When Gov. Ned Lamont visited the Norwich marina on Aug. 1, he turned around in the parking lot and looked at the blighted former Marina Towers building. City leaders had a ready answer for the governor, saying they had submitted a grant application to assess, remediate and begin demolition of the long-vacant Marina Towers. The three-story, faded pink and white building at the entrance to the Marina at American Wharf blocks the view of the harbor for people coming into the city. On Tuesday, the state Community Investment Fund Committee approved $4.55 million to continue Norwich waterfront improvements, including money for Marina Towers, along with $7.8 million to demolish and clean up the partially collapsed, former Capehart Mill complex in Greeneville. Norwich was the region’s biggest winner in the latest round of CIF grants totaling $74.6 million that were approved Tuesday. New London received a $250,000 planning grant to design improvements to Gordon Court, and the Southeastern Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence received $250,000 to support recovery in the city.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240924/norwich-receives-12m-in-grants-for-mill-demolition-waterfront-improvements/#

Unanticipated costs have the Board of Selectmen and the Park and Recreation Commission rethinking a plan to remove the cracked asphalt surface of the two tennis courts at Community Field and put down a new asphalt surface. As part of a long-range $2.6 million capital improvements plan for the field, $168,000 has been budgeted for a new surface in the 2024-25 fiscal year. Bringing the planned upgrade into compliance with handicap-accessibility requirements, however, has increased the projected cost to $299,000, the Board of Selectmen learned last week. New asphalt courts would have a life span of 25 years, public works department Assistant Supervisor Brett Seamans told the board. Selectmen and the Park and Recreation Commission, seeking an investment that would last longer, are considering the idea of a reinforced concrete surface at an estimated cost of $447,000. According to Park and recreation Commission member Ray Schmid, the tennis courts are in such bad shape that they may have to be closed to the public. The commission is due to discuss that possibility when it meets Sept. 30.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2024/09/23/upgrades-to-tennis-courts-on-hold-due-to-costs/

While the stadium has succeeded in bringing crowds of more than 6,000 fans to downtown Hartford, a dispute over cost overruns and delays with its construction – and the city’s decision to fire the original developer, Middletown-based Centerplan Cos. – remains mired in controversy. A major piece of the lawsuit was resolved in October, when the City Council approved a $9.9 million settlement with Centerplan and an insurance company. The city also withdrew its counterclaim. The agreement enabled the city and other defendants to be withdrawn from the case. Also, it allowed Stamford-based developer RMS Cos. to begin constructing a 228-unit apartment building and parking garage on a lot across from Dunkin’ Park, one of the properties involved in the dispute. But it did not settle claims between Centerplan and project architect Kansas City-based Pendulum Studios II.

‘No end in sight’: Centerplan’s lawsuit against city, designers of Dunkin’ Park faces new hurdle

Town officials this week revealed their plans to reconstruct part of New Park Avenue, with designs calling for what would be the town’s first-ever separated bike lanes. Up until now, bike lanes in West Hartford have only ever been painted lines on the roadway. But the town’s new $6 million plans to overhaul a stretch of New Park Avenue will provide cyclists with a safer mode of transportation through a two-way separated bike lane buffered by concrete curbing. Plans also call for a partial road diet, bringing travel lanes down from four to two with traffic sharing a center left turn line, just like the road diet implemented on North Main Street. The project will also create a raised platform bus stop with enhanced crosswalks that will shorten the distance pedestrians have to travel to cross the roadway. The project will be funded by $3.7 million in state funding, while the remaining $2.3 million will be funded by the town itself. Plans should go out to bid soon with construction starting in the spring of 2025.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/westhartford/article/west-hartford-ct-new-park-ave-road-diet-bike-lanes-19777552.php

With a goal of repairing some 10 miles of local street surfaces by the end of the year, crews will be paving, milling, patching and conducting other preservation efforts through the fall. Next up will be curbing and more preservation work on the south side of town, in the Chauncy and Chamberlain roads neighborhood, by October, weather permitting, Weissberg said. Paving is “sorely needed” in these areas, he explained. Construction typically begins in late spring. “We hit the ground running in May,” the director explained. The department is using some techniques that haven’t been used in Middletown in the past to ensure longevity. State Local Capital Improvement Program funding, as well as city road bonds, are paying for the work, he said. The director, who asks for the public’s patience during the process, acknowledged traffic delays and other issues will be a “challenge” for motorists.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/middletown-road-street-work-paving-19779253.php

An ambitious $16.5 million flood mitigation proposal for South Water Street calls for a combination of new flood walls and road-raising, along with design elements to make the downtown waterfront area more attractive and functional. The plan, which requires several steps before it can be approved or funded, focuses on a 1,300-foot stretch of South Water Street, just below Bank Street and a few feet away from railroad tracks. One solution, floated by the Fuss & O’Neill civil and environmental engineering firm to the City Council’s Economic Development Committee earlier this month, proposes building flood walls between 3 and 6 feet near the Amtrak rail lines. The firm said the walls would be sturdy enough to withstand coastal flooding events up to a 100-year flood, which the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, predicts have a 1% chance of occurring each year. The project would require the cooperation of nearby property owners and Amtrak officials. Law said his firm met with several property owners in the spring and will do so again. The project cost was broken down into three segments: $160,000 for tree planting; $1.6 million for drainage; and $14.7 million for road elevation, flood wall and amenity work. Law and Patel said the cost of the project could be covered through a combination of FEMA and state Department of Economic Development grants.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240922/new-london-flood-prevention-plan-envisions-linear-park-along-waterfront/

In a Tuesday newsletter, First Selectmen Bill Gerber urged residents to share their concerns about project impacts like clear cutting, habitat removal, disturbances to private property and “unsightly” transmission poles with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection as the agency prepares a study of the Connecticut Siting Council. The call to action comes as Fairfield continues its legal battle against the council following a controversial project by United Illuminating to relocate aging transmission equipment along the Metro-North rail line in Fairfield and Bridgeport. Surrounding residents, business owners, preservationists and officials vehemently opposed the company’s proposed clearing of about six acres of trees and about 19 acres of proposed easements on nearby properties. UI spokesperson Sarah Wall Fliotsos previously told CT Examiner that the company does not expect to have a completed design for the alternative until summer 2027. Fairfield, which has asked UI to instead bury its lines underground, also claimed that the council violated due process rights in its approval.

Fairfield First Selectman Urges Public Opposition to ‘Unsightly’ Utility Projects

The commission, at its meeting Wednesday, approved Highview Commercial’s request to remove the already approved office building and hotel, replacing it with a 13,500 square foot building to house an as yet unnamed grocery store. But the decision denied the developer’s third request for apartments — this one calling for 100 units — on the site, which is now home to Chick fil-A, Panera, Jersey Mike’s, Crumbl Cookies, Sugar Llamas, among others, with future openings planned for Cava, Playa Bowls and Mercato Italian Kitchen & Bar. Highview Commercial had sought to amend the present Planned Development District designation on the site to construct a four-story, 100-unit apartment building toward the rear of 801 Bridgeport Ave. as well as the building for the grocery store. The commission had already denied separate apartment plans, one calling for 145 units and another for 170 that was filed under the state’s affordable housing statute 8-30g. The developer appealed both denials, and those appeals are still pending.

https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/shelton-p-z-approves-specialty-grocer-denies-19776923.php

Michael Freimuth, a champion of redevelopment efforts in Hartford and East Hartford, announced Thursday his will step down as executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority next June. The agency’s role has expanded to include work on housing developments across Hartford — not just in its center — as well as in East Hartford and, to a smaller degree, in Newington and Wethersfield, Freimuth noted. It manages the XL Center arena and Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford; the stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford; and 17,000 parking spaces. The CRDA Board of Directors, on Thursday, approved a nine-month extension of Freimuth’s contract, which was to expire Oct. 1. That is meant to allow enough time to find a successor and to bring them up to speed before Freimuth departs, said CRDA Board Chairman David Robinson, who is also executive vice president and general counsel for insurer The Hartford.

CRDA head Freimuth, key player in Hartford-area redevelopment, announces plans to step down

Lewis Brown and Gregory Vaca of HGRE Ventures, a partnership between Avon-based Honeycomb Real Estate Partners and GRAVA Properties of West Hartford, presented preliminary plans to the Enfield Town Council this week for the Enfield Station development – a $100 million, two-phase project that would bring more than 300 residential units to the riverfront section of Thompsonville. Key to the development, which is planned for a 3.24-acre brownfield site at 33 North River St., is its proximity to Enfield’s new multimodal transit hub where work on the future Amtrak Hartford Line station is expected to begin next year. While Vaca and Brown have not yet submitted a formal site plan application for the project, they have been meeting with town officials on the development.

$100M mixed-use development eyed for Enfield’s riverfront