There’s a plan for a new $45.5 million train station in CT. Here’s how to weigh in on it.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation will hold a “hybrid” public information meeting on the proposed Railroad Station in Enfield at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4, at Enfield Town Hall, 820 Enfield St., and on Zoom and YouTube, according to the agency.

“The virtual public information meeting is being held to provide the public and local community the opportunity to offer comments or ask questions regarding the proposed project,” the agency said in a statement.

Further, the meeting will “kick off the National Environmental Policy Act” process, which the DOT said is required as the agency received federal grants to assist in funding the proposed station.

The process “will evaluate and report on impacts of the proposed project to the natural and human environment and affords additional opportunities to comment on the project in the future,” the agency said in the statement.

“Reestablishing a railroad station in Enfield will be a key component of the popular Hartford Rail Line, connecting Enfield to the rest of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New England, and beyond,” Connecticut Department of Transportation Project Engineer Julianne Chatman said, also in the statement.

“We encourage the Enfield community and members of the public to attend this important meeting and share their feedback with the CTDOT project team. Public involvement is a critical component of train station design,” Chatman said.

Details provided by the DOT:

The proposed project would be intended to provide a safe, reliable, and convenient alternative mode to motor vehicle travel connecting Enfield to Hartford, New Haven, Springfield, and via Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor to the cities of New York and Boston.

The proposed project would be serviced by CTrail Hartford Line Rail.

The goal is to provide another option to bus service, increasing frequencies for non-automobile travel between Enfield and cities served by CTrail while enhancing connections to local bus service in Enfield, reducing auto dependency and vehicle emissions.

The project is also consistent with state and local planning initiatives for responsible growth and long-term sustainability.

Construction is anticipated to begin spring 2025, dependent on the acquisition of rights of way and approval of permit(s).

The estimated construction cost for the project is about $45.5 million.

The project is anticipated to be undertaken with 40% federal funds and 60% state funds.

A question and answer (Q&A) session will immediately follow the presentation, according to the agency.

The agency said registration is required to attend the meeting on Zoom; this is the link to register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pl7gMXiWTFS9obgQtc8EZg.

The meeting will be streamed live on CTDOT’s YouTube channel; no registration is required for that, according to the agency.

Enfield Town Hall is ADA accessible and transit accessible.

Also according to DOT: People with limited internet access may use this number (646) 931-3860, and enter Webinar ID 989 6989 8745 and password 259199 and can request that project information be mailed to them within one week by contacting Richard Bertoli at richard.bertoli@ct.gov or (860) 594-3263. People with hearing and/or speech disabilities may dial 711 for Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS).

Greenwich High School's toxic soil was worse than expected and is costing more to clean up

Andy Blye

GREENWICH — Officials have approved an additional $2 million to fund the final portion of soil remediation at Greenwich High School, which is expected to be the last spending on the long-running project.

Both the Board of Estimate and Taxation and the Representative Town Meeting approved the funding request on Tuesday. The money will be borrowed via a future bond issuance.

Public Works Commissioner Amy Seibert told the BET budget committee that crews found more toxic materials while working this summer, which are more expensive to dispose safely.

“Some of the material we're taking out is tasked to be disposed of at a specialty disposal site. It is more hazardous than the other materials we've typically been taking out,” she said on Sept. 12. 

“We now have a high hazard waste, as well, that we've found out there based on that soil characterization. And that also increased some of the costs, because that's material we had not run into before.”

The project entails excavating the dirt, sampling it for toxicity, transporting it, disposing of it and ultimately backfilling the field and planting new sod.

DPW anticipates that the project will be complete in 2024, but the department will not have a firm completion date until crews start the next phase and assess how much more work is needed. The department previously projected that the fields would be open next spring.

The town has been working to clean up these fields for more than a decade. Leslie Tarkington, chair of the BET budget committee, said last week that the town had spent more than $38 million on the soil remediation since the 2012 fiscal year. That number is now greater than $40 million with the new appropriation. 

The contaminated soil was originally brought to the site during the school’s construction in the 1960s and 1970s as a means to shore up wetlands upon which the school now stands.

Wilton selectmen OK contractor for new police HQ: 'huge milestone' for town

Jarret Liotta

WILTON — With a groundbreaking ceremony tentatively planned for sometime before Thanksgiving, the project to build a new headquarters for the Wilton Police Department is finally moving forward toward construction even as costs increased to over $15 million.

The Board of Selectmen gave its unanimous approval to enter into a contract with A. Secondino & Son Inc., a Branford-based general contractor, to build the 19,000-square-foot facility. The go-ahead came at a meeting Tuesday, Sept. 19, after the selectmen discussed an outline of the funding plans for the building's $15,201,400 anticipated cost.

First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice, whose final term in office is winding down, called the approval for the project "very exciting" and said it was a "huge milestone" for the town.

The new police facility will be built on an 11.17-acre site at 238-240 Danbury Road. 

The project has been in development for several years, beginning with the appointment of a study committee in 2016. After it determined in late 2019 that a new building for the police department was the best option for the town, versus a renovation of the current headquarters, the COVID-19 pandemic sidelined progress for over a year.

In October 2021, the Board of Selectmen approved the creation of plans and set a cost plan for a Special Town Meeting, in which the residents voted to approve bonding in the amount of $14,382,370 in May 2022, based on previous estimates.

With a focus on the permit process, work on the project has been moving forward since that time on what all involved say is an important effort to replace the outdated facility, which was built in 1974. The new building will offer double the amount of space to accommodate a much larger police force than when the current building was constructed, along with a range of modernized features.

This month, however, the base bid for the contract came in higher than expected, totaling $15,692,000. This, in turn, motivated the Police-Town Hall Building Committee to ask for some potential modifications to the plan on items that could be added or addressed down the road without impeding the construction. That was done in order to meet the costs of the project within the approved limit.

Chris Burney, a retired town official who has been serving as the project manager, said the options that were offered include a delay in construction of the ERT bay and a covered carport.

"We were able to come up with the idea that if we eliminated the ERT bay over the garage for the emergency response truck and the covered carport," he said, it would pare down the cost. by an estimated $410,000.

"That was a fairly large item, but it could always be built later on," he said. "It was not integral to the construction of the main building. ... That's something we can go back to at a later date."

"That will be a paved parking area and we will simply add the ERT bay and the covered carport to it at some time in the future," Burney said.

Other smaller-cost items that will likely be delayed include design work on the ceiling of the training room; cosmetic screening of rooftop mechanicals, including HVAC equipment; and aesthetic design elements originally planned for the front of the building.

Although Vanderslice made it clear that the Board of Selectmen will not go back to the town to ask for more money to be bonded above the $14.4 million approved, some of the additional costs will be covered using $611,000 in unassigned funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, along with budget savings found in the current fiscal year.

"The bottom line is we have the funds to fund this contract, even though the bid is higher than we had originally expected when this was all put together back in 2021,"  Vanderslice said.

"At that Town Meeting, I stood up as the first selectwoman and said we will not come back for more money. We will do what we have to, but we will not come back for more money," she said, noting that future grant money could also solve the funding gap.

"I have a high level of confidence when you go to the ribbon-cutting for the police headquarters, (the bay and carport) will be there, or it will be under construction," she said of the bay and carport that were cut to trim costs.

Stamford developer Ted Ferrarone is stepping down as BLT co-president after 15 years

Jared Weber

STAMFORD — Ted Ferrarone has stepped down as co-president of Stamford's largest developer, Building and Land Technology, he announced last week on the professional networking site LinkedIn.

"After 15 years with BLT and 18 years of working on the Harbor Point project, I have officially transitioned out of my role as Co-President of BLT to start a new chapter in my career," Ferrarone said.

In the announcement, Ferrarone did not say what his next career plans are.

"I am looking forward to starting this new chapter — please reach out if you have something amazing you’d like to work on together," he said.

The announcement represents the end of an era for BLT and Harbor Point, the redevelopment project that has remade once-blighted portions of the South End into a bustling district of high-rise apartments.

BLT took up the Harbor Point project in 2008, after Greenwich developer Antares — which owned the collection of South End properties — saw its investment portfolio ravaged by the financial crisis. One constant between the two companies was Ferrarone. He jointed BLT in 2008 to work on construction and development, after helping lead acquisition efforts for Antares.

"Because we owned a lot of land, we could really take a holistic view," Ferrarone said in March. "If I own this parcel and you own this parcel, we're sort of competing with each other and trying to figure out who's gonna do what. Here, we have the whole thing ... and the idea was to create something that was mixed-use and walkable so that it would be active maybe not 24 hours a day, but 18 hours a day."

Ferrarone was a steady presence as BLT remade parts of the South End, one steel and concrete tower at a time. He was often the company's public face, appearing at zoning meetings and speaking with the media.

His role also meant being front and center in BLT's tempestuous relationship with local politicians and activists who came to view their steady construction as overdevelopment. Controversial events such as the demolition of a beloved boatyard and the collapse of one high-rise's outdoor patio became political red meat for those who opposed BLT's work.

In the post, Ferrarone made a gesture of goodwill to both sides of the process.

“For the thousands of people who helped us assemble, plan, entitle, finance, design, build, lease and operate Harbor Point … and all of our other major projects, I hope you are as proud as I am of what we have all created together,” Ferrarone said. “For those who we have not always seen eye to eye with, I hope that the finished product has exceeded your expectations.”

BLT officials did not respond to an immediate request for comment Friday, and Ferrarone didn't respond to an attempt to contact him individually.

East Hartford housing update: The latest on major apartment projects and redevelopments

Joseph Villanova

EAST HARTFORD — A major housing development in the Silver Lane corridor in town has hit a financial snag, though redevelopment of a historic downtown building is moving forward.

Development Director Eileen Buckheit shared an update on five East Hartford projects at a Capital Region Development Authority meeting Thursday, including information on where the Showcase Cinemas apartments and the redevelopment of Church Corners Inn stand.

New Britain-based Jasko Development, in a partnership with West Hartford-based Zelman Real Estate, plans to build as many as 400 apartment units in an "amenity-rich" complex on the site of the former Showcase Cinemas, to be known as Concourse Park. The developers had previously agreed with the town to have a shovel in the ground by the end of September, or else face $30,000 per month in penalties.

Buckheit said Thursday that the town plans to extend the agreement to the end of next April, due to the increase in interest rates.

"They are trying to secure the last piece of funding they need to start the construction," Buckheit said. "A little disappointed, but not unexpected considering the market right now."

Mayor Mike Walsh said Friday that the project is estimated to cost about $110 million, with one of the eight buildings currently funded.

"They believe in short order they will have the full financing," Walsh said.

Changes in the banking market have impacted the project in the past. Developers initially proposed as many as 470 units when the project was approved in 2022, but an amendment in in May allows anywhere between 300 and 400 apartments in order to satisfy lender requirements.

Walsh said the pushing back of the deadline also allows the Showcase Cinemas developer to start after the winter season, and to address issues with the Metropolitan District Commission regarding a water main connection.

Church Corners Inn has a developer

As for Church Corners Inn at 860 Main St., Buckheit said Thursday that the town has found a developer interested in redeveloping the site without demolishing the building.

The town purchased the 24,820-square-foot building in January, motivated in part by poor conditions and high levels of crime. Church Corners Inn previously served as a 53-unit rooming house with a bar and restaurant on the ground floor, and officials hoped at the time to gut the property to construct 25 apartment units and ground-floor retail space.

Buckheit said Parker Benjamin, a Unionville-based investor and developer with a specialty for historic preservation, presented a plan that matches the town's desires as part of a request for proposals issued earlier this year.

"I'm happy to say that it seems that we found a developer for Church Corners Inn and we're not going to have to demolish that building," Buckheit said.

Walsh said Friday that town officials previously thought the building could not be salvaged, in part due to foundation issues and narrow floor heights, but talks on Parker Benjamin's proposal will begin this month.

"We do have a viable company that believes they can convert this into a historic adaptive reuse," Walsh said.

Walsh said Parker Benjamin's plan would also use historic tax credits to help fund the renovation.

Silver Lane Plaza tenants moving

In other East Hartford development news, town officials are still trying to move tenants out of Silver Lane Plaza to facilitate demolition and redevelopment of the parcel.

Walsh said two businesses, Bare Bones Boxing and Splinting Solutions, have completed relocation, and Je Mart hopes to move into a Manchester storefront in late October. He said the remaining nine businesses have been issued eviction notices, in an effort to get some "certainty" on when the tenants will vacate.

"The plaza is literally falling apart around them, so we have filed eviction notices on all nine businesses," Walsh said. "It will force the town and the nine tenants into housing court."

Walsh said the town hopes to agree on relocation packages with each remaining business through the mediation process.

Walsh said the distribution warehouses at Rentschler Field are on track, if not ahead of schedule, for a certificate of occupancy next April.

"It's phenomenal," Walsh said. "The roofing is in, everything is connected, cement is poured."

Lowe's and Wayfair are lined up to take over the two "logistics centers," spanning 2.5 million square feet of warehousing space. Massachusetts-based National Development broke ground on the 300-acre site in March, with plans to complete the logistics centers in 18 months. 

Liese Klein

Walsh said the tax abatement for the warehouses would be lifted once they are occupied. "When there's a paying tenant, they will start paying taxes," Walsh said.

Officials expect about $4 million in annual tax revenue for the entire completed development, including the warehousing space and technology center.

Port Eastside, a plan to revamp the Founders Plaza area, has been impacted by the death of developer Martin Kenny. Walsh, who plans to serve as the project's "champion" after finishing his term, said Kenny was a partner in the project and the team is mourning the loss.

"He brought a special set of skills to this development, and the Port Eastside partnership is looking for ways to do what Marty did so effectively," Walsh said. "He had such an effective skill-set for something this big and dynamic."

Buckheit said Thursday that the town received $6.5 million from the State Bond Commission earlier this year to fund demolition of 20 Hartland St./99 Founders Plaza, known as the United Founders or Bank of America building, and the town has since filed for a demolition permit. 

"We're hoping to have that building down in a few months," Buckheit said.

Once that building and two others are demolished, the town hopes to begin agreements to build a mixed-use development in the area.

Affordable housing development proposed for Rosalini’s site in Pawcatuck

Carrie Czerwinski

Stonington ― A Misquamicut business owner is seeking to build a 113-unit affordable housing project on the site of the former Rosalini’s nightclub in Pawcatuck.

Fair Housing of Connecticut, LLC, of Trumbull, whose principal is Eugene Arganese, has filed an application for special use permit to develop the 4.2-acre Liberty Street property, which was home to the popular nightclub from the 1970s to the 1990s before it closed.

Residents stopped a strip club from opening there in 1999 and since then it has operated as a series of restaurants and clubs, the last of which brought back the Rosalini’s name but closed in May.

The Rosalini’s project is the latest affordable housing project proposed for the village, which residents complain already hosts the bulk of the town’s affordable housing.

Arganese is the owner of Arganese Cigars, based in the Dominican Republic, and several Misquamicut businesses including the Sandy Shore Motel and Gino’s by the Beach restaurant on Atlantic Avenue, among others.

According to the application for the project, the 113 three-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom townhouses will be clustered in 10 groups with 3 to 20 units.

Plans for the project call for two styles of units: 101 units of 1,800 square feet with a garage and a dozen smaller, Americans with Disabilities Act compliant, 1,400-square-foot units with driveway parking.

The larger three-story units will have a ground-level garage with three bedrooms on the third floor and a living area on the main floor, while the smaller two-story units will have one first-floor bedroom and two second-floor bedrooms.

The development will be serviced by public water and sewer and plans show decorative plantings along the road and trees around the perimeter of the property.

A traffic study conducted by BL Companies of Meriden estimated the development would generate 56 vehicles coming and going from the property onto Route 2 during peak morning travel times and 62 during peak afternoon hours and would have no adverse impact on traffic flow.

It was unclear how many of the units would be considered affordable, but to qualify as an affordable housing development, a minimum of 30% of the units must be affordable to people who earn 80% or less of the area median income.

An individual earning 80% of the area’s median income, $63,000 per year, would pay $1,500 per month in rent.

Haddam-Killingworth Face $200+ Million School Construction Costs

Emilia Otte

HADDAM-KILLINGWORTH — The Board of Education is debating how to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs and upgrades for the district’s four schools — a plan which could include closures of the elementary school campuses and moving students into new or renovated buildings on consolidated campuses. 

The goal of the master plan, which has been under discussion for over two years, is to update the infrastructure of the school district’s four buildings, which have an average age of 52 years. All the buildings except Haddam-Killingworth Intermediate Middle School are over half a century old. 

A facilities assessment completed by the firm Tecton in 2021 estimated that — with state reimbursement — the district would still need to spend between $115 million and $120 million to make the necessary fixes to equipment and code upgrades for ADA accessibility to the schools. At a joint meeting of the towns and the Board of Education on Thursday, Jeff Wyszynski, principal-in-charge at Tecton, described several additional proposals that would further renovate the buildings or rebuild them from the ground up. 

While the least expensive option would involve simply fixing the mechanical issues and making code upgrades, several people noted this would not include making improvements to the quality of the educational spaces. Wyszynski also estimated that the cost would likely be much higher with inflation, given that they would be replacing the equipment over a period of 30 years.

Renovating or rebuilding all four of the buildings is estimated to cost between $204 million and $231 million with state reimbursement. Another option would be to close one of the elementary schools and transition to a three-school configuration — a cost of $206 million with state reimbursement. 

A fourth would move Burr Elementary to the high school campus and Killingworth Elementary to the middle school campus – a cost of about $215 million. The last option would create a two-school configuration, with pre-K through sixth grade at one school and seventh through 12th grade at another school, for a total of $146 million with state reimbursement. 

Wyszynski said that the idea of a “modern” classroom would emphasize flexibility and open space, with a lot of natural light. These spaces would have access to functioning science labs, STEM resources and music programs. 

“The quality of their space absolutely impacts their performance,” Wyszynski said. 

Board of Education Chair Suzanne Sack said despite having hosted three “community conversations,” she did not feel the board received much feedback from the community. 

“I don’t think it’s fair to say we have by and large community input on this,” Sack said. 

A survey sent to community members found that 81 percent of the approximately 300 people who responded believed Haddam-Killingworth High School was the top priority for renovations. The high school has been cited by the national accrediting body for high schools for having old mechanical systems, a lack of compliance with the ADA and nonfunctioning science classrooms. 

Board members said they still don’t know how the community would react to the idea of moving the elementary schools onto the secondary school campuses. 

Kate Anderson said she believed parents would be open to the idea, particularly since the towns had lost a lot of recreational opportunities.

“I have found that most people are totally open to the idea of combining at that age,” she said.   

But others expressed doubt.

Killingworth Board of Finance member Annie Stirna said she wanted to ensure that closing and consolidating schools wouldn’t mean that the district would sacrifice programming or educational excellence. She questioned how consolidating the elementary schools would improve educational outcomes. 

“From my experience just with [Killingworth Elementary School], people are very happy in Killingworth with KES as a school and the teachers and the setup,” Stirna said. She added that the district needs to invest in the teachers and programs.

“If we don’t invest … in our educators and our staff and our paras, it doesn’t matter what the schools look like,” she said. 

But Sack said she didn’t believe combining elementary schools would improve or worsen educational outcomes, and that investing in one didn’t prevent investment in the other. She also pointed out that any operational savings — like eliminating duplicative positions in administration — could be reinvested into education or returned to taxpayers. 

Board of Education member Lisa Connelly said the plans that involved renovations or rebuilding would be an improvement to the current educational system. 

Haddam Selectwoman Kate Anderson said having two schools rather than four could save money, because the overall cost of running the buildings would lessen over time.

Sack noted that the district saved $1.2 million when it closed Haddam Elementary School, most of which came from staffing. She said the plan reducing four schools to two would likely be the greatest cost-saver in the long run.  

Wyszynski underscored that the master plan would be rolling out over a series of decades, so the costs presented would be subject to inflation.

Sack said she believes the community will ultimately settle on a price they are comfortable with and seek the design that best fits within that price. 

“When you take $50 [million] or $80 million and add it onto the tax rolls of these two communities, I think it’s going to be a big impact,” Sack said. 

Town officials and the Board of Finance plan to have another meeting on Nov. 2 to further discuss the options.

New Haven panel approves $25M plan to convert school to apartments

Michelle Tuccitto Sullo

Plans to convert the long-vacant former Strong School building at 69 Grand Ave. in New Haven into residential apartments secured key approvals Wednesday night.

The City Plan Commission approved the site plan, coastal site plan, and two special permits required for the project to proceed, according to Planner Esther Rose-Wilen.

Pennrose LLC and The Cloud Company LLC plan to create 58 mixed-income residential apartments and a community amenity space by renovating the school building and constructing a 50,225-square-foot addition.

The city of New Haven currently owns the property, which is just over 1 acre, though the applicants plan to purchase the site for $500,000.

The building was used as an elementary school for about a century before closing in 2010.

The housing units will be entirely deed-restricted as affordable, according to Attorney Meaghan Miles, who represents the applicants.

“This exciting project will add much-needed affordable housing and community space to Fair Haven and contribute to the revitalization of the Grand Avenue commercial corridor,” the application states.

In addition to Grand Avenue, the property also has frontage on Perkins Street and Clinton Avenue.

In the fall of 2022, the city announced it had selected Pennrose as its preferred developer for the site. At the time, the city indicated the project would include 58 affordable housing units and  community arts and culture space, including live/work spaces for local artists. An LGBTQ-friendly environment is a key aspect of the project vision, according to the announcement.

Plans are for the residential units to include a mix of studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments. They will range in size between 555 and 1,175 square feet, the application shows.

City officials estimated the project would cost $25 million, with a completion date in 2025.

The developer plans to preserve the school’s auditorium space. It will be available for community use, such as for health and wellness programs, community art shows, and New Haven Pride Center events.

What to do with an abandoned CT power plant? Officials ponder future for New Haven's English Station

John Moritz, Luther Turmelle

NEW HAVEN — More than three decades after workers doused the last of the boilers supplying power from English Station, a simmering debate over what to do with the rusting carcass of the old power plant is threatening to once again delay a long-awaited redevelopment of the property. 

Efforts to repurpose the aging brick structures have repeatedly fallen through over the years, while the nearly nine acres of property on Ball Island surrounding the power plant has passed through a string of owners, none of whom have gotten past the early planning stages of development. 

The island is riddled with contaminants such as asbestos and PCBs, which are left over from the years when it was used to store and burn coal — later oil — in order to generate power for United Illuminating, which is now on the hook for $30 million to clean up the property. 

In an interview late last month, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker referred to a plan by the current owners to build housing for city residents on the property, which would require an intensive remediation that would likely take years and come at cost well beyond what the utility has already agreed to spend. 

“In general, my concern is that — maybe I’ll say our concern, me and the city’s — is that the private property owner’s interest in residential development is challenging because of the pollutants on the site,” Elicker said. 

Ownership of the site is currently split between two New York-based limited liability companies, Haven River Properties and Paramount View Millennium, which do not appear to have any relevant experience in large-scale redevelopment projects. 

Representatives for both companies did not respond to emails and calls seeking comment in recent weeks.

Under the terms of a 2015 consent order with UI brokered by then-Attorney General George Jepsen, the utility agreed to clean up the site so that it could be developed under its “current zoned use,” which property records identify as heavy industry. That effort was supposed to be completed within three years, a deadline that passed in 2019. 

Earlier this summer, state regulators accused UI of failing to live up to the terms of that agreement and delivered a $2 million fine as part of a larger decision denying the utility’s request for a rate hike. Officials with the company responded by filing a lawsuit claiming that the state was forcing them to operate at a loss. 

In a statement to CT Insider, a company spokeswoman said that UI has already spent $19 million toward the cleanup of English Station, including the removal of asbestos, thousands of tons of contaminated soil and the demolition of a building on the property that the city deemed to be at risk of “imminent collapse.”

“UI is not only meeting its obligations under existing agreements, but is going above and beyond to perform additional cleanup measures that were neither required nor budgeted,” the spokeswoman, Sarah Wall, said in a statement. 

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which is overseeing the cleanup, has two sets of standards to determine what types of activities are permitted on remediated properties. The stricter of the two standards permits residential uses such as housing, schools and hospitals, while the lower standard allows for a broader range of "industrial/commercial" projects. In a statement, a spokesman for the agency said that DEEP will require UI's cleanup of English Station to meet the "industrial/commercial" standard. 

The area around English Station contains a mix of apartments, single family homes, abandoned factories, warehouses and salt piles that today are the last vestiges of the once-booming industrial area along the banks of the Mill River. Directly across the water, a magnet school for STEM-interested students sits in the shadows of the station’s towering smoke stacks. 

For those living nearby, the idea of returning the site to an industrial use is widely seen as a missed opportunity. 

“That’s not as aggressive as the community wanted,” said Aaron Goode, a local activist from the Fair Haven Heights section of New Haven. “The problem with that is it provides much less flexibility in terms of the reuse.” 

Advocates for preservation of the aging, brick building have pointed to a string of successful projects in Baltimore, Savannah and London that transformed power plants from a similar era into hubs for shopping, restaurants and hotels. 

In Providence, the city’s long-shuttered South Street Power Plant was redeveloped into a nursing school and offices for Brown University, a member of the Ivy League. 

“What I’ve always hoped is that there would be a reuse for the building, because it’s really a New Haven icon,” said Anstress Farwell, president of the New Haven Urban Design League. “You see it from the highway, you see it from East Rock, you can even see it from the state parkway out in Meriden. It would be a shame to lose it.” 

Since the power plant closed in 1992, proposals for the site have included returning it to service as a backup in times of peak power demand, building residential towers or even turning the plant structure into a museum focused on the region’s industrial heyday, according Eliezer Lee Cruz, a Fair Haven resident and outreach coordinator for the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. 

“No one really had the gravitas to pull that together,” he added of the museum plan. 

Cruz said that while an effort to preserve English Station’s historic brick facade could prove too costly due to the state of disrepair, any attempt to demolish the structure would come with its own set of challenges due to the potential to spread contaminants into the air and nearby waterways. 

“We’re not the experts in  the community, they’re the experts,” Cruz said, referring to UI’s commitment to remediate the site. “All we can do is demand what is right since millions of dollars were made over many, many decades producing electricity there … It’s time for them to do the right thing and clean it up.”

Despite state regulators’ criticism over the pace of the cleanup, Elicker said that UI had been “productive partners” with both the city and the state’s efforts to determine a future use of the site. Conversations between those three entities have been “ongoing” for more than two years, Elicker said. 

The mayor added that it was his “preference,” that the site be used for something other than an industrial purpose, noting its location along the river and adjacent to a planned bus rapid-transit system the city hopes to launch by 2029. 

“What I would like to see done with the property is that it has a significant positive use for the community," Elicker said. "I think we have to be practical in our expectation for the site and work with all parties to find a pathway to ensure the site doesn’t lay fallow for many years." 

Farwell, the preservation advocate, said potential for adaptive reuse of the property will likely hinge on the condition of the former power plant after years of neglect and scavenging by those in search of scrap parts and metals. She said that advocates have pushed — with little success so far — to have an independent assessment done on the building’s structural integrity. 

The current owners, she said, appear mostly interested in hanging on to the property until the clean-up is completed by UI, at which point they can seek to flip it for a profit. 

“It’s obviously built like a mountain,” Farwell said. “But even mountains can get blown up.”