West Hartford, amidst a major housing boom, approves affordable housing plan
WEST HARTFORD — Affordability
will remain at the forefront of decisions town leaders make when it
comes to considering
new housing developments in town.
On Tuesday, the Town Council voted to approve its long-awaited
affordable housing plan — one that was due
to the state over two years ago.
"I will note that we’re late," said Ben Wenograd,
the Democrat who serves as deputy mayor. "I would tell people the reason
we’re late is we’re actually doing the work."
And Wenograd is right — West Hartford has moved the needle
on increasing the amount of its housing stock that's considered by the state as
affordable housing, with
522 units slated to come online as affordable units over the next few
years.
The largest chunk of those new units, though, already
existed as affordable housing — namely the 213 units at the West
Hartford Fellowship Housing campus, which provides affordable housing for
older residents and people with disabilities. But because they were naturally
occurring — meaning they were affordable because the nonprofit wanted them to
be — they weren't legally protected or counted by the state until
the nonprofit recently announced plans to renovate and expand its campus,
adding 87 brand-new homes and gaining protected status on the existing
renovated units through an agreement with the Town Council.
The other affordable homes come from a variety of other
projects, particularly the ones created with affordable housing in mind, like
the renovation of the
former West Hartford Inn into the 100 percent affordable The Camelot and
the conversion of the former
Agudas Achim synagogue into The Elle.
In all, West
Hartford's recognized affordable housing will increase from 7.6 percent of its
housing stock to 9 percent, just shy of the state's goal of 10 percent.
West Hartford — which is experiencing
a housing boom over the last few years that has seen over a 1,000
units be approved for construction — views that threshold as a start and not an
end.
"Our plan is to not only get to that 10 percent over
time, but to get over that number," Town Manager Rick Ledwith said.
"It didn't take a state statute for us to address affordable housing. This
council has been focused on affordable housing long before this state statute
became effective."
The plan, which was approved by an 8-1 vote, includes a
number of ways the town might continue to encourage and incentivize affordable
housing in town, including tax abatements, lower building permit fees, and
inclusionary zoning. The plan isn't policy, but rather serves as a tool kit for
town officials to use as they consider future housing development
proposals.
Mary Fay, a Republican member of the council, was the lone
vote against the plan. Fay said that tax abatements are a "hard pill to
swallow" and worried about initiatives that might impact the town's
current taxpayers.
"Obviously I support everybody and all people coming
and being welcomed in our town," Fay said. "I think there is a
housing crisis, no doubt about it, in terms of affordability. A lot of the
things that are in this plan hurt existing taxpayers and I’m always going to be
mindful of that."
Other members of the council celebrated the plan, including
Republican member Alberto Cortes, who stressed that implementing just the bare
minimum of affordable housing isn't enough.
"It’s high-quality
living for our seniors and for our disabled," Cortes said about
how he envisions affordable housing. "It’s more than just the (area median
income) that we talk about here. We don’t do enough. When we look at 80 percent
(area median income) that’s anybody. That’s young professionals. That’s
someone who is going to be there for a very short time."
Barry Walters, a Democrat member of the council, agreed with
Cortes, adding that housing set aside for those making 80 percent or less of
the area median income is not affordable housing, but rather
"attainable" housing.
"I’m glad this plan builds upon what we’ve already done
and that West Hartford recognizes that truly affordable housing is not
attainable housing," Walters said. "It is less than that. The
challenge is to make sure that less than does not feel less than and that
people are treated with dignity and respect and have the same kind of access to
quality homes that the rest of us have. This is a great start to the future and
it lays out the foundation."
In West Hartford, while many of the affordable housing units
included in some recently approved developments indeed sit at that 80 percent
threshold, other projects like
ones spearheaded by the West Hartford Housing Authority feature deeply
affordable housing. Some at the former synagogue project they're currently
working on will be made available for those making 30 percent or less of the
area median income.
The town also has a 4.4 percent renter vacancy rate, which
Ledwith said signals a strong market and "signals a need for additional
supply." Renters have also expressed
trouble finding affordable options in town.
Tiffani McGinnis, a Democrat member of the council and the
chairwoman of the committee the plan came out of, said this type of housing
would have been beneficial to her when she was younger. Her hope is to see more
of it.
"It’s important that we continue to move forward,"
McGinnis said. "This document is not the end of what we’re going to do.
It’s the beginning. No one should think we’re done working to provide more
affordable housing for people."
And that seems likely, as West
Hartford's elected officials have firmly and often shown a desire to say yes to
new housing proposals. Even so much so that Mayor Shari Cantor promised
Tuesday that they aren't finished with their work.
"We don't have enough inventory," Cantor said.
"Affordability is a problem. That’s always a challenge. It’s an
intentional effort. This does not happen by accident. Developers don't build
this just because. I’m very proud of what we’ve done. This is not complete.
We’re not finished."
How does Amazon pick its Connecticut locations? Its new massive warehouse proposal offers clues
Minutes from the Connecticut line in Charlton,
Massachusetts, the massive new
Amazon warehouse is virtually invisible to many nearby residents,
perched on a hilltop with a deep screen of trees to block sightlines from
neighbors below.
Only time will tell whether a developer will achieve a
similar effect for a
planned fulfillment center Amazon wants south of Interstate 84 on a
leafy hilltop spanning the Waterbury-Naugatuck line. Inland wetlands
commission hearings
for Bluewater Property Group's planned Amazon warehouse were tabled on
short notice last week in Waterbury and Naugatuck to the first week of
November, providing extra time for analysis of the site by external consultant
Tighe & Bond.
Already the largest
corporate employer in Connecticut with some 17,000 workers and
more during the holidays, Amazon would get bigger yet in hiring
between 500 and 1,000 people to staff the new fulfillment center if it is built
in the Waterbury-Naugatuck Industrial Park.
Among the major questions for some nearby residents — how
visible will the facility be, and will the economic benefits outweigh any
disruptions to surrounding residential neighborhoods during construction and
subsequent operation?
Steve Schrag is among the skeptics, having been a long-time
resident of the Gilmartin neighborhood just east of the site. Schrag is
familiar with Waterbury's economic history, whether collapsed industries that
have dotted the city with polluted sites that are difficult to redevelop;
the Brass
Mill Center mall which has struggled with vacancies in recent years;
or decisions by major employers like Webster Financial which moved headquarters
functions to Stamford more than two years ago.
"There's mixed feelings in the neighborhood — there are
some people who are unalterably opposed to it and want to keep the land the way
it is, and there are some people who are open to something else," Schrag
said. "Their track record, and our city's track record with corporate
visitors, is not good."
Regionalization
To date in Connecticut, Amazon has grabbed commercial
properties in varying settings for its fulfillment, sorting and delivery
facilities — with some noteworthy gaps in the geographic map today.
Visible from a lengthy distance on Day Hill Road in
Windsor, Amazon's
Old Iron Ore Road facility is located in a district dominated by
existing commercial facilities with easy highway access.
The
facade of Amazon's massive facility on Kennedy Road in Windsor is
likewise in plain view from the roadway, with OJ
Thrall's historic shade tobacco barn next door offering a contrasting
visual of Connecticut's historic agrarian days with the modern economy. But
along the nearest residential neighborhood off River Road, many houses are at
lower elevations with intervening tree canopies on the slope providing a visual
barrier for all but a few properties.
A South
Windsor delivery center is adjacent to highway ramps to minimize the
impact of traffic on neighbors, and a
Stratford center is located in an existing commercial park occupied by FedEx,
which sees similar levels of commercial vehicle traffic. But in Connecticut
and the wider region, Amazon has not shied away from siting its delivery
stations in commercial zones that are in close proximity to residential
streets, including on a single-lane stretch of Route
25 on the Trumbull-Monroe line that is several miles from the nearest
highway.
Amazon still has what amount to delivery station deserts in
Connecticut, notably in congested lower Fairfield County and in eastern
Connecticut where the company does not list any major locations today. Amazon
had been moving ahead with the shuttered Plainfield Greyhound Park site on
Interstate 395 for a warehouse midway between Norwich and Killingly, but the
company tabled the development with no indication whether it would try to get
it back into motion at a future date.
In Norwalk, the
sprawling Norden Park property on Interstate 95 has long represented a
potential candidate site, but with neighborhood opposition likely to be stiff
given tight residential streets and highway ramps that are susceptible to
gridlock already.
In an initial response to CT Insider questions on its
Connecticut expansion and site selection process, an Amazon spokesperson
provided little insight into what drives the timing and location for new
centers, stating only decisions were driven by "business need and serving
customers, employees, and partners" as worded in an email. Left unanswered
as well was the specific rationale for the Waterbury-Naugatuck Industrial Park
location, versus other sites Amazon and Bluewater might have considered east or
west on I-84.
"In an effort to deliver products quicker and more
efficiently to our customers we’ve engaged with a developer about the
possibility of adding a new fulfillment center creating up to 1,000 full-time
jobs with comprehensive benefits along the Waterbury-Naugatuck border,"
stated Amazon spokesperson Mike Murphy. "The developer is in the early
stages of local approvals with the municipalities and discussions with the
community. We look forward to the prospects of this development opportunity.”
Amazon relies on a hub-and-spoke model to get products to
customers. Fulfillment centers act as hubs, taking bulk shipments of products
to be stocked in coded bins and delivered to packing stations to fulfill
incoming orders. Amazon trucks those orders to sortation centers, where they
are redistributed to delivery stations for the final, "last mile" hop
to homes and businesses.
In early August, Amazon
CEO Andy Jassy expanded on what is driving the push to get more
delivery stations closer to customers along with supporting fulfillment
and sortation centers, repeatedly citing an internal
"cost-to-serve" formula Amazon applies, during a conference call
reviewing the company's most recent quarterly results.
"Regionalizing our inbound network ... [is] going to
lower our cost-to-serve and get items more close to end users, and diminish the
amount of time it takes to get them to customers," Jassy said in
August. "That allows us to add more selection. And we see this time-in and
time-out when we add more selection: customers actually consider us for more of
their purchases, and spend more with us down the line."
Tandem economic development?
The closest Amazon delivery center to the
Waterbury-Naugatuck Industrial Park is about 20 miles distant in Bristol near
ESPN's headquarters campus. A Danbury
delivery center just off I-84 is the farthest outpost from any Amazon
fulfillment or sortation center in Connecticut, with the Waterbury-Naugatuck
site about 30 miles distant.
Amazon has multiple distribution facilities west of Danbury
in the lower Hudson River valley as well, including a "receive"
facility on a former IBM property in East Fishkill that stores bulk shipments
from product companies for subsequent transfer to fulfillment centers.
At any given moment, Amazon trucks and vans face a gauntlet
of traffic at the Connecticut-New York line and passing through Danbury on I-84
depending on volumes and accidents, but the company has not been averse to
choosing other locations in Connecticut prone to congestion, such as I-95, I-91
and I-291. The Waterbury-Naugatuck Industrial Park is located just off a Route
8 exit a few miles south of the cities' "Mixmaster" bridge over the
Naugatuck River, another notorious Connecticut choke point for traffic.
Bluewater Property Group has made public birds-eye view
approximations of tree buffers it would leave in place at wooded
Waterbury-Naugatuck Industrial Park, and filed sample photos two years ago with
city planners to illustrate the views from nearby properties when branches are
stripped bare in winter. A few daytime photos show that small portions of the
building's facade would be visible from some properties on streets that ring
part of the hilltop, with the impact of nighttime lighting at the facility unclear.
Bluewater plans to plant an additional screen of fir trees that would further
hide the building's facades as they grow over time.
"They are going to be very selective about which trees
have to come down and which ones can ultimately stay," said Thomas Hyde,
executive director of the Waterbury Development Corp. and CEO of the Naugatuck
Valley Regional Development Corp. "They're not just going to go in there
and clearcut it — wherever they can keep those trees up to have that buffer,
they're going to do that."
With Waterbury a city of hills, the facility would be in
plain view from other elevated sections of the city where the tree line does
not block sightlines completely, particularly in winter. But Brass City
residents are accustomed to an industrialized setting, even if the sheer scale
of the new Amazon facility goes on beyond what they have seen before.
Amazon likewise chose a hill for a sortation center in
Charlton, Massachusetts, which is expected to open by November less than 15
minutes from where I-84 enters Connecticut. Andrew Golas, Charlton's town
administrator, told CT Insider the developer was successful in tucking the
Amazon facility behind an upward sloping buffer of trees. Charlton had been
trying for two decades to lure a big employer to the Route 20 corridor running
parallel with the Massachusetts Turnpike, Golas added, with the town kicking in
property tax incentives over a 10-year period to help cement Amazon's decision
to land there.
"There's a limited number of places where you can get
that effect," Golas said. "I'm sure that they were looking at other
locations. ... This, with its proximity to [I-84] and the Mass Pike, really fit
within their logistical plan."
Amazon released a study last week estimating that for every
dollar it spends in the United States on its distribution facilities, that
generates an extra $1.20 in economic impact. Analyzing mid-size counties where
Amazon has built centers, annual median income is $1,350 higher in the counties
where it has centers than those where it does not, Amazon reported.
Add it up, and it equates to a $1 trillion ripple effect
since 2010 — though with a devastating boomerang effect on brick-and-mortar
retailers who have lost business to Amazon over the years. Amazon notes that it
supports independent sellers with its platform that employed more than 1.8
million people as of 2023 by its estimate.
Charlton now hopes to capitalize on the new fulfillment
center by dangling candidate sites for other commercial developers, Golas said.
The home run? A new supermarket which the town does not have today.
"We're hoping this is kind of a hub. We're going to
have a lot of jobs for a lot of people in this central location, but then off
of that we know there's all the ancillary developments that can occur down the
road that are going to support all these people coming to town to work,"
Golas said. "The people who want grocery stores or the people who want
restaurants — our hope is that this will help Charlton foster this economic
revival here in town."
Hyde said that would be Waterbury's and Naugatuck's playbook
as well — but he expects the cities to wait until the project is a full go
before setting up those channels for ripple commercial development.
"There's a time to do that, and I would say we're
quickly getting to that time," Hyde said. "We don't think there's
anything that's going to cause this project not to get through — but at the
same time you don't want to be out in front of a project before it's a done
deal."
What's next
From the perspective of some Waterbury and Naugatuck
residents, it is not a done deal yet as Schrag sees it. In 2022, Bluewater won
changes in zoning regulations in Naugatuck and Waterbury to accommodate the
Amazon fulfillment center design, but it still requires an overall approval
from city zoning officials, according to Hyde. Beyond next month's inland
wetlands commission hearings and vetting processes, Bluewater still needs to
complete the land acquisition and obtain an OK from the Connecticut Department
of Transportation.
A coordinator for the Hopeville Neighborhood Association
adjacent to the property told CT Insider the group plans to discuss the project
at a Wednesday meeting.
"I do ... know some are bothered with how there will be
extra traffic," Lani Brown wrote in a text message.
In addition to traffic on neighborhood roads, Schrag said
the cities need to give careful consideration to the impact on nearby
properties of construction, and the destruction of a hilltop wooded oasis in
the city's South End. The hilltop's ledges will require blasting, which Schrag
worries could cause damage to foundations of nearby homes. He says he is not
alone.
"I think that there's unanimity on that," Schrag
said.
Includes prior reporting by Liese Klein, Paul Schott and
Luther Turmelle, who contributed to this report.
New Wilton police station moves forward with steel-topping ceremony: 'Impressive' construction
WILTON — The town of Wilton is one step closer
to unveiling its new
police station, which is expected to open by next summer.
Police
officers, town officials and building contractors celebrated a big step in
the construction with a steel-topping ceremony on Oct. 1, which symbolizes the
last metal steel beam placed on the new facility.
"We're really looking forward to improving
the work environment," First Selectwoman Toni Boucher said in an
interview.
The police station, which hosts 41 officers, has been in
need of replacement for many years, Boucher said. In 2022, the Representative
Town Meeting voted for $16 million to go toward building a new home for the
department. Work on the project began in May.
The steel-topping ceremony means all the steel beams have
been placed, with the last one signed by those involved in the
project. Boucher said community members were able to watch the last beam
be placed, with an American flag flying high.
"It's nice to come to something like this,"
Boucher said.
Now that the beams are erected, siding and roofing will be
added to the building, with the interior construction following, she said. With
this progress, it is estimated that the new facility will be completed in about
June or July 2025.
After the new facility debuts, the old building will be torn
down, providing space for covered parking, she said.
Boucher said the current police building, which is over 50
years old, has exceeded its lifespan. It is not in compliance with the
Americans with Disabilities Act, lacks space for services and was built to
serve only male officers, who previously dominated the field.
In an interview, Deputy
Police Chief Robert Cipolla said the new building will be about
double the size of the current one, which was designed for only about 25 male
officers.
With the force growing over the years and the addition of
female officers, Cipolla said the police department had to get creative with
its use of space.
The jail space will also be upgraded, with sound and sight
separations for adults and juveniles, he said. There are four cells currently,
and with need projections, the new building will offer only three cells.
"It's been impressive to watch, to see it
happening," he said of the construction project.
Cipolla, who has been with the Wilton Police Department for
20 years, said he will be sad to see the old building go. But the new one, he
said, "is for the future."
"We needed this building for our police department to
continue to provide the modern and professional police services that we do
now," Cipolla said.
Police
Chief Thomas Conlan previously said the new station will appeal
to new recruits, as it will be able to host the department's 45-officer
maximum.
The new facility will be better equipped for its function
and staffing, specifically with bathroom facilities, ADA compliance, new
heating and electrical systems, and computer wiring, Boucher said.
The new police station will also be an improved
environment for the community, she added.
Boucher said the Wilton schools were top priority when it
came to construction, then police and other first responders. After this, the
town administration is looking to tackle repairs at Town Hall and Ambler Farm,
she said.
Final steel beam tops South Norwalk School: 'Future of education,' with planned fall 2025 opening
NORWALK — School district leaders along with city and state
officials stood chattering while taking turns at signing their names on a white
steel beam, the last finishing touch on the skeleton of the new South
Norwalk School.
Their excitement came ahead of that steel beam — bedecked
with an artificial tree roughly 3 feet tall on one end and an American flag on
the other — being raised atop the structure of the soon-to-be school.
Mike Buswell, who represented building, sales and
development at Eastern Metal Works Inc., one of the school project’s
subcontractors under Newfield Construction, said he wasn’t sure of the
official reason for the artificial tree balancing the flag on the beam, but
said it represented growth and opportunity to him.
This sentiment abounded at the Tuesday morning ceremony for
the beam-topping, where Mayor
Harry Rilling, state
Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, Common Council President Darlene Young,
Norwalk Public Schools Superintendent
Alexandra Estrella — donning a pink cowgirl hard hat — and others
lauded the opportunity the school will offer to the community once completed.
The principal of South Norwalk School emphasized the
importance of the first new neighborhood school in the area in over 40 years.
His school’s current campus is the site of the old Columbus Magnet School,
which has since been renamed and relocated to 21 Hunters Lane as Concord Magnet
School.
“I feel the joy,” Principal
Randall Austin said. “I’m excited for the joy we’re going to fill
these halls with.”
Austin said he is most excited for the school and community
events programming that can take place in the new school’s gym, noting that
being the principal of the school in the neighborhood he grew up in is
rewarding.
The students will be equally eager to enter the new school
building, Superintendent Estrella said.
“It’s going to be very exciting for the kids to transfer
over and be able to graduate in the new complex,” Estrella said. “This is a
site that symbolizes a lot of community advocacy and efforts to ensure students
have a place they can go with home close by.”
Without traveling far to go to another school, students can
be “fully immersed in the learning experience,” she said.
The new school building, on which crews broke ground in
April, is a marker of development and progress in education on Norwalk, Duff
said.
“Today marks a significant milestone not only for the South
Norwalk community but for the future of education in our city,” he said. “This
new school represents a long-overdue investment in our children, giving them a
state-of-the-art facility to learn and thrive.”
The school at 1 Meadow St. Ext. is slated to open and
welcome students in fall 2025, initially serving prekindergarten through third
grade students. It will phase in additional grades in the following years to
serve up to fifth grade students.
With funding for a nearby
roundabout, the new school will emphasize community, walkability and
safety, according to city Department of Transportation, Mobility and Parking
Director Jim Travers.
The school building project itself has a 60 percent
reimbursement rate from the state.
“It will save our taxpayers millions and millions of
dollars,” Rilling said of the project priced at $76 million.
The state’s utility regulator has issued draft decisions
imposing $75 million in cuts on two natural gas utilities, which their parent
company, Orange-based Avangrid Inc., says will cause infrastructure upgrades to
be deferred and lead to higher prices for customers.
Last week, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA)
issued a draft decision in a rate case for utility companies Connecticut
Natural Gas (CNG) and Southern Connecticut Gas (SCG), reducing each company’s
revenue by more than $35 million.
In the draft decision for CNG, PURA set a revenue
requirement of $403.4 million, which is $38.8 million less than the utility’s
current funding level, or an 8.8% decrease.
CNG requested a 4.46% increase in revenue, which it said
would fund “essential reliability and resiliency projects across its service
area.”
For SCG, PURA set the company’s revenue requirement at
$399.4 million, which is $36.6 million less than the utility’s current level,
or an 8.4% decrease.
SCG requested a 9.92% increase in revenue, also for
reliability and resiliency projects.
CNG and SCG had not requested an increase in rates since
2018 and 2017, respectively.
The president and CEO of both utilities, Frank Reynolds,
said the companies oppose the revenue cuts.
“These exorbitant decreases, which exceed the net income the
companies earned last year, will almost certainly lead to immediate credit
rating downgrades, even by more than one rating,” Reynolds said. “Already,
credit agencies are evaluating these draft decisions as ‘worse than expected,
‘punitive’ and demonstrative of ‘a challenging regulatory environment in
Connecticut’ – all of which signal downgrades on the horizon.”
A credit rating downgrade would affect the utilities’
ability to access capital at affordable rates, he said.
That would cause investments in system reliability and
sustainability to be deferred, and customers will see higher prices as the
companies have to sell bonds at higher prices, Reynolds said.
PURA rejected nearly all funding for cybersecurity, which
could put customers’ personal identifying information at risk, he added.
PURA denied capital expenditures that it determined were
"not used and useful." Under PURA's new ratemaking policy, it will
allow a utility to earn a reasonable return on invested capital once the
project has been completed and is providing a benefit to the public.
For example, CNG sought to recover costs for gas mains that
have not yet gone into service, claiming that "the mains are used and
useful because they are capitalized consistent with generally accepted
accounting principles..."
PURA wasn't convinced.
"Nonetheless, while the mains may meet the company's
definition of used and useful for accounting purposes, they do not meet the
used and useful standard for utility service."
The draft decisions denied funding for any capital
infrastructure investments after April 2024, which Reynolds said “paralyzes our
ability to build an energy system of the future, forcing us to meet tomorrow’s
demands with yesterday’s resources.”
Together, CNG and SCG serve 391,000 customers in
Connecticut.
Final decisions in the rate case are expected on Nov. 18.