As Danbury prepares to bond $130M for a cancer center, the company asks for more time to build
DANBURY – As the city calls a special meeting on Tuesday
about a $130 million bonding
package to finance a westside
cancer center that has been beset by years
of delay, the company is asking Danbury to extend
construction approvals which run out this summer.
“The city would not be subject to repayment or liability on
the bonds,” Mayor Roberto Alves wrote to the 21-member City Council, which is
expected on Tuesday to set a public hearing for Feb. 25 to discuss the bonding.
“(O)ur partnership would enable the development and operation of a
revolutionary, life-saving cancer treatment center to open in Danbury.”
Alves, who announced in mid-December that the Stage 4 cancer
he was diagnosed with before the November election was “virtually
gone,” has been one of the strongest supporters of the center, known
as Danbury Proton.
The short version behind the delays is that the state’s regulatory process took much longer than expected.
"This development’s start of construction was
significantly delayed by the time it took to obtain a certificate of need from
the state of Connecticut, which is required to operate this facility,” wrote
Meaghan Miles, an attorney representing the cancer center, in a Feb. 9 letter
to the city’s Planning Department. “The process took approximately five years,
with an application not approved until January 2025.”
As a result, a cancer center that had an estimated cost of
$80 million when it received land use approvals from Danbury in 2021 now has a
price tag of $115 million.
In response, the city is increasing the amount it will
borrow for the nonprofit cancer center from $100 million to $130 million.
The reason: the bond must allow for “flexibility” according
to a presentation Danbury Proton representatives made to elected officials and
city department heads on Feb 5.
Under the arrangement, the city would use its
bonding power to help Danbury Proton get low-cost financing under what is known
as a “conduit
issuer” agreement.
What the city gets in return in addition to novel cancer
therapy is economic benefits such as jobs and visitors who could spend money
with local businesses, said Farley Santos, Alves’ economic and community
development adviser.
If the City Council approves Danbury Proton’s bonding, how
soon could construction begin?
“[Danbury Proton] expects to break ground this spring, with
an anticipated 18-month construction period,” Carmody said.
The problem is that the cancer center’s land use approvals
expire this summer for a three-acre property at 85 Wooster Heights Road.
The solution is for the city to grant an extension.
“(T)he approval of the site plan is void unless construction
is completed within five years, or by July 21, 2026,” Danbury Proton’s lawyer
wrote to the Planning Commission. “(T)he commission may grant an extension of
not more than five years.”
The Planning Commission could take up the request as soon as
its next meeting on Wednesday.
Killingly considers applications for three new massive warehouses
Alison Cross
Killingly — The Planning and Zoning Commission is reviewing
two major proposals for distribution centers along the Interstate 395 corridor
as residents continue to push back on new developments on undisturbed land.
The separate proposals call for a 1.37 million-square-foot
warehouse located between I-395, Westcott Road and Mashentuck Road, as well as
a 178,750-square-foot and 297,500-square-foot warehouses at 90 Putnam Pike.
Both projects would be developed in wooded areas that are
zoned for commercial uses, and neither applicant has identified the companies
that would operate out of the facilities.
At the commission’s next meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Planning and Zoning officials will determine whether the town should
hire a third-party consultant to review the application for the
1.37-million-square-foot warehouse.
The development, identified as Project Husky, is proposed on
a 340-acre stretch of land within the town’s Business
Park District where warehousing and distribution centers only require a
site plan review for approval. Information about the developer was not
immediately available.
According to application materials, the 340-acre development
would include a 76-acre conservation easement and 216 acres deeded to the town
for preservation of open space. The project, which would sit on a total of 48
acres, would disturb an estimated 22,446 square feet of wetlands, mitigated by
16,921 square feet of wetland restoration.
Town staff have recommended the consulting firm Tighe & Bond to assist the Inland
Wetlands and Watercourses Commission and the Planning and Zoning Commission in
reviewing Project Husky’s applications, for a fee of up to $85,000.
Public hearing continues on Putnam Pike plan
Tuesday’s meeting is also expected to see a resurgence of
opposition to the 90 Putnam Pike development as the public hearing for the
controversial proposal by the Cranston, R.I.-based company Killingly 1 LLC
continues.
In the agenda for the upcoming meeting, town staff said that
the Planning and Zoning Commission cannot rule on the application on Tuesday
night, given that the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission is still
deciding on the proposal. They advised the Planning and Zoning to resume the
public hearing for a third time on March 16.
The proposed 178,750 square-foot and 297,500 square-foot
warehouses would be built on 58 acres of land that is zoned general commercial
and is bordered by woodlands and residential properties. According to town
records, Killingly 1 LLC purchased the property, which overlaps an aquifer
protection area, in September for $600,000.
Town Council Chairman Ed Grandelski suggested that the
zoning classification limits the Planning and Zoning Commission’s
decision-making power.
“For someone saying that this doesn’t belong here, the
decisions made to change these zones … were made a long time ago,” Grandelski
said at a Town Council meeting on Tuesday. “Now, it’s too late to make a
change.”
“If the P&Z regulations allow for the distribution
centers, what you can do is read the regulations (and) scrutinize every single
word,” Grendelski added. “If there’s a loophole in the specs and you find it,
we appreciate that and hopefully our commission members are looking through the
same and making the developers do the right thing.”
Since 2021, the town’s zoning
regulations have allowed distribution centers within general commercial
zones as long as the proposed development meets all conditions required for a special
permit.
At Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, residents argued that the
proposed project would negatively impact the environment, health, traffic and
safety.
“You guys are building this right in my backyard,” Jennifer
St. Vincent, who lives next to the proposed construction site, told the Town
Council.
A Change.org
petition that St. Vincent started last month to oppose the development has
received more than 500 signatures. She said that the warehouses would
“transform our serene community into an industrial zone.”
“You’ll see the animals passing through (our property) all
day, the birds, the deer — it’s amazing. But to ask us to give up our privacy,
our safety and our quietness, is ridiculous,” St. Vincent said. “This is going
to affect all of us.”
CT lawmakers press for $40 million to give small UConn campus a dorm
Frustrated that the University of Connecticut hasn’t made
quicker progress to build student housing at the Avery Point campus, nine
state legislators are campaigning to get the Bond Commission to come up
with $40 million to pay for it.
Lawmakers from southeastern Connecticut have been pressing
UConn for more than two years to create dorms or a public-private partnership
for apartments at the campus in Groton.
Despite a hiring surge at nearby Electric Boat and the rise
of private apartment buildings in New London, the small Avery Point campus
still has no student housing — and no assurance that any improvement is on the
way.
Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said the region is tired of
waiting, and she’s concerned that UConn leadership may be looking to phase out
Avery Point.
“I’ve been talking about doing more for Avery Point for
eight years. I think they’re trying to get rid of it,” she told The Courant on
Thursday.
UConn officials have said that coordinating a residential
facility at Avery Point is part of the university’s long-term strategic plan.
But Osten is skeptical, and results of a highly publicized effort last year to
find a developer apparently fell through.
“Everybody talks about housing, but it’s only convenient to
put money into housing in certain areas of the state. That’s not fair. It’s
taking away a significant part of higher education in eastern Connecticut,” she
told Josh Wojcik, Gov. Ned Lamont’s new budget secretary, at a meeting of the
Appropriations Committee last week.Today in History: February 17,
Ultimately it will be up to Lamont to decide if that idea
goes forward, since he controls the Bond Commission agenda.
The 453 students at Avery Point are all commuters, and its
advocates note that the university has spent tens of millions of dollars to add
housing at its branches in Waterbury and Stamford as well as the main Storrs
campus.
UConn leadership said last year that it was in talks with a
potential developer for an Avery Point dorm, but never produced a construction
plan, budget or time schedule, and didn’t publicly identify the company. A
university spokeswoman this week acknowledged that plan is no longer advancing.
“The university previously sought proposals from the private
sector to construct student housing at Avery Point that would be cost-neutral
for UConn. No viable proposals that would accomplish this were received,” she
said. “As part of its overarching strategic plan, UConn is developing strategic
plans for each of the regional campuses. Once final, these plans will be
presented to and discussed with UConn’s Board of Trustees.”
The university declined to comment on Osten’s bill.
In September, Osten and other lawmakers from the
region told
UConn’s board of trustees that Avery Point needs investment in student
housing and academic programs. They warned that the school is losing potential
students to competing colleges where living arrangements are easier.
So far, talks about a $50 million dormitory have focused on
property near the athletic building. The goal would be housing for 250 students
with a dining hall as well as health care facilities for students.
It’s important to Groton and surrounding towns, local
leaders say.
“Avery Point is the only state school in southeastern
Connecticut. We want it to do well,” Groton Mayor Jill Rusk said Thursday. “The
campus is very significant and we support housing there. We’d hope it would be
on campus.”
As Electric Boat has already begun expanding staff, the
tight housing market in her town has grown tougher, Rusk said.
“There’s been a push for student housing for a while. We
have very little housing right now, and some residents in the vicinity are
struggling because the costs are going up,” she said.
General Dynamics’ Electric Boat operation has projected
adding thousands of jobs in Groton as well as Rhode Island, and the campus has
specialized programs in marine sciences and maritime studies.
“With the hiring surge at the Groton shipyard speeding up
and the historic demand for submarine design, engineering, and construction not
letting up in the coming decades, the value of UConn’s Avery Point campus
cannot be overstated,” U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney told The Courant on Thursday.
“UConn’s Avery Point campus is uniquely situated to be an
academic hub for southeastern Connecticut’s submarine industry,” Courtney
said,, calling Defense Department-funded research at UConn’s National Institute
for Undersea Vehicle Technology “critical to maintaining U.S. Navy undersea
supremacy.”
Until a decade ago, UConn had an additional regional campus
in the opposite corner of the state.
Northwestern Connecticut leaders in the ’80s and ’90s fought
to save UConn’s Torrington branch, saying it provided invaluable opportunity
for students from that region who couldn’t afford or didn’t want to go to
Storrs. State leaders at the time wanted to close the campus, but relented.