see something like that close to where we are as a
plus,” Coleman-Hekeler said.
She lives in Cheshire and said there have been many plans
over the years for those properties.
“We’ve even had over the years outlet shopping developers
contact us to see if it’s viable for them there,” Coleman-Hekeler said.
Cheshire has commercial development in the central part of
town but it lacks easy highway access.
“When a community has basically a single artery of traffic
access, it limits some of the development the community can choose,” she said
referring to Route 10.
“Southington as a whole, demographically, has always had an
advantage,” Coleman-Hekeler said. “You can come in off the highway across any
of the adjacent towns.”
Residents’ concerns
Some Cheshire residents attended November’s planning hearing
to voice concerns about the loss of open land in the town’s north end.
"(There were) apple orchards and wide-open spaces and
stuff. Now you're changing the north end into a replica of the south end,” said
Jane Presnick-Lyon.
Cheshire planning officials said they take land conservation
seriously and that a perfect place for development is near the highway.
Earl Kurtz III, Cheshire’s planning board chairman,
supported the project.
"We asked for this and we've been looking for this
property to get developed and we're looking forward to what might come next
with the commercial and the rest of the development,” he said during November’s
meeting.
Bob Hammersley, Southington Planning and Zoning Commission
chairman, said there’s no mechanism for a town to weigh in on another town’s
development.
“They have the authority and the ability to do what’s in
their best interest, as do we,” he said.
While he was unsure what the traffic impact of Stone Bridge
Crossing might be on Southington, he said it “could have some positive effects
on that part of town.”
“I think naturally that those people would frequent
businesses in Southington. It’s closer to Southington than to downtown
Cheshire.”
New Connecticut economic development chief faces headwinds
Alexandra Daum, Gov. Ned Lamont’s nominee to lead the
Department of Economic and Community Development, told lawmakers at her
confirmation hearing last Thursday that growth will be her top priority —
a now-familiar refrain from the governor’s office.
But there are strong headwinds facing Daum as she takes over
the state’s top economic post. The threat of a recession looms this year, as
the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates in an effort to tamp down
on inflation, and companies have begun downsizing.
In Connecticut, several of the state’s prominent corporate
employers have announced layoffs, relocations and restructuring.
Campbell’s Soup Co. said it’s closing its Pepperidge Farm
headquarters in Norwalk and consolidating operations in New Jersey. Sikorsky
Aircraft parent company Lockheed-Martin announced 800 layoffs in divisions that
could include the Stratford plant. Cryptocurrency conglomerate Digital Currency
Group, whose move to Connecticut in late 2021 was hailed by the Lamont administration, has closed down one of
its subsidiaries while another of its companies filed for bankruptcy. And
Denmark-based Lego Group said it’s relocating its North America headquarters
from Enfield to Boston in 2025.
The flurry of unsettling announcements followed news late
last year that biotechnology company Sema4 (now known as GeneDx), which
received millions of dollars in state loans to build labs in Stamford and
Branford, would be shuttering those operations.
Lawmakers asked the incoming economic development
commissioner how she plans to respond to the trend in corporate retrenchment.
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“It’s all very disappointing news across the board,” Daum
said, but the “silver lining” is the number of open jobs Connecticut employers
are currently trying to fill: roughly 100,000. Daum said DECD and the
Department of Labor will work with employers to match people who have been laid
off with job openings around the state.
The state government has thousands of open jobs to fill, and Connecticut’s
school districts and health care providers are facing staff shortages. New
federally funded infrastructure and broadband projects will have thousands of
openings in the coming years. And new investment in the semiconductor industry is
driving demand for specialized technology workers.
But it was Lego’s relocation to Boston — driven in part, the
company said, by a desire for a more lively urban location with a highly
skilled talent pool — that appeared to have the freshest sting.
“That decision wasn’t made to save money,” said Rep. Julio
Concepcion, a democrat from Hartford who co-chairs the Executive and
Legislative Nominations Committee. “It’s more about the quality of place that
Boston provides,” he said.
Daum agreed. “The impression that people have is that they
can’t get that experience in Connecticut.” But she said wants to change that.
“I’m a big believer in Connecticut cities, in our downtowns,
and in the fact that they’ve been underappreciated for a long time,” Daum said.
“We need to get the word out about our vibrant downtowns, where you do have
young talent, where you do have walkability and transit-oriented environments —
and at a lower cost of living than in these major metropolises. So we’ve got a
good story to tell.”
Daum hopes telling that story will attract more people to
the state and drive economic growth.
Marketing the state’s culture and tourism assets was one of
four focus areas Daum laid out for the committee, and she highlighted the
department’s recent hiring of Noelle Stevenson — who previously led visitors
bureaus in Florida’s Broward and Miami-Dade Counties — as Connecticut’s tourism office director.
The other three areas Daum plans to focus on are providing technical
and financial support for small businesses, administering community development
grants and offering tax incentives for companies tied to how many jobs they
create.
More workers means more housing
Several legislators said economic growth and population
growth in the coming years would depend on the availability of housing.
“We’re tens of thousands of units of housing behind where we
need to be, and employers will not come into the state if there are not the
employees,” said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, co-chair of the
committee. “We’ve got to make a commitment in this state to build housing —
workforce housing.”
Daum said housing and employment are intertwined. She called
attention to the department’s Communities Challenge Grant, which has so far
awarded over $80 million to 20 projects around the state — 80% of
which incorporated housing developments, Daum said. The grant program just
completed its second round, and there are seven more to go.
“That’s the way we’re moving the needle on this issue,” Daum
said.
She added that DECD has encouraged some employers to
consider building their own housing for workers, and she said those companies
could apply for state-funded community development grants to help cover the
cost of construction.
“That application would likely score off the charts,” she
said.
Public-private partnerships, where the state, communities,
employers and other private funders all have “skin in the game,” are the kind
of projects DECD likes to do, Daum said. She added that she expects to be
collaborating across executive branch departments on many of her initiatives.
Sen. Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury, said she’s concerned that
the advantages Connecticut afforded to people who moved here during the
pandemic — more space, for one — won’t be enough to keep them around in the
coming years.
“I think it would be a mistake for us to have our future
economic development strategy be based on the advantages that were specific to
a pandemic,” Daum responded. “Our strategy going forward, I think, should be
based on fundamentals that we know to be true about Connecticut: our workforce
and our quality of life and our relative cost of living,” she said.
The committee unanimously approved Daum’s nomination, which
now heads to the state Senate for final consideration.
2 virtual meetings will discuss Mixmaster’s future
LIVI STANFORD
WATERBURY – The state Department of Transportation is once
again seeking the public’s input on The New Mix Program, which will address the
long-term needs of Waterbury’s Interstate 84/Route 8 interchange.
There will be two virtual meetings today: one at noon and
the other at 6 p.m. Those interested in participating and listening to the
meetings can go to newmixwaterbury.com.
Josh Morgan, spokesman for the Connecticut Department of
Transportation, said the public’s input is vital as the agency develops a plan
including numerous rehabilitation and replacement options to improve the safety
of the interchange.
“We are really forward thinking looking at the
environmental, traffic, and business impacts as we look at what the long-term
solutions of the interchange will be,” he said.
Waterbury’s I-84/Route 8 interchange, which is commonly
known as the Mixmaster, will approach the end of its serviceable life in 25
years, according to the DOT.
Morgan said one of the long-term goals of the project is to
reduce the number of crashes in the area and alleviate some of the traffic
congestion that builds up during rush hour.
There were 1,365 crashes reported on the I-84/Route 8
interchange from January 2015 through December 2017, according to the latest
DOT report on the interchange in 2020.
According to the DOT, in 2017 traffic volumes on the
interchanges stood at “approximately 190,000 trips per day, almost double the
intended capacity of the system.” By 2045 the DOT estimates that number is
expected to reach close to 225,000 vehicle trips per day.
Morgan said the DOT is also examining how the interchange is
built out to accommodate pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
Mayor Neil O’Leary said the project is in its infancy stage
of design and engineering.
He added that the DOT has already proposed changes to make
the interchange safer by the closure of the I-84 eastbound Exit 21 off-ramp in
Waterbury.
O’Leary said he is hopeful the project will bring growth to
the grand list and new employment opportunities.
Morgan said some options the DOT could pursue for the
interchange include reconstruction and rehabilitation which would involve no
major changes; looking at ways to shift the interchange and align it with I-84
and Route 8; relocating on-ramps and off-ramps; and looking at alternate travel
options.
Morgan said after Tuesday’s meetings, the DOT will hold more
over the summer.
“We will continue to take feedback and conduct public
outreach between meetings as we screen alternatives with the Project Advisory
Committee and stakeholders,” he said.