Stamford Health’s $275 million expansion gets preliminary approval
STAMFORD — Stamford Health has received preliminary approval
for a
major expansion of its downtown campus, including a new cancer-care
center, expanded parking and relocated behavioral health and inpatient
rehabilitation units.
The city’s Planning Board this week approved a zoning change
for part of the hospital campus and a special permit with conditions. The
proposal remains in its early stages, and a final site plan has not been
submitted. The Planning Board’s approval sends the project to the Zoning Board
for further review and potential approvals.
The existing Bennett Cancer Center would be relocated to a
new, 73,000-square-foot building. Stamford Health’s behavioral health unit and
inpatient rehabilitation program also would be relocated, with behavioral
health moving into the existing cancer center building.
The project would increase parking on the campus from 1,400
to 1,696 spaces. It would include a new 355-space parking garage and additional
surface lots off West Broad Street.
Planning Board members expressed concerns about the
hospital’s expansion toward nearby Stillwater Avenue, a residential street.
Stamford Health acquired a property on Stillwater Avenue and plans to use it
for parking during construction.
“I’m concerned about the expansion of the hospital zone
along Stillwater,” Planning Board member Chester Salit said.
Under the board’s approval, the 49-space parking lot on
Stillwater Avenue would have to be decommissioned after the new garage is
built.
Lisa Friedman, an attorney representing Stamford Health,
said the hospital understood that expansion into the residential area would not
be permitted.
"It's been made incredibly clear to us and the hospital
that the city is not going to entertain the hospital ... meeting the street on
Stillwater," she said.
The parking lot could eventually be used for staff housing
or a retail operation, according to the hospital’s development team. Any such
use would require additional city approvals.
Planning Board Chair Jennifer Godzeno encouraged Stamford
Health to develop incentives or other measures to reduce the number of
employees who commute to the hospital alone. Reducing parking demand on the
campus was included as a condition of approval. The hospital will be required
to submit a transportation management plan with its final site plan.
The Planning Board also approved changing the zoning
designation for part of the property from Village Commercial to Hospital
Complex.
The new cancer-care facility and other campus improvements
are expected to cost $275 million. Jay Klein, another attorney representing
Stamford Health, said the project reflects the hospital’s commitment to
providing high-quality care in the region.
“They’re always looking at how they can get better and
provide the community with top-level care,” he said.
Construction is expected to begin in 2027.
Connecticut motorists can expect a new traffic pattern starting
on Friday night August 28 on the northbound Gold
Star Memorial Bridge as part of a long-term project project.
The new traffic pattern will be implemented beginning Friday
from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and the “northbound traffic will be shifted into two
travel lanes located in the center of the highway across the Gold Star Memorial Bridge,” according to the Connecticut Department of
Transportation.
The traffic pattern is expected to be in effect for the next
two years.
Construction work areas will be on both the left and right
side of the northbound travel lanes and “this traffic [pattern] is expected to
remain in place for approximately two years to accommodate the next phase of
construction which includes bridge deck removal and replacement,” according to
the Connecticut Department of Transportation.
The project was awarded to MSR Gold Star Partners at a cost
of $721,348,812 on Oct. 3, 2025. It’s expected to be completed by the fall of
2030.
The Connecticut Department of Transportation asks motorists
to use caution when driving through the work zone. The construction schedule
could be modified or extended due to weather or unforeseen circumstances,
according to the agency.
According to the Department of Transportation, northbound
Gold Star Memorial Bridge opened in 1943 and is the second largest bridge in
Connecticut. The southbound Gold Star Bridge is the largest.
The northbound Gold Star Memorial Bridge has five lanes and
is 6,000 feet in length with a deck area of 500,000 square feet. The highway
carries about 60,000 vehicles per day over the Thames River from New London to
Groton, according to the Department of Transportation.
CT town asks residents whether to spend tax money. It’s to fight a trash plant proposal.
In a key decision affecting their campaign against a proposed
trash-to-energy plant, Plainfield residents next week
will vote whether to put up $250,000 to wage a court fight against it.
Facing a possible legal battle against one of
Connecticut’s biggest construction companies represented
by a powerful and prominent Bridgeport
law firm, Plainfield voters will be asked at a Sept. 3 referendum whether
to hire specialized lawyers of their own.
Selectmen are proposing the move because they anticipate a
complex campaign to persuade state regulators to scrap the Smart Technology
Systems’ plan. If that doesn’t work, the town could consider suing.
Public sentiment so far has been profoundly
lopsided against the trash plant, but it’s not clear yet whether
taxpayers will agree to put money behind their opposition.
Fueling AI Data Center Growth with Green Energy
First Selectmen Kevin Cunningham is proposing to take
$250,000 from municipal reserves to hire outside lawyers. But many residents
anticipate that could be just the first phase of costs if protracted litigation
is needed, especially given the resources of the opposition.
Smart Technology is a partnership of Advanced Waste
Technologies and Torrington-based O&G Industries, a major player in
Connecticut’s construction industry that does $850 million a year in business
nationally. Smart is represented by Bridgeport-based Pullman & Comley, one
of Connecticut’s 10 biggest law firms.
To opponents, the fight would be worthwhile.
“Anyone who says this project won’t be impactful is wrong,”
said Karla Desjardins, chair of the town’s planning and zoning commission and a
staunch opponent of locating a massive trash facility on more than 80 acres
currently used by O&G for gravel mining. The site is surrounded by hundreds
of acres of woodlands and fields
“I grew up in that area. It’s residential, agricultural,
conservation and preservation,” Desjardins said Wednesday. “That’s why when
there was a request to rezone that property as industrial, we voted no.”
When the town authorized O&G to do quarrying, it was
with an agreement that the company would restore the property as an animal
habitat, she said. Instead, O&G now wants to build a regional trash
gasification plant there.
“When does this stop? Will it stop when every inch of land
is barren with only impervious surfaces, and the only pervious and treed areas
are our private homes? Because it sure looks like it is headed that way to me,”
Marnie Reynolds-Borque wrote in a letter to the Connecticut Siting Council, the
state authority that will decide whether Smart Technologies’ plan advances.
“To me it seems like the Siting Council along with
billion-dollar companies are taking over our rural area. And along with many,
many others in my community, I am angry,” she wrote.
But
O&G presents a vastly different picture.
“Effectively, SMART provides the more socially responsible
solution for Connecticut to handle municipal solid waste processing within the
state while providing the lowest possible pollution at the most reasonable
price for the people of Connecticut,” it says on a website explaining the plan.
With its landfills closed and older trash-burning
incinerators gradually becoming outdated and unsustainable, Connecticut is
paying to ship hundreds of thousands of tons of trash out of state every year —
and the cost is growing.
Smart Technology argues that its relatively new gasification
technology is far better than a traditional incinerator because it uses heat to
convert trash into gas to use for energy rather than burning it and generating
smoke.
The system will reduce carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides
“while diverting millions of tons of waste from landfills and produce clean
electricity year-round,” according to the company.
Some posts on Plainfield-related Facebook pages have
defended the plant, saying it’s a way to hold down trash disposal costs without
risking smoke and odors. But opponents disagree, and warn of pollution along
with a steady stream of noisy truck traffic if the project is built.
“I speak to people constantly and they don’t want commercial
or industrial development in that part of town,” Desjardins said. “We want to
make clear to the Siting Council that we’re not against business or industry,
but we don’t want it there. I’ve seen comments on Facebook, but I haven’t heard
from one single person face-to-face that they want it — and I talk with people
constantly.”