CT Construction Digest Monday September 16, 2024

Proposed senior center campus in Meriden could be delayed two years: 'It's disheartening'

Mary Ellen Godin

MERIDEN — The Harbor Brook flood control project threatens to delay the proposed $48 million senior center/health department campus on Cook Avenue.

Members of the building committee learned two weeks ago that the flood control project underway near 116 Cook Ave., the proposed site of the new campus, would cause delays. Workers are correcting two bridges before they can excavate the channel and relocate the soil. The soil is needed to raise 116 Cook Ave. out of the existing flood plain.

The soil relocation was seen as a cost-cutting measure for the city.

But architects and engineers can't immediately begin design work until they know if any of the deposited soil is contaminated and what the final elevation will be. 

"Until that work is done, we won't be able to allow the architects to begin the design," said former acting City Manager Emily Holland. "Best case, I believe summer of 2026 is when design work will happen."

The news shocked committee members who sat through two years of a feasibilty study, presentations, and a final vote on two potential sites. 

"During my interactions, the architect sitting in on the study and final meeting, at no point do I recall a 24-month timeline," said Mayor Kevin Scarpati. "I would assume that would have weighed heavily in our site selection. If that was known and not disclosed, I have an issue with that."

In addition to 116 Cook Ave., the committee looked at a former nursing home site on Westfield Avenue for the campus. But the city would have to pay for that site while 116 Cook Ave. is city-owned and closer to downtown. Scarpati said that despite some of the setbacks with the Westfield Avenue site, the city would be further along on the work. 

Holland explained that part of the final presentation centered on the intersection of the flood control project and the pending demolition of 116 Cook Ave. Demolition is expected to begin later this year. However, she and others did not recall a discussion of a two-year delay.

Scarpati told committee members two weeks ago that they had three choices: return to another site,  hope some meaningful work can be done during the delay or "scrap this committee and reconvene in two years."

At a meeting Friday morning, city officials reviewed costs to truck in clean fill that didn't need to be screened. Scarpati explained the cost is north of $2 million and wouldn't solve the problem because despite raising the elevation, without the completed dredging work the property remains in the flood plain.

The city is also too along to switch sites, he said. State officials have approved the $2 million demolition work payment and are reviewing the final request for proposals for a contractor, Holland said. 

The city was handed a $48 million cost estimate for the campus with 10 percent allowed for inflation. The delay will likely cause an increase in the final price tag, Scarpati said.

Committee Chairman Bruce Fontanella said two weeks ago that he too had not heard anything about a two-year delay on the start of construction. He raised the possibility of using unspent American Rescue Act funds to pay for the clean fill. 

"There was never any mention of a two-year period,"  Fontanella said. "Whether that‘s an oversight, that’s what we’re going to have to find out. I know you're all disappointed."

The city awarded a contract for work on two bridges that began in July. However, the brook dredging cannot begin until the bridge work is completed. The dredge work is expected to take nine months. 

"On that premise alone," Scarpati continued. "If we have all the money and press go, we can't break ground until 2027."

The building committee meets again Wednesday, when internal and hired engineers will update members on the project scope and timeline. 

Scarpati sees no other recourse but to disband the building committee for two years.

 "It's disheartening to know we've come this far, and to have this issue come now, is concerning," Scarpati said Friday. "We worked with Fuss & ONeil. The architect stated there was flood control work but it would be done by 2025. so construction could begin. At this point, I don't know if we have other options."

Manchester not selected for 'Safe Streets' grant for proposed streetscape overhaul

Joseph Villanova

MANCHESTER — Though the proposed overhaul of downtown Manchester was not selected for a recently awarded federal grant, town officials are optimistic for the next funding round.

The Downtown Manchester Improvements project was introduced in March 2022 by town staff as a conceptual plan that would make numerous changes to a segment of Main Street while conducting necessary infrastructure work. 

Town Manager Steve Stephanou said Friday that the project is now estimated to cost about $15 million to $20 million, which could be split into phases if approved.

Some residents have taken issue with a proposed "road diet," which consists of reducing travel lanes in the corridor from four to three, though town staff and some elected officials have said the changes would enhance safety.

In May, elected officials authorized Manchester's application for federal funding through "Safe Streets and Roads for All," a grant program established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2022. The intent of the five-year program is to fund projects designed to prevent injuries and deaths on roadways, a key component of the proposal by Manchester's town staff.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Sept. 5 more than $1 billion for projects in 354 communities across the country.

Manchester was not one of those chosen in the latest round, though other Connecticut projects did receive awards. Among those selected were West Hartford, which secured $3.1 million for its "Vision Zero" road safety improvement plan, and New Haven, which will receive $11 million to improve 1.6 miles of road on the crash-prone Chapel Street.

The program has granted $2.7 billion to more than 1,400 communities, including Connecticut towns like Fairfield and Westport, and has over $2 billion left to grant in the next two years.

Stephanou said that the Safe Streets grant is highly competitive, and New Haven and West Hartford were the only two municipalities in Connecticut to receive funding in this round. 

Town staff will hold a debrief with the U.S. DOT to hear about how they can strengthen Manchester's application, Stephanou said, and he will recommend to the Board of Directors that the town submit an application for an upcoming round of funding in early 2025.

"That will ultimately be up to the Board of Directors to authorize," Stephanou said.

Stephanou also noted that West Hartford's approved project includes a road diet, bike lanes, speed management, and new or modified features to aid pedestrian travel.

"These are very similar components and goals to the application we submitted, so I am hopeful our application will be successful next round," Stephanou said.

As for other funding sources, Stephanou said Manchester has secured $8.3 million in grants to implement the proposed overhaul and is actively seeking other external funding and grant sources.

Looking to the future of the plan, Stephanou said 2024 remains a year of engagement for the plan, and the town hopes to have an approved plan sometime next year. He said any construction timeline would depend on both the Board of Director's approval and available funding.

Could deal with Mass. return Conn. to latest offshore wind energy auction?

Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant

A week after Connecticut was a no-show at an offshore wind auction it helped organize, a proposed energy swap with Massachusetts could lead to its return to the multi-state collaboration that was created to reduce the costs of wind power for southern New England.

Massachusetts has signaled it is receptive to an agreement, proposed by Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, that could put Connecticut back into offshore wind procurement.

Under the plan, according to industry and government officials, Massachusetts would join Connecticut in a long term agreement to buy energy from the Millstone nuclear power station in Waterford. Connecticut, in return, would partner with Massachusetts on buying power from the offshore wind project Vineyard Wind 2, planned for a tract of ocean about 25 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Lamont discussed the plan with Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey during a regional energy conference in Boston this week.

“Governor Lamont believes that Millstone is a regional asset and is grateful that Governor Healey included the procurement language in a recent legislative proposal,” a Lamont spokesperson said Friday. “As was discussed at the meeting on Tuesday, making our grid more reliable, green, and affordable is a multi-state effort.”

Healey’s office did not respond immediately Thursday to specific questions about the Millstone deal. But earlier in the week, a spokesperson described the benefits of regional cooperation on energy issues.

“Offshore wind is key to unlocking jobs and economic development in our region,” the Healey spokesperson said. “We believe in the Vineyard Wind 2 project. Selecting projects now will ensure New England stays in the lead as the industry takes off nationwide. Massachusetts appreciates Connecticut’s partnership and we look forward to other entities joining in this procurement.”

Recent developments in offshore energy arrived at a politically unfortunate time for the Lamont administration. Consumer outrage over a summertime spike in consumer electric bills continues as a legislative election approaches and questions about conversion to an all electric economy pile up.

The price increase for consumers arrived in the public benefit portion of bills, which reimburses Eversource and United Illuminating for hundred of millions of dollars the state requires them to spend on social welfare, decarbonization and other so-called public benefit programs

Most of the July increase, 78%, is the result of a contract the state has with Dominion Energy that requires Eversource and United Illuminating to buy electricity from its Millstone station. The contract is intended to be a hedge against fluctuations in energy costs but over the past year it has committed the utilities to purchasing power at above market rates.

A week ago, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts were expected to simultaneously announce the winning bidders in the first tri-state wind energy auction. Connecticut’s absence was attributed by industry observers to political reluctance to commit to buying expensive wind energy while consumers complained about bills arriving now.

Connecticut’s failure to commit to an offshore power purchase raised doubts about both the future of a three state initiative and the Vineyard Wind 2 project, which would connect to the New England power grid through an undersea transmission line ending at a yet-to-be-built power substation in Montville, creating hundreds of local jobs and millions in local investment.

At a news conference earlier this week, before Healey proposed legislation to authorize a Millstone deal, Lamont sounded uncertain about whether Connecticut would return to the wind auction.

“Look, I think everybody would like us to triple down on as much new power, particularly carbon free power, as we possibly can,” Lamont said during a mid week press conference. “And I do as well, but I also have a close eye for the rate payer because I know how expensive it is.”

Connecticut already has an agreement to buy offshore power, with Rhode Island, from the Revolution Wind project under construction south of Block Island by Danish multinational Orsted. The project will provide 304 megawatts of energy to Connecticut and 400 megawatts to Rhode Island, enough energy to power more than 350,000 homes in both states.

Asked when he would make a decision on rejoining the latest offshore auction, Lamont said, “We’ll see.” Asked whether it would be before the election, he said, “I’m cautious on this, as you know, so not for a while.”

When the winning bids were announced a week ago, the project developers chosen by Massachusetts to produce, collectively, 2,678 megawatts of electricity for that state, were SouthCoast Wind, Vineyard Wind 2 and New England Wind 1, a venture of Avangrid, parent company of Orange-based United Illuminating. Rhode Island took an additional 200 Megawatts from SouthCoast Wind.

The announcements, and Connecticut’s absence, raised doubts about the future of Vineyard Wind 2, which is designed to produce 1,200 megawatts of electricity, but sold only 800 to Massachusetts. Because of the project’s design, it is not clear whether it can proceed with less than full production, according to a company official.

“We look forward to Connecticut’s forthcoming decision on the remainder of the procurement so that we can begin to deliver important economic and climate benefits to the region,” Vineyard Offshore CEO Alicia Barton, the project developer, said in a statement this week.

While a Millstone/wind energy agreement appears to be under discussion, few details, including how it would affect consumer bills, are known. A Connecticut legislator present at a meeting when Lamont raised the subject, said Massachusetts would not buy into Millstone power until after the state’s existing contract runs out in 2029 and a new contract is negotiated.

Political and industry observers in Hartford and Boston said there is no certainty that such an agreement would win political approval in either capital. Because Healey needs legislative authorization to enter a power purchase agreement with Dominion’s Millstone, and the Massachusetts legislature is not in session. she has attached a Millstone provision to a supplemental budget bill.

“Now, just because she added it doesn’t mean it is going to survive in the legislature,” a Massachusetts power industry official said. “There are broader politics around it. But it is a very live deal.”

In Connecticut, moderate Democrats and Republicans appear reluctant to agree to anything that would raise rates.

State Sen. Ryan Fazio, a Republican and ranking member of the Legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee has questioned why the either state would consider buying into wind energy at current prices, which are at least two to three times the $04.99 cents per kilowatt hour Connecticut is paying under the existing Millstone contract.

CT opts out — for now — of offshore wind, raising concerns about motives

Jan Ellen Spiegel

It was supposed to be New England’s biggest and most innovative offshore wind initiative ever — a three-state solicitation by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island designed to get the best prices and efficiencies for a lot of new offshore wind that would be key in creating carbon-free energy to help curb climate change.

It was the first such effort in the U.S., and it would also reset the offshore wind process in the region, which has suffered setbacks in the last year or so due to balky national and international economies, inflation and more than a few geopolitical problems.

But when an announcement of the projects selected from the March solicitation finally came a few days after Labor Day, Connecticut was MIA. A brief statement from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection congratulated the other states and then said simply: “The evaluation of project bids remains underway in Connecticut and we will announce a final decision in our solicitation at a future date.”

To be fair, there had been hints for several weeks that the state would not follow the same schedule as its neighbors. But Connecticut’s absence has prompted more than a little private speculation that politics — specifically around the high electricity rates that are providing Republican campaign fodder in this election season — is at work.

“We don’t know, but we do know that that’s been a challenging issue in the state,” said Kate Sinding Daly, senior vice president of law and policy at Conservation Law Foundation, or CLF. “We hold out hope that Connecticut, as it said it was, is continuing to evaluate the opportunities and may yet come forward with one or more projects.”

Gov. Ned Lamont told The Connecticut Mirror this week that his reason for caution with a new offshore wind commitment is its high cost that would compound existing high electric rates, coupled with the reality that the state already is essentially subsidizing the Millstone Nuclear Power Station. At 2,100 megawatts, Millstone is the region’s largest source of power, all of it carbon-free.

“We’re the ones who are subsidizing nuclear, the biggest source of carbon-free power. I care deeply about affordability, especially now,” Lamont said. “I had some background discussions on that and am still thinking about it.”

But some privately worry that Lamont might pull the plug as he did in 2021 when the transportation and climate initiative, TCI, faced massive opposition from Republicans and others.

“This feels eerily similar,” said one advocate, who declined to be named.

But most were taking Lamont at his word that his calculation was money, not politics and the upcoming election.

“I certainly, in my heart of hearts, hope that’s not a consideration. If this is announced after the first week of November, I would be very angry,” said Sen. Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, and the ranking member on the Energy and Technology Committee. “I think the governor is very reticent to sign a contract to buy electricity at three or four times the wholesale market rate for electricity. He’s a businessman; he understands that’s a bad deal for consumers in Connecticut, and I think the hope from him, me, others, is that these projects, these megawatts, become a lot cheaper and more competitive in the future. We should not be a buyer at any price.”

Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D- Westport, and the committee’s co-chair, agreed that money was the core issue for the governor, who had met with the committee’s leadership to discuss the situation. “He is extremely focused on ratepayer pain right now and does not want to have his fingerprints on something that is going to raise rates,” Steinberg said, adding that an agreement reached now wouldn’t impact ratepayer rates for years.

At the same time, he held out hope the political and price landscapes would change quickly.

“Does he pivot right after the election? I would hope so, certainly. I urged him to do that,” Steinberg said. “I would have thought perhaps he would have hedged his bets and made a rather small procurement. … I would have expected something.”

Steinberg and climate advocates repeatedly pointed to the need for offshore wind to help meet the state’s mandate for a zero-carbon grid by 2040, lower greenhouse gas and other climate-warming emissions that plague the region, and help meet an increased need for power supplies as motor vehicles, heat and other heavy power users, such as data centers, turn to electricity for their fuel source.

“Developing our offshore wind resources is absolutely critical to reaching our energy and climate goals, that much is clear,” said Charles Rothenberger, climate and energy attorney at Save the Sound. “These projects need to start being built.”

“We’re still hoping that there may be an announcement from Connecticut, or perhaps continued negotiations, even among the three states, that will result in the announcement of more,” Daly of CLF said. “The fact that this still represents forward progress is a net positive.”

Both pointed out that the power from offshore wind really goes into the New England grid, where all the states benefit from the power as well as the job creation associated with it and, eventually, lower energy prices.

But the current situation was not how regional offshore wind development was originally conceived. And it is putting some pressure on Connecticut to live up to its commitment, especially because the state was a key player in developing this particular coalition as well as others aimed at modernizing and decarbonizing energy and transmission in the New England grid.

What happened

Several projects were already in progress in the region when inflation spiked, supply chains fractured and worldwide economies sputtered as a result of COVID and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Some offshore wind developers on the East Coast tried to renegotiate their deals to accommodate their now higher costs. Others pulled out of their deals.

Among them was Avangrid. It pulled out of an 804-megawatt contract for Connecticut called Park City Wind, which included jobs and port development in Bridgeport. It also pulled out of a 1,200-megawatt contract in Massachusetts called Commonwealth Wind.

In 2019, the Connecticut legislature authorized the state to purchase up to 2,000 megawatts of offshore wind. Park City had been the first purchase towards that goal. Its cancellation put the state back to zero, where it remains.

An earlier offshore wind project, Revolution Wind, pre-dated that authorization and is under construction. It will supply 300 megawatts for Connecticut and 400 for Rhode Island. 

Avangrid put its projects back up to bid, presumably at higher prices, in the multistate solicitation in March of this year. Park City was renamed New England Wind 1. Commonwealth is now New England Wind 2. Avangrid continued working on them all along, and New England Wind 1, the old Park City, is fully permitted and much farther along than any other project in the bid group.

Somewhat surprisingly, Massachusetts — not Connecticut — chose that project, now 791 mw. It’s unclear whether the Bridgeport development component remains. It also chose 800 mw of a 1,200 mw project called Vineyard Wind 2 and 1087 mw of a project called South Coast Wind, also a rebid project. Rhode Island opted for the remaining 200 mw of South Coast.

What remains, aside from New England Wind 2 (likely to be rebid in a future solicitation) and the rest of Vineyard Wind 2, is the entirety of a project called Starboard Wind. It’s an Ørsted project, proposed at 1,184 mw specifically for Connecticut or Rhode Island, or a joint project. The project would use the State Pier in New London for staging and construction.

Ørsted owns the pier and it is already handling assembly and delivery operations for three offshore wind projects: Revolution, Sunrise Wind in New York and the already completed and operational South Fork Wind 35 miles off the eastern tip of Montauk Point on Long Island.

But it is the remaining 400 mw of Vineyard Wind 2 that stands to threaten the heretofore synchronized and amicable energy relationship among the New England states, especially the two largest power users: Massachusetts and Connecticut.

A somewhat ominous statement on Vineyard Offshore’s website is casting doubt on the viability of the project if no state picks up the rest of the power. That could eliminate about 30% of the Massachusetts commitment, and the finger is pointed directly at Connecticut.

It reads: “’Vineyard Offshore congratulates Gov. Healey and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for their commitment to procure up to 800 megawatts from our 1,200-megawatt Vineyard Wind 2 project, which provides the opportunity to deliver New England’s next-generation offshore wind project,” said Vineyard Offshore CEO Alicia Barton. “We look forward to Connecticut’s forthcoming decision on the remainder of the procurement so that we can begin to deliver important economic and climate benefits to the region.’”

Vineyard Offshore did not respond to a request for further comment. But those with knowledge of the project say it is not an idle threat.

“I think Gov. Healey is looking for a partner. I think she had a reason to be expecting she’d have a partner,” Steinberg said. “Everything that the New England states have been talking about incorporates offshore wind as a significant component. I’m just disappointed in the governor’s position at this point. I don’t think it’s constructive.”

But he and others believe the governor has time to make up his mind, given that these projects are years away, the developers keep working on them even without buyers for the power and given the financial landscape may be about to change with the Federal Reserve widely expected to lower interest rates at its next meeting this month.

On the flip side, Donald Trump famously hates offshore wind, and his first administration slow-walked its development for four years. If he returns to office, a similar scenario may well play out.

“I don’t know what the plan is, but we could pick up those 400 megawatts, and there’s no particular urgency for us to make that decision yesterday,” Rothenberger said. “If Connecticut chose no projects from this latest round, that would be very disappointing. … It would seem to indicate a real lack of awareness of the benefits of these projects for Connecticut residents, which I know the administration possesses.”

As for the governor himself, when asked when he might decide on whether to opt in on offshore wind: “I’m cautious on this, as you know,” he said. “Not for a while.”

CT Construction Digest Friday September 13, 2024

DOT Unveils $27M Plan to Ease Congestion, Improve Safety on Accident-Prone Route 7

Meghan Muldoon

NORWALK — The state Department of Transportation has unveiled a $27 million plan to alleviate congestion and enhance road safety along an accident-prone section of Route 7.

At a public informational meeting held at Cranbury Elementary School on Tuesday, DOT officials presented a proposal which focuses on a segment of Route 7, from Grist Mill Road to Kent Road, spanning areas of Norwalk and Wilton.

According to the DOT, 290 motor vehicle crashes were reported in this area between 2021 and 2023, an average of nearly two accidents per week. Transportation officials attributed the high number of incidents to aggressive driving habits, compounded by heavy traffic and frequent vehicles turning in and out of the many offices, restaurants and retail stores lining the route.    

While still in the early stages of development, the proposed improvements include creating two new turn lanes, constructing 4,500 linear feet of new sidewalk, adding crosswalks and upgrading five traffic signals. To improve the flow of traffic, the project also recommends signal timing adjustments and the reconfiguration of lanes on Main Avenue to two northbound and one southbound.  

The new turn lanes would consist of a southbound right-turn lane at the Grist Mill Road and Main Avenue intersection, and a left-turn lane on West Rocks Road.

As part of the project, DOT officials are also reviewing the feasibility of creating and connecting a multiuse path to the Norwalk River Valley Trail, a 12-mile recreational trail nearby.  

The DOT’s analysis of cellphone data also revealed that 60% of the traffic in the area is just passing through to other destinations, while 40% is headed to businesses along Route 7.

In order to implement the proposed project, the state must acquire two privately owned properties, a Shell gas station and a musical instruments rental and repair shop located across from the Norwalk Department of Motor Vehicles office at the intersection of Grist Mill Road and Main Avenue. 

However, Ken Kuo, owner of Rental Instrument, told CT Examiner that his business has been in the “perfect” location for over 10 years and he’s not interested in selling.

“I am hoping that they won’t touch it. Otherwise, they will really have to cough up really, really big money for it because that is a sacred ground for our business. It took our sweat and tears to build it up from what it was before,” Kuo said. “We love our property.” 

Although Kuo acknowledged seeing “way too many accidents” at the intersection fronting his business, he believes there are other ways to improve road safety and reduce congestion. He suggested building a crosswalk at the Grist Mill intersection from the DMV to the other side of Main Avenue.  

The estimated cost of the project is $27 million, which includes $5 million to acquire properties and easements.

According to the DOT, businesses displaced by the project are entitled to relocation benefits, including reimbursement for moving expenses.

The design phase of the project is expected to take an additional four or five years before construction begins, owing to the need for federal permits since the area is within a FEMA-regulated flood area. Transportation officials said there will be additional opportunities for public input during that time.

Following the presentation, the officials fielded complaints from residents and business owners living and working in the project area on Route 7 about broken street crossing signs, poor bus stop access, a lack of safe options for bicyclists and the traffic backups caused by frequent left turns into Starbucks.

State Rep. Tracy Marra, R-Darien,  Transportation Committee member, was among roughly 40 people who attended last night’s meeting.  Echoing the sentiments of several attendees, Marra told CT Examiner she was happy that the DOT is addressing road safety on Route 7.  

“Many of us that drive and use this area realize it is busy and chaotic,” she said.

A two-week public comment period ends on Sept. 24. 

Ledyard seeks to ban quarries, limit size of multi-family housing

Lee Howard

Ledyard ― Proposed amendments to the town’s zoning regulations that would ban large-scale quarrying operations and limit the size of housing development was heard Thursday by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

The proposed amendments were submitted by Eric Treaster, a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals, but were not supported by the town planning staff in a written statement.

“It is our opinion that the proposal is shortsighted, and, if approved, will have long term adverse impacts on both the Ledyard and regional economies,” said the Ledyard planning staff statement signed by Michael D’Amato, principal of Tyche Planning & Policy Group LLC and a land-use department consultant.

The report went on to cite the need to “import” the quarry material from elsewhere, “further exacerbating the high cost of living, including housing, in the Town of Ledyard.”

The amendments would affect a quarry project that was the subject of a hearing Thursday after facing strong opposition earlier this year. They were also aimed at a proposed 320-unit housing application on Military Highway that also has rattled residents.

As about 75 people filed into Ledyard Middle School for the commission’s public hearing and dozens more checked in on Zoom, proponents of the controversial 40-acre quarry project that would level portions of historic Mount Decatur took center stage to outline the third iteration of their plan to remove rock from the former Dow Chemical site.

Property owner Gales Ferry Intermodal LLC, a division of Cashman Dredging & Marine Contracting Co. of Quincy, Mass., opposed the amendment that would prohibit extraction of stone from the site, calling it “reactionary” to its two pending permits.

“Reactionary legislation is often shortsighted and has far-reaching and long-lasting unintended consequences,” said attorney Harry B. Heller, attorney for Gales Ferry Intermodal, in a written response to the proposed amendment limiting excavation activity to housing developments. “It is our client’s position that the proposed text amendment should be denied, in to, as it does not further the best interests of the Town of Ledyard.”

During the hearing Thursday, Heller went on to state “This will be damaging to property owners ... and it will be harmful to the municipality itself because it will stifle economic activity.”

Heller later on urged the commission to consider the effect of regulation changes on investors and property owners who have a right to expect consistent regulations. He said the proposed amendments appeared to be “retaliatory” in that they appear aimed at applications currently in front of the commission.

But Bruce Edwards of Gales Ferry said it was incorrect to call Treaster’s amendments retaliatory.

“What’s retaliatory is Mr. Heller’s statement about Eric Treaster’s application,” Edwards said.

Treaster said he had suggested his multi-family dwelling rules when the town last overhauled its regulations in 2022, but the commission at the time did not give his ideas proper scrutiny. He added that one of his impetuses for proposing the regulation changes was because he had been “horrified” by a recent proposal to build 10 mobile homes on a little more than 2 acres in town.

Attorney Brian R. Smith, of Robinson + Cole in Hartford, said via Zoom that he was representing C.R. Klewin LLC in opposing the zoning amendments, and questioned whether the proposed changes might affect the ability to provide affordable housing in town.

In written testimony, he added, “Nearly 65 percent of respondents of the community survey think that the town should ‘seek to focus new, somewhat higher housing density in specific areas.’ However, (Treaster’s amendments) would eliminate existing provisions of the Zoning Regulations which encourage the development of higher density housing in specific zoning districts intended for just such purposes.”

Treaster said he personally didn’t like affordable housing applications because they are “not consistent” with Ledyard’s master plan of development.

Several residents on Thursday defended Treaster’s proposed zoning changes.

“I don’t find them reactionary and I don’t find them often short-sighted,” Gales Ferry resident Eleanor Murray saying, adding the town shouldn’t be responsible for providing rock for most of Connecticut.”

She also said the regulations would not stifle economic activity.

Gales Ferry Intermodal’s quarry proposal was to be reintroduced later in the public hearing, after press time, and was expected to address concerns residents expressed in a series of public hearings last winter that brought out as many as 200 people. Among the new ideas floated in paperwork leading up to the hearing were financial incentives to the town for every cubic yard of material extracted during excavation.

The community group Citizens Alliance for Land Use has continued to oppose the quarry project, citing issues such as environmental damage, health effects, the loss of property values and the impact of stormwater runoff from the quarry project.

Backers say the quarry will help support the offshore wind industry and provide fill material for roads and climate-change resiliency efforts.

Among the most worrisome issues for local residents is the possible health effects of silica dust released by blasting and rock removal, as well as potential contamination of wells and the destruction of the Mount Decatur area, which contains remnants of a War of 1812 fort.

Gales Ferry Intermodal has said it would attempt to deal with silica dust by treating small particulates released by the operation with water to reduce the chances of dust flying into the air and being inhaled.

The town’s new planning director, former Montville Town Planner Elizabeth Burdick, has come into this battle mid-stream after former planning director of planning Juliet Hodge was dismissed by Mayor Fred B. Allyn. Allyn has never explained the firing in a public forum.

The commission was not expected to make any decisions on Thursday night.

West Hartford to reveal $6M plans to reconstruct 'heart of the evolving' New Park Avenue corridor

Michael Walsh

WEST HARTFORD — The town is prepared to make a major investment to reconstruct a stretch of New Park Avenue that it said is the "heart of the evolving" corridor.

Over the past few years, New Park Avenue — long known for industrial uses and being the location of the town's Design District — has seen an influx of investment from businesses and developers. Now, the town is working to match that with an investment of its own.

Next week, on Sept. 17, the town will for the first time reveal its full Complete Streets plans to rework a portion of the busy roadway, shifting priority away from vehicles and moving toward making the area safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Those plans include a partial road diet, bringing travel lanes down from four to two, as well as a separated two-way bicycle facility. Other enhancements include raised landscape medians, enhanced crosswalks, and improved connections to the Trout Brook Trail and the town's CTfastrak stations.

The work will prepare the corridor for an influx of new residents who will eventually be moving into the area at the two most recently approved housing developments in West Hartford: the Elmwood Lofts, a 117-unit, mixed-use development at the former Puritan Furniture site, and the Jayden, a 70-unit, mixed-use development at 579 New Park Ave.

New Park Avenue has been targeted by developers recently partially because of the town's recent designation of the area as a transit-oriented development, which provides certain incentives to builders who choose to build housing with affordable units.

The $6 million project will be funded by $3.7 million in state funding, while the remaining $2.3 million will be funded by the town itself. The full plans will be revealed at a meeting on Sept. 17 at 6:30 p.m. at the Elmwood Community Center. The town said it will be collecting feedback from residents during the meeting. Construction on the roadway changes are set to begin in 2025.

Naugatuck and Waterbury residents oppose planned 4-story Amazon logistics facility

 Alexander Soule

After a small but vocal group of Naugatuck and Waterbury residents spoke out Tuesday against a massive logistics facility being planned for Amazon, the project's lead developer is defending its plans and scheduling another set of hearings for early October in both cities.

Bluewater Property Group wants to build a 650,000-square-foot distribution warehouse on 183 acres at the Waterbury/Naugatuck Industrial Park, which Amazon would operate around the clock. The opposition from Waterbury and Naugatuck residents is only the latest in Connecticut as Amazon has built a large network of centers to sort and deliver packages.

New York City-based Bluewater owns a number of logistics facilities in the Northeast, including one in Johnston, Rhode Island, and another under construction in Charlton, Massachusetts, not far from the Connecticut line.

The City of Waterbury posted the Tuesday information session online on its YouTube channel. Another public hearing is scheduled for Oct. 2 and Oct. 3.

The facility would have anywhere from 500 to 1,000 employees depending on seasonal shipping cycles, not including construction jobs, Bluewater representative Christina Bernardin said. At last report, Amazon had about 17,000 workers in Connecticut, including part-time jobs and those at its Whole Foods Market subsidiary.

Bernardin described the planned property as "a very difficult site" to build the logistics center that Amazon has in mind. Plans now call for a four-and-a-half story tall building.

"There's a lot of economic benefits to a project of this size and scale with a partner like Amazon, coming to this neighborhood," Bernardin told attendees on Tuesday. "We are continuing to study construction feasibility on the site. We would only ... develop it if it is feasible."

The Connecticut Department of Labor estimated unemployment in the Waterbury area at 4.3 percent as of July, the highest of any labor market statewide tracked by DOL. Despite the boost an Amazon warehouse could offer in the form of direct jobs, property tax revenue and local spending by employees, multiple residents took the microphone on Tuesday to voice opposition to the project.

Concerns include truck and employee vehicles snarling traffic at certain points during the day; damage to nearby structures from blasting rock to level the site during construction; any residual impact on nearby property values in having a busy industrial facility in close proximity; and the facility's overall environmental footprint.

Multiple attendees asked Bluewater to provide more documentation on plans, with one saying "the community is left out to the last, 11th hour" by developers of large projects. In response, a Bluewater representative pledged to make technical documents available, without any promises as to how much time residents might get to review them in advance of target dates for hearings or implementation.

In response to another attendee's question on why Amazon needs another Connecticut fulfillment center on top of existing ones in North Haven, Wallingford and Windsor, Bernardin did not provide specifics.

"A lot of analysis goes into their picking of a site and the location," Bernardin said. "This site was put together by the city of Waterbury and Naugatuck for economic development in this location."

CT Construction Digest Thursday September 12, 2024

Foundation makes rare ‘impact investment’ in local project

Erica E. Phillips

Philanthropic organizations typically invest their endowment funds in traditional vehicles — stocks, bonds, hedge funds, real estate — that offer high returns with as little risk as possible, and they use the earnings from those investments to make grants.

But in recent years, foundations have begun exploring what’s known as “impact investing,” where endowment funds are invested in entities that align more closely with the causes the foundation supports. 

It can be hard to do. Only 5% of foundations’ assets are currently devoted to this kind of investing, according to a recent study by the consultancy Bridgespan Social Impact.

“In the world of philanthropy, you have a lot of foundations talking about it. Few are doing it,” said Sheena Strawter-Anthony, director of impact investment strategy at the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund in Hamden. The Graustein Fund is working to make 100% of its investments “mission-aligned,” she said.

Earlier this year, the foundation took an important step toward that goal by providing $10 million in financing to a community redevelopment project in New Haven known as ConnCAT Place at Dixwell. The $200 million master-planned development includes 180 units of affordable housing, a child care facility, health care center, spaces for workforce training and education programs, retail and restaurants, a public plaza, performing arts center, greenhouses, offices and more. 

Connecticut Community Outreach Revitalization Program (ConnCORP), the economic development organization leading the project, has spent the last several years seeking community input, acquiring adjacent parcels of land and clearing blighted structures to make way for ConnCAT Place. It is slated to break ground on the development early next month. 

Strawter-Anthony said the loan was structured “with intentionality,” designed to be paid back over a longer term and with a lower interest rate than a typical real estate investment deal. She said she had to force herself to look at the terms in a new and different way, taking into account the broader impact of the investment rather than just the financial returns for her organization. 

“ConnCORP is helping to build wealth in the Dixwell and Newhallville communities,” she said. “The loan was structured in a way to support the community impact of the project.”

Dixwell and Newhallville are historically Black neighborhoods that have experienced high rates of poverty over the past 70 years, and much of the block that will house the new development had fallen into disrepair. In community meetings, residents told ConnCORP leaders they wanted to revitalize the neighborhood, have a place that felt safe, with high-quality early childhood care and education, where they could buy fresh food and gather for events. 

Erik Clemons, chief executive of ConnCORP and ConnCAT — the education and workforce training organization around which the development was designed — said he sees the project as an extension of the work ConnCAT has already done, training hundreds of local residents for jobs in New Haven and the surrounding area.  

“I was thinking about what is the next iteration of impact, given that these folks are now walking in the world differently, with a job, with pride, with dignity,” Clemons said. “What can we do next to create a world where they wouldn’t be working poor?”

Clemons said he hadn’t aspired to run an economic development project, “but it was natural calling, given the work I had already done.” ConnCORP launched in 2018, and soon the plans for ConnCAT Place began to take shape. “It was really about: How do we create economic infrastructure, capital formation and wealth generation in a community that quite frankly has been forgotten?”

Strawter-Anthony said she hopes the foundation’s deal with ConnCORP can offer an example to other foundations that want to do more impact investing. 

The financial returns on such deals may not be as strong, but the overall effect is far more powerful, she said. That’s because not only do these investments generate value for the loan recipients, they also redirect philanthropic dollars away from the kinds of for-profit investment vehicles that often extract resources from communities like Dixwell and Newhallville, she said. 

“Most foundations don’t invest their endowments in line with their mission. They can invest in things that are counter to their mission,” Strawter-Anthony said. For example, a foundation with a mission to end poverty might be invested in for-profit companies that don’t paying living wages or offer benefits, she said.

“A lot of the harm in the world has been created through investments,” she said. “When I look at the foundation, I look at us becoming conscious of the harm in our actions and changing the way we behave and our impact on the world overall.”

South Windsor warehouse expansion project pitched

Hanna Snyder Gambini

ASouth Windsor property owner is looking to build a new accessory warehouse for consolidation and expansion of a logistics operations tenant along Sullivan Avenue.

Moores Property Management LLC wants to build a new 32,200-square-foot accessory warehouse on a 4.27-acre property that it owns at 500 Sullivan Ave.

The site contains an existing building used by United Delivery Inc., a family-owned logistics management, product distribution, and warehousing company that has been operating there since 2020. The site was formerly operated by New England Transportation Inc.

United Delivery is currently leasing off-site storage space in multiple buildings around South Windsor, and the new building would limit the need for off-site storage space and transportation between facilities, the application reads. 

The United Delivery facility has roughly 25 employees, which “may increase due to future business growth but is not anticipated to increase immediately with the construction of the warehouse,” the applicants said.

Plans for the expansion project include building two new loading docks, adding to the existing building’s nine active loading bays, and seven trailer parking spaces, all of which will remain. Additional parking spaces for employees will also be added to the site.

United Delivery office space in the existing building will be relocated to the new warehouse, the application said.

Members of the development team incluse PDS Engineering and Construction of  Bloomfield as general contractor; Design Professionals Inc., of South Windsor for civil engineering, planning, landscape architecture and land surveying; F.A. Hesketh & Associates Inc., of East Granby for traffic engineering; and Ian T. Cole, of Middletown, for wetlands and environmental work. 

White House calls for stronger labor standards

Kathryn Moody

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Sept. 6 calling on federal agencies to adopt a series of “high-road labor standards,” according to an announcement from the White House, continuing the administration’s push toward expanding the federal workforce while pushing certain standards.

The announcement calls the move the “first in history to specify a clear list of labor standards that all Federal agencies should look to prioritize.”

The federal government considers itself a “model employer,” in that private sector employers often follow suit when it moves to change standards. The “Good Jobs Executive Order” calls upon agencies to adopt a number of standards around wages, union organizing, workforce development and workplace safety.

Among those standards, agencies are directed to prioritize project labor agreements, community benefits agreements, voluntary union recognition and neutrality in regard to union organizing when such takes place, the announcement said. The EO also directs agencies to “consider incentivizing specific high-wage standards for manufacturing grants,” similar to Davis-Bacon rules for construction jobs, which require contractors to pay workers “no less than the locally prevailing wage,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Associated Builders and Contractors opposed the order, calling it exclusionary and saying it removed competition and favored union builders. 

“The executive order will undermine the efficient and economical delivery of taxpayer-funded infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing projects and is consistent with the Biden-Harris administration’s politically motivated policy schemes,” said Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs, in a statement. 

He added he looked forward to reviewing the official text to see if it would be challenged in court.

Indeed, unions do feel the order favors them and their workers, but also other U.S. workers looking to support themselves.

Mark McManus, general president of the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters, praised the executive order, which Biden signed at his union’s chapter, Local 190, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Sept. 6. McManus called Biden, “the most pro-worker and pro-union president,” a title he’s worn with pride.

Bottom of Form

“With incentives to strengthen our gold-standard registered apprenticeship programs, to guarantee the rights of all workers to collectively bargain for a better future, and to expand family-sustaining wages for all, this Executive Order will help ensure all Americans have a fair shot at success,” McManus said in a statement.

Apprenticeship rule

Workforce development through registered apprenticeships was also mentioned as a priority for federal agencies — a focus of the Biden administration, which has invested in creating training pipelines and tightening registered apprenticeship standards to ensure the program retains its high quality, leaders previously said.

That apprenticeship rule has come under fire from Republicans, who say the rule will disincentivize apprenticeships due to heavy administrative requirements.

The executive order also states federal agencies should encourage contractors to focus on equitable and fair hiring as well as support workplace safety by prioritizing solid reporting structures.

To that end, the administration has pushed for an extreme heat standard. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed such a rule earlier this summer and will be taking comments until Dec. 30.

The Investing in Good Jobs Task Force is responsible for ensuring these standards are implemented, according to the announcement, and will be co-chaired by the Secretary of Labor, currently Julie Su, who is serving as acting secretary.

CT Construction Digest Thursday September 12, 2024

Foundation makes rare ‘impact investment’ in local project

Erica E. Phillips

Philanthropic organizations typically invest their endowment funds in traditional vehicles — stocks, bonds, hedge funds, real estate — that offer high returns with as little risk as possible, and they use the earnings from those investments to make grants.

But in recent years, foundations have begun exploring what’s known as “impact investing,” where endowment funds are invested in entities that align more closely with the causes the foundation supports. 

It can be hard to do. Only 5% of foundations’ assets are currently devoted to this kind of investing, according to a recent study by the consultancy Bridgespan Social Impact.

“In the world of philanthropy, you have a lot of foundations talking about it. Few are doing it,” said Sheena Strawter-Anthony, director of impact investment strategy at the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund in Hamden. The Graustein Fund is working to make 100% of its investments “mission-aligned,” she said.

Earlier this year, the foundation took an important step toward that goal by providing $10 million in financing to a community redevelopment project in New Haven known as ConnCAT Place at Dixwell. The $200 million master-planned development includes 180 units of affordable housing, a child care facility, health care center, spaces for workforce training and education programs, retail and restaurants, a public plaza, performing arts center, greenhouses, offices and more. 

Connecticut Community Outreach Revitalization Program (ConnCORP), the economic development organization leading the project, has spent the last several years seeking community input, acquiring adjacent parcels of land and clearing blighted structures to make way for ConnCAT Place. It is slated to break ground on the development early next month. 

Strawter-Anthony said the loan was structured “with intentionality,” designed to be paid back over a longer term and with a lower interest rate than a typical real estate investment deal. She said she had to force herself to look at the terms in a new and different way, taking into account the broader impact of the investment rather than just the financial returns for her organization. 

“ConnCORP is helping to build wealth in the Dixwell and Newhallville communities,” she said. “The loan was structured in a way to support the community impact of the project.”

Dixwell and Newhallville are historically Black neighborhoods that have experienced high rates of poverty over the past 70 years, and much of the block that will house the new development had fallen into disrepair. In community meetings, residents told ConnCORP leaders they wanted to revitalize the neighborhood, have a place that felt safe, with high-quality early childhood care and education, where they could buy fresh food and gather for events. 

Erik Clemons, chief executive of ConnCORP and ConnCAT — the education and workforce training organization around which the development was designed — said he sees the project as an extension of the work ConnCAT has already done, training hundreds of local residents for jobs in New Haven and the surrounding area.  

“I was thinking about what is the next iteration of impact, given that these folks are now walking in the world differently, with a job, with pride, with dignity,” Clemons said. “What can we do next to create a world where they wouldn’t be working poor?”

Clemons said he hadn’t aspired to run an economic development project, “but it was natural calling, given the work I had already done.” ConnCORP launched in 2018, and soon the plans for ConnCAT Place began to take shape. “It was really about: How do we create economic infrastructure, capital formation and wealth generation in a community that quite frankly has been forgotten?”

Strawter-Anthony said she hopes the foundation’s deal with ConnCORP can offer an example to other foundations that want to do more impact investing. 

The financial returns on such deals may not be as strong, but the overall effect is far more powerful, she said. That’s because not only do these investments generate value for the loan recipients, they also redirect philanthropic dollars away from the kinds of for-profit investment vehicles that often extract resources from communities like Dixwell and Newhallville, she said. 

“Most foundations don’t invest their endowments in line with their mission. They can invest in things that are counter to their mission,” Strawter-Anthony said. For example, a foundation with a mission to end poverty might be invested in for-profit companies that don’t paying living wages or offer benefits, she said.

“A lot of the harm in the world has been created through investments,” she said. “When I look at the foundation, I look at us becoming conscious of the harm in our actions and changing the way we behave and our impact on the world overall.”

South Windsor warehouse expansion project pitched

Hanna Snyder Gambini

ASouth Windsor property owner is looking to build a new accessory warehouse for consolidation and expansion of a logistics operations tenant along Sullivan Avenue.

Moores Property Management LLC wants to build a new 32,200-square-foot accessory warehouse on a 4.27-acre property that it owns at 500 Sullivan Ave.

The site contains an existing building used by United Delivery Inc., a family-owned logistics management, product distribution, and warehousing company that has been operating there since 2020. The site was formerly operated by New England Transportation Inc.

United Delivery is currently leasing off-site storage space in multiple buildings around South Windsor, and the new building would limit the need for off-site storage space and transportation between facilities, the application reads. 

The United Delivery facility has roughly 25 employees, which “may increase due to future business growth but is not anticipated to increase immediately with the construction of the warehouse,” the applicants said.

Plans for the expansion project include building two new loading docks, adding to the existing building’s nine active loading bays, and seven trailer parking spaces, all of which will remain. Additional parking spaces for employees will also be added to the site.

United Delivery office space in the existing building will be relocated to the new warehouse, the application said.

Members of the development team incluse PDS Engineering and Construction of  Bloomfield as general contractor; Design Professionals Inc., of South Windsor for civil engineering, planning, landscape architecture and land surveying; F.A. Hesketh & Associates Inc., of East Granby for traffic engineering; and Ian T. Cole, of Middletown, for wetlands and environmental work. 

White House calls for stronger labor standards

Kathryn Moody

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Sept. 6 calling on federal agencies to adopt a series of “high-road labor standards,” according to an announcement from the White House, continuing the administration’s push toward expanding the federal workforce while pushing certain standards.

The announcement calls the move the “first in history to specify a clear list of labor standards that all Federal agencies should look to prioritize.”

The federal government considers itself a “model employer,” in that private sector employers often follow suit when it moves to change standards. The “Good Jobs Executive Order” calls upon agencies to adopt a number of standards around wages, union organizing, workforce development and workplace safety.

Among those standards, agencies are directed to prioritize project labor agreements, community benefits agreements, voluntary union recognition and neutrality in regard to union organizing when such takes place, the announcement said. The EO also directs agencies to “consider incentivizing specific high-wage standards for manufacturing grants,” similar to Davis-Bacon rules for construction jobs, which require contractors to pay workers “no less than the locally prevailing wage,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Associated Builders and Contractors opposed the order, calling it exclusionary and saying it removed competition and favored union builders. 

“The executive order will undermine the efficient and economical delivery of taxpayer-funded infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing projects and is consistent with the Biden-Harris administration’s politically motivated policy schemes,” said Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs, in a statement. 

He added he looked forward to reviewing the official text to see if it would be challenged in court.

Indeed, unions do feel the order favors them and their workers, but also other U.S. workers looking to support themselves.

Mark McManus, general president of the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters, praised the executive order, which Biden signed at his union’s chapter, Local 190, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Sept. 6. McManus called Biden, “the most pro-worker and pro-union president,” a title he’s worn with pride.

Bottom of Form

“With incentives to strengthen our gold-standard registered apprenticeship programs, to guarantee the rights of all workers to collectively bargain for a better future, and to expand family-sustaining wages for all, this Executive Order will help ensure all Americans have a fair shot at success,” McManus said in a statement.

Apprenticeship rule

Workforce development through registered apprenticeships was also mentioned as a priority for federal agencies — a focus of the Biden administration, which has invested in creating training pipelines and tightening registered apprenticeship standards to ensure the program retains its high quality, leaders previously said.

That apprenticeship rule has come under fire from Republicans, who say the rule will disincentivize apprenticeships due to heavy administrative requirements.

The executive order also states federal agencies should encourage contractors to focus on equitable and fair hiring as well as support workplace safety by prioritizing solid reporting structures.

To that end, the administration has pushed for an extreme heat standard. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed such a rule earlier this summer and will be taking comments until Dec. 30.

The Investing in Good Jobs Task Force is responsible for ensuring these standards are implemented, according to the announcement, and will be co-chaired by the Secretary of Labor, currently Julie Su, who is serving as acting secretary.

CT Construction Digest Wednesday September 11, 2024

North Haven plans to borrow additional $3 million for Sackett Point bridge project 

Brian Zahn

NORTH HAVEN — A $12 million, four-year project to replace Sackett Point Road Bridge, which connects North Haven to Hamden over the Quinnipiac River, is essentially complete, North Haven town officials said.

However, inflationary costs have brought the project over its budget, requiring town officials to allocate an additional $3 million in bonding toward paying it off.

State and federal authorities are reimbursing the town for 90 percent of the now-$15 million project. The town passed its first resolution to borrow the initial $12 million 16 years ago in 2008, knowing that the bridge would become structurally deficient in the coming years. By 2018, the state Department of Transportation rated the bridge as structurally deficient.

"Over the course of 16 years with cost escalations, those escalations turned out to be $3 million more than the bond appropriation," said First Selectman Michael Freda at a Board of Selectmen meeting last week. The town will receive $2.7 million in reimbursement for the additional $3 million to pay off the remainder of the project, he said.

The additional borrowing resolution passed the Board of Selectmen unanimously last Thursday, as its members expressed contentment at the project's near completion.

Second Selectman William Pieper said his understanding from a presentation at a previous Board of Finance meeting is that the bridge is "basically done."

"No one is happier than me. I'm on Sackett Point every day," said Third Selectman Sally Buemi.

Despite the board's approval, the resolution must now go before the Annual Town Meeting on Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. in the North Haven High School auditorium.

Freda said the duration of the bridge replacement project is partially due to delays. He said that in the past 18 months, a truck crushed a sewer pipe on the bridge and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection stopped construction for about four months because of fish migration underneath the bridge. He said there were also times when construction paused due to weather.

"There were a lot of delays on this project," he said.

Plans unveiled for Hamden youth center at dilapidated middle school on Newhall Street

HAMDEN — Ernestine and Cleveland Bromell cannot step outside their home without feeling slightly disgusted by what they see.

The image that greets the husband and wife as they exit their front door is the town's run-down former middle school building on Newhall Street, which has fallen into disrepair since closing in 2006. Several fires have erupted at the vacant school complex during that time as well.

"It’s an eyesore looking at that middle school over there," Ernestine Bromell said. "We wish they would tear it down and clean it up. It’s bringing down our neighborhood."

Seeing the dilapidated building everyday, with its shattered windows and graffitied brick walls, "makes us feel terrible," Cleveland Bromell added.

The demolition of the former Michael J. Whalen Junior High School building in southern Hamden remains without a definitive timeline, officials said. But the town is moving ahead with plans to renovate the school's freestanding gymnasium into a youth, arts and recreation center – the first step in Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett's vision to transform the property into a "community campus."

The new, two-story recreation center will feature a gymnasium, weight room, black box theater, study lounge, kitchen and several rooms for various programming, among other amenities, according to preliminary plans from Hartford-based 7 Summits Construction and Farmington-based Friar Architecture, who were selected as the contractors for the project.

The center's total cost is about $10.84 million, which Hamden will pay for using federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The contractors are expected to submit an official proposal to the Legislative Council in October, officials said. If approved by the necessary stakeholders, the project's construction would begin in August 2025 and be completed in October 2026, plans show.

Some residents living in Hamden's Newhall neighborhood said the recreation center would uplift their historically underserved community and provide children with a much-needed creative outlet. Others said they supported the idea but worried that a facility designed for youth would bring more mischief to the area.

Lelia Adams, who lives nearby, said the center would "keep a lot of kids off the street" and steer them away from trouble.

She pointed to the press box at Rochford Field across the street, where she said children had smashed its windows and converted the space into a hangout spot. She added unhoused individuals also spend time in the structure, which sits above a defunct Hamden police substation.

Adams, who has lived in her home on and off for 52 years, remembered playing inside the former middle school's gymnasium as a high school student. Another school on Newhall Street also doubled as a recreation center and offered after-school programming to local youth, she said.

"I enjoyed that we had a place to go for all ages," Adams said. 

Sean Grace, the mayor's chief of staff, said the town envisions pairing the recreation center with another building that would replace the former middle school as part of the community campus project. An assessment performed on the school's academic building showed it was in "much worse shape" than the gymnasium and needed to be torn down, he said.

Though a demolition date for the school has not been set, Garrett said she is "hopeful" contractors can start knocking down the academic building next summer. BL Companies, an engineering firm based in Meriden, has been hired to plan the school's demolition, Garrett said. 

The former middle school's auditorium and cafeteria were knocked down in 2018, but the academic building and gymnasium are still standing.

One neighbor said she supported the idea but questioned the location because she worried it could cause crime in the area. She said the renovations of Rochford Field and Villano Park in 2014 brought increased foot traffic to the area, leading to an uptick in crime. Her car has been stolen from her driveway twice since then.

The Bromells also said they worried a youth facility next door would bring "problems" and disturb their tranquil community.

"It’s nice to live in this neighborhood; it’s been quiet and peaceful," Cleveland Bromell said. "We don’t want anything to come in here and make it worse."

The former middle school property was among those in Newhall that underwent remediation starting in 2010 to remove contaminated soil that had been dumped during the first half of the 20th century by area manufacturers, most notably Winchester Repeating Arms in New Haven. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection conducts annual soil testing at the school's property, and those tests "all have come up clean," Grace said.

Now, the town has hired Haley & Aldrich, a Hartford-based environmental consultant, to evaluate the remaining Newhall homes that were built on the landfill and affected by the industrial contamination.

Legislative Council member Rhonda Caldwell, whose district includes Newhall, said Hamden needs to prioritize fixing residents' foundations over building the community campus.

"People's homes are sinking; they’re taking on water like you wouldn’t believe, and nobody seems to be hearing them," she said.

Some of the homes in Newhall are awaiting first-time repairs, while others that were part of the original cleanup have experienced setbacks that need to be addressed, Caldwell said.

"The community campus is a great idea, don’t get me wrong, if the community wasn’t suffering in other ways," she said. "It’s sad that these homes are not being prioritized like everything else."

Garrett, though, said the Newhall foundations are "certainly a priority" and that project is "moving along at a faster pace than the community campus is right now."

Previous plans for the former middle school, built in 1956, called for apartments and recreational facilities that would be open to the community, which residents overwhelmingly supported over the years. But those plans fell through after seven years in the making because town leaders felt the developer's proposal did not meet the community's needs.

State bridge project complicates Bridgeport soccer stadium plan

Brian Lockhart

BRIDGEPORT — Besides the need for more public financing, construction of a proposed minor league soccer stadium on the lower East Side faces another wrinkle in the form of possible interference from a nearby state infrastructure project.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation and Mayor Joe Ganim's administration confirmed a vacant municipal parcel that would serve as a public park and gateway into the future sports venue will for two years be a staging area for a new $30 million bridge.

"Connecticut DOT will be using a portion of the property for the upcoming Stratford Avenue Bridge replacement project," Josh Morgan, that agency's director of communications, said in an email. "The location will provide staging of equipment and material, as well as provide access to the bridge."

Morgan said the DOT has obtained a temporary property easement for access to the acreage, former home of the now-demolished AGI rubber factory, and the land will revert back to Bridgeport at the state project's conclusion. 

The challenge for stadium developer Andre Swanston, his Connecticut Sports Group and the city is that the bridge work is scheduled to begin next spring and conclude by the end of 2026 They had hoped to open the soccer stadium for the 2026 season. If and how that latter goal can still be met if the AGI land, which needs to be cleaned of environmental contaminants before being redeveloped for Swanston's purposes, is otherwise in use is the question.

"At this point we're just in a question of logistics," said Thomas Gaudett, Ganim's chief administrative officer.

He noted the bridge work has been in the works for some time and is not "out of the blue."

"Does it (the bridge project) complicate things? Sure," Gaudett acknowledged. "But we've had this conversation. Everyone knows it's an issue. And we're all hoping to play nice to get everything accomplished."

Announced a year ago, Swanson's vision is to launch a minor league soccer team, Connecticut United, and stadium here, followed by a major league venue and other attractions. The main construction would occur on privately-owned land on Kossuth Street where the now-shuttered Shoreline Star off-track betting facility operated. But the city offered the adjacent AGI property as an important complement to the development.

Initially Swanston was aiming to have the stadium open by next year. Connecticut Sports Group however on Aug. 30 announced that had been delayed until 2026.

Swanston has been awarded some public financing — $16 million in combined grants for environmental remediation/site preparation — but still needs additional substantial public investment. For that reason, and because the parties are still working out the details necessary for the release of the initial $16 million, the move from 2025 to 2026 was not surprising.

Connecticut Sports Group in its Aug. 30 statement had only said the delay will "enable us to complete much-needed infrastructure work around the stadium site and continue to build out our talented staff." Swanston in a social media post this week got more specific and cited the DOT's project as one of the main reasons for the timetable change, but was not critical of it.

"This much-needed infrastructure investment will make the bridge safer for all auto, boat, and pedestrian traffic," Swanston wrote. "We’re working with the DOT and City of Bridgeport to mitigate the effect their work will have on stadium construction logistics and timeline." Connecticut Sports Group did not elaborate when asked for comment, referring back to Swanston's statement.

Gaudett similarly described the Stratford Avenue Bridge replacement as an overall positive for the city and the soccer plan, noting the new infrastructure will better accommodate the current and anticipated increased traffic to the lower East Side. The long-gestating Steelpointe redevelopment across from where the stadiums are proposed currently boasts a Bass Pro Shops outdoor retailer, a Starbucks coffee shop, a new marina with Boca Seafood restaurant, and ground has been broken on as many as 1,500 apartments there.

Opponents of proposed Brookfield gas compressor expansion bolstered by new study on health risks

Sandra Diamond Fox

BROOKFIELD — Bolstered by new research outlining the potential dangers of the project, town and state officials are engaged in an all out effort to pull the plug on plans to expand a natural gas compressor station located near many homes and just 1,900 feet from Whisconier Middle School.

The expansion would result in increased emissions of and exposure of local residents to toxins, including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, according tgo the study, which is called “Potential Impacts of the Expanded Iroquois Compressor Station in Brookfield, CT.” 

“Exposure to these toxins in the air can cause lung irritation, difficulty breathing, increased risk of respiratory conditions like asthma, and aggravation of other respiratory or heart conditions,” said the study, which was prepared for the Sierra Club by Beth I. Weinberger of Thimble Creek Research and Sherry Van Lange of Eco Essential Solutions. 

The study says the facility “should be over a mile away from residents,” Nick Katkevich, northeast field organizer of the Sierra Club, a nonprofit environmental group, said in summarizing its key takeaways. 

“But in the Brookfield facility, there’s hundreds of residents that live within a half a mile of the facility — and there’s also the middle school. So I think it just reiterates our concerns about this project and the health impacts of it,” he said. 

With the new information from the study, which was released in July, Brookfield needs Gov. Ned Lamont and state Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes to take a stand against the expansion, he said.

“They’re ultimately the decision-makers in the final permit needed for this project and they should reject the permit,” Katkevich said. 

The Iroquois natural gas pipeline, which runs from Canada through New York and Connecticut and under Long Island Sound, began operations in 1992. When Iroquois proposed a compressor station for the pipeline in 2006 for Brookfield, residents objected, saying it would be a risk to the health and safety of neighbors and the staff and students at Whisconier.

Despite the objections, the compressor station was built on an 80-acre site at 78 High Meadow Lane in Brookfield in 2009. With the new plan to expand the capacity there, “residents have the same concerns today,” Katkevich has said. 

Brookfield First Selectman Steve Dunn said Iroquois requested additional time, which the state granted, to submit more documentation the state had requested on the expansion plan.

After the documents are received, Dunn said, "the state then will either issue a conditional approval or deny the application. If they issue a conditional approval, they will then hold a hearing, at which interested parties may testify." 

After that, the state would “consider all comments and make a final decision whether or not to give a final approval" to the plan, he said.

'Reliable gas service'

In addition to the planned Brookfield expansion, Iroquois is also planning to install cooling equipment to its existing plant in Milford and add compression and cooling equipment at existing stations in Dover and Athens, N.Y., according to the company's website. 

All the changes will be constructed within the existing compressor station properties. Iroquois estimates the cost of the projects in all of the towns would be $272 million, according to its website.

In an interview, Ruth Parkins, director of public and government relations for the expansion project at the Iroquois Pipeline Operating Co. in Shelton, said Iroquois is now awaiting approval of its air permit applications from New York and Connecticut.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation held a public comment hearing in January 2023, and a written public comment period was open until late February 2023, she said. “We anticipate a NYDEC decision will be reached in the coming months."

She said Iroquois anticipates a public informational hearing will be scheduled in the next few months.

Parkins said Iroquois needs to expand the compressor station in Brookfield to provide more natural gas to its customers to heat and power their homes and businesses. 

Earlier this year in a letter to the New York State Department Of Environmental Conservation, the New York Public Service Commission “determined that the expansion project ‘is necessary to ensure Con Edison’s and National Grid’s continued provision of safe, adequate, and reliable gas service to customers.'"  

During a storm in December 2022, Consolidated Edison Co. of New York “came within hours of experiencing large-scale outages,” Parkins said.

“As a result of that near tragedy, the New York Department of Public Service has indicted their strong support for the approval and construction of the (expansion) project to avoid similar emergency situations in New York City in the future,” she said. 

Parkins also pointed out that Brookfield has enjoyed tax benefits due to the compressor station. 

“Iroquois is one of the town’s top taxpayers, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenues annually, and that the (project) is estimated to generate an additional $2.4 million in annual tax revenues to the town,” Parkins said. 

Tammie Fiske, Brookfield's assessor, said Iroquois is the town's second highest taxpayer for personal property and the sixth highest per the town’s combined list of real estate and personal property.

In 2024, Iroquois paid the town $545,728 in taxes — $451,300 for the compressor station and $94,428 in other property taxes, Parkins said. Since the station began operations in 2008, it has paid about $8.6 million in taxes.

As to the health concerns raised by residents and officials, Parkins said Iroquois’ facilities meet all EPA ambient air quality standards and operate in compliance with federal and state regulations.

'Bring health risks'

The embattled expansion plan involves two steel pipelines that enter and exit the Brookfield natural gas compressor station: The Algonquin pipeline, built in 2008, comes in from the southwest, and the Iroquois pipeline, built in 2009, comes down from the north.  

Iroquois wants to more than double the capacity of the compressor station to receive an additional 125 million cubic feet per day of natural gas, according to an operating permit filed with DEEP. 

The new facilities would all be constructed within the existing properties, with an estimated total cost of $272 million, according to the company's website.

But the researchers who wrote the study agreed with Dunn that the expansion would not directly benefit Brookfield residents and “will most certainly” produce more emissions, which will disperse and “bring health risks” to communities.  

“It does not supply natural gas to their homes. It does not reduce the cost of natural gas to the residents. They will however, bear the risk. …The expanded compressor station in Brookfield and the (project) will contribute even more greenhouse gases than the original compressor station. (Those gases) will … have impact upstream and downstream. It will have environmental, financial, social costs,” the study said.

State Sen. Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, who lives a mile-and-a-half from the compressor station, said he strongly opposes the plan.

“I will continue to urge DEEP to deny any permitting as it relates to the approval of this expansion,” he said, adding that the new study raised even more concerns for him. 

“People in Connecticut, particularly our neighbors, are subjected to the health hazards and the public safety hazards, yet receive literally zero benefit from this,” he said.

“If you’re representing the interest of the people of the state of Connecticut that receive zero benefit from this, from a standpoint of right and wrong, strictly for the people of the state, it should be an easy answer. And that’s 'No.'’

Locals give cool reception to massive Waterbury-Naugatuck Amazon warehouse proposal

Michael Puffer

Adevelopment group aiming to build a nearly 3-million-square-foot Amazon warehouse on the Waterbury-Naugatuck line received a largely chilly response during a neighborhood information session Tuesday evening. 

Bluewater Property Group arranged for Tuesday's public information session at Gilmartin Elementary School in Waterbury, shortly after it submitted applications for wetlands permits for its 183-acre development site straddling both communities.  

Leaders of Bluewater’s project development team spent about an hour summarizing the project and responding to a string of concerns raised by frustrated area residents. 

“It’s going to be a disturbance to the neighborhood,” said Barbara Murray, a Waterbury resident who lives in a neighborhood just to the north of the development site. “There is going to be light. There is going to be noise.” 

Residents raised concerns about light pollution, noise, traffic, displacement of wildlife and impacts to property values. Several also asked about possible damage to their homes from blasting required to develop the steeply sloped and rocky site.

Bluewater representatives assured attendees they would follow local noise and light regulations and take an array of measures to mitigate impacts. The development site will be wrapped by a noise barrier fence and there will be a minimum 150-foot buffer between the development and nearby residences. 

Bluewater staff said there will also be a roughly 30-acre conservation easement and no infringement on wetlands. They said they would remove invasive plants and plant native ones to improve water quality. 

Pressed by one resident, Bluewater Vice President Joshua Garofano said he is open to ensuring a bond is in place to compensate homeowners should there be any property damage during construction. A contractor needs to be hired before details can be ironed out, he said. 

“Will I work with you to do it? One hundred percent,” Garofano said. “Happy to. I just need a contractor, somebody to speak to, to get that far. We are not that far yet. But we can certainly bond our earthwork – our earthwork contract on this job. It’s certainly big enough for that.” 

Most of the 183-acre development site is owned by Waterbury.

Former Waterbury Mayor Neil O’Leary worked with Naugatuck Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess to secure access to the property through Naugatuck, jumping a hurdle that had held up development of the area for decades. A search by local officials for a development partner turned up Bluewater. 

Bluewater Vice President Christina Bernardin said Tuesday the development will add about $150 million in new taxable value, although she acknowledged a tax deal reducing that yield is possible. She also said the development will result in 500 to 1,000 new jobs.

The roughly 120- to 130-foot tall robotic-assisted logistics warehouse would take about two years to build, Bluewater representatives said. Bernardin said Bluewater has built similar facilities in Charlton, Massachusetts and Johnston, Rhode Island. 

Bluewater will also seek upgrades for roadways and intersections near its development, including the widening of the offramp of a Route 8 southbound ramp to two lanes, and a “complete reconstruction” of the intersection of Sheridan Drive and South Main Street in Naugatuck. 

Bluewater staff received a friendlier response from residents during brief, informal conversations immediately following Tuesday’s presentation. Several locals expressed the absence of hard feelings, as well as sympathy for the slight grilling the developers received. 

Not everybody who spoke up during the question-and-answer portion of Tuesday's meeting was in opposition. 

Paul Kondash, a member of Waterbury’s Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission, said he has heard an overwhelmingly positive response from the public.

“All I hear is: ‘Amazon is coming, Amazon is coming, Amazon is coming – I can’t wait,’” Kondash said. “I just have one brief question for you: Can you start construction tomorrow?”