Naugatuck works to abandon part of Water Street for new train station
Andreas Yilma
NAUGATUCK — The Board of Mayor and Burgesses has voted to
discontinue a portion of Water Street to make way for the proposed new train
station.Ad
“We are conveying the piece at the bottom in the center
that's mostly on Water Street to the state so they can build a train platform,
a train station and parking,” Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said.
Water Street is divided mainly by Maple Street. The section
of Water Street from Trinity Health of New England Urgent Care to the Post
Office recently was converted to a one-way to help with traffic. The rest of
that portion of Water Street that runs past The Station Restaurant all the way
to Millville Avenue and Church Street is one-way.
The side of Water Street south of Maple Street hasn't been
used in the past 40 years, Hess said.
“We're going to discontinue the town road,” Hess said. “So
Water Street will be a town road on both sides of the state land but in the
middle, on the state property, it'll be a state property with state access, not
town access.”
Before borough officials can convey part of the road to the
state, the process has to be referred to the Planning Commission for its
approval.
The state Department of Transportation was expected to open
bids in the beginning of February for the construction of the train station and
platform. The current train station is next to The Station Restaurant down the
street at 195 Water St.
Hess said the DOT is expected to start construction as soon
as warmer weather arrives.
The proposed train station in the middle of Parcel B is part
of the transit-oriented development that will complement the residential and
commercial development on the same piece of land.
Pennrose, a real estate development company from
Philadelphia, and the Cloud Co. of Hartford are set to develop the land at the
corner of Maple Street and Old Firehouse Road, The development is broken into
three phases that cumulatively consist of three, four-story buildings with 60
units in each structure consisting of 29 one-bedroom and 31 two-bedroom units
as well as 4,700 square feet of commercial space on the bottom floor.
Phase one of the project will be at the corner of Old
Firehouse Road and Maple Street while phase two will be placed on the other end
by Rubber Avenue. The middle of Parcel B will hold phase three.
Pennrose Senior Developer and Parcel B project manager
Karmen Cheung said they expect to break ground in spring, around the same time
as DOT.
AFlorida-based company is proposing a new
200,000-square-foot warehouse in South Windsor.
Vero Beach, Florida-based Altatwo Realty Co. LLC is
proposing to build the warehouse, along with associated parking, trailer spaces
and a new freight rail spur on a 16-acre wooded property at 250 Rye St.
An application was filed with South Windsor’s Inland
Wetlands and Watercourses Commission in January. The project would require
filling 2,512 square feet of wetlands and would compensate by creating 5,000
square feet of new wetland area, according to a report soil scientist Ian Cole
filed, included with the application.
The location of the proposed warehouse is a short distance
from Route 5, in an area heavily developed with existing warehouses and
logistics buildings.
The new warehouse would access the site using a common
driveway with an existing warehouse at 300 Rye St., which has related
ownership.
The 182,855-square-foot warehouse at 300 Rye St. houses a
glass recycling center operated by Strategic Materials Inc., a company that was
acquired last year by Belgium-based industrial materials mining and processing
company Sibelco.
The warehouse at 300 Rye St. is owned by Alta Realty Co., a
company that, according to state records, shares its address with the limited
liability company that owns 250 Rye St. Alta Realty’s principal is The
Tenny Group.
New Haven gets $9.5M of frozen federal funds, but $20M for climate change still in limbo
NEW HAVEN — About $30.5 million in already approved funds
has been locked by the Trump administration's freeze on grants and
programs related to climate
change and diversity, officials said.Ad
That money is set to update heating systems, facilitate
public housing development and provide job training for some of the city's
neediest residents, officials said.
But the city received the first sign of relief when funds
for a $9.5 million geothermal project beneath Union Square, including both
Union Station and a proposed apartment complex the Housing
Authority of New Haven wants to build on the former site of the
demolished Church
Street South apartments, were released around 3 p.m. Tuesday, a key
official said.
"It's extremely frustrating," said state
Rep. Steven Winter, D-New Haven, who also is executive director for the
city Office
of Climate and Sustainability.
He added it's "deeply concerning" to have the
funding interrupted and worried the projects might not happen if the funding
keeps getting suspended. He said the city won that money in a very competitive
process.
Winter said all of the grant funding was suspended Feb. 10.
"There's a federal restraining order from the federal
district court in Providence that requires the administration to unfreeze the
accounts that were frozen," Winter said.
But so far, that hasn't really happened, he said.
The only communication Winter has received so far from the
federal government is a message on the federal payments portal that the status
of the city's grants had changed, he said.
The main thing in limbo is a $20 million Community Change
grant. Among the projects it would fund are energy enhancement projects,
heating system upgrades, energy efficiency improvements and other issues
"that really plague our older housing stock" in 14 of New Haven's
neediest census blocks, Winter said.
It also includes a workforce development component to train
residents for jobs, as well as funding for plumbing and electrical upgrades,
active transportation and expanding New Haven's network of protected bike
lanes, including a new one along Blatchley Avenue in Fair Haven, Winter said.
The grant also would fund a large investment in Haven's
Harvest, a nonprofit that rescues food and feeds the hungry across the city, he
said.
"These are all helping people with real needs, as well
as help with climate change," Winter said.
The grant also would fund stormwater and tree canopy
improvements to increase shade and reduce flooding in aging neighborhoods,
expand the city's growing bikeshare program and expand a program to convert
food scraps into compost that can be used in community gardens, he said.
Also held up until Tuesday was the $9.5 million grant for
the geothermal project. But now it appears that those funds have been unfrozen,
Winter said early Tuesday evening.
"It's a really groundbreaking project," he said,
adding it would benefit the city's Hill neighborhood.
Also caught in the mix is a $1 million "environmental
justice" grant that would help residents in some of New Haven's neediest
neighborhoods update their existing oil heating systems with heat pumps, Winter
said.
After the city learned in late December that it had won the
grant, the project was approved, or "obligated" on Jan. 17 by the
former Biden administration. But Winter later found the money to be
unavailable, learning a few days later that it had been suspended, he said.
"We are finalizing a solicitation for an engineering
contract for the geothermal," he said, but that can't move forward until
and unless the funds are unfrozen.
The freeze has stop much needed work in its tracks, Winter
said, including creating job descriptions to bring on new staff.
"We really can't move forward with those preparatory
steps unless we have confirmation that we can move forward," he said.
The city's statutory partner in the Community Change grant,
the Greater Dwight Development Corp., which would lead the housing and
workforce development portions of the grant, also is left waiting and wondering
what might happen, said Linda Townsend Maier, the GDDC's executive director.
"We're waiting and we're hoping," Townsend Maier
said. "The city ... or Steve did a very good job to make sure that that
was the reality ... getting input from all the neighborhoods."
But right now, "We're pretty much in the same position
we were in before we applied," Townsend Maier said.
Mayor Justin Elicker said the money was awarded to the city
and so legally obligated.
"We expect the federal government to meet their
obligations, and we’re going to do everything we can and must to ensure this
happens," he said. "These grants are critical to advancing
important infrastructure projects and initiatives for the city-at-large,
specific neighborhoods and individual residents."
He said the freeze has affected New Haven's efforts to
address climate change, as well as the daily work of city and state governments
throughout the U.S.
"It also just represents backwards thinking," he
said. "The United States should be leading on green technology and jobs.
That’s the future. Trump can slow it down, but he can’t stop it – and if the
United States doesn’t lead, other countries will."
While it would be much harder for the city to reach its
climate goals without federal leadership and support, he said New Haven is
committed.
"New Haven will continue to stay true to our values,
follow the science and lead the way on climate,” Elicker said.
‘55-and-older’ community proposed in South Windsor
AVernon builder is proposing an age-restricted housing
development in South Windsor that would include 44 single-family houses and
three duplexes.
Kenneth J. Boynton, president of Boynton Construction, in
January applied to the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission for a zoning
exemption and site plan approval for his “Orchard Pointe” senior residence
development at 186 Foster St. The development would be restricted to owners
ages 55 and above.
Boynton said he plans to build quality homes for people
looking to downsize from larger properties. He hopes to gain approval in time
to begin building the first demonstration home this spring and then will build
as units sell.
“We are trying to build an active adult community …,”
Boynton said Wednesday. “There is a really big need for this type of housing.”
Boynton purchased the 16.8-acre property for $850,000 last
year. It consists mainly of agricultural fields with a wooded portion on its
eastern edge. The site abuts houses to the north and the working Foster Farm to
its south.
The property was transferred to Orchard Pointe Developers
LLC, which has Boynton as its principal, in January.
The town’s Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission
signed off on the plan on Feb. 5. It is tentatively scheduled to go before the
Planning and Zoning Commission on Feb. 25.
The development would be a planned community with underlying
land, roadways, common areas and a community building owned by a homeowners
association, according to Boynton’s application. It would also be served by
public sewer and water.
Dwelling units in the community would range from 1,550 to
2,400 square feet. An existing barn would be converted into a pickleball court
and community room. Eight units would be deed-restricted to affordable prices.
Boynton said he does not yet have a price schedule for the
homes. These could vary based on construction costs. He said the aim is to keep
them affordable to the community.
