CT Construction Digest Thursday April 28, 2022
Newington approves 225-unit apartment complex
Richard Chumney
NEWINGTON — A Pittsburgh-based construction company has been given approval to build a 225-unit apartment complex on the southern edge of town.
Despite opposition from some residents, the Newington Town Plan and Zoning Commission voted earlier this month to approve a proposal to construct five four-story residential buildings on a 26-acre site at the corner of Culver and Deming streets.
Alan Bongiovanni, an engineer working on the project, said the apartments will be marketed as luxury units to young professionals and residents not interested in traditional single-family housing.
“We believe this is going to be the standard to which all other apartments are going to be measured in the town of Newington,” Bongiovanni said.
The brick buildings will be evenly split between one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, according to documents submitted to the town. Each residence will feature a balcony, washer and dryer appliances, a walk-in closet, and a bathroom in every bedroom. The one-bedroom units are expected to rent for more than $1,500 a month.
The A.R. Building Company, which owns and manages more than 9,000 units of housing across the country, proposed the development at 258 Deming St., and 35, 67 and 69 Culver St.
William Sweeney, an attorney representing the developers, said the company will also manage the property and staff the on-site leasing office when construction wraps up.
“A.R. doesn’t flip their projects, they hold them in their portfolio,” Sweeney said. “They’ll own this project tomorrow, a year from now and ten years from now. When they enter a community, they are a part of that community for the long term.”
Site plans show the complex will also include a pool and a one-story clubhouse. Geoff Campbell, an architect who designed the buildings, said the clubhouse will feature a fireplace, lounge, fitness room, mail center and office space.
“It's a place where people can come together and meet their neighbors,” he said.
Much of the property, which was once home to a farm, will remain undeveloped land and accessible to residents. In addition to a stream, the site features a pair of ponds.
“Our proposal is to preserve all of those natural areas and all of those environmentally sensitive areas,” Bongiovanni, the project’s engineer, said.
Once completed, the property will be accessible from two entrances on Culver Street. The complex’s parking lot will feature more than 370 spaces, up to 40 percent of which will feature charging stations for electric vehicles.
At a public hearing last month, several residents who live near Culver street expressed opposition to the scale and location of the project. One resident warned the new buildings would change the character of the neighborhood and another argued the units would increase traffic.
Sweeney successfully argued state law and local regulations give the property owners the right to develop the apartment buildings. He said construction is expected to begin on the complex sometime later this year.
Final Preston zoning hearing on RV park tops four hours; no vote yet
Preston — The final marathon public hearing on a controversial proposed RV park and campground stretched past midnight Tuesday into early Wednesday morning, when the Planning and Zoning Commission closed public comment and tabled action to its May 24 regular meeting.
Maryland-based Blue Water Development Corp. has proposed the seasonal RV park and campground resort, under the name Blue Camp CT LLC, on 65 acres of land owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation at the junction of routes 2 and 164 and abutting Avery Pond. The three parcels are at 451, 455 and 495 Route 2, much of the land in the town’s resort commercial zone and part in a residential zone.
Campground resorts are allowed by special exception permit in both zones under town zoning regulations. The proposed RV park and campground would be open from April 1 through Oct. 31 each year. No guest RVs will be allowed on the property during the off-season, and though 27 rental RVs owned by Blue Camp would remain on the property year-round, they would not be rented out during the off-season.
Blue Water has downsized the project from the original proposed 304 campsites to 280 campsites, eliminated a proposed T-shaped dock in Avery Pond, a boardwalk and tent sites along the pond, and reduced the number of bathhouses from three to two. All roadways and parking areas will be gravel-based, except at the main entrance and welcome center area.
About 30 people attended the 4½-hour public hearing Tuesday night, the third and longest PZC hearing session on the project, held in the Preston Plains Middle School cafeteria. Attendees laughed when, shortly before 11 p.m., the battery on the wireless public microphone died. The hearing continued using one of the commissioners’ mics.
Residents of Avery Pond neighborhoods have vehemently opposed the project throughout the PZC and Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission public hearings that started in December. Speakers continued to oppose the project Tuesday, citing anticipated traffic problems on Route 2, light, noise, environmental concerns and saying the project is too big, too dense and unfit for the quiet surrounding neighborhoods.
A petition, with more than 400 signatures of people who oppose the project, was submitted to the commission prior to Tuesday’s hearing.
The wetlands commission had approved wetlands permits for the project in a 3-2 vote April 19.
Project attorney Harry Heller asserted the surrounding neighborhoods will be “fully buffered” from the project. But he added it would be unrealistic to say they would not hear “sounds” from the development.
Heller disputed claims the project is too large for the 4,000-population town. Blue Camp would have 280 campsites. The longstanding Strawberry Park campground in town has 450 sites, Heller said.
Heller said there were nine fire calls and 14 police calls to Strawberry Park and Hidden Acres campgrounds in 2021, just over 1% of overall calls in town and 0.7% of police calls, not including motor vehicle calls. He said the project would become the second- or third-highest taxpaying entity in town.
“The cost for public services for what will be a major tax contributor in the community, will be minimal,” Heller said.
Commission member Denise Beale expressed concern about traffic flow on Route 2 and the potential for vehicles to be backed up along Route 2 waiting to turn left into the campground.
Blue Camp plans to convert a 12-foot-wide center median on Route 2 into a left-turn lane. Blue Water Project Manager Emily Demarco said vehicles would not be backed up at the entrance for check-in.
“I represent to you that this is good development,” Heller said. “This is going to be a benefit to the town of Preston. It is going to enhance your tax base. It is going to create both construction jobs when the project is being constructed, as well as operational opportunities for employment.”
Residents disputed many of Heller’s points Tuesday. Route 164 resident Connie Moshier said the buffer planned to shield Lynn Drive, which runs along the western shore of Avery Pond, would not help her property. She said she would have full view of the campers, will hear the noise, see the lights and experience the construction disruption.
“There’s some semblance of peace in our backyards,” Moshier said. “That will be all gone.”
Cooktown Road resident Steve Ballirano envisioned the RVs parked side by side in rows like a large trailer park. “This is outdoor sprawl,” he said.
Ballirano submitted copies of news articles about other towns denying RV park campgrounds because they disrupt the community, and he urged Preston to reject the plan.
Resident Margaret Gibson said Preston will have new tax revenue with the pending redevelopment of the former Norwich Hospital property by Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment, the Uncasville-based corporation that owns the Mohegan Tribe's gaming enterprises, including Mohegan Sun. She said denying Blue Camp would not signal that Preston is unfriendly to business.
Gibson quoted a comment from wetlands commission Chairman John Moulson, who said he was not in favor but voted to approve it because it met regulations. Gibson said that standard should not be enough. She thanked fellow residents for objections that led to significant downsizing but she still urged the commission to reject the project.
Heller later objected to Gibson's stance, saying the town created its land use regulations to be fair to all property owners in town, and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation owns the Route 2 property and has the right to develop it according to town zoning regulations.
Resident John Waggoner read criteria in the town's special exception zoning regulations and argued the proposed campground would not be compatible with neighborhoods, would cause traffic problems, hurt property values and harm the environment.
“Please put the concerns of hundreds of citizens that signed the petition against Blue Camp’s project,” Waggoner said, “and all the taxpaying citizens that signed a petition against Blue Camp’s project and all the taxpaying citizens that will have their quiet neighborhoods, quality of life and property values detrimentally affected by Blue Camp’s campground.”
Attorney Michael Carey, who represents Lynn Drive residents Susan Hotchkiss and Jennifer Hollstein, who have filed for intervenor status in the planning and wetlands processes, praised residents for their research into technical, environmental, traffic and development issues. Carey said he had not seen this level of residents’ involvement in his many years of representing clients in zoning matters.
Inflation, interest rate hikes delay $50M Hartford housing complex redevelopment
Michael Puffer
Aredevelopment of the Martin Luther King apartments in Hartford’s Sheldon Charter Oak neighborhood has been stymied after organizers learned inflation and higher interest rates have increased the project’s costs by about $8 million.
“We thought we had it sourced, but interest rates went up and construction costs went up,” said Capital Region Development Authority Executive Director Michael Freimuth of the now $58 million project. “We got hit on both ends and it opened up a hole.”
Freimuth said CRDA has not yet settled on the size of the loan it will grant the project. The quasi-public agency is one of several funding sources for the effort to transform a worn collection of 64 affordable apartments into a modern development of 155 units – 40% of which will be market rate.
Community development agency Sheldon Oak Central owns the complex on Van Block Avenue. Emily Wolfe, the organization’s executive director, said maintenance and repair costs have reached a point where it makes more sense to rebuild than rehab the property.
“They were kind of at the end of their lifespan,” Wolfe said of the brick buildings built in a zigzag pattern. “We were faced with a choice between spending millions renovating outdated and not very attractive structures versus doing something that would really contribute to neighborhood revitalization.”
Wolfe said the project is the last piece of a revitalization of the Sheldon Oak neighborhood, located just southeast of downtown Hartford.
Sheldon Oak Central partnered with Simsbury-based affordable housing developer Vesta Corp. on the project. Vesta could fund the pre-development and design costs, Wolfe said.
Wolfe said the project had assembled funding from state grants, a CRDA loan, private lenders, the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority and potentially city rental subsidies. She anticipated finalizing the redevelopment deal in April.
“We have been working with a construction company that let us know costs were going to increase,” Wolfe said. “The estimate was $50 million up until a couple months ago.”
Wolfe said her agency and partners are hunting for additional funding, including potentially an increase in state assistance. Organizers are also looking to lower engineering costs.
Wolfe characterizes the funding gap as “a little bump in the road.” She still hopes to close the gulf in time to begin this year demolition of the existing buildings and site remediation, which would cost about $4 million.
“We are really pulling every lever we can,” Wolfe said. “We really want to get this closed by maybe the end of the third quarter.”
Connecticut’s utility regulators on Wednesday ended a nine-year state program that sought to expand the use of natural gas as an alternative to home heating oil.
Several reasons were cited by the three Public Utilities Regulatory Authority commissioners who voted to pull the plug on the program: Gas prices are soaring, wiping out cost advantages over oil heat and policies favoring natural gas no longer advance the state’s climate and energy goals that now tilt to offshore wind.
In a draft decision in March, regulators said subsidies to the utilities are costly and the program, launched in 2013 by then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and backed by the General Assembly, failed to meet its numerical goals hooking up natural gas to homes and businesses.
“At the time it was a great idea,” said Commissioner John W. Betkoski III. “When we do these things, they’re eventually supposed to phase out and when we continue them it’s always on the backs of ratepayers.”
Marissa Gillett, chairwoman of PURA, said Eversource Energy and United Illuminating Co. may exercise their right to challenge the decision in court.
“I would look forward to having closer scrutiny on how the program did not deliver on its promises to ratepayers,” she said.
Spokeswoman Tricia Modifica said Eversource recognizes that energy policy has changed since the system expansion plan was established and is “looking at ways to ensure a seamless and equitable transition” for its customers.
She said 38,189 residents and businesses in its service territory have switched to natural gas since 2013. Overall, Eversource serves 249,000 natural gas customers in 74 communities in Connecticut.
A spokesman for UI did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Home heating oil businesses, many of which are family-run companies, unsuccessfully fought the state’s efforts to broaden natural gas connections. Christian Herb, president of the Connecticut Energy Marketers Association, a trade group, said ending the program confirms that the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection was wrong.
“Unfortunately, thousands of consumers were fleeced by the state’s promise of a ‘clean, cheaper and more reliable’ energy source, only to find out nearly a decade later that natural gas was dirty, more expensive and unreliable,” Herb said.
The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection posted a notice of proceeding Jan. 6 for an updated Comprehensive Energy Strategy required every four years. The agency will consider climate, equity, affordability and economic development.
Shannon Laun of the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental group, said PURA’s decision is a “huge step toward getting polluting, dirty fossil fuels out of our homes.”
However, she said regulators should end the incentive-based program immediately instead of allowing gas companies to sign up certain customers who have a fully executed contract for gas service within 90 days.
Malloy’s Comprehensive Energy Strategy relied on incentives and financing options and targeted marketing campaigns to pay for natural gas conversions. It also established a rate mechanism for gas companies to recover investments.
The proposal recommended changes in energy efficiency, electricity supply, industrial energy requirements, transportation and natural gas. Malloy promoted his natural gas expansion plan to spur economic development, business growth and lower costs in response to persistent complaints from homeowners and businesses about high energy prices.
The program fell short, PURA said. Gas line expansion projects were driving up costs, with gas ratepayers paying about $64 million additionally, regulators said.
Gas ratepayers also were footing the bill for significant subsidies to offset revenue shortfalls and capital costs, PURA said. Since the start of the “system expansion plan” as it’s known, Yankee Gas, which is operated by Eversource, and Connecticut Natural Gas and the Southern Connecticut Gas Co. that are operated by UI’s parent company Avangrid, benefited from about $92 million in credits, PURA said.
The stated purpose of the plan is to expand utilities’ customer base and increase demand on the distribution system, regulators said.
“Although the growth rate of new customers has declined for all three (utilities), the average cost to connect new services has increased significantly since the inception of the system expansion plan,” PURA said.
The system expansion plan’s aim was to convert 280,000 Connecticut residents to gas in 10 years. With less than two years remaining, the utilities have met 32% of the goal, regulators said.