Norwich Public Utilities presented a $107.8 million proposed 2023-24 budget Tuesday that is being impacted by the cost of energy and major capital projects, and supply chain problems. NPU administrators presented the budget to the Board of Public Utilities Commissioners. The board will vote on the budget in April or May. The $107.8 million budget, with a $6.6 million, 6.5% increase over this year’s budget, covers all four of NPU’s services _ electric, natural gas, water and sewer. Wholesale natural gas prices are budgeted to drop by $1.8 million. The total gas budget of $20.7 million is down by $2.5 million from this year. The water division budget of $11.2 million has a $180,546 increase over this year, and the sewer budget is up by $189,131 over this year to a total of $9.28 million.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230328/norwich-public-utilities-proposes-107-8-million-budget/

The Board of Education made its pitch for closing both Mark T. Sheehan and Lyman Hall high schools in favor of a new, state-of-the-art high school on the Lyman Hall campus during a marathon Town Council meeting that lasted more than five hours. But many parents and students don’t agree that decision. After about an hour and a half of public comment, council members had their turn questioning school officials. It became clear that councilors weren’t sure what was being asked of them — whether the board wanted the council to vote on consolidating the schools. The school board has been working on finding solutions to facility issues for years. While the middle school buildings are in worse shape than the high school buildings, the board decided to take on the high schools first, Raccio said. A survey done at the time, to which 2,294 responded, found that 44% of residents preferred to renovate the town’s two middle schools and two high schools at a cost of $78 million.

https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Wallingford/Wallingford-News/Wallingford-council-to-take-on-high-school-consolidation-proposal.html

A judge refused to reconsider denying a pretrial probation program for former Fairfield officials charged in the illegal dumping case. More than 40 truckloads of debris and dirt were removed from the Stratfield Road pond during a three-week period in 2018. The newly obtained report, done by the Yale School of Medicine in July 2020, refutes findings in later arrest warrant affidavits that Fairfield town employees were put at risk, handling contaminated material they were assured was safe. Superior Court Judge Kevin Russo acknowledged he previously made his decision to deny accelerated rehabilitation, a pretrial diversionary program, to the defendants based on the claims in the warrant affidavits that town workers were put at risk. He said the Yale report does not change his decision though.

https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/fairfield-officials-denied-accelerated-rehab-17865033.php?src=rdctpdensecp

After more than eight years of groundwork, plans for a major residential development along the Rippowam River in downtown Stamford received approval Monday night from the city’s Zoning Board. The development will create 471 new apartments in two seven-story residential buildings — one on each side of Clinton Avenue, between Division Street and Richmond Hill Avenue. That portion of riverwalk has yet to be constructed, though. The applicant, New York developer Carmel Partners, said they would build it out in a letter of intent sent to city officials Jan. 24. The developer requested $1.6 million from Stamford for “designing, permitting and/or constructing” the riverwalk, according to the letter. The project was approved with a number of site-specific conditions, which are subject to approval either by the Zoning Board or by the city’s Land Use Bureau staff.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/stamford-gets-471-apartment-development-along-17864728.php?src=sthpdesecp

Hamilton Park’s pool, bathhouse, “Bubble” building, and athletic center are scheduled to be demolished next month, signifying the beginning of phase 1 of a massive renovation project at the 92-acre park that has been three years in the making. At the Board of Aldermen meeting on April 10, the board is scheduled to decide whether to approve a multimillion-dollar contract to construct a new pool, a 3,200-square feet pool house, and a promenade adjacent to Seven Angels Theatre. These projects are all part of Phase 1, which Mayor Neil O’Leary said is expected to cost $8 million, which will be funded with American Rescue Plan Act funds. Officials are recommending the road closure because Hamilton Park Road over the years has been used as a shortcut from East Main Street to Plank Road, where there have been car accidents involving pedestrians. The pedestrian and safety improvements are not part of Phase 1 but city officials say the goal is to do every single item on the master plan contingent on funding and grants.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2023/03/27/pool-bathhouse-to-go-as-hamilton-park-project-begins/

KARM Properties is interested in a tax abatement for development at 95 John Weichsel Crossing, a small road off Queen Street near the Hartford HealthCare HealthCenter and just south of the I-84 ramps. The property is in an enterprise zone, which allows the possibility of a tax abatement that’s partially funded by the state. Mark Sciota, Southington’s town manager, said the council could vote to send the tax abatement question to the Southington Enterprise Zone and Economic Development Committee (SEED). Such tax abatements help encourage development, according to town officials. Southington’s location and attractions draw people from the state and region, she said, so it’s not surprising that a hotel was looking to start up. That might even be welcome to other hotels that at times struggle to keep enough rooms available.

https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Southington/Southington-News/Hotel-under-consideration-for-Southington-s-Queen-Street

An expansion of Connecticut Children’s in Hartford that would roughly double the size of the hospital could come with an equally imposing $47 million parking garage on the opposite side of Washington Street, rising as high as 8 stories with 900 parking spaces. The proposed parking garage, at the southwest corner of Washington and Lincoln streets, would accompany a new, $280 million tower now under construction across the street on Connecticut Children’s campus. But the garage also is stirring debate in the city’s surrounding Frog Hollow neighborhood, not only for its size but for a design that doesn’t do enough to add life to the streetscape and better blend into the neighborhood. Connecticut Children’s said it has worked with the Frog Hollow Neighborhood Revitalization Zone since last fall to improve its design, adding more storefront space and cloaking the garage with a mesh that would mask the parking decks that could be covered with murals designed by local artists.

$327M Connecticut Children’s Hartford expansion stirs debate with included $47M parking garage

Massachusetts-based Campanelli Construction is proposing a 1.1 million-square-foot, 55-foot-tall warehouse on the site at the intersection of Interstate 84 and Route 89 in the northern section of town, a parcel that includes the Ashford Motel. The structure would be about the same size as the Buckland Hills Mall in Manchester. Any construction is a long way off, as the Planning and Zoning Commission is considering amending its regulations to allow for a building on the site to be as tall as 55 feet. Developers of the proposed warehouse would have to return to get the commission’s approval for a special permit to begin construction, a lengthy process that would also include more public hearings.

Proposed warehouse in Ashford has many in the ‘Quiet Corner’ up in arms

After many months of presentations, public hearings and deliberations, the Zoning Commission narrowly denied the Halls Road Overlay District application that would have allowed the construction of mixed use buildings in the town’s main commercial district. At Monday’s special meeting, the application received three votes of approval and two against, which normally would have counted as an approval. But due to a negative referral from the Planning Commission in January, the application required a supermajority vote, or four out of the commission’s five votes. The commission approved a maximum length of 125 feet per building, as well as a building maximum of 10,000 square feet. The maximum building height was lowered from 40 feet to 35 feet, and the maximum lot coverage was lowered from 50 percent to 40 percent because the area is in the town’s conservation zone – and its regulations would supersede the overlay district’s, said Marsh.

Short by One Vote, Halls Road Overlay District Defeated in Old Lyme

The developer who wants to build a self-storage facility at the site of a long-shuttered Stop & Shop on Madison Ave. said he requested this week’s zoning hearing be delayed another month to incorporate “some changes” into his plan. But those who have been urging Hugh Scott to completely scrap his proposal and replace it with affordable/senior housing may not want to get their hopes up just yet. This is the second delay. His proposal was originally supposed to be brought to the zoning board in February. Scott bought the property a year-and-a-half ago for $4 million. At a public meeting last month at the North End Library organized by council members Michelle Lyons and AmyMarie Vizzo-Paniccia, he sought to convince the audience of around 50 people that he had studied various possibilities and a self-storage facility was the most realistic, and least intrusive and disruptive, use of the old store.

https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/stop-shop-owner-making-some-changes-17862811.php?src=rdctpdensecp