Waterford first selectman addresses concerns about proposed data center
Kevin Arnold
Waterford ― A large group of residents are opposing plans by
NE Edge, LLC to construct a data center on Millstone Nuclear Power station
property.
A petition opposing the project by the group “Protect
Waterford” has collected nearly 700 signatures. The group is concerned about
noise from the project, as well as what they say is NE Edge’s lack of
experience and troubled background.
The company has existed for a little more than a year, has
yet to build a data center and is a defendant in a $30 billion lawsuit.
“The residences of our area deserve more,” the petition
reads. “Our leaders should be doing exhaustive investigations into this company
and Data Center Noise Pollution before deciding to build within walking
distance of hundreds of homes and [four] local beaches.”
Christine Donovan, a resident of the100-home Millstone Point
Association, is worried about the lasting impact of the project. She read the
coverage of Groton’s interaction with a NE Edge proposal, which ended in
a one-year moratorium on all data center projects, as
well as the struggles of communities in Arizona and Virginia with noise pollution from other developers.
Donovan said a Feb. 22 meeting, when the Board of Selectmen
and Representative Town Meeting, agreed to become the host municipality for a
data center project, was not well publicized and that the entire process is
being “rushed along.” She said she would like the town to hold a public forum.
“As a resident with two young children, hearing about the other
communities having health issues is a big concern to me,” Donovan said Monday.
“I obviously see the pros and cons. I just hope that all aspects are being
considered carefully with so much at stake.”
Donovan’s father-in-law, Jeff Donovan, Michelle Fontaine-Calkins,
Laurette Saller and Nancy Grillo, also members of the association, also told
The Day about their concerns.
“Because we live next to a nuclear power plant that
presently generates lots of noise, it is unfair that we should have to tolerate
an additional source of noise,” Saller wrote in an email. “The combined effect
of noise from a data center plus power plant daily operations, loud speaker
tests, construction would destroy the peaceful use of our homes.”
Agreement calls for $231 million for town
First Selectman Rob Brule said he has heard the concerns of
residents who have called and emailed him and that he will not act to the
detriment of the town.
“I’m reacting to these concerns,” Brule said Tuesday. “I
think I also have a greater responsibility to the town to create this
opportunity for the taxpayers, for all 19,500 residents, but it will never get
in the way of ensuring the right thing happens.”
“We have expectations from these developers and so does
Millstone,” he added.
According to the agreement, the town would receive more than
$231 million in lieu of taxes over 30 years from NE Edge. This would make NE
Edge the second-largest taxpayer in town behind Dominion Energy, LLC, the owner
of Millstone.
Legislation passed by the General Assembly in 2021 dictates
towns cannot tax data centers’ equipment or buildings, but are allowed to
negotiate fees in lieu of such taxes. If NE Edge were to back out of the
agreement prior to the 30-year mark, the buildings would automatically become
taxable.
Brule said he has yet to sign the agreement. He said he
needs more assurance from NE Edge that it understands the magnitude of
residents’ concerns before signing it.
NE Edge would study noise
Attorney William McCoy, who represents NE Edge and owns
property in the Millstone Point Association, said the agreement calls for NE
Edge to conduct a noise analysis,
A baseline will be established over a week-long period to
determine the level of noise that currently exists. The town will hire its own
expert to review the study’s results and confirm that the results meet its
noise level standards. It could also call for alterations to the design of the
data center.
“Candidly, the client is committed to complying with the
host fee agreement as it relates to sound levels at the boundary line of the
property,” McCoy said.
Brule said the provision is “just the start of responsible
development,” and will determine what level of sound will be tolerable and
expected before the building is even built.
Brule said that because the two buildings would be supplied
with electricity directly from Dominion's two nuclear reactors on the site,
there will not be a need for diesel-powered generators for back up energy
sources, which are a main contributor to the noise issue.
The agreement for the payment in lieu of taxes does not mean
the project has been approved by the town, according to Town Attorney Nick
Kepple.
“I would just like to reiterate that this is the first
step,” Brule said. “This is opening the door for Dominion to host a data center
on its property.
Brule said the approval process will include public
meetings, Planning and Zoning Commission meetings, Conservation Commission
meetings, and others. NE Edge will also have to comply with state and federal
policies, procedures and permitting.
The Planning and Zoning Commission has also received letters from a group of Groton residents. The
group detailed its own experience with NE Edge and shared its concerns and
research on data centers.
Brule said he spent three days in Manassas, Va. to tour
multiple data centers and meet with residents who have been impacted by the
developments because “I have the same concerns everyone else does.”
While in Virginia, Brule said he had a decibel meter on
hand, but did not need it to hear the buzzing and the humming emanating from
the buildings.
“I could not live next to a data center that loud,” he said.
While Brule said he is supportive of Dominion’s partnership
with NE Edge, as the two sides have a memorandum of understanding, he added
that the project will be held to high standards to ensure there’s no noise
pollution. He said he will not treat this project any differently than any
other property in town.
“I feel confident with the right engineering, the right
contractors and no cutting corners financially, this will be a successful
venture for Dominion and the town.”
NE Edge faces $30 billion lawsuit
Gotspace Data LLC, filed the suit last December in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Massachusetts and alleges it was a victim of criminal enterprise and
that NE Edge “committed numerous violations” of the Racketeer Influenced and
Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Court documents show that Gotspace claims NE Edge interfered
with commerce by threats or violence in addition to “numerous federal law
claims” of breach of loan, investment, extortion, loan sharking, wire tapping,
electronic eavesdropping and “unlawful vexatious debt collection activities.”
Gotspace Data Partners Founder and CEO, Nicholas Fiorillo,
did not return a call for comment. NE Edge Co-Founder Thomas Quinn is the
former president of Gotspace.
“We’ve already responded to this alleged $30 billion
lawsuit,” McCoy, the attorney for NE Edge, said. “There is a history behind all
that and I think the principals within NE Edge have been clear to the
litigation behind it. Anybody can file a lawsuit in the courts of the United
States, the question is if there’s any substance behind it.”
Brule said he asked for clarification about the suit and
felt comfortable with both the developer’s and attorney’s responses. He said
he’s had “very good” interactions with NE Edge throughout the process.
“I feel comfortable from what I know,” he said. “I feel
comfortable that Dominion has a MOU (memorandum of understanding) with a
company, with a business looking to do business on their property and they cannot
do it without the host fee agreement.”
State funding boost helps Norwich move forward with Business Park North
NORWICH — Despite disapproval of a zoning change by
the City
Council in February and concerns from area residents, Business Park
North continues to make progress.
The city will receive $11.391 million from the state’s
Community Investment Fund (CIF) 2030, which will be used mainly to create the
arterial roadway through the new business park, a bike lane, bus stops, and
utilities, according
to the Community Investment Fund 2030 Board’s March 14 agenda.
The arterial road funding covers 2,700 linear feet of the
full 7,700 linear feet planned. The funded road would give developers access to
the parcels east of Canterbury Turnpike, and a couple just west, said Norwich Community Development Corporation (NCDC)
President Kevin Brown.
The funding is certainly a boost to the viability of the
project, Brown said.
“Everyone has been watching the development of this project,
wondering, ‘How can you do any of this if it’s not funded,'" he said.
The CIF Board considered the project’s shovel-readiness, and
strong potential for future investment and jobs, said Matt Pugliese, director
of the Community Investment Fund for the Department of Economic and Community
Development.
As the city has invested $4.7 million in the project so far,
the grant helps the city find more partnerships for the project, with the end
goals of creating jobs, and increasing utility sales and tax revenue, said
Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom.
Business Park North to be a benefit to Norwich taxpayers
“Over the next seven, eight, nine years as this is built
out, it can really help the taxpayers of Norwich,” he said.
While an intended Business Master Plan District zoning plan
was not approved by the City Council, the land for Business Park North was already
commercially zoned, so the city can still seek interested developers to access
parcels, Brown said.
Business Park North expects to bring thousands of jobs into
the community and supports the component side of the offshore wind industry,
and contractors for Electric Boat, said state Sen. Cathy Osten.
“We have two very large businesses that need space for their
subcontractors to move into,” she said.
What does this mean for the area?New zoning for second Norwich business park fails
Even though there was plenty of opposition voiced by the
Occum community, local leaders say they are not far off from those residents in
coming to agreeable terms.
As NCDC started communication with Norwich residents on the
project in November, it’s willing to listen to feedback, and eventually arrive
at a mutually agreeable conclusion, Brown said.
“We didn’t leave that last meeting far apart,” he said.
Osten has heard from some people in the area who support
developing the old farmland, but with caveats like “I don’t want to see
eight-story high buildings, or things along those lines.”
Change can be scary, but the community needs to keep
communicating with the city on the Business Park North project, Nystrom said.
“I want to work with them further,” he said.
With the steady development, the community will have input
on how each parcel of Business Park North is used, as the Commission on the
City Plan will make sure each developer is following zoning rules, Brown said.
Business Park North's next steps
For Business Park North’s future, NCDC is working on three
steps at once. One is securing Office of the State Traffic Administration
approval for the arterial road. In addition, the city needs to notify federal
partners of the state funding, so federal Rebuilding American
Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity Discretionary Grants can
be applied for and used for off ramps from I-395, Brown said.
The third part is to promote the opportunity to businesses.
Brown said he has generated interest from the burgeoning offshore wind
industry, along with other local and global business contacts, as the city
needs to have property ready for commercial development.
“Now that we have funding for the arterial road, we can make
those commitments much more firm,” he said.
Naugatuck getting $3M: Grant for industrial park; Waterbury, Torrington agencies also aided
ANDREAS YILMA
NAUGATUCK – The state has awarded the borough a $3 million
grant from Community Investment Fund 2030 to develop the former Uniroyal site.
Town officials previously reached a $1 purchase agreement
with Lanxess Corp., a successor to Uniroyal Chemical, to acquire roughly 86
acres off Elm Street between the Naugatuck River and Cherry Street Extension to
begin the Naugatuck Industrial Commons Redevelopment Project.
The award is part of a $98.5 million package doled out to
more than two dozen municipalities and agencies, including $921,000 for Grace
House Capital Improvements in Waterbury; $6.8 million for Route 72 corridor
improvement in Bristol; $1.4 million for the Family Wellness Center of McCall
Behavioral Health Network in Torrington and $250,000 for the Plymouth
transformational plan.
CIF works to foster economic development in historically
underserved communities across the state. CIF will provide a total of up to
$875 million to eligible municipalities; as well as not-for-profit
organizations and community development corporations that operate within them.
The funds are designated for capital improvement programs; such as brownfield
remediation and infrastructure, as well as for small business capital programs,
according to the state website.
Naugatuck Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said borough officials
are excited because it gives them a jump start at the industrial park. The next
step would be to develop a new road network with utilities for the site.
“We’ll be completing our design in the next few months, then
going out to bid and starting construction,” Hess said Wednesday.
He said he hopes to go out to bid by summer. Borough
officials are talking to several companies interested in the site, he noted.
“It was a real team effort to getting this funding
approved,” said Hess, who thanked the borough’s state legislative delegation –
Sens. Joan V. Hartley and Jorge Cabrera, and Reps. David K. Labriola and
Seth Bronko.
The $3 million in state funding would advance phase III of
the Naugatuck project by supporting construction of permanent and temporary
access roads. Local, matching funds are envisioned for complementary actions at
the site, including demolition of remaining foundations, drainage improvements
and site preparation for construction pads, a news release from Hartley’s
office states.
“This funding approval is significant for advancing the
Naugatuck Industrial Project,” Hartley stated. “Step by step, we are working
closer to putting this 80-plus acre site back into productive use and growing
the tax base, while unlocking the job creation benefits this project holds for
the Naugatuck Valley.”
There are plans to bring in data center companies and for
Metro-North’s Waterbury Branch Line to potentially develop the Port of
Naugatuck on the most eastern portion of the site.
“This is an investment that will benefit Naugatuck residents
and beyond, and I thank the (CIF) board for approving funding for the project,”
Bronko stated.
Labriola added, “These funds will provide a huge boost in
economic growth for our town and region.”
The CIF grant legislation allows up to $175 million a year
for projects for five years, Naugatuck Valley Regional Development Corp.
Director Thomas Hyde said.
Backlog ticks up, remains historically elevated
Construction backlog increased 0.2 months to 9.2 months in
February despite concerns around financing, according
to Associated Builders and Contractors.
The backlog reading regained its 0.2 month loss from January
and has hovered around highs not seen since the start of the pandemic for the
past four months, according to the report.
“While backlog remains at a historically elevated level,
borrowing costs will continue to rise during the next several months, and
contractors continue to struggle in the face of skilled labor shortages,”
Anirban Basu, ABC chief economist. “If economic momentum fades this year, as a
majority of forecasters continue to predict, then backlog and confidence may
decline, especially for contractors working predominantly on privately financed
projects.”
Contractor backlog and confidence continue to surge despite
a gloomy economic forecast and elevated
borrowing costs, said Basu.
Backlog for commercial and institutional projects increased
0.2 months to 9.4 months overall in February. Meanwhile, the backlog for
infrastructure projects jumped 1.4 months to 10 months, according to the
report.
 |
ABC’s construction confidence index reading for sales,
profit margins and staffing levels all increased in February and remain above
the threshold of 50. That indicates expectations of growth over the next six
months, according to the report.
“This mirrors the broader economy, which has thus far proved
resilient in the face of rising interest rates,” said Basu. “While economic
strength, particularly regarding labor demand, is surprising, interest rate
increases typically take 12 to 18 months to affect the broader economy, and the
first interest rate increase occurred in March 2022.”
The Southern region continues to post the highest backlog
level of any other region in the U.S. As of February, the South has had at
least 11 months of backlog in four of the previous five months, according to
the report.
Contaminated Brookfield site to be redeveloped into housing, retail — if voters OK remediation funds
BROOKFIELD — Residents are set to vote Thursday on
funding approval for the abatement, demolition and remediation of a blighted
property where housing and retail space is proposed.
This remediation at 20 Station Road would pave the way for a
developer to construct a 58,500-square-foot mixed-used building with 54
apartment units, retail space and 101 parking spaces.
The 2.3-acre site of a former dry-cleaning business that
operated in the 1960s and 1970s has sat dormant for decades due to
contamination.
The current owner — who was unaware of the contamination
caused by the former dry-cleaning business when they purchased the
property — entered into a consent order with the state Department of
Energy and Environmental Protection in 1998 and completed many, but not all of
the order’s requirements, according to town documents.
A potable well sampling conducted at the site that year
identified the dry cleaning solvent perchloroethylene in soil and groundwater,
and the roughly 4,700-square-foot building on property — which was condemned in
2011 — has accrued over $80,000 in blight violation fines.
With the current owner and other developers unwilling to do
so, the town has teamed up with Unicorn Contracting Corporation — the
same company that developed the Brookfield Village apartments at the corner of
Federal and Station roads — to clean up and redevelop 20 Station Road.
The town received a $1.2 million state grant from the
Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development for abatement,
demolition and remediation work at 20 Station Road.
Acceptance of the funding, however, will need to be approved
at Thursday’s special town meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in Room 133 of Town
Hall.
In addition to the $1.2 million appropriation, taxpayers
will vote to authorize the town to apply for and accept federal and state
grants for the project, as well as take other “necessary or desirable” actions
to complete it.
“Assuming we will get approval, the next step will be for
the developer — who is the partner with the town on this remediation
— to get our wetlands permit application approved,” said Greg Dembowski,
Brookfield’s community development specialist.
If all goes according to plan, he said the town and
developer would then enter into an agreement with DECD and issue a request for
proposal to hire a professional licensed environmental engineer, who would
oversee the project to make sure it meets “all environmental design standards”
and is done in accordance with all state and federal requirements.
Once that’s all in place, Dembowski said the town would go
out to bid for construction with the goal of breaking ground in July, August or
September of this year.
“That’s when the water table is the lowest, so it’ll be a
much cleaner remediation when we remove all these contaminated soils,” he said.
“We are doing everything we can to clean up this site in the most
environmentally-friendly way.”
NEWTOWN — A Greenwich developer proposing to build 170
apartments and villas for seniors on land next to an
animal sanctuary founded in honor of a slain Sandy Hook girl told a
review board twice that her mother was “thrilled” with the proposal next door.
But Jenny Hubbard is not thrilled with the proposal right next door.
“It’s an aggressive urban design they have created to
utilize every square inch of living space,” said Hubbard, founder of the
Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary, during an interview on Tuesday. “I’m
not at all thrilled about the design and the development they’re proposing, and
in no way have I been privy to the aggressiveness of what they’ve proposed.”
Hubbard is referring to plans
by Teton Capital Co. to buy land from Newtown on Commerce Road and build a
residential campus with 152 apartments in four buildings, with 19 villas and a
clubhouse, a pool, a dog park and playground. The property shares an access
road with the sanctuary.
The sale of the 14 acres, which has been in
negotiations for two years, would bring Newtown between $3 million and $4
million, depending on how many apartments are approved.
In additional to approval from Newtown’s Design Advisory Board, which
criticized Teton’s renderings as “out of skew” and “too urban” in late
February, Teton needs approval from Newtown’s Inland Wetlands Commission and
the Planning and Zoning Commission, both of which have yet to review the
application.
Design board member Sarah Middeleer said the renderings’
“architectural style doesn’t respond to the agrarian, rural character of the
land or the cultural and natural history of the site.”
“[T]hree- and four-story buildings seem out of skew to the
site and the surrounding area,” Middeleer said during a Feb. 22 meeting. “The
proposal looks too urban.”
Fellow board member George Daniels agreed, saying he was
“not a fan of the architectural style because it is too urban.”
“[T]he square style of the buildings lacks projections,
depth and character,” said Daniels, referring to a layout of two four-story
buildings, two three-story buildings, a barn-shaped clubhouse, and 19 villas.
Renderings submitted to the board show no landscaping
between the buildings except for lawn islands.
William Donahue, the founder and managing partner of Teton,
told the board the clubhouse would have the external appearance of a barn “to
evoke the agricultural history of the area.”
“All the buildings except the clubhouse will have flat roofs
to accommodate solar panels,” Donahue said during the Feb. 22 meeting. “[T]he
project will utilize significant material changes including native fieldstone,
bonderized corrugated metal, horizontal composite siding, (and) vertical wood
plank board and batten.”
Donahue also told the board that Jenny Hubbard was “thrilled
with the potential volunteers and programming opportunities that the active
adult housing community will bring.”
Hubbard said on Tuesday that she was not happy with the
density or design of the project but did indeed welcome a community where
seniors could age-in-place.
“However, it is very aggressive and should be significantly
pared down,” Hubbard told Hearst Connecticut Media on Tuesday.
Later, in the Feb. 22 meeting in response to a question from
a Design Review Board member, Donahue claimed Hubbard is “is thrilled with the
project.”
That is not true, Hubbard said.
“I am requesting the (Feb. 22 meeting) minutes be amended to
strike opinions offered on my behalf,” Hubbard said in a March 3 letter to the
town’s planning director. “Of special concern is my response to the design
being characterized as 'thrilled.' I was not privy to the final design in the
planning and zoning application, nor do I feel the highly urban design elements
complimentary to the setting which the development is proposed.”