West Hartford to begin paving LaSalle Road as part of $10M town center overhaul
WEST HARTFORD — Motorists might face slow going
on LaSalle Road, as one side will be closed for resurfacing starting next
Monday. The road improvement is part of the town's $10
million plans to overhaul West Hartford Center.
Other pieces of the project have included replacing the
aging sidewalk in the area, which is ongoing.
Starting Monday, traffic on LaSalle Road will travel in one
direction only — southbound — as crews work on the eastern side of the street.
When that work is finished, and crews switch to the western side of LaSalle
Road, the street will be open to traffic one way in the northbound direction.
The town had previously intended to replace the surface of
LaSalle Road through a "simple mill and overlay" process, but said
that "unforeseen circumstances" changed the scope of construction.
Instead, the town has opted for a roadway reclamation.
The engineering firm working with the town, M&J
Engineering, said in a release that the process is a "more environmentally
sustainable approach to construction that improves durability and long-term
performance."
They described a roadway reclamation process as using
existing pavement, blending it with stabilizing additives and paving over it
with new asphalt.
"By reusing materials, this process produces a uniform,
stabilized base layer, and reduces waste while extending the life of the
roadway surface," the engineering firm said.
The firm did not immediately respond to questions about what
circumstances might have forced the town to shift plans.
The rehabilitation of LaSalle Road, which also
includes the
removal and replanting of trees, is part one of West Hartford's plans to
overhaul its main shopping and dining district.
The plans are intended to modernize and widen sidewalks,
replacing dying trees, and make the area more pedestrian-friendly. The project
includes the
creation of two mobility hubs, which the town has received state funding
for.
Next year, the town will complete the project by doing the
same thing on Farmington Avenue.
Businesses
will remain open during the roadway reclamation project, town officials
said, and additional signage, traffic control and pedestrian barriers will be
placed during the construction.
All pedestrian crosswalks will also remain open. The town
will also be offering free on-street parking on LaSalle and Farmington during
the roadway reclamation project, officials said, as a way to support local
businesses.
The roadwork is expected to be finished by Oct. 10.
Waterbury aldermen approve $325,000 sale of 17 acres to Amazon
WATERBURY — The Waterbury Board of
Aldermen on Tuesday approved the sale of about 17 acres adjacent to Amazon's distribution center,
which is currently under construction.
In a 14-0 vote, following a public hearing, the alderman
agreed to sell the city-owned property on the Waterbury-Naugatuck border
to Amazon for $325,000 for an access road for
its new distribution hub.
Before the approval, several neighbors of the distribution
center site complained about blasting to remove rock to make way for
construction.
Some residents complained about the frequency of the
explosions and the lack of inspections to ensure homes in the blast
area weren't harmed.
Others said residents affected by the project should get tax
breaks or air purifiers, and that the sale price was too low. They also
expressed concerns about traffic and air pollution.
"We should keep a keen eye on this," said resident
Martin Spring. "People have a right to know where there's going to be
blasting and the effects."
Waterbury Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski Jr. said Tuesday
that the parcel was nearly equally split between Waterbury and Naugatuck.
Waterbury and Naugatuck have agreed to divide property tax
revenue and building permit fees for the project.
Pernerewski said the land sale is beneficial to the buyer
and the seller.
For Amazon, he said, it allows the company access to all the
property without concern that someone could buy it and restrict access.
For the city, it means selling land of little value to
anyone else.
"It makes sense for us to sell it, and puts it back on
the tax rolls," Pernerewski said.
According to Pernerewski, the project will lead to 1,000
full- and part-time jobs and ancillary businesses such as restaurants near the
Amazon campus.
Old Lyme WPCA Chair Criticizes Selectmen for Delaying Sewer Referendum
OLD LYME — Sewer construction — and who should pay for it —
was at the center of Tuesday’s Water and Pollution Control Authority meeting,
where Chairman Steve Cinami sharply criticized the
Board of Selectmen for failing to call a referendum at last week’s meeting.
“I think that it is irresponsible for the Board of Selectmen
not to move this forward to a referendum to allow citizens to vote,” Cinami
said. “What they’re looking for is some magical accountant to determine what
all the other costs would be. And I don’t know of any person who can predict
into the future what ifs.”
Cinami was referring to the selectmen’s proposal to
hire an accountant to review the WPCA’s numbers, which they argued were
inaccurate and incomplete.
He warned that the likely outcome would be the state
Department of Energy and Environmental Protection approving sewer construction
for the three beach associations and receiving 50% in grants and forgivable
loans to help cover the costs. Meanwhile, the town portion — Sound View and
Area B — would be required to install sewers later, but at a higher cost
because that state aid would no longer be available.
During last week’s meeting,
Selectman Jim Lampos, a Sound View homeowner, said there were still issues to
be resolved before calling a referendum, which had been initially scheduled for
Sept. 9. A new date has not yet been set.
Lampos said three things had to be accomplished before
calling a referendum: Approve the sewer ordinance, complete the cost-sharing
agreement and have clear project numbers. Lampos also said there was a
discrepancy between Cinami’s cost figures and those he had personally
estimated.
In 2019, residents approved a $9.5 million project budget in
a referendum, but this year’s bids significantly exceeded that amount.
Therefore, if the town wants to move forward with the project, it would first
need to hold a new referendum to increase the budget to $17.1 million.
The project seeks to comply with a DEEP requirement that
considers septic systems in the area to be causing pollution, which several
residents contest. Homeowners have also criticized the burden that the project
cost will place on them. Although all Old Lyme voters can vote in the
referendum, only property owners in the affected area will have to pay for
construction.
According to Cinami’s calculations, the cost would be $1,939
per year per equivalent dwelling unit, or EDU, a theoretical calculation used
to assign each property a share of the total cost of the project. Those costs
do not include a one-time hookup fee, which Cinami estimated at about $6,000,
or a connection fee payable to New London and East Lyme for their past
infrastructure investments, which would amount to about $230 per year.
Operating and maintenance fees would add $564 per year, according to a DEEP
estimate.
These figures were questioned by residents at a public
hearing on Aug. 26, which led to the proposal to hire an accountant.
That estimate assumes that half of the cost would be paid by
DEEP through the Clean Water Fund and that both the town and the three beach
associations would participate in the project. If any of the parties opt out,
the cost of the infrastructure portion of the project would increase for the
remaining homeowners.
Another unknown is what would happen to the other beach
associations. Miami Beach received bids in
August, more expensive than expected, and has not yet completed its review,
while Old Lyme Shores went out for bid on Monday.
Cinami said that, due to the delay, he did not believe the
town could award the contracts before Oct. 15, the date the bids would expire.
“I still believe that this project is warranted, that it
will save Sound View time and money in the long run. Probably not in this
generation, but in future generations, as the water table goes up, more and
more houses will have to just be abandoned because there will be no way of
putting in a septic system,” Cinami said. “I also believe that Old Lyme will
sewer those properties eventually at a much greater cost than will be done now.
I believe that the Board of Selectmen is putting all of the taxpayers and
people of Sound View at risk.”
Splitting the bill
Following Cinami’s report, WPCA members engaged in a tense
debate.
Dimitri Tolchinski said he believed the project costs should
be divided among all town residents, which he calculated would amount to a few
dollars a month per person.
“That’s true, but then the taxpayers are subsidizing
increases in value for people’s homes,” Cinami responded, clarifying that each
property owner in the beach area could only be charged a cost equivalent to the
increase in their assessed value.
Tolchinski argued that this was work on a public beach, with
public streets, and that a percentage of the total cost could be paid by the
town.
Councilman Brad Yerks questioned the beach area residents’
complaints.
“You’re generational down there on the beach and that’s
great, but it’s been neglected for generations,” Yerks said. “I’m sorry. You’re
lucky you live down there. You’re very fortunate to have [something] a lot of
people in the world don’t have and I really feel that you got to have to step
up and think about it from a different angle.”
John Flick responded that it was not up to the WPCA to raise
that issue, but rather to elected officials.
Tolchinski insisted that the WPCA could raise the issue with
the Board of Selectmen.
Randy Nixon said he did not believe the townspeople would
vote to pay for sewers for certain properties when they paid for their own
septic systems, which were compliant and not subject to an administrative order
from the DEEP.
Mary Daley, a WPCA member who opposes the project and lives
in Sound View, said she had submitted alternative proposals to the sewers, but
these had been rejected by the WPCA.
“If it’s affordable, we move forward,” Daley said. “If it’s
not affordable and the municipality doesn’t make it affordable for Sound View
residents by assuming part of the cost, primarily the cost of the
infrastructure, so that they can own it and control the growth of the
infrastructure in the future, then that’s a decision the municipality has to
make.”
Cinami said DEEP had informed him it would not pay part of
the cost of building an alternative system.
“When you are ordered to replace a septic system, you pay
for it 100%,” Cinami said. “DEEP does not fund septic systems.”
Dennis Melluzzo said this was a municipal project and that
the cost of construction should be shared among all property owners, while
residents of the beach area should only pay usage fees.
“I’ve been here my whole life, I’m 74 years old, I’ve been
paying for a school system with no kids and just paid $57 million on my back,”
Melluzzo said. “You guys are coming off scot-free. Everybody who does not live
in the shoreline area, this is a bonus for you guys.”
Latest plan for failing CT mall adds several hundred more housing units
Occupancy is down to 14% at the foundering Connecticut mall.
Now at Enfield Square Mall, Nebraska-based Woodsonia Real Estate this
week said it wants to move forward on its plan
to demolish most of it and build hundreds of apartments and fresh
retail businesses.
Local officials are hoping a broad-scale redevelopment of
the 72-acre property will generate jobs, create badly needed housing, beef up
Enfield’s tax base and restore vibrancy to a showcase property that’s become
rundown and dreary.
Woodsonia is asking for a zoning change Thursday night to
consolidate the development rules for a series of parcels that make up the mall
property, and at the same time has updated its master plan for what it calls
the Enfield Marketplace.
Last
year Woodsonia proposed 450 apartments, two hotels and retail. It is now
looking to put up as many as 703 housing units, and hasn’t specified whether
some might be marketed as condos. The new plan makes no mention of hotels.
The increase in housing is similar to what several
developers have adopted for large-scale multi-use projects in Connecticut,
including Brainerd Place in Portland.
The video player is currently playing an ad.
Shoppers see the sprawling mall and outbuildings as a single
property, but Woodsonia is emphasizing that more than 10 businesses surrounding
the mall own their land and won’t be going anywhere.
Woodsonia's plan for the Enfield Square Mall property.
(Courtesy of Town of Enfield)
“These include restaurant, retail, gas station, cannabis
retail and commercial outparcels along Elm Street, Freshwater Boulevard, and
isolated parcels with the interior of the existing mall site,” according to its
new plan. “Uses include Wendys, Figaro Restaurante, Target stores, Friendly’s,
Popeyes, Zen Leaf Cannabis, Mobil Fuel (with co-located Dunkin’ Donuts),
Raising Canes Chicken Fingers and Webster Bank.”
The mall had been the centerpiece of Enfield’s retail
community in the ’80s and ’90s, and sold for more than $50 million in 1998 and
then $82 million in 2006. But brick-and-mortar retailing nationwide has fallen
off steeply in the past 20 years, and Enfield’s once-thriving center was
already losing anchor stores and smaller tenants when Namdar Realty Group bought it for less
than $11.5 million six years ago.
“After Namdar Realty’s 2019 acquisition, conditions
worsened, including a 2022 roof collapse. By mid-2023, the mall faced near
shutdown and was labeled a ‘zombie mall’ by the Wall Street Journal,” according
to Woodsonia’s master development plan. “Today the mall’s vacancy rate is
nearly 86%. The current property, in its existing condition, has been a
declining retail property that has been due for revitalization and
redevelopment.”
Earlier this year Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration put
forward $10 million toward the project, which Woodsonia has estimated would run
$250 million in all.
As part of its new plan, Woodsonia has commissioned a
traffic study that concluded peak-period trips and parking demand would be less
than what the mall created in its prime.
The current plan is for about 300,000 square feet of
commercial development including stores, service businesses, restaurants and
commercial uses, according to Woodsonia.
The Planning and Zoning Commission will review the zoning
request Thursday at 7 p.m. at town hall.
Construction planning booms, up 51% in 12 months
The construction planning pipeline surged once more to close
out the summer, an indicator contractors could see new projects break ground by
late 2026.
The Dodge
Momentum Index, which tracks nonresidential projects entering the planning
stages and leads actual construction spending by a full year, jumped 7.5% in
August. Commercial planning increased 8.7%, along with a 5.4% growth in
institutional activity, such as education and healthcare projects.
The gain stacks up on July’s
20.8% spike and brings year-to-date planning activity 30% higher than
the same period in 2024, according to Dodge Construction Network.
“The DMI continues to point to stronger construction
activity in late 2026 or early 2027 with specific sectors,” said Sarah Martin,
associate director of forecasting at Dodge Construction Network. “Following
months of uncertainty caused by tariff concerns, owners and developers have
started progressing with projects while accepting higher costs.”
Despite the optimism, Martin warned elevated
fiscal and economic uncertainty could likely cause swings in future
planning activity. Until then, commercial growth continues to sustain momentum,
led by strength in data centers, warehouses and hotels, according to the
report.
In the institutional sector, planning around education and
healthcare projects decelerated from last month, but still remained positive.
Meanwhile, a number of detention facilities and court building projects drove
lofty gains in the public
building sector throughout August, according to the report.
Compared to August 2024, overall planning activity jumped
51%. Commercial planning ticked up 38% year over year, and institutional
planning surged 84%, according to the report. Excluding data center projects
between 2023 and 2025, commercial planning would still be up 38% from year-ago
levels, largely due to an uptick in warehouse and automotive planning.
A total of 51 projects valued at $100 million or more
entered planning throughout August, according to Dodge. Major commercial
projects included:
The $500 million Big Sky data center campus and battery
storage in Billings, Montana.
The $360 million Prologis Concorde data center in Sterling,
Virginia.
The $347 million Johnston County Government Complex in
Smithfield, North Carolina.
The largest institutional projects to enter planning
included:
The $490 million Weld County Judicial Center in Greeley,
Colorado.
The $375 million dormitory within the Medical Education
Training Complex in San Antonio.
The $360 million renovation to the Framingham Correctional Institution in Framingham, Massachusetts.
DOL moves to repeal independent contractor rule
The Department of Labor intends to rescind a 2024 rule
on independent
contractor classification, according to its regulatory agenda. The agency
did not signal how it intends to change the rule under the Fair Labor Standards
Act.
The rule is a method of determining if a worker is an
independent contractor or a full-time employee, and therefore owed benefits by
their employer. For construction, the rule is significant in determining if
someone is employed as a subcontractor or directly by the general contractor on
the jobsite.
It’s not the first rule pivot in recent years. The 2024
shift under President Joe Biden marked a change from a 2021 move at the end of
President Donald Trump’s first term. The Biden administration’s revision, effective
March 2024, has faced five separate legal challenges.
Dive Insight:
The current framework uses a “totality of the circumstances”
method, weighing six major
factors considered by the DOL to determine employer status. They
include:
Worker opportunity for profit or loss
Investments made by the worker and the employer
Degree of permanence of the work relationship
Nature and degree of control over performance of the work
Extent to which the work performed is an integral part of
the employer’s business
Use of worker’s skill and initiative
By contrast, the previous rule approached workers’ control
and profit-loss opportunity.
Groups representing construction employers had opposed the
Biden-era rule and now applaud its imminent repeal.
The Associated General Contractors of America had joined in
on the filing of an amicus brief against the 2024 rule change, which the DOL
stopped enforcing in May, Brian Turmail, AGC vice president of public affairs
and workforce, told Construction Dive.
“We had anticipated this move and expect a future rule to
make compliance and the lines for determining status clearer for employers,”
Turmail said. “We would welcome a rule that offers a clear and consistent
federal clarification of status and preserves the legitimate use of independent
contractors in the construction industry.”
Associated Builders and Contractors also applauds the
development.
“ABC is pleased to see that the DOL appears to be moving
forward in its effort to revisit the independent contractor rule as it
indicated to the court it would,” Kristin Swearingen, vice president of
government affairs for Associated Builders and Contractors, told Construction
Dive. “Many construction employers depend on legitimate independent contractors
to provide specialized skills, entrepreneurial opportunities and stability
during fluctuations of work common to the industry.”
Nonetheless, the regulatory agenda also slated a replacement
rule to be proposed later this month. The typical timeline for the review and
finalization of a rule is lengthy — for example, the Biden-era rule was first
announced in 2022. That means the adoption of any new final rule is likely far
out on the horizon.