CT Construction Digest Tuesday April 28, 2026

$712M overhaul of I-91, I-691, Route 15 interchange enters new phase: 'Going to be worth it'

Brianna Gurciullo

Joined by state officials, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal tried to assure Connecticut residents Monday that while backups will continue at the Interstate 91, Interstate 691 and Route 15 interchange for the next few years, “they’re going to be worth it.”

Blumenthal, Gov. Ned Lamont, state Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto and other officials touted the progress made toward overhauling the interchange in Meriden, with about three years down and four to go. 

“Anytime we’re trying to do a project of this size while keeping lanes open is always going to be difficult,” Eucalitto said about the ongoing backups. “Traffic protection is one of the hardest parts of any project, especially something this large, with this many vehicles. So I think the team has staged it to the best of our ability to keep traffic moving.”

State officials have long said the three-phase project will cost a total of more than $500 million, but on Monday they gave a new, more specific figure of more than $712 million.

The state funded the two-year, more than $83 million first phase of the project on its own. The federal government is contributing $200 million to the second phase, while $50 million is coming from the state. The third and final phase is expected to similarly be 80% federally funded and 20% state funded.  

Blumenthal said Connecticut’s U.S. senators and representatives have had to fight for those federal dollars.

“It’s a proverbial knife fight, but we punch above our weight as a delegation,” he said.

The second phase of the project began in 2024 and is expected to finish up in 2028. The third phase is getting started this month and slated to end by 2030.

Eucalitto said the interchange “was built for a different era.” While I-691 west of I-91 was expected to handle 28,000 vehicles per day, it now sees 79,000, he said, and I-91 northbound was supposed to carry 40,000 vehicles, but 86,000 travel on it today. 

During the three years before the project began, more than 850 crashes occurred at the interchange, including one fatal incident. 

The problem: “Single-lane ramps, short merges and constant weaving create backups and increase the risk of crashes and fender benders,” Eucalitto said. The solution, he said, is to “untangle” the area.

“We’re reconfiguring the interchange with upgraded ramps, longer merge distances, improved sight lines, and modern bridges and roadways,” Eucalitto said. “The goal is to reduce congestion, reduce crashes and make it more reliable so you know when you leave your house, it’s going to take you X amount of time to get where you need to go.”

He said traffic is flowing better in the area of the completed first phase, which included widening the ramp from I-691 eastbound to I-91 northbound and adding a lane on I-91 northbound.

On Friday, a new bridge carrying Route 15 northbound over I-91 will open to traffic as part of the second phase, officials said. Half of the bridge still needs to be completed.

The third phase is focused on the southbound side of the roadways and includes work on the Murdock Avenue bridge.

Eucalitto noted the DOT plans to start issuing warnings and tickets from speed cameras at several work zones across the state, including the I-91/I-691/Route 15 interchange, in June.

Meriden’s director of economic development, Joseph Feest, partly attributed a recent uptick in commercial activity at Connecticut’s Research Parkway to the project.

“We’ve seen some distributors come in. We’ve seen some manufacturers. We’ve seen some commercial office space get taken,” Feest said. “We also have some science labs going in and a couple other things that, again, is all due to the central location of the city of Meriden, and money that is being invested by the state and federal government to do these projects.”

Massive new CT proposal would create 237 riverfront houses, townhomes, some dubbed ‘luxury’

Don Stacom

After abruptly dropping a similar plan last year, Crown Equities is proposing a massive residential development that would create 237 townhomes and one-family houses.

The homes would be along the Farmington River in the heart of Farmington.

Named The Enclave at Farmington River, the complex would be built across sections of an 80-acre vacant parcel behind the Riverbend assisted living center.

The Minnesota-based developer last spring informally put forward the idea of a nearly 300-unit plan for apartments and houses on the property. Public opposition appeared widespread; weeks later the company scaled that back to 228 houses and townhouses with no apartments. Just before it was to present that plan at a public hearing last July,  Crown Equities withdrew altogether — until now.

The company’s current plan is for 158 townhomes; 128 would be rentals and 30 would be for sale. In addition, the complex would have 79 one-family homes for sale.

The site is just east of a planned 199-unit riverfront apartment project that stalled not long after the town’s zoning board approved it in 2022.

Some of the townhomes would have first-floor master suites aimed at seniors, according to plans submitted to the Town Plan and Zoning Commission.

Crown Equities said the one-family houses would have various lot sizes to enable a range of smaller and larger homes.

The plan is for “a nature-connected residential community along the Farmington River to support multigenerational living,” according to a memo by Robert Reeve, a local attorney representing Crown.

“The development will include luxury single-family homes overlooking the Farmington River, townhomes featuring first-floor master bedroom suites, and owner-occupied or rental townhomes with river views,” he wrote. “There is a strong demand in Farmington and throughout Connecticut for more diverse housing types to meet shifts in demographic trends. The mixture of multifamily townhomes and single-family homes at the Enclave addresses these changes in the marketplace.”

Community amenities would include a clubhouse, riverside gazebos, and kayak and canoe storage. Crown Equities promised walking trails along the river, and new roads connecting Bridgewater Road with Melrose Drive.

Much of the property would be be given to the town as open space, the company said.

Crown Equities hired the Goman + York consulting firm to prepare an economic impact report; it said the complex would generate about $1.6 million a year in new tax revenue after accounting for any necessary municipal services — including the effect of adding more students to the school system.

“As a result of demographic change, Farmington’s existing housing stock only generates 0.382 enrollments per occupied housing unit,” the report said. “From 2007 to 2023, Farmington added 1,130 newly constructed housing

units, while school district enrollments declined by 15 pupils — stagnant enrollment growth over 16 years.”

The complex would add about 50 new enrollments at the schools, costing taxpayers roughly $548,000 a year, the report said. New demand on other municipal services would cost roughly $346,000.

New gross tax revenue would amount to a little more than $2.3 million, the report said. That would leave the town with $1.6 million in new income, along with a one-time boost of about $1.1 million in one-time development fees.

The commission was expected to take up the plan at its meeting Monday and then set a public hearing.

CT Construction Digest Monday April 27, 2026

CT hospital’s $950M tower is a whopper, ‘most advanced’ in nation. What it will look like and when.

Kenneth R. Gosselin 

A $1 billion-plus investment in Hartford Hospital over the next decade is spurring an unprecedented building boom not seen in the hospital’s 172-year history —  with its centerpiece now coming  squarely into focus: a $950 million in-patient and surgical tower that will not only give the hospital a more prominent place in the city’s skyline but, hospital leaders say, among hospitals across the country.

The tower, expected to open in 2031, will rise 14 stories, double the height of the next tallest building on the 70-acre campus.

The tower will be built on a one-acre patch now used for valet parking near the corner of Seymour and Jefferson streets, its half a million square feet of space so massive that the upper floors will need to be built out over the top of the neighboring Jefferson Building.

Construction on the tower is expected to begin next year and will include 216 private-room patient beds — increasingly sought for hospital stays — 20 surgical areas organized around recovery rooms and specialties by floor, all outfitted with cutting-edge technology.

“So this is a massive investment in the future of Hartford Hospital,” said Jeffrey A. Flaks, president and chief executive of Hartford HealthCare, the parent of Hartford Hospital and seven others in Connecticut. “And this building will be the most advanced, most sophisticated hospital building anywhere in the country.”

Harford HealthCare’s plans to spend more than $1 billion over a decade at Hartford Hospital have been well-known since at least the end of 2024, with a new, in-patient tower considered a significant part of those plans. But the specifics weren’t disclosed until now, as financing is falling into place.

The reshaping of the hospital’s campus seeks to strike a balance among lifting the hospital’s national profile, providing more efficiently for the health care needs of the local community and recognizing the reality of an aging population that needs increasingly sophisticated care.

The hospital’s $1 billion-plus plan also includes other major projects, some already in construction.

The projects include a much-needed expansion of the hospital’s emergency department; a Hartford HealthCare-Go Health urgent care center with more services than is typical; and a 1,600-space parking garage that is part of a larger “arrival center” with a restaurant and conference space for up to 500.

The hospital also intends to launch the redevelopment of three historic structures at the northeast corner of Washington and Jefferson streets later this year. The project will anchor a growing presence of community clinic space in historic structures along the north side of Jefferson Street.

“This is a generational moment for us,” Flaks said. “This will position us for decades to come.”

Flaks comments on the details of the new tower came in an interview with The Courant prior to a public announcement Saturday at Hartford HealthCare’s annual Black & Red Gala fundraiser, the hospital’s largest of the year.

The in-patient tower has been part of the hospital planning since at least 2021 when an $80 million addition to the Bliss Building was completed, adding critical care space.

The addition came on the heels of the 2016 opening of the $150 million Bone & Joint Institute orthopedic center. Both projects helped reshape not only the hospital’s expanding capabilities but were intended to project a modern image of a destination for increasingly sophisticated health care.

In addition to new technology, the planned tower will increase the percentage of overall private rooms from the hospital’s current 60% to about 80%, hospital officials said The hospital now has 867 patient beds.

Flaks said the projects will be financed primarily through bond funding supported by the corporation’s endowment and other philanthropic gifts.

‘A variety of options’

The expansion and reorganization of the hospital’s emergency department comes as it annually treats about 110,000 patients, a number that is forecast to grow in the coming years, hospital officials said.

The department already is seeing a severe space crunch, with some patients routinely seen in hallways,. According to hospital officials, the emergency department has 108 rooms and averages 305 patients a day.

Cheryl Ficara, the president of Hartford Hospital, said plans call for an expansion into the adjacent Conklin Building into space where as many as 30 beds will be set aside for patients who are “under observation.”

“And why that’s so important is because many of the people that come into the emergency department, probably, I would say only 25 to 28% are admitted,” Ficara said. “The rest are on observation and will be transitioning back out.”

The exact number of beds that will be added has yet to be determined.

The entrance to the emergency department also is getting a makeover, with separate entrances being created for walk-in patients and those transported by ambulance, Ficara said.

In addition, the hospital expects to open in June a Hartford HealthCare-Go Health urgent-care clinic in the recently-acquired former Girl Scouts of Connecticut headquarters at the corner of Washington Street and Retreat Avenue.

The urgent care center is seen as relieving some of the pressure on the emergency department, giving patients another option when they don’t necessarily need emergency department care.

The clinic, expected to open in June, will offer expanded services such as the opportunity for blood work and more sophisticated imaging not typically available at the hospital’s other urgent care locations.

“We’re working with the community very closely to be able to educate them on the variety of options,” Ficara said.

Arrival Center

The new parking garage — running the length of the south side of Jefferson Street between Washington and Seymour streets — will add about 1,000 new spaces to help ease a longstanding parking crunch at the hospital.

Built in two phases on the site of a now-demolished garage and a former gas station, it is expected to gradually open beginning in 2027.  The valet service also will be based in the garage.

The garage also will anchor what the hospital describes as an arrival center.

The venue also will include a restaurant on Seymour Street and a conference center located near the corner Washington and Jefferson streets.

The conference center is expected to accommodate up to 500 people — a size that has the potential to attract national meetings and bring more visitors to the city of Hartford, Flaks said.

“So this is all part of that broader strategy to really have Hartford Hospital be magnetic, to be a destination for research, teaching, innovation, clinical discovery,” Flaks said. “And it just adds another piece of the puzzle that we need to be able to elevate and be competitive with anyone across the country to host meetings of this scale. So we’re very excited about that.”

The parking garage will be connected to the new tower via a skywalk that will lead to the tower’s two-story lobby, the new main entrance to the hospital.

And as construction of the new tower starts to take shape, two concourses — one interior, one exterior — will be built to connect all the structures at the heart of the campus: the new tower, the Jefferson Building, the emergency department, the Conklin Building and the High Building — now the main entrance.

“The internal concourse allows patients, families, colleagues to move patients, products — everything — throughout the buildings without the need to access any other pathway,”  Keith Grant, vice president of operations for the Hartford region of Hartford HealthCare, said. “It becomes the outer spine of the building.”

An exterior concourse will overlook redesigned landscaping, with a new “healing garden” the focal point.

Honoring historic properties

Up until a few years ago, Hartford Hospital came under intense criticism for its poor stewardship of historic structures on its campus and allowing them to become blighted.

The hospital met with strong opposition in 2023 from neighborhood leaders and preservationists when it moved to demolish a historic, yet decaying, 1920s apartment building at the corner of Washington and Jefferson streets.

Today, plans call for the building and two neighboring ones — primarily their facades — to be incorporated into a new community-based clinical space. Those plans are evidence that the hospital says respect the past while also looking to the future.

The hospital also points to the $2 million-plus renovation 1879 Queen Anne-style house on Jefferson Street. The house, which had fallen into disrepair, was singled out as one of the most notable properties when the Jefferson-Seymour National Historic District was formed in 1979.

The hospital’s evolving perspective on historic structures also was evident in reversing a plan to demolish the historic, 1920s Hall-Wilson Laboratory in 2021. Instead, the hospital took the unusual step of converting the interior of the brownstone structure into an electrical substation plant, in a $23 million project.

While most efforts at incorporating historic structures into a modern hospital campus have been focused along Jefferson, Ficara, Hartford Hospital’s president, said the hospital also is now looking along Retreat Avenue.

“All the buildings that we own that are historic and need work, if you will, it’s a partnership of making sure from a historic perspective, that we honor them,” Ficara said. “But, at the same time, renovate them and then use them for today’s day and age, and I think that is very possible.”

Hamden to replace Lake Whitney bridges in ‘serious' condition in $11 million project

Brian Zahn

HAMDEN — Two deteriorating bridges over Lake Whitney — rated by the state as being in “serious” condition — need to be replaced.

According to town documents, the total estimated cost of the project is $11.1 million, but state funds will cover the costs of construction while the town will fund the design phase.

The selected engineering consultant, who will oversee a public input and design process, received unanimous approval from the Legislative Council’s Engineering, Development and Municipal Planning Committee but still needs a final OK from the full council on Monday. 

As part of the $887,883 contract, SLR International Corporation would manage a public engagement process and subsequent design work for the replacement of the Waite Street and Mather Street bridges, which intersect over Lake Whitney

“The things that we valued were the community engagement strategies, designs that align with the town’s Complete Streets Policy and environmentally-sensitive design practices,” said Town Engineer Stephen White, who noted he recused himself from the bidding process because of a conflict of interest.

White said the town will take on no new debt to fund the contract.

Eileen O’Neill, a resident of the area, said she participated in a public input session about plans to rebuild the bridges in 2008 and neighbors shared their desire to preserve the area as “an urban-surburban forest area, which actually is a jewel to that part of Hamden and for those neighborhoods, for people to get out into nature.”

“The priorities to us were that we have a woonerf-style shared roadway design for walkers, runners, bicyclists, birders, photographers,” she said, referencing a Dutch design concept in which urban spaces are accessible to pedestrians that inspired the design for the planned redesign of nearby New Haven’s Long Wharf Park.

Council member Sarah Gallagher, D-4, asked about whether there are plans to preserve the wildlife in the area as well as the drinking water collected by the Regional Water Authority.

“I really want to see with this project, we don’t end up with a mega bridge that changes the feel of the area,” she said, adding that she heard from many residents that during the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic that they took advantage of the bridges to experience nature locally. 

White said he imagines the bridges featuring a mixed-use recreational path, but the final project will be dependent upon what the design team develops.

White said the expected timeline for construction, once that phase begins, would be two to three years. According to documents submitted to the council, Waite and Mather Streets will be closed during their respective bridge replacement projects, but only one roadway will be closed at a time.

State pushes back decision on Portland solar facility plan near Glastonbury school

Joseph Villanova

PORTLAND — State officials have pushed back the deadline to decide on a proposed 4-megawatt solar facility along the Glastonbury border.

North Haven-based Greenskies Clean Energy has petitioned the Connecticut Siting Council to allow for the construction of a 4-megawatt solar photovoltaic electric-generating facility on 17 acres of a 41.9-acre parcel along Glastonbury Turnpike in Portland. The project site would be accessed from Old Maids Lane in South Glastonbury and is located just south of Nayaug Elementary School.

Other solar projects by Greenskies include a 1.2-megawatt facility on Lake Street in Manchester that was approved by the Siting Council last week, as well as a solar farm for Connecticut's state colleges and municipal projects in Bethel, Fairfield, New Haven, and Manchester.

Greenskies filed its petition in October, with plans detailing a 7,462-module array surrounded by a 7-foot chain link security fence. A narrative dated Oct. 27 bills the proposed facility as conforming to all relevant standards while providing "multiple benefits" to Portland and the state through supplying renewable energy and supporting the electrical grid.

The town of Glastonbury issued a letter to the Siting Council in December stating that officials were supportive of renewable energy but concerned about the facility's potential impacts to the abutting school, and asked the council to "mitigate, to the furthest extent possible, the potential detrimental impacts of the facility to the school and to the surrounding Glastonbury neighborhoods."

In March, the Siting Council requested a six-month extension from the parties involved in the petition, all of whom consented. Originally scheduled for this month, the approved extension pushed the council's deadline for a final decision to Oct. 22.

In December, the Siting Council awarded party status to the town of Glastonbury and intervenor status to an Old Maids Lane resident, allowing both parties certain privileges during the petition process. The council also approved Glastonbury's request for a public hearing that was held in March, though public comment on the petition will be accepted until May 7. 

Throughout 2026, the Siting Council has held meetings and issued interrogatories to gather information on the project. The council closed its evidentiary record on April 7, and has a deadline to issue a proposed findings of fact on May 7.

In response to a filing by Glastonbury, a representative for Greenskies said in a March 5 memo that the developer would agree to avoid equipment and vehicular traffic on Old Maids Lane during student drop-off and pick-up times at Nayaug Elementary.

A visual impact assessment dated June 2025, conducted on behalf of Greenskies, states that solar panel visibility outside of the project site would be limited to a specific location near the school entrance and a field north of Old Maids Lane. The developer's response to a series of questions from the intervenor, dated March 5, states that it would not provide vegetative screening to the north of the site, as there would be no visual impact from the school and neighborhood.

The October narrative from Greenskies states that the site has an existing apple orchard planted from prior to 1934 that is now past its peak production. USDA soil maps indicate that approximately 1.8 acres of the site fall within mapped prime farmland, though the relevant area is currently used as a gravel pit and extensive soil disturbance from quarry operations have left it unsuitable for agriculture.

Greenskies has proposed planting a pollinator seed mix in the mapped prime farmland and a meadow seed mix elsewhere to "promote long-term soil health," as stated in the narrative.

Stamford High's $27.5M renovation plan includes 15 new science labs, new exterior walls, windows

Ignacio Laguarda

STAMFORD — A $27.5 million plan to update science labs and replace the outside walls and windows of the 1971 portion of Stamford High School has received a thumbs up from a subcommittee of the city’s Board of Education. 

The school board’s Operations Committee unanimously approved the educational specifications for the project on Tuesday. The budget estimate for the work includes a 60% reimbursement rate from the state that would cover about $14.5 million of the project. The rest of it, about $13 million, would be be paid for by the city.

However, the state still needs to sign off on the project, which also needs approval from other local Stamford boards.

Katherine LoBalbo, director of school construction, said the plan is to submit the project for state approval by June 30, which is the annual deadline for such submissions. If all goes to plan, construction could begin in the summer of 2028.

Board of Education members supported the plan, which would update a part of the school in need of modernization.

Travis Schnell, principal architect for the Mount Kisco, N.Y.-based firm KG+D, said the exterior of the 1971 part of the school is in need of renovation. The school campus also includes the original 1927 building and an addition in 2005.

Schnell displayed images of the building during the presentation that showed loose mortar, cracked sills and deteriorating sealant on the outside walls, which are covered by a 4-inch brick veneer. 

“All of that contributes further to ongoing water infiltration problems, which only further damage the building, that gets worse over time the longer it goes unchecked,” said Schnell, who added that the outside walls do not have insulation.

The second major part of the work would be updating the school’s science labs to meet the state’s Next Generation Science Standards. The current science lab layout at the high school is too static and does not meet the state’s standards, Schnell said.

The renovation, he said, would convert the existing science labs into 15 new spaces: eight universal labs for biology, physics and Earth science; four chemistry labs; and three STEM labs for robotics, coding, design and computing. Further, the new spaces would include portable tables to allow for group instruction or lectures as well as various lab stations. 

“This is a gut renovation job,” he said. “Walls will be shifting, and we’ll be utilizing the space as much as possible.”

The cost to replace Stamford High School entirely with a building of the same size would cost roughly $290 million, Schnell said. 

“The greenest thing you can do is to reuse your current infrastructure and to work with it because you’re diverting a lot of stuff from the landfill,” he said.

CT Construction Digest Thursday April 23, 2026

Submarine manufacturer Electric Boat breaks ground on 'magnificent' warehouse in North Stonington

Paul Schott

NORTH STONINGTON — Every day, thousands of drivers on Interstate 95 see General Dynamics Electric Boat’s shipyard in Groton as they take the Gold Star Memorial Bridge across the Thames River. Soon, the submarine manufacturer will have another landmark just off the highway, about 15 miles east. 

Electric Boat executives and local officials held a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday for the warehouse that the company is building off I-95, in North Stonington. The approximately 480,000-square-foot facility will store a massive amount of parts — freeing up space, reducing congestion and accelerating production at Electric Boat’s shipyards in Groton and Quonset Point, Rhode Island, during a period of striking growth for the business. 

“This magnificent warehouse represents far more than added capacity,” said Ken Jeanos, Electric Boat’s vice president of materials and chief supply chain officer. “It’s a critical element of our logistics strategy, giving us the scale, efficiency and flexibility we need, as the demands of our programs continue to grow. As our production tempo increases and our materials needs expand, our ability to move the right parts to the right place, at the right time, becomes even more essential.” 

The 55-acre site at 45 Frontage Road, which Electric Boat acquired last year for $5.5 million from a real-estate affiliate of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, is being prepared for the structural work. On Wednesday, bulldozers, excavators and dump trucks were digging and moving around materials, against a backdrop of towering mounds of earth. The building will take shape this summer, and it is expected to be completed in the summer of 2027, according to officials at Whiting-Turner, the project’s construction manager. About 30 to 50 people are expected to initially work at the hub, according to Electric Boat officials.   

Electric Boat already has a total of 17 warehouses at the shipyard in Groton and neighboring sites, but it needs even more storage to maximize its shipbuilding space. The USS Idaho, the 14th Virginia-class, fast-attack submarine that the company has delivered to the U.S. Navy, will be commissioned Saturday at the Navy’s submarine base in Groton. Electric Boat aims to, respectively, deliver another two Virginia-class ships, the future USS Utah and the future USS Arizona, by the end of this year and in 2028. At the same time, it is building the first group of the next generation of Columbia-class, ballistic-missile submarines. 

Company officials estimate that the new warehouse, which they call Building 828, will store at least hundreds of thousands of parts, and possibly millions of components, for its submarines. Those pieces will be of various sizes and for numerous purposes.  

“It’s not just about storage of material,” said Lucas Marland, Electric Boat’s senior manager of logistics. “It’s also about making the shipyards safer to work in. This is going to reduce the vehicle traffic at the yard (in Groton) by upwards of 80%.”

Electric Boat’s “decompression plan” for its shipyards also includes the acquisition last year of Crystal Mall in Waterford, a property that it will convert into a company facility with offices, laboratories and training space. It plans to open the new complex in mid-2027 at the earliest. 

“This is part of the same strategy to move support operations off the main campus, so that every inch of the waterfront can be dedicated to building submarines. In the case of this warehouse, not only are we removing the footprint, but we are removing all the congestion that goes around with it,” said Beth Rafferty, Electric Boat’s vice president of facilities and real estate. 

For small towns such as North Stonington — whose population totaled about 5,200 in 2024, according to the most-recent state data — large development projects can fuel worries among residents about congestion and environmental damage. But officials at Electric Boat, Whiting-Turner and the Town of North Stonington said that the warehouse is a sustainable project. It is being built on about half of the Frontage Road site's 55 acres, which was largely undeveloped, aside from a small garage facility that had been unused for a number of years, they said. 

“A few years ago, North Stonington actually put into place what’s called the Economic Development District, which is right here, along the higher-capacity roads in town, not in the middle of any private farmland,” said Susan Cullen, North Stonington’s planning, development and zoning official. “None of the traffic impacts the rural parts of our town, but it still brings jobs to our town, it still brings commerce to the town.” 

Electric Boat has long ranked as one of the largest private-sector employers in New England, with a total of more than 26,000 employees, including about 16,000 in Connecticut. It is doubling down on recruitment, with the goal of hiring 8,000 people this year. 

“There’s never been a social-service program that equates to a decent job. And that’s what you folks are doing here today,” said Tony Sheridan, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut. “The people who work at Electric Boat… build the best machine in the world. There’s nothing like it.” 

514 apartments, office building coming to Milford's Wheelers Farm Road, just off parkway

Mark Zaretsky

MILFORD — What for 40 years or so has been one of Milford's largest office complexes on Wheelers Farm Road will soon undergo big changes, as developers demolish three of the five office buildings and replace them with two types of apartments and a host of amenities.

The new complex will include 514 apartments, including a 150-unit "age targeted" section for people 55 and up and 364 multi-family apartments in seven buildings, along with 160,000 square feet of office space. The offices will be in two remodeled existing buildings, representatives of the developers said.

It will have 1,535 parking spaces. 

It also will have a central "town green" and various amenities, including a pool, an 8,750-square-foot clubhouse, restaurant, fitness area, yoga studio, outdoor pavilion, co-working spaces, a cinema, game room, golf simulator, outdoor fire tables, bocci courts, cornhole, badminton courts and a walking trail, according to a presentation this week.

The change was prompted in part by a significant drop in demand for office space which developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, an attorney for the developers told the Planning and Zoning Board Tuesday night.

Under a revised plan the PZB approved Tuesday, a joint venture of affiliates of Avery Capital, Greenview Equities and Continental Properties will convert the existing 47-acre office complex at 470-488 Wheelers Farm Road into a multi-use development with an "affordable housing" component.

The site is just off the Wilbur Cross Parkway and Milford Parkway connector.

The site, which overlooks a pond, is just south of the Wilbur Cross Parkway and east of the Milford Parkway. Its neighbor to the south is the Muse apartment development, also developed and owned by Continental Properties.

The plan presented Tuesday was similar to a preliminary plan approved in July 2024, when the board approved a zone change to a new Adaptive Reuse Design District to accommodate the changes requested by Wheelers Farm Partners LLC and Greenview Equities LLC. One major difference is that the seven proposed multi-family apartment buildings have been changed from five stories to four stories and made slightly longer, speakers said.

The age-targeted apartments will be in a two-story building, according to the plan.

In both the age-targeted apartments and the multi-family apartments, 15 percent of the units will be available at reduced, "affordable" rents for people or families who earn up to 80 percent of the Area Median Income, said Andrea Gomes, an attorney for the Hartford-based Hinckley Allen law firm.

The application was filed under the state's 8-30g affordable housing statute.

Wheelers Farms Developers LLC, a subsidiary of Continental, will develop and own the multi-family apartments at the western half of the development and Wheelers Farms Partners and Greenview will develop and own the two office buildings and the age-targeted apartments, according to the plan.

The application was approved by a 6-1 vote, with PZB members Joseph Alling, Bryan Anderson, Scott Firmender, John Mortimer, Marc Zahariades and Vice Chairman C. Robert Satti voting in favor and member John Agnese voting against it.

Gomes introduced the application. She was joined by five colleagues who presented aspects of it, including Patrick O'Leary, professional engineer and vice president-development for Continental Properties; engineer Derek Overton of SLR Consulting; landscape architect Jason Williams of SLR Consulting, and architect Michael Stein of Stein|Troost Architecture.

"We're very excited about it and we hope the community is equally excited about it," said O'Leary. "...We believe this plan is very consistent with the original plan."

At Anderson's suggestion, a condition was added to the approval that the developer must file a specific "affordability plan" to specify exactly how many units would be in the "affordable" component. O'Leary said the developer planned to but generally wouldn't do it until later in the process when numbers are clearer.

Gomes said such a filing is required under 8-30g.

The office park was built in the early 1980s, but "during the pandemic, office use significantly declined," Gomes said. "As of 2024, the property was distressed and severely underutilized," and new owners bought it with the idea to redevelop it, she said.

The plan previously was approved by the Inland Wetlands Agency, Sewer Commission, Fire Marshal's Office and Police Department. A review by the Office of State Traffic Authority is in process.

Rejected: Large industrial, retail and hotel plan near I-84 in central CT

Don Stacom

A prominent Connecticut developer who proposed building a 114-room hotel, big-box retail store and 100,000-square-foot industrial building in a Southington woodlands lost his bid for a zone change on Tuesday.

Domenic Carpionato’s Southington 2 LLC told the town that in conjunction with an already-approved 283,000-square-foot warehouse and other buildings, the project could bring $2.1 million a year in new tax revenue to the town while creating 360 jobs.

But neighboring homeowners were skeptical about any upside for the town, and hammered away at two public hearings on their concerns of worsened traffic and noise coupled with new demands on Southington’s public works and police departments. Opponents also said it would be a mistake to lose dozens of acres of space intended for industrial development in favor of adding more retail.

The Planning and Zoning Commission agreed, voting down the zone change after the last hearing late Tuesday night.

Engineer Kevin Solli spoke on behalf of Southington 2 LLC, saying the developer would bring nearly $15 million of infrastructure improvements to the sprawling parcel that’s just west of I-84 near Exit 31.

The company wanted to subdivide the sprawling tract of more than 100 acres into six parcels, even though most would not be part of the immediate development plan.

Solli called the project “the catalyst for something that could create considerable economic investment and be the impetus for any of these parcels to be developed.”

Carpionato is well-acquainted with large-scale construction work: He recently won approval to build 266 apartments in Newington, and is a partner in the Heritage Park mega-development at the former UConn campus in West Hartford.

His Southington 2 LLC had arranged purchase agreements for a large tract of the woodland between I-84 and Route 229. The property is currently zoned industrial, but the company told commissioners that elevation drops, wetlands, absence of utilities and extremely limited road frontage make purely industrial development impractical.

“Development will require significant infrastructure improvements, including construction of a new access roadway and extension of utility services. The cost associated with these improvements is substantial and cannot be reasonably supported by industrial uses alone,” the company said in its application.

Preliminary plans showed a 114-room hotel, a 170,000-square-foot retail center with nearly 700 parking spaces, and a 100,000-square-foot industrial building with 225 parking spaces and just four loading docks. Additionally, there was a provision for a 20-pump gas station.

But homeowners from nearby Curtiss Street have been objecting since the proposal became public, and some residents from other parts of town also opposed the zone change.

“The West Street corridor simply cannot handle the traffic impact of this proposal. Currently the exit ramps at peak hours take two to four light cycles to gain access off of I-84 onto West Street,” wrote Amy Cooper, a Brothers Way resident. “Impatient and frustrated drivers frequently run red lights several seconds after the light is red.”

One Curtiss Road resident said he supported the zone change because of the prospect for new tax revenue to help hold down taxes. And Kurt Holyst of Saw Mill Lane cautioned that voting down the Southington 2 proposal would be a risk.

“We have a bird in the hand. What could come in an I-2 zone could be much more impactful, it could be much worse,” he told the commission. “If this is denied you may see a plan that impacts these people who complain much more.”

Juniper Road homeowner Cody Fongemie disagreed that making improvements at the Curtiss Street intersection with Route 229 would be a net gain.

“I fail to see how adding several small improvements while adding a throughway, a shopping center and warehouses is going to improve the traffic,” he said.

Lamont needs to resolve museum bridge issue

The Day Editorial Board

We understand the public’s frustration. There is much to be disappointed about when it comes to the construction of the National Coast Guard Museum. It is many years behind schedule. Original plans called for the project to be largely funded by private donations. Instead, the federal government is the primary funder.

Yet completion is now, literally, in sight. Construction of the 89,000-square-foot, six-story museum is well underway on the New London waterfront. As a major tourist destination, the museum will be transformative for the city and its downtown. Most importantly, it will duly honor and recognize the heroic service of the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard.

But the plan to build a pedestrian bridge to ensure visitors travel to and from the museum safely and efficiently is stalled.

Back in 2014, during the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, the state set aside $20 million to build a 400-foot, glass-enclosed bridge to carry pedestrians from the Water Street parking garage, over the street and railroad tracks, to the museum. Unsurprisingly, a dozen years later that expenditure will not cover the cost. In October, only one company submitted a bid for the project, and it exceeded the available budget.

Federal aid for the project includes $80 million for exhibit development, $20 million to renovate and expand the Water Street Garage, and nearly $7 million to homeport the Coast Guard barque Eagle adjacent to the museum. Another $58 million has been raised in private donations.

Now Connecticut needs to honor its commitment to be a partner in completing this important project. That means the administration of Gov. Ned Lamont must either commit to providing additional funding to build the bridge as planned — which would be subject to a new round of competitive bidding — or to suggest an alternative way of getting visitors to the site.

Frustration is growing that the governor’s office is displaying no sense of urgency in getting the issue resolved. Other elected leaders have grown frustrated that their behind-the-scenes efforts to get Lamont to take a position have failed. Last week they went public with their annoyance, holding a virtual press conference to turn up the pressure on the governor.

“We cannot take no for an answer — everyone else has met their obligations,” said Sen. Chris Murphy. Also in attendance was Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who used a more diplomatic tone, calling for the need “to present a consensus to the governor.”

Also in attendance for the virtual presentation were several local state legislators, New London Mayor Michael Passero and National Coast Guard Museum Association President Wes Pulver.

Whether this intraparty squabble will speed up or delay a resolution is unclear. Lamont and the senators are all Democrats, as is the mayor. But placing politics and personalities aside, funding the pedestrian bridge construction — even if it costs significantly more than originally estimated — makes a lot of sense.

The bridge would serve more than museum visitors. It would also provide a safer way for passengers to come and go from the Cross Sound Ferry terminal and the Union Station train terminal. The best state investments help increase commerce. The pedestrian bridge project would do so by improving convenience and boosting activity as visitors converge at what promises to become a bustling waterfront.

We placed a call to the governor’s office to ask about the passenger bridge issue and were told to put questions in writing. We received no response to our emailed questions.

Silence is not leadership. Governor, do you want the state and your administration to be a partner in getting this important project completed? If so, then please explain how. We agree with Sen. Murphy that no is an unacceptable answer. Not at this late stage.

CT Construction Digest Wednesday April 22, 2026

Lamont meets with Brookfield first selectman about Iroquois project

John Moritz

Gov. Ned Lamont met with the first selectman of Brookfield on Monday to discuss a controversial natural gas expansion project that has stirred deep opposition in the town at the edge of Fairfield County.

First Selectman Steve Dunn, a Democrat, is part of a group of local officials leading the campaign against the “Enhancement by Compression” project, which would add a pair of gas-fired compressors to an existing station in Brookfield capable of pumping an additional 125 million cubic feet of gas through the Iroquois pipeline each day.

Critics of the project say the new compressors would spew air-polluting emissions in a region that has notoriously struggled to meet federal air quality standards. And environmental groups say it represents a doubling down on fossil fuels that many leaders, including Lamont, have pledged to wean the state off of.

Iroquois’ owners are currently awaiting a final decision from the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protect on the project’s air quality permits. Last July, the agency issued a pair of draft decisions signaling its intention to approve the permits.

DEEP had been expected to announce a final decision on April 13, but that deadline was pushed back to allow the agency more time to review and respond to public comments.

Dunn met with Lamont on Monday afternoon in the governor’s office at the state Capitol. As he left the meeting, he told the Connecticut Mirror that he’d been encouraged by the conversation, in which he said the governor expressed support for an alternative Dunn favors — using electric compressors rather than gas-powered turbines to pump the additional gas.

Dunn clarified that the governor hadn’t pledged to take any specific actions, for or against the project.

“He said he was going to help us, and I believe him,” Dunn said.

Emerging from his office a short while later, Lamont offered praise for the “constructive alternative” presented by Dunn. However, he said he didn’t plan on discussing the project with DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes.

“He’s come up with an alternative and I hope, you know, DEEP considers it,” Lamont said. “But I’m not supposed to weigh in, so I won’t.”

Cathryn Vaulman, a spokesperson in Lamont’s office, later provided a statement about the meeting to CT Mirror.

“Governor Lamont had a productive meeting with First Selectman Steve Dunn today regarding the Iroquois Natural Gas Compressor station,” Vaulman said. “The Governor listened to the concerns Brookfield residents have about the project, and he encourages the Iroquois Gas Transmission System to use the best available technology at this station and commission an air quality test as an olive branch to the town.”

A spokesperson for Iroquois declined to comment on the meeting.

Iroquois officials have opposed calls to use electric turbines, which they argue would add between $45 million and $50 million to the project’s $272 million cost.

The Iroquois pipeline runs from upstate New York, across Connecticut and underneath Long Island Sound before terminating in New York City. The pipeline’s owners have said they plan to use the additional capacity to sell gas to utilities in New York, leading to charges from local residents that the project will not benefit Connecticut.

In a statement provided to CT Mirror earlier this year, however, Iroquois spokeswoman Ruth Parkins said the project “will enhance the reliability and availability of natural gas supplies for Connecticut’s natural gas consumers and power generation fleet since additional quantities of natural gas will be flowing into and through the state, and available for consumption within the state on a majority of the days throughout the year.”

Lamont has also pushed for the development of new natural gas supplies into New England, which faces occasional shortages during the winter heating season that can cause energy prices to spike.

Lamont met with Trump administration officials in Washington, D.C., last year to discuss the region’s energy issues including federal permitting for nuclear and natural gas infrastructure.

Vaulman said Monday that Lamont had yet to meet with Iroquois to discuss the project.

When asked if the governor would be open to a meeting with the project’s developers, Vaulman said, “Certainly if they were willing to come to the table and make upgrades that would benefit the people of Brookfield, that is something we’d be be willing to work with them on.”

In November, nine activists were arrested after staging a sit-in at Lamont’s office, urging him to reject the project’s permits. The protesters did not meet with Lamont at that time.

Killingly residents protest warehouses as Amazon announces plans for new fulfillment center

Allison Cross

Killingly — The developers behind a controversial 1.3-million-square-foot distribution center project off Interstate 395 this week announced Amazon as the prospective facility's tenant.

Amazon Economic Development Director Brad Griggs said the fulfillment center at 228 Westcott Road — better known as "Project Husky" — would operate 24/7, employ roughly 500 people and serve as the company’s “most advanced robotics facility” in Connecticut.

The announcement before a packed house at Monday’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting followed a “Water Not Warehouses” protest led by more than three dozen residents outside Town Hall.

Carrying signs like “Keep Killingly rural,” “Save the Last Green Valley” and “Keep our Quiet Corner quiet,” the group of protesters called on town leaders to protect local aquifers and reject Project Husky and a separate pending proposal for a pair of 178,750-square-foot and 297,500-square-foot warehouses at 90 Putnam Pike.

“I hope they listen to us, and they make the right decision,” protest organizer Jennifer St. Vincent, whose home directly abuts the proposed Putnam Pike construction site, said. “The community is saying no, … but we’re not even sure they’ve been listening to us.”

At the protest and zoning meeting, residents shared concerns that dynamite blasts during construction would crack foundations and damage homes. They also said the warehouses would destroy green space, including woodlands, wetlands and other natural habitats, and lead to increased truck traffic, pollution, noise and fire risks. Their greatest concern was that the developments — and the private wastewater treatment systems proposed for the sites — could pollute the groundwater that feed local wells.

After state officials recently identified 78 private wells contaminated with toxic PFAS chemicals in the Rogers section of town, Wayland Leonard said he and other residents are “very concerned about clean water.”

Leonard, who came to the protest with his 4-year-old son, Ruairi, said the town needs to “take a long, hard think about” these projects that slated for construction on sites with clean water.

“We only have so much (clean water). And for my son’s future, I’d like to preserve as much of those resources as possible,” Leonard said.

Other residents argued that projects of this size do not belong in town.

“This is not progress,” Diana Webber said. “This is destruction, and this is really, really bad for Killingly.

Moratorium proposal moves along

The zoning commissioners voted unanimously Monday to continue discussing a request by leaders of the Keep Killingly Rural coalition to impose a one-year moratorium on certain warehouses and distribution centers.

The proposed moratorium, submitted by former Town Councilwoman Michelle Murphy and resident Lisa Danberg, would pause new applications for distribution centers and warehouses that exceed 100,000 square feet to allow the zoning commission to review and revise its regulations.

Town Attorney Kenneth Slater said the town will work with Murphy and Danberg to tighten the language in their proposal. The commission is scheduled to receive the updated language at its May 18 meeting, as well as discuss the moratorium and set a public hearing for June 15.

During the discussion, Commissioner John Sarantopoulos said, “There’s a lot of people in town that probably think we should leave it (the regulations) as is.”

“Everybody should have a chance to come in here … state what they feel and we could go forward,” Sarantopoulos said.

Commissioners noted that the town previously imposed a moratorium on subdivisions in order to rewrite the town's regulations regarding those developments. Any future rewrites of the warehouse regulations would require additional public hearings as part of a separate amendment process.

While the moratorium would stall new warehouse proposals, it would not impact the existing proposals for the Amazon fulfillment center and the warehouses on Putnam Pike.

Town attorney offers legal guidance

Given that the project site for the proposed Amazon warehouse sits on 360 acres within the town’s business park, the development only needs to pass a site plan review to receive approval from the commission.

Slater explained that site plan reviews leave commissioners with little to no discretion when deciding whether to approve a permit.

“Generally speaking, a site plan review is not discretionary," Slater said. “It’s just making sure all the boxes are checked, I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed. And if they are, your commission’s obligated to issue an approval."

“It’s not a popularity contest,” Slater later added. “If it’s completely compliant with the regulations, it doesn’t matter if you have a thousand people against it. If it’s not in compliance with the regulation, it doesn’t matter if you have a thousand people for it. … You have to apply the regulations the way that they’re drafted.”

During the meeting, Alternate Commissioner Lorraine LaGarde argued that the commission has the power to deny applications that impact the health and safety of the town.

“I think we have to look at the whole picture because we are here to make the town better and that’s our obligation,” LaGarde said.

Slater said that while that principle should guide commission members when drafting regulations and rule changes, when it comes to approving or denying proposed developments, “there’s no principle that you can override what your regulations say because you don’t believe it’s good for the town” because it is assumed that “health and safety is built into” the existing regulations.

To illustrate his point, Slater said that if an application for a fast food restaurant fits all the zoning criteria, commissioners could not reject the project because they believed more access to fast food would increase obesity in town.

LaGarde and other residents criticized Slater for the statement, which they described as a “sad comparison” to the situation at hand.

Councilwoman Ulla Tiik-Barclay argued that Slater’s legal judgment should be treated as an opinion, not as fact. “Attorneys make opinions," Barclay said. "One attorney may have another opinion from another attorney. Just like the Supreme Court justices make opinions and each one’s opinion may vary."

“The people are at the top of the chain of command in Killingly," she added. “Commissioners are appointed by the town council. They are here to do the will of the people. The people are at the top."

Slater’s comments suggested that residents' opinions could have greater sway with the 90 Putnam Pike application, which requires a special permit to move forward.

Slater said that the commission has more administrative discretion over those types of applications.

He said that state law recognizes that certain classes of land use can be considered on a case-by-case basis within a zone. In those cases, Slater said the commission can apply a “more discretionary set of standards” that considers surrounding land uses, property values, traffic patterns and other neighborhood impacts before approving or denying an application.

Slater said special permits also require a public hearing where “members of the public should be heard about whether that particular location is appropriate.”

“You’re not making up the rules, … you’re applying the rules, but by their nature, the special permit rules have more discretion built into them,” he said.

Earlier this month, the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission voted 3-2 to approve the wetlands proposal for the 90 Putnam Pike development.

On Monday, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to hire a third-party to review the application. A public hearing is tentatively scheduled for May 18. 

Middletown pivots stalled Riverside project to focus on downtown parking

Cassandra Day

MIDDLETOWN — The city is not letting the uncertainty about a complicated project stop them from trying to solve an immediate need. Namely: public parking. 

At the urging of the downtown business community, the city is moving ahead with the municipal parking component of the Village at Riverside site even thought the larger --"more ambitious development” — is in limbo. 

The initial, mixed-use project proposed by Spectra Construction & Development Corp. in 2022 called for a block-sized, multilevel housing and retail complex that would include a public square and pedestrian walkways in full view of the Connecticut River.

The site is located between deKoven Drive and Main Street, behind police headquarters.  

The Village at Riverside was initially billed as a public-private partnership. 

“The city’s vision has evolved in light of the delays we have experienced in trying to bring the arcade project to life,” General Counsel Brig Smith said Monday.

The priority now, Smith added, is to realize a “more limited vision that could still allow for future private development on, or adjacent to, the site, but that would require the developer to provide its own parking.” 

The former, multilevel arcade lot was demolished in late 2018 after crumbling concrete and other hazards necessitated its closure.

In late 2024, the city paid $3 million for the Attention to Detail property at 195 Dekoven Drive, which abuts the city-owned property at 60 Dingwall Drive and 222 Main St.

The deal included ATD leasing the property for $1 a month for 18 months, which will be up in June, according to Director of Economic and Community Development Christine Marques.

The city now owns the property from the back of the police station on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way all the way to deKoven Drive, she said.

Demolition of the ATD building, slated for later this summer, Smith said, would provide more public parking in the short term “while our other, longer-term parking initiatives take hold.”

The full project has “slowed down” due to multiple factors, according to Mayor Gene Nocera, including the economy at the local, state and national levels. 

Instead of proceeding with the larger vision, he said, “we’re looking to reverse the plan and start with option C, to just develop the arcade with the full potential to further expand upon it, which to us, makes perfect sense now.”

It may or may not include Spectra, Nocera added: “It depends on the CEO of that company.”

Local business owners are eager to move ahead with the arcade, Smith said. 

“We have listened to feedback from the downtown business community, and the prevailing sentiment is that addressing downtown parking needs in the near future is a higher priority than continuing to piece together a more ambitious development,” Smith said. 

“The feedback we have received is that the perfect should not be the enemy of the good,” he continued.

Eventually, the city would also like to have a housing/retail component, Marques said.

The cost for the parking garage would be “substantially reduced,” Smith said, because it would no longer need to be built to support the load of a development atop it. 

The city is still working on concepts and costs for a garage, he added.

“I’ve supported this for some time, but if we’re stymied by the comprehensive plan, let’s reverse it and move it in phases. That is achievable,” Nocera said.

Also in response to community feedback, officials are looking into adding a second-floor deck to the Melilli Plaza lot to increase its capacity, Smith said. 

It would be located at the north side of the lot, which faces Washington Street, Marques said, and create an additional 87 or so spots. Right now, the lot has 250 spaces.

The city is not looking for a new developer at this point for the rest of the project, Smith said. 

“We are currently focused on the public infrastructure components — (parking and demolition) — before determining the next steps,” he said.

Developer proposes solar facility over Bradley Airport employee parking lot

Joseph Villanova

WINDSOR LOCKS — A solar developer has proposed a new "carport" facility on top of an existing parking lot at Bradley International Airport.

West Hartford-based solar developer Verogy, through its subsidiary Windsor Locks Solar One LLC, has filed a petition with the Connecticut Siting Council seeking a declaratory ruling to allow construction of a 3-megawatt solar photovoltaic electric generating facility at Bradley International Airport. Plans filed with the Siting Council on Friday show 8,064 solar panels to be installed on canopy structures over Parking Lot 5C, a 0.32-acre employee parking lot owned by the Connecticut Airport Authority that is accessed from Light Lane and borders Ella Grasso Turnpike/Route 75.

The petition, filed on Friday, comes not long after Bradley finished a $250 million overhaul of the airport that began three years ago.

Verogy representatives said in a narrative included with the petition that, if approved, the project would begin construction in spring 2027 and take approximately six months to complete, with construction activities occurring between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Sunday. Construction would be phased, allowing employees to use the parking lot throughout the process.

The Siting Council will accept comments on the plan from state agencies, municipal governments, and the general public until May 17. The council's current deadline to approve a final decision is Oct. 14.

A fact sheet for the project from Verogy's website states that the "zero pollution" solar facility would generate some 4.6 million kilowatt-hours per year, enough to power 461 homes annually, in addition to offsetting the equivalent of 3,099 metric tons of carbon dioxide every year.

The narrative states that the project was selected for a tariff agreement as part of the state's Shared Clean Energy Facility program, and completion of the facility would result in credits for participating customers including low- and moderate-income households, municipal governments and small businesses.

Verogy said other benefits of the project include increasing Connecticut's solar capacity without disrupting prime farmland, reducing costs for customers across the state by reducing energy demand during peak usage, providing covered parking, and increasing municipal tax revenue with no burden on services.

Verogy said in its narrative that the planned facility's solar panels and inverters have an anticipated service life of 35 years, after which it would be decomissioned.

State Demands, Snarled Traffic in Old Lyme Debated, as Private Beaches Move Ahead with Sewers

Charlotte Harvey, 

OLD LYME — As sewer construction moves ahead in three of the town’s private beach communities, likely snarling summer traffic along Shore Road, local officials reached for alternatives to satisfy a roughly decade-old state demand to replace about 200 septic systems in Sound View and neighboring properties.

At a meeting Tuesday, the town’s Water Pollution Control Authority again debated possible ways to unwind agreements with the Old Colony, Miami Beach and Old Lyme Shores Beach Associations — and with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection which has warned Old Lyme officials that the agency would not back away from demands for sewers.

The effort comes after turnover, unfilled vacancies and a wave of resignations in February from the town authority as local officials abandoned the town’s portion of the project in the face of soaring costs and broad opposition to the state’s demands for installing sewers.

Tuesday’s meeting opened with two officials from Ledge Light Health District outlining the regional health department’s role in enforcing health codes for the neighborhood’s septic systems — speaking as if the sewer project would proceed as planned.

“We have to enforce the Connecticut public health code and the applicable technical standards,” said Jen Maggio, Ledge Light’s director of health. “And those provide us with some kind of guardrails around where we can make limited exceptions when sewer projects are coming online and when we can’t.”

But members of the town’s Water Pollution Control Authority reiterated that they were opposed to installing sewers and would make efforts to convince state environmental officials to allow the town to pursue alternatives to sewering Sound View.

Vice Chair Dennis Melluzzo pushed back that neighboring states had approved alternative and advanced septic systems with success and, he said, “have seen a lot less pollution.”

The Ledge Light officials acknowledged positives and negatives with those systems, but said that current legislation did not allow for “alternative technologies.”

After those health officials departed, members of the town’s Water Pollution Control Authority discussed a Monday meeting of the private beach association WPCAs, which for the first time was open to the public.

“It’s a very important step because that’s huge for us that those meetings are now open to the public,” Authority Chair Mary Daley said. “It really is.”

With the meetings now open to the public, town authority members said they were able to attend and get a clearer picture of the associations’ work and the progress of the sewer project. 

Laura Parent, the authority’s treasurer, told members that during the meeting Old Colony Beach Association Chairman Doug Whalen expressed his wish for Old Lyme to be part of the project.

Daley reiterated that the results of the December referendum — when over 70 percent of voters rejected plans to increase borrowing to pay for higher-than-anticipated costs — sent a clear message that residents did not want to move ahead with the town’s portion of the project.

“The town said no. They said no,” Daley said. “So now it’s between the town and DEEP to say, ‘listen, will you talk with us and what else could we possibly do at this point.’”

Parent said the cost-sharing agreement for shared sewer infrastructure — which the town signed in 2020 — was also raised at the meeting.

Daley said the town was currently evaluating the agreement to see whether it was legally binding. 

Construction slated to take place this summer along Shore Road (Route 156) was also a hot-button topic as seasonal residents and renters have begun to return.

“That is going to be chaos for the town,” WPCA member Bill Reynolds warned. “I am just baffled by that.”

Discussion turned toward the town’s selectmen having a voice in the matter.

“I think the selectmen should try to get involved in this because as soon as Memorial Day, the traffic is going to be increased,” Melluzzo said. “And also, they don’t have enough policemen now to handle what they have, never mind hiring flaggers and stuff like that.”

But First Selectman Martha Shoemaker, who attended the meeting, told the group that there was nothing she could do.

“It’ll be a little tight,” she said. “And you won’t want to take that scenic route home, but you’ll find some cut-throughs.”