The Silverman Group’s concept for The Ridge at Talcott Mountain – South would focus on rental housing with 448 new apartments. The company also wants to build 70 one-family houses as well as 11 duplexes, which would create 22 separate units. The Silverman Group is scheduled to outline its idea to town planners when the zoning commission meets Wednesday at 7 p.m. at town hall. The Silverman Group would build on dozens of acres that were once part of The Hartford’s headquarters complex. The company is expected to give details about its expansion proposal at Wednesday evening’s meeting. Documents that Silverman filed with the town are marked “conceptual,” and do not specify all the amenities planned, but include an outdoor pool, a community building and an open space section. Renderings of The Ridge at Talcott Mountain-South show the complex would be reached from Hopmeadow Street by Old Canal Road. A new street and driveway network would branch out from Old Canal Way.

Developer considering 540 housing units at former The Hartford campus in Simsbury

The project, East Windsor Solar One, reveals the limits of what state and local officials can do if problems arise with solar farms once they are in place. The Connecticut Siting Council sets the conditions for their approval, and those conditions are enforceable. But this case fell into what appears to be a gray area. Solar panels themselves are silent, but the equipment that connects them to the grid can produce noise, similar to any electrical transformer such as the cylinder-shaped enclosures that sit atop utility poles. Sound can also come from inverters, which convert the DC power generated by solar panels to AC power that can be used on the grid. The simplest, least-cost way to ensure that noise is not audible to neighbors of a solar development is to site the equipment on a non-noise-sensitive property line, such as away from houses, said Michael Bahtiarian, a principal at Acentech, an acoustical consulting firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who has worked on a number of solar projects.

Neighbor dispute risks souring a Connecticut community on solar energy 

The biotech industry has physically reshaped downtown New Haven. It’s hard not to feel as if Boston or Cambridge Massachusetts’s Kendall Square has sprouted here. Twenty years ago, there was barely any private lab space in New Haven proper. West Haven was still home to the Bayer campus. The startup scene wasn’t really present, and the site of the new lab tower was a highway spur. Now there are more than two million square feet of lab space in New Haven. Yale alone spins off roughly ten startups every year from its massive patent portfolio. Biotech is booming. According to analysis by AdvanceCT, a nonprofit economic development group, Connecticut ranks second in academic bioscience investment and third in bioscience venture capital funding. The state has the fourth highest number of bioscience patents. New Haven anchors a substantial portion of the state’s biotech real estate market.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/new-haven-biotech-hub-18149787.php

Indiana developer Scannell wants to build two structures on about one-third of the property’s footprint, for a total of more than a million square feet of warehouse space. The company is asking for the property to be rezoned from business to industrial, with the town having oversight over any future changes to usage. At a Windsor Locks Planning & Zoning Commission on Monday, consultant Mike Goman of East Hartford’s Goman+York said warehouses would be the best use of the property, once eyed for both an outlet mall and sports complex. Scannell does not yet have a tenant for the warehouse but is confident it can lease it within six months. Airport-linked travel is fueling ambitions around the new $87 million Windsor Locks train station, which broke ground last September and is currently under construction. When the station opens in summer 2025, a bus will meet passengers every time the train stops in the town to take them directly to the airport, but town leaders hope the hub will also attract housing and retail. Developers are taking note of the available land around the hub and making inquiries, Harrington said: “We’re starting to see the uptick in interest.”

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/windsor-locks-mulls-warehouse-plan-for-farmland-18156673.php

he state has reached a settlement with a former Connecticut Port Authority board member who allegedly used his status on the board to secure work for a company that he partially owned. Henry Juan, who served on the CPA Board of Directors from 2016 to 2018, agreed to pay the Connecticut Office of State Ethics $18,500 over the alleged kickback scheme. The settlement is one of the largest ever reached by the OSE, the agency stated in a news release. The state had alleged that Juan violated two Codes of Ethics when he attempted to influence CPA staff and other members to award contracts to Seabury Maritime, a New York investment firm that Juan co-founded in 2016. The contracts related to the development of the New London State Pier. Under state law, lobbyists are required to register with the Office of State Ethics if they spend more than $3,000 each year, and are required to file itemized financial disclosures. State officials claim Seabury didn’t adhere to either of these requirements.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/capitalregion/article/ct-port-authority-settlement-lawsuit-henry-juan-18159843.php

The Simon Konover Co. is planning to expand its Stepny Place apartment complex with 72 new units, including 10% set aside as affordable housing. Konover, among the largest real estate development and residential property owners in Connecticut, wants to build three multi-story apartment buildings along with an amenities center on land alongside Stepny Place’s existing 171 units. Konover’s request for site plan approval goes to a hearing of the planning and zoning commission on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at town hall. If the town gives its approval and Konover constructs the new units, Stepny Place would end up with a total of 26 studios, 102 one-bedroom units, 105 two-bedroom units and 10-three bedroom apartments. Konover is proposing to add enough parking for the expansion that the total project would have 388 spaces.

Major CT developer proposes 3 apartment buildings in Rocky Hill, 10% ‘affordable’ units

An extensive dam deconstruction project underway on the Norwalk River is meant to improve the health of the body of water and even help the so-called “vampire fish” return to the river. Its Mianus Chapter, which is based in Wilton — working in conjunction with Save the Sound, a New Haven-based nonprofit aiming to improve Long Island Sound’s water quality — has been trying to move forward the $2.7 million Dana Dam removal project for decades. Part of the construction project involves crafting how the river will meander, with some of the banks getting “armored” in order to keep the course from heading closer into manmade infrastructure, such as the nearby railroad branch line. The project, which has received the blessing of the town and several area environmental groups, required various state approvals, including that of the Department of Transportation.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/norwalk-river-dana-dam-deconstruction-wilton-18137513.php

As the state experiences an increase in highway crashes caused by wrong-way drivers, the Connecticut Department of Transportation has identified 236 “high-risk” highway ramps across the state that will receive advanced “wrong way” signs. The DOT expects about 50 signs to be installed in 2023, nine of which will be in Bridgeport, Norwalk and Westport. These 236 high-risk ramps, including the nine local ramps, often have the on- and off-ramps next to each other — which can make it easier for impaired drivers to merge onto the wrong ramp, he said. Wrong-way driving crashes in Connecticut tripled in 2022, according to Gov. Ned Lamont’s office. Last year, 13 wrong-way crashes resulted in 23 deaths, compared to four wrong-way fatal crashes in 2021 and two in 2020. In January, state Rep. Quentin “Q” Williams of Middletown was killed by a wrong-way driver after leaving Lamont’s inaugural ball, casting a spotlight on the issue.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/ct-dot-install-new-wrong-way-sign-drunk-driving-18156432.php

On an early spring evening nearly two decades ago, a similar scene unfolded on the same interstate in Bridgeport after a sedan struck a Mack tanker, igniting an explosion that halted traffic along one of the country’s most traveled highways. Though no one was seriously injured, the ensuing blaze burned through about 8,000 gallons of home heating oil and melted an elevated section of the roadway near Exit 26, forcing crews to redirect tens of thousands of vehicles through city streets. Traffic came to a standstill on I-95 in north Philadelphia on June 11 after a gasoline truck overturned beneath an overpass and caught fire, killing the driver and causing the northbound section of the bridge to collapse. In Bridgeport, contractors managed to install an erector set-like structure to replace the road’s damaged southbound lanes in just six days — a feat Appleby credited to close collaboration between city, state and federal officials. The U.S. Department of Transportation allocated more than $13 million for the repairs.

https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/bridgeport-ct-philly-bridge-collapse-i95-18153732.php?src=rdctpdensecp

Voters will be asked to approve the $5.3 million renovation of the Lymes’ Senior Center in a paper ballot vote next week. Old Lyme residents, as well as those who own more than $1,000 in taxable property in town, will be asked to authorize officials to spend up to $3.9 million on the renovation. About two dozen people turned out Monday at the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School auditorium for Old Lyme’s special town meeting on whether or not to fund the project. They voted to send the question to a paper ballot vote June 20 at the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School gymnasium from noon to 8 p.m. Lymes’ Senior Center Building Committee Chairwoman Jeri Baker at the town meeting said she is hopeful the project will receive enough federal and state grants to cover roughly three-fourths of the total cost. She said she hopes the project can go to bid this summer so construction can begin in September. The center will be closed while the renovations take place and plans are being developed to offer senior services during this time. She estimated the project would be complete by Oct. 1, 2024, if all goes according to plan.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230614/expanded-senior-center-project-on-its-way-to-old-lyme-voters/