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Plainfield lawmakers resurrect proposal that would grant residents veto power over trash plant
Plainfield — State lawmakers are working to resurrect a policy vetoed by Gov. Ned Lamont that would have granted residents the authority to override state approval of the proposed trash-to-energy plant in town. As the laws stand now, the fate of SMART Technology Systems LLC’s widely opposed trash plant on Route 12 will ultimately rest in the hands of the Connecticut Siting Council. But, with a little more than two weeks left in the legislative session, Sen. Heather Somers (R-18th District), Rep. Doug Dubitsky (R-47th District) and Rep. Anne Dauphinais (R-44th District) are attempting to revive legislation that would allow certain Environmental Justice Communities, including their constituents in Plainfield, to overturn a Siting Council ruling through a referendum. This policy, which would have applied to Environmental Justice Communities of up to 16,000 residents, passed both chambers last session in two separate bills and was on its way to becoming law when Gov. Ned Lamont vetoed the legislation in July. Somers and Dubitsky said they are working once again to pass this measure, either on its own or as an amendment to another bill, to give small environmental justice communities ultimate say over the facilities that are built in their towns. “The process that we have with the siting council is so flawed that you can put a solar farm, you can put a trash-to-energy facility, you can put a biomass facility in a location that nobody in the town may want,” Somers said. “It is just faulted and wrong, and this bill that we had proposed at least gave an opportunity for the community to weigh in.”
Local Donation Powers UConn Construction Engineering Programs
Construction engineering students will be able to round out their theoretical education with hands-on heavy equipment experience, courtesy of a large donation by a local equipment retailer. Tyler Equipment Corporation will gift the UConn College of Engineering with a Volvo Electric L20 Wheel Loader for UConn’s construction engineering and management (CEM) program. “We are incredibly grateful to Tyler Equipment for this impactful donation,” said School of Civil and Environmental Engineering director Kay Wille. “We want our students to be educated on the latest industry trends and technologies. Through generous partners, we can ensure our students are ready to make positive contributions to the engineering and construction fields.” The wheel loader will be used in an operator’s course offered to UConn’s CEM minor students. “As the construction industry continues to evolve toward more sustainable and technologically advanced solutions, it’s critical that students gain hands-on experience with the equipment shaping the future of the field,” says Tyler Equipment marketing coordinator Courtney Rush. “We’re excited to partner with UConn to help prepare the next wave of engineers and construction professionals.” Connecticut’s Local 478 Operator’s Union will aid in course construction, and provide a simulator. Students will become familiarized with machine operations as well as innovations in construction equipment, including electronic equipment and on-board intelligent systems. “As the construction industry continues to evolve with new technologies—such as automation, digital controls, and data-driven job site management—our training programs ensure that members stay ahead of the curve,” says Local 478 Director of Training and Fund Administrator Gregg Strede. “By combining proven instructional methods with innovative simulation tools, we prepare a highly skilled workforce capable of meeting the demands of modern construction.”
$25M Naugatuck projects plan goes to voters with no tax hike, mayor says
NAUGATUCK — Voters are being asked to approve a $25 million spending plan that officials say won’t raise taxes. On April 28, the borough will hold a referendum on capital projects that includes designing a new regional animal control facility, building a new dispatch center at the police station and $10 million in roadwork. Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess III said bonding for the projects will not impact the tax rate. “This is probably, I mean to me, the best part of the story,” he said. “Basically, we’re making all of these improvements without impacting the mill rate.” The way Naugatuck officials will accomplish this and still get the money and start the work right away is by reconstructing the debt so it won’t be due for six years, Hess said. By then, $5 or $6 million in revenue from an Amazon facility being constructed in town will start rolling in as that’s when tax incentives for the project run out. That same year, the town will stop paying on old pension debt, saving it about $4 million. “So in six years from today, the town is $10 million better off than we are today,” Hess said. “The benefit comes to us now without impacting the mill rate. Get everything done now, make our town better now and not affect the mill rate.”
Massive $315M electrical project to bring weeks of detours to CT community’s well-traveled route
An already congested thoroughfare — and well-traveled commuter route from suburbs to the west — is expected to worsen this summer as a major leg of $315 million underground electric transmission cable upgrade will lead to lane closures, partly shut down streets and lengthy detours. The epicenter of the construction along Asylum Avenue in Hartford is at the intersection of Scarborough and Whitney streets in the West End with work tentatively beginning on May 4 and stretching between eight and 12 weeks, according to a project update provided to local property owners by Eversource Energy. For years, traffic congestion on Asylum Avenue — stretching from Asylum Hill through the West End — has been a concern for the city, with proposals aired in recent years to ease congestion. The concern is so great that West End residents complained at a hearing on a neighborhood development proposal in late 2024 that they were forced to take longer, alternate routes just to avoid the near-constant gridlock. Eversource, the state’s largest utility, won state approval to replace nearly 7 miles of aging, underground transmission lines in Hartford — installed in 1974 — with more advanced cables. The work along Asylum Avenue is a slice of a 3-year project, which didn’t need local approvals.
$402 million upgrade of New Haven’s train station will expand platforms, add atrium & canopy
NEW HAVEN — The state revealed plans Tuesday to spend $402 million to rebuild and lengthen all four platforms at New Haven’s Union Station and put a grand, European-inspired atrium and canopy over them. Work would begin in the spring of 2029 — and plans, which are 30% complete, could change before then, Department of Transportation engineers and planners said at a public meeting Tuesday night. Much of the project would be funded by the federal government, officials said. Under the plan, the platforms would be replaced and extended, with work to be phased. The DOT would work on one platform at a time to try to minimize any disruption to service, said Jonathan Kang, a DOT supervising engineer and project manager. Work would progress from the platform farthest from Union Station to the one closest to the station, while keeping the three other platforms in service, officials said. Access to the platforms would remain throughout construction, Kang said. “The idea for this project is to build one canopy to encompass all of the future platforms,” Kang said. The atrium and canopy design, would protect travelers from the elements but allow plenty of light in through extensive side windows, overhead skylights and a glass end enclosure, he said. The design was inspired by the Central Station in Vienna, Austria, said Zuhair Hussaini, an architect who worked on the atrium.
https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/ct-new-haven-union-station-upgrade-trains-21284284.php
Bridgeport plans new $132M school at abandoned Harding High site
BRIDGEPORT — Officials here are bullish about securing funding in the current General Assembly session in Hartford for a new, $132 million East End elementary school. “We feel confident we’ll get that authorization this year,” said Constance Vickers, a deputy chief administrative officer with Mayor Joe Ganim’s administration who is also liaison with state lawmakers. It cannot come soon enough given the property where the new building would go is occupied by the abandoned Harding High School, which earlier this month caught fire for at least the third time since September. Staff and students left the 1920s-era Harding in 2018 for a state-of-the-art campus a short drive away. The discovery five years later that Harding was never properly emptied out and secured resulted in a dispute between education and municipal officials over who was responsible for what. The city had initially sought to sell the shuttered school, but a possible deal with neighboring Bridgeport Hospital fell through, at which point the decision was made to reuse the real estate for educational purposes. The new East End facility would serve students who currently attend Beardsley, Edison and Hall, three decades-old neighborhood schools that are in disrepair. The aim is to get Connecticut lawmakers to reimburse the estimated $132 million price tag at a higher than usual rate of 95%.
I-95 and I-84 congestion expected to worsen as Connecticut plans for future
What would you like transportation in Connecticut to look like in 2055? It’s not too late for members of the public to tell the state Department of Transportation what they want as the agency finalizes a federally mandated long-range plan for Connecticut’s roads, bridges, rail lines, ports, waterways, airports, transit services, and bike and pedestrian infrastructure. The last time DOT released such a blueprint was in 2018. DOT held an initial comment period for the 2055 plan last year. Now that a draft has been published, residents can submit comments through May 22 and ask questions at virtual meetings on April 22. The long-term plan doesn’t list specific projects like other DOT planning documents; instead, it lays out goals and priorities. One of those goals is to reduce congestion. Traffic jams are expected to get worse by 2055 as the state’s population, the miles driven by motor vehicles on Connecticut roads and economic activity grow, according to the draft plan. Total vehicle miles traveled, or VMT, is expected to surpass pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels by 2028. “Vital corridors such as I-95 and I-84 will be particularly impacted by more frequent bottlenecks and delays,” the plan says.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/95-84-congestion-expected-worsen-100000353.html
Four CT distribution properties trade in $575M multistate sale
A global real estate investment firm has acquired four industrial properties in Connecticut as part of a larger $575 million portfolio deal spanning multiple East Coast markets. EQT Real Estate said it purchased a 25-building logistics portfolio totaling more than 4.3 million square feet from Mapletree Investments, with assets located along major distribution corridors across the United States. The Connecticut portion of the deal includes four distribution buildings on Long Beach Boulevard in Stratford:
500 Long Beach Blvd., a 117,000-square-foot facility
550 Long Beach Blvd., totaling 115,106 square feet
600 Long Beach Blvd., totaling 78,900 square feet
650 Long Beach Blvd., a 117,000-square-foot building
The properties are located in an infill industrial area with access to major highways and population centers, making them well-suited for logistics and distribution uses, according to the buyer. Overall, the portfolio includes 25 warehouse and distribution assets across several states, including Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
https://hartfordbusiness.com/article/four-ct-distribution-properties-trade-in-575m-multistate-sale/
Snowball Developments grows CT industrial footprint with $17.45M in acquisitions
Snowball Developments recently paid $17.45 million for four warehouse properties in Windsor, East Hartford and New Haven, continuing a four-year buying streak of industrial properties ready for reinvestment. The latest purchases bring the Manhattan, New York-based industrial real estate investor’s Connecticut portfolio up to 13 properties, with four more in New Jersey, for a combined total of about 2 million square feet. “We’ve been busy,” said Brian Ker, the company’s president. In deeds recorded in March, Snowball acquired three properties from affiliates of New Canaan-based real estate investor Luzern Associates. These include: A 25,202-square-foot, 2001-vintage industrial building on 2.13 acres at 90 John W. Murphy Drive in New Haven. The metal-sided building has 18-foot wall heights. A 40,328-square-foot, 1989-vintage industrial building on 3.1 acres at 104 John W. Murphy Drive in New Haven. This metal-sided building also has 18-foot wall heights. A roughly 60,000-square-foot, 2002-vintage warehouse on 8.5 acres at 770-790 Marshall Phelps Road in Windsor. Municipal records show Luzern had acquired these properties for $12.8 million in 2020 and 2022. Snowball borrowed $9.55 million from Charlotte, North Carolina-based Starwood Mortgage Capital LLC, secured with a mortgage on the properties it acquired from Luzern. Ker told the Hartford Business Journal his company also, in March, paid $3.25 million for a warehouse at 10 Eastern Park Road in East Hartford. The 40,050-square-foot, concrete-and-cinderblock warehouse was completed in 1967 and sits on 2.18 acres. It is also adjacent to an 87,525-square-foot warehouse Snowball acquired for $5.95 million a little more than a year ago.
Developer wants to demolish Sports Haven horse-racing complex off I-95 in New Haven
A Queens, N.Y. developer has submitted a 90-day demolition application with the city of New Haven to knock down the former Sports Haven betting parlor on Long Wharf Drive, according to the city’s economic development administrator. Mike Piscitelli told Hearst Connecticut Media on Friday that a limited liability company affiliated with Queens, N.Y.-based Criterion Development submitted a the application to city planning officials. The demolition plan must be approved by multiple city agencies and the demolition can not begin for at least 90-days, Piscitelli said. It was submitted on Feb. 4. “The building is nearing the end of its useful life,” Piscitelli said. “The developer has always been transparent about the intention to tear the building down.” What Criterion hasn’t been clear about is what they plan to do with the property. Sports Haven closed for good at the end of November, having been purchased by Criterion in March 2021. Piscitelli said Friday that Criterion officials have not indicated their plans for the property and company officials have not responded to inquiries from Hearst Connecticut Media about the future of the 9.65 acre site. Piscitelli said a responsible growth plan released in 2019 for the city’s Long Wharf section calls for a mixed use of residential and large format commercial uses. An example of large format commercial use, according to Piscitelli, could include a grocery store or other type of large format retail store.
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