New Milford approves $4.5 million expansion to add amenities at Bull’s Bridge Golf Club
NEW MILFORD – A local golf club received the approval needed
to go forward with a $4.5 million construction project that will offer new
amenities to its members.
Bull’s Bridge
Golf Club submitted
a special permit and site plan application to the New Milford Zoning
Commission in March to make kitchen and dining room additions in its clubhouse
on Old Stone Road. The club’s application also called for building a new golf
house that would be connected to the clubhouse by a breezeway.
The Zoning Commission unanimously approved the club’s
application at its June 13 meeting.
Bull’s Bridge could not be reached for comment.
The club's address is 71 Bull’s Bridge Road in South Kent
and its land stretches to Old Stone Road in New Milford.
The club’s 18-hole golf course, which opened in 2004, was
designed by Tom Fazio, “one of America’s greatest living golf
architects,” according to the
Bull’s Bridge’s website.
The course is also ranked on the Best
in the State list compiled by Golf Digest magazine and features four
sets of tees, two hybrid course layouts and yardages ranging from 5,300 to
7,000 yards to challenge players of all skill levels, the Bull's Bridge
website states.
The club’s cottage-style clubhouse on Old Stone Road houses
men’s and women’s locker rooms, a full-service kitchen and an oak bar as well
as gathering and dining areas inside and outside on the covered terrace and
back patio, according
to the club's website.
The Bull’s Bridge project will add a new dining room to the
clubhouse and expand the clubhouse’s kitchen to accommodate walk-in freezers.
The members-only golf house will have locker rooms and its own subsurface sewage
system.
The project also calls for crushing the clubhouse’s sewage
tanks and abandoning the well in favor of installing a new well and a new
septic system. The club’s parking area will be revised to allow for 116 parking
spaces of which five spaces will be handicap accessible.
A public hearing for the club’s application was held May 9
and closed June 13.
70 luxury-style town homes being built on Bradley Road in Woodbridge
Austin Mirmina
WOODBRIDGE — Black silt fencing and large mounds of dirt
stretches along a portion of Litchfield Turnpike, where crews are starting
to build a new 55-and-older housing development.
The development, called the Regency at Woodbridge, will
feature three or four complexes with a total of 70 carriage-style town
homes covering about 15 acres on Bradley Road and Litchfield Turnpike, the
plans show. A sign on site touts luxury-style apartments. The cost of the units
will start at more than a half-million dollars, according to a listing for the
project on the website for Toll Brothers, the project's developer.
Woodbridge Zoning Enforcement Officer Kristine Sullivan said
work began on the development earlier this year. Toll Brothers has estimated
that it will take about three years to complete, according to Sullivan.
"They have slabs for two of the 'four' unit complexes
poured, so they are moving right along," Sullivan said in an email.
The age-restricted town homes will come in six different
styles, ranging in size from 1,980-square feet to 2,486-square feet, according
to the plans. All units will be two stories and contain three bedrooms, the
listing shows.
The town homes also will have access to shared amenities
such as a clubhouse, fitness center and an outdoor pool, according to the
plans.
"At Regency at Woodbridge, you will find the best of
both luxury and lifestyle, with a beautiful home built to the highest standards
and personalized to reflect your taste and an array of amenities just beyond
your door," the developer's website states.
The Woodbridge Town Plan and Zoning Commission unanimously
approved the housing development application at a meeting in September 2022.
Based in Fort Washington, Pa., Toll Brothers has built 10
age-restricted developments in Connecticut, a project official said at the
time.
The development is near the busy business district of
Woodbridge and near the Amity section of New Haven, which features several
shopping plazas, gas stations, restaurants, a Post Office, a gym and many local
businesses.
Representatives from Toll Brother's Connecticut division in
Danbury did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Demolition Draws Near For Dixwell Plaza Redev
MAYA MCFADDEN
Dixwell Plaza’s redevelopers plan to start knocking down
vacant buildings in the mid-century shopping plaza as soon as September — as
they move forward with a years-in-the-making effort to build up the heart
of New Haven’s historic Black neighborhood.
Those plans were presented by the Connecticut Community
Outreach and Revitalization Program (ConnCORP) and its construction partners on
Wednesday night during a community meeting they hosted at the Stetson
Library at 197 Dixwell Ave.
The point of the meeting was to update Dixwell neighbors on
the status and timeline of the redevelopment of the commercial strip on Dixwell
Avenue between Webster Street and Charles Street.
ConnCORP Vice President of Real Estate Ian Williams
described the Dixwell Plaza redevelopment as “our big baby” in the making
after nearly a decade of work planning and acquiring blighted and
underused properties in the neighborhood.
“No one will be disappointed,” he said.
Phase
1 of the planned redevelopment will see the redevelopers, an affiliate of
the job-training nonprofit ConnCAT, demolish Dixwell Plaza’s existing
commercial condos and the old Elks Club at 87 Webster St. and build in their
stead 184 apartments (20 percent of which will be set aside at
below-market rents), a 18,460 square-foot food hall, a 20,000
square-foot grocery store, 5,600 square feet of Dixwell Avenue-fronting
retail space, a new headquarters for ConnCAT, a healthcare clinic,
a daycare center, a public plaza, and a 392-space
temporary surface parking lot.
Phase 2 of the project is slated to include a new
350-seat performing arts center, a five-story office building, 13 new
townhouses, and a 340-space garage.
Click here to
view the project’s full demolition plan, as presented on Wednesday.
ConnCORP Chief Operating Officer Paul McCraven said in the
next 60 days neighbors should expect to see activity begin at the site. He
said phase one of the project will cost an estimated $146 million.
He said the ideas for the plaza renderings were generated from the community through a study of neighborhood needs about six years ago. He added that the public plaza area will have programming run by ConnCAT. McCraven said the space will host concerts, food markets, live performances, an outdoor eating space for food hall users, and will be a neighborhood convening location managed by ConnCAT.
ConnCORP Board Chair Carlton Highsmith and CEO Erik
Clemons were also in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting.
Clemons reminded neighbors that their goal is to keep
Dixwell history prevalent and rich in the redeveloped plaza plans.
He added his team visited the Beinecke Library for three
hours learning about Dixwell’s powerful history from Director of Community
Engagement Michael Morand.
McCraven offered more details about the project plans and
confirmed that Orchid Cafe, which is currently housed at Science Park, will
move operations to the new Dixwell plaza.
For the neighborhood grocery space Clemons confirmed that
the store partner will be a variation of Elm City Market with a “different
line up of products” and in the neighborhood’s price point, he said.
Clemons added that Elm City Market has a commitment to
hiring from within the community.
One neighbor asked if land will be available on the site for
residents to have community gardening spaces. McCraven said the plans include
having two greenhouses on top of the parking garage but that there is not much
more space on the site for other farming and gardening activity.
4-Month Demolition To Start In September
Much of Wednesday’s hour-long meeting focused on the
upcoming demolition plans for the site and how it will impact residents and one
of the city’s main travel arteries.
Skanska USA Building Inc. Senior Project Manager
Beau Burgess and Project Superintendent Brian Lake shared with neighbors the
timeline and logistics of the demolition period.
Burgess said his team has been in conversation with ConnCAT
to “try to minimize the impact” on the neighborhood while taking down
about several acres of buildings.
The abatement process is expected to last all of August,
Burgess said, and then the first building on Webster is set to come down in
September. The construction workers are expected to be on site for set up
within 60 days.
Demolition is expected to last from September to December with the plan to take
down a building each month.
During demolition the road between the plaza’s parking lot
and the Florence Virtue apartments will be kept open,
Burgess confirmed.
He added that at the request of ConnCAT and the Community
Health Pharmacy, the drug store will remain open during demolition
and construction.
During demolition and construction a temporary fence
will be installed tight to building. And the Dixwell bus shelters will still
be accessible.
The parking lot will have two access points to remain usable
for church access and ConnCAT.
The construction trucks and equipment storage will be kept
off of Dixwell Avenue and secluded to the parking lot at the corner of Webster
and Winter Streets.
The demolition direction will start at Webster Street and
head in the direction of Charles Street, with the exception of taking down the
buildings in four months.
Burgess said all the site buildings won’t be taken down all
at once. The
demolition work will begin at 87 Webster St., the former site for the
Elks Club.
After each demolition the disposable material will be loaded
and hauled off site each workday with city coordinated routes
for disposals.
The demolition work hours will be Monday through Friday from
7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Burgess said his team most recently completed a pre-bid
meeting and next plan to put out the project’s Request for Proposal (RFP) to
gather all bids from subcontractors by the end of this month. Once the
subcontractors are selected around July, the site will begin to have fencing
encircling the buildings to begin the abatement process this August.
What About Air Quality? Traffic?
In the midst of the redevelopment plans being shared,
neighbors raised concerns about the impact on air quality during a planned
four-month demolition period and parking concerns for senior
church goers.
Admiral Street resident E. Lindsey-Ruminski raised concerns
about how the area’s air quality will be maintained for the nearby neighbors,
senior center, and school.
Burgess said his team’s standard practice is to do water
misting while demolition is occurring to control dust
from traveling.
One neighbor suggested a PurpleAir sensor be installed in
the neighborhood with the help of the state’s Department of Energy & Environmental
Protection during the demolition work and permanently for the city to collect
air quality data.
Lindsey-Ruminski, who has lived in Dixwell for
21 years, left Wednesday’s meeting excited about ConnCAT’s investment in
the neighborhood, but there remained concerns about the lack of planning around
the impacts to the neighborhood air quality, especially for youth
and seniors.
“Our kids have a lot of asthma issues already, it seems
selfish that they didn’t consider that,” she said.
She added that the parking distance for church members is
also an issue she hopes to hear more about at the next
update session.
“That should have been a priority,” she said. “They’re
not yet meeting our needs.”
Lindsey-Ruminski added that “everything around us is
changing” and she worries that the new site will not be affordable for those
who have lived in Dixwell for decades like herself.
“Whose going to be moving here?” she asked.
“To me bringing Elm City Market here just means you’re
bringing Yale in,” she said.
While discussing the site’s 184 apartments that will reserve
20 percent of units for affordable housing, city Purchasing Contract Analyst
and Dixwell neighbor Pat Solomon suggested ConnCAT look into the Payment in
Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program.
Clemons said he would have a conversation with Solomon
after Wednesday’s meeting to “get smart” on the possible PILOT program options.
Sharon Waddley-Stevens of the Women of the Village food
pantry, which currently operates out of the Charles Street police substation,
asked if her clients will be impacted by the demolition and
construction work.
Burgess confirmed that fencing will not be put around the
front of the substation and the parking lot will still
be accessible.
Another neighbor brought up concerns about the extended
walking distance between the parking lot and the three Webster
Street churches.
Neighbors suggested that the team consider allowing elderly
churchgoers to park in what was reserved for construction parking and equipment
storage, to make the walk easier for seniors.
Burgess said the neighbors’ concerns about senior parking
are well taken and he plans to take the feedback to his office to try and come
up with more convenient parking for those using the church buildings along
Webster Street. “I think we can come up with a plan,”
he said.
When asked about what expected noise levels will be during
demolition, Burgess said his team does not expect to work extended hours into
evenings or on the weekends and noise will include mostly heavy equipment moving.
One neighbor asked how exactly the buildings will be
taken down.
Lake said “no explosives” and “no more wrecking
balls” will be used to avoid any traveling vibrations in
the neighborhood.
The team will use excavators to pull the buildings down on
themselves one at a time.
Neighbors raised concerns about whether their house will be
shaking during the demolitions but Burgess said the vibration level is expected
to be low and have minimal travel because there will be no blasting.
Other neighbors also shared concerns with Lindsey-Ruminski
about the demolitions impact on the air quality for neighborhood seniors and
school children which will return to school during the planned fourth-month
demolition process.
To close out the Wednesday meeting Clemons announced to
neighbors that ConnCAT will be hosting a neighborhood celebration “to
honor the plaza and pay homage to its history” on July 22 at noon.
He is working to form a committee, including many who
showed up to the Wednesday meeting to help his team organize the event in
a way that will honor Dixwell’s history.