Stamford kicks off new Westhill High School construction project with groundbreaking
STAMFORD — Construction of the new
Westhill High School, likely the largest school project in Connecticut
history, is now officially underway — at least symbolically.
A collection of local and state officials gathered at
the Stamford school
Tuesday afternoon to celebrate a groundbreaking for
the project, which includes demolishing the existing Westhill and replacing
it with a new 450,000-square-foot building, expected to open in August 2029.
Connecticut Department of Administrative Services Deputy
Commissioner Eleanor Michael called the Westhill project one of the most
significant in the state and likely the largest-ever school project in
Connecticut history. The department agreed to pay for 80% of the project to
rebuild the school, estimated at a cost of $446 million, last year. That would
mean a reimbursement of up to $356.8 million.
However, the total cost of the project may not reach that
level. In March, the Stamford Board of Finance approved a guaranteed maximum
price of $353.4 million for the work. City Director of Operations
Matthew Quinones said there is an additional $45 million to $50 million
anticipated in soft costs that could drive the total above $400 million.
The new Westhill is designed to hold up to 2,458 students
and will feature nearly 100 classrooms.
It will also include a state-of-the-art indoor pool
facility, estimated to cost roughly $18 million, and a performing arts center.
“This investment is not just in a brand new beautiful
building,” said Mayor
Caroline Simmons, one of the officials who spoke at the event. “This is an
investment in our students' future, it’s an investment in our teachers, an
investment in our families and an investment in our city’s future. We know that
when students have access to high quality learning facilities that that
correlates with better academic outcomes and better opportunities.”
Nearby Roxbury Elementary School, located just a few steps
away from Westhill, will
also be replaced. The goal is to open the new elementary school in August
2028. Once open, it will offer instruction to students from kindergarten
through eighth grade.
That means that the current fifth grade students at Roxbury
are slated to be the first freshman class at the new Westhill building. Five of
those students were present at the groundbreaking Tuesday afternoon, wearing
bright yellow plastic hats resembling construction hard hats.
Connecticut Lt. Gov.
Susan Bysiewicz asked those students to stand next to her as she
delivered some remarks.
“I want you to see the future in them because in just a few
years they will be walking through the doors of a very beautiful new school and
they remind us … this is what it’s all about,” she said.
First housing projects OK’d through Connecticut development authority
GINNY MONK and MARK PAZNIOKAS/The Connecticut Mirror
The first four developments paid for through the Connecticut
Municipal Development Authority, including housing, a museum and downtown
retail space, got approval on Friday for about $19 million in bond funding.
Connecticut’s State Bond Commission approved about $652
million in funding for statewide projects, school construction, upkeep of state
facilities and purchasing of electric vehicles.
The Connecticut Municipal Development Authority, formerly
called the Municipal Redevelopment Authority, was established in 2019 as an
unfunded entity and officially got money and started work in 2024. The
authority partners with municipalities to help them reconfigure their zoning to
allow more housing and transit-oriented development, particularly in downtown
areas.
More than 40 towns are member agencies. Once towns are
member agencies, developers can apply to the authority for funding.
The agency has been a favored
initiative of Gov. Ned Lamont and is one of his administration’s
answers to a looming housing crisis partially borne of restrictive local zoning
that makes it hard to build apartments.
“The demand is there for housing. We need more housing to
make sure that people can continue to move to the state, stay in the state,
young people can stay in the state,” said Lamont, who chairs the commission,
during Friday’s meeting.
The money the bond commission distributes has already been
approved by the state legislature. The government typically issues bonds for
capital improvement projects and other high-cost items, meaning that private
investors can purchase the bonds and essentially lend the government money for
a set length of time.
Much of the CMDA’s funding comes through the bonding
process.
The first four projects to get funding approval are in
Enfield, Norwich and New London.
The commission approved $9.4 million to build more than 150
apartments in Enfield, near a station planned to be a part of the Hartford
Line. That project will have 20% of its units set aside as workforce housing,
or housing that’s affordable to working residents.
In Norwich, the commission approved $3 million for
redeveloping an office building in the downtown area. It will be a mixed-use
development with 58 apartments and commercial space.
There are two projects in New London — one for $5 million to
transform the former New London Day newspaper campus into apartments, a ground
floor museum and retail space. The other is a $2 million bond to create
apartments alongside ground-floor commercial space and a public market within
walking distance of the train station.
“This is kind of the greatest place that we could have hoped
to have been at, which is within two years, starting to move funding into
housing development, and it’s explicitly housing development that hits those
co-benefits of downtown revitalization, economic development, transit ridership
and transit-oriented development,” said David Kooris, executive director of the
authority.
Lamont said he’s excited to see further investments in
housing and particularly transit-oriented development.
The single largest item on the agenda was $486 million in
borrowing to improve the state’s aging transportation infrastructure. That
included $6 million in continued investments in technology combatting wrong-way
driving.
“The wrong-way driving technology, I find fascinating. We’ve
got that at locations, a couple hundred locations, and we’ve turned around
probably 800 or 900 cars that were going the wrong direction,” Lamont said.
Lamont, who is running for a third term as governor, focused
his comments at the meeting on his administration’s approach to borrowing,
echoing elements of his reelection campaign: Borrowing is down as a percentage
of the budget, and the proceeds reflect his administration’s priorities on
transportation infrastructure and housing.
The governor credited a shift in economic development
incentives — away from aid for large, well-established companies — as a factor
in Connecticut’s recent burst of economic growth, which outpaced regional and
national averages in 2025.
“Today, more and more of that money is going to small
businesses, new business startups. That’s helping our economy grow. So we’re
now one of the faster-growing economies in the country, which I think is
incredible,” Lamont said.
Connecticut’s economy grew by 2.4% in 2025, ranking it 12th
of the 50 states and the second-best in New England, after Massachusetts.
National economic growth was 2.1%; New England’s was 2.2%.
Sen. Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, the GOP nominee for governor
and a member of the commission, reminded reporters after the meeting that
Connecticut lagged national growth when measured over eight years.
This story was originally published by The Connecticut Mirror and distributed
through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Middletown Officials Push DOT for Public Input on Route 9 Changes
Luke Feeney
MIDDLETOWN — As the state Department of Transportation
explores potential remedies to the high number of crashes on Route 9 through
Middletown and Portland, local officials are seeking to ensure residents have a
voice in the process.
The city’s Common Council passed a resolution at its Monday
meeting requesting that the department schedule a public hearing on all
proposed changes to Route 9 and adjacent city streets within 90 days.
“I fully expect that there will be a public session to
review the plan,” Mayor Gene Nocera said.
Nocera questioned what would happen if traffic lights were
removed — something he acknowledged could make overall travel in the area safer
— and wanted to ensure the plan is “well thought out and achievable.”
The 41-mile expressway connects the eastern Connecticut
coastline at Old Saybrook to the Hartford suburbs in Farmington. According
to the DOT’s website, there are currently two active projects underway
in Middletown’s portion of the expressway.
First is a reconfiguration of a northbound entrance ramp to Route 9 in
Middletown, which the department says will help reduce rear-end crashes at the
Route 9 northbound and Route 17 northbound interchange.
The existing ramp from Route 17 onto Route 9 is controlled
by a stop sign and has significantly higher crash rates than similar adjacent
on-ramps, according to the DOT. The four-year project began in March 2023 with
an estimated cost of $54 million.
The second project is the removal of two traffic signals on
Route 9 — from Exit 22 near Silver Street in Middletown to Exit 25 at Route 99
in Cromwell — which the department says is to improve safety and reduce
congestion.
According to the department, the three-year crash history —
from Jan. 1, 2021 through Dec. 31, 2023 — shows there were 505 crashes
resulting in 161 injuries within the project limits on Route 9 alone, averaging
about one crash every other day and an injury once per week.
A letter submitted by Middletown’s legislative delegation —
consisting of Democratic State Sens. Matt Lesser and Jan Hochadel, as well as
State Reps. Kai Belton and Brandon Chafee — requested a brief on the project, a
public hearing and that the DOT reach out more consistently for input.
“We know from our own history and from cities across our
region and the country that highway projects can have a positive impact or a
negative impact on the health of cities. This is too important to get wrong and
we believe that working together we can get it right,” the letter read.
Several locals also expressed support of the council’s
resolution during the meeting.
“It’s really important to draw a line to the stand to go on record and say to
the DOT that you are the body that represents us and that we are the people who
need to respond to the changes that they’re proposing for the highway,” said Ed
McKeon, a former council member.
Others accused the department of not fully communicating
their plans, and argued that a public meeting was the only way to foster
engagement between the DOT and residents.
“The target’s always moving with them. The only way to do
this is to be accountable,” Middletown resident Jennifer Alexander said.
DOT spokesperson Eva Zymaris pushed back on some of the
criticisms, saying that the department “remains committed to keeping residents
informed and actively involved in the various Route 9 Middletown improvement
projects. Any statement to the contrary is totally false.”
Zymaris added that the department has hosted a series of public engagement
meetings designed to share project updates, gather community input, and address
questions directly since December 2023.
“These meetings ensured residents could learn about the projects, expected
impacts, and long-term safety and economic benefits,” she said.
A date has yet to be determined for the public hearing, but
Zymaris confirmed it would be happening and that the department will provide,
“another briefing and update to the community as the design moves forward, and
environmental studies progress, which will occur later this summer.”
Killingly residents protest Amazon distribution center
Alison Cross
Killingly — Opponents of Amazon’s
plan to build a massive warehouse on Westcott Road turned out in full force
on Monday for the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission’s final public
hearing on the proposal.
Nearly three dozen residents rallied outside Town Hall for a
“Residents Against Distribution Centers Protest” before the IWWC’s meeting,
carrying signs that called on commission members to “Save the Last Green
Valley,” “Protect the water and land,” and say "No to more distribution
centers.”
The proposed 1.3 million-square-foot Amazon fulfillment
center would operate 24/7, employ 500 workers, bring in more than 400 trucks a
day, and serve as the company’s “most advanced robotics facility” in the state,
according to Amazon Economic Development Director Brad Griggs.
Residents fear that the construction and operation of the
warehouse will destroy ecosystems, pollute the groundwater that feeds local
wells, decrease property values, and create new traffic, light and sound
nuisances, among other concerns.
After voting unanimously to close the public hearing Monday
night, the IWWC is now required by law to make a decision on the application by
July 15.
If the IWWC votes no, Town Planner Jonathan Blake said that
the project will not move forward. If the IWWC votes yes, the proposal would
still need site plan approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission.
In past meetings, Town Attorney Kenneth Slater has explained
that site plan reviews leave zoning commissioners with little to no discretion
when deciding whether to approve a permit. Slater has said that the commission
is obligated under state law to approval the application if it complies with
all regulations.
The fulfillment center and additional tractor-trailer
loading docks, parking lots and driveways would be built on roughly 264 acres
of undeveloped, wooded land at 228 Westcott Road.
On Monday, developer attorney Tom Cody argued that the
project — which would set aside nearly 300 acres of land for conservation —
minimizes wetlands impacts and disturbances “to the greatest extent possible”
and avoids high-value wetland resources entirely.
Rene Legault, a wetlands biologist and an alternate member
of the IWWC, said that at the project’s proposed scale, “It’s hard to say that
you’re avoiding and minimizing (impacts) when you are eliminating three
wetlands and a massive connectivity of habitats.”
According to the developers, the project would offset more
than half an acre of wetland destruction by creating and restoring
three-quarters of an acre of wetlands.
Legault countered that “recreating and sustaining any kind
of wildlife and natural habitat” under these conditions is difficult.
“The actual restoration and creation of wetlands is
notoriously not successful,” Legault said. “Creating a wetland is incredibly
hard to do. It’s better off (to) just leave it alone.”
During the meeting, IWWC members indicated that if they were
to approve the project, they would require the developers to set aside money
through bonds or an escrow account to ensure that the town would have money to
continue wetlands restoration if the company backs out of the project.
The project also faced pointed questions from local
officials and the public, including IWWC member Corina Torrey, who pressed the
developers on potential stormwater system failures, the impact of blasting on
nearby foundations and groundwater flow, and the possibility of chemical
contamination as a result of a fire.
Representatives for the developers said the stormwater and
drainage systems are designed for a 100-year storm event. They also said that
blasting impacts are measured within a 1,000-foot radius, and the closest home
is roughly 3,000 feet from the blasting site.
Beth Chartier, who lives in town and participated in
Monday’s protest, said she is concerned that the developer’s models reflect “a
best-case picture.”
“The reality is going to be something different, and the
ramifications will be on the people that are here,” Chartier said.
Residents are expected to weigh in on a proposal to impose a
one-year
moratorium on large distribution centers during a public hearing at the
Planning and Zoning Commission's next meeting on Monday, June 15.
Supporters of the proposal said the moratorium would allow
the zoning commission to review and revise its warehouse regulations.
“These (developers), they’re not part of the community. They
don’t care what happens here,” Chartier said. “We need economic development,
and we need jobs, but we need economic development at a scale that fits the
community, and this (project) does not.”
City Council authorizes Norwich to seek grant to study massive Chestnut Mill housing project
Daniel Drainville
Norwich — The City Council on Monday authorized the city to
apply for a $250,000 state grant to fund a feasibility study of a developer's
plan to transform the former Chestnut Street Mill into as many as 170 workforce
housing units.
Councilors voted unanimously to authorize the city and
Norwich Community Development Corp. to apply for the grant.
During the meeting, NCDC President Kevin Brown explained
that the owner of the downtown mill property and the developer are interested
in studying the path to redeveloping the building and bringing it "back to
life."
The 125-year-old mill, which has sat abandoned for around
two decades, has been the subject of multiple blight violations, including for
falling bricks.
"There is a possibility that finally, this can be
transformed," Mayor Swarnjit Singh said Monday.
The building, which opened in 1901, was originally home to
gun manufacturer Hopkins & Allen, which supplied firearms to the British
and Belgian governments during World War I. Most recently it was home to
Norwich Textiles, which colored synthetic fabric for use in swimsuits and
lingerie.
It was purchased by Franklin St. LLC, based in New York, in
2006.
Property owner Maurice Moezinia, who is in the textile
business, said Tuesday he originally acquired the building in hopes of keeping
textile manufacturing there alive. Moezinia mentioned that through the years it
wasn't easy to get things done with the building.
Moezinia said that changed when Singh called him, gave him
his cellphone number and made him feel he could trust the mayor.
"We've been trying to do something for many years, but
it was always hitting a brick wall, or the numbers never made sense,"
Moezinia said. "And the atmosphere wasn't proper for development with this
property," he said, adding that Singh "was basically able to put all
the puzzle pieces together to help this project work."
Moezinia called Singh an angel.
"He's pro-Norwich. And when I tell you his best
interest is Norwich — he really, he loves the town," he said.
Matt Karle, the founder of New York City-based developer
Blue Hour Housing, said Tuesday that when he first saw the mill, he noted it
had "great structure," and good lighting. Since then, he's been able
to tour the inside of the building.
"It’s got a lot of character and history," Karle
said. "Very tall ceilings, and great light and windows. It’s got a lot of
the fundamental structure for a residential conversion."
Karle said Blue Hour would be responsible for the
acquisition, renovation and remodeling of the former mill, and then maintain
and manage the property once it is redeveloped.
Karle said early estimates and rough sketches of the project
place the number of units that would fit in the mill at about 170, but a
state-funded feasibility study would produce a more precise number.
Karle said Blue Hour, which owns multiple properties in
Norwich and specializes in developing housing for middle- and working-class
individuals, has done several housing projects around the country, where they
worked with Fortune 500 companies to create housing for their employees.
For the Chestnut Mill, Blue Hour is exploring a similar
model, engaging Electric Boat, which has written a letter in support of the
city's grant application.
"We’ve pursued these types of partnerships before with
other employers who are looking to provide housing for employees," Karle
said. "We know that Electric Boat has been growing in the area. We’re
chatting with them about this being a great housing opportunity for them."
He said Blue Hour would seek further grants and state
historic tax credits for the project.
"It's a very expensive undertaking, and would require
(those) to make the numbers work," Karle said.
First, the building would need to receive certification from
the state Historic Preservation Office as a historic building.
"We need to qualify that building for national historic
tax credit," Singh said Monday.
During his campaign last year, Singh identified the
property, which sits a block from City Hall, as one offering an opportunity for
the city.
Singh said he has also talked to EB President Mark Rayha
about the project and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, in an effort to
build support for state funding.
"In Norwich, we already have 2,000 people who work at
EB live here," Singh said. "Almost 25% of their workforce live in
Norwich. Because people who work in Rhode Island at EB, they're also living
here. We're in the middle."
The resolution passed Monday also specifies the study will
apply to 77 Chestnut St. where the city owns a property that could be turned
into parking for the mill development.