Future of Stamford's once purple West Main Street bridge could be decided next week

Tyler Fedor

STAMFORD — The Stamford Board of Representatives could decide the future of Stamford’s once-purple bridge on West Main Street as early as next week. 

The board’s Operations Committee voted 6-3 Feb. 20 on a resolution to restore the bridge on West Main Street and open it to pedestrian and vehicular traffic. The resolution will go to the full board for a vote. The cost was estimated at $6.7 million.

The bridge, which was built in 1888, was closed to cars in 2002 and has deteriorated ever since as local lawmakers argued over how to replace it. The city put a prefabricated bridge, which cost $1.6 million and was open to pedestrian traffic only, next to the bridge in 2023 after the original bridge was closed to all traffic.  

The committee considered several options: One was to replace the superstructure of the bridge, which could have cost around $6.5 million; another was to replace the whole bridge, which could have cost around $9.6 million. Both would open the bridge to vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

Another option moved the bridge to a nearby park “as an artifact,” according to a report from construction and engineering company BL Companies and would leave the temporary bridge open in its place. That option could cost around $1.2 million. 
 
Some members of the committee wanted to hold a separate public hearing for Stamford residents to review the options presented to the committee. Others disagreed with opening a new bridge up to vehicular traffic. 

Rep. Don Mays, D-19, said during the Feb. 20 meeting that a pedestrian-only bridge “is the best solution.” He said the city did not need another bridge that allows for vehicular traffic into the area since bridges on Broad Street and Tresser Boulevard both do so. 

“I don't believe it is appropriate for us to make a recommendation that will cost taxpayers a tremendous amount of money for something that is not necessarily needed,” Mays said. 

He said he worried that children playing in Mill River Park or a playground being built on the other side of the bridge may run into traffic on the new bridge and that the city has to become more pedestrian friendly — and another vehicular bridge didn’t help accomplish that goal. He said a bridge with vehicular traffic would create a “separation” between the West Side and downtown area. 

“We’re going the wrong way here,” Mays said. 

Rep. Ashley Ley, D-20, said she worried allowing vehicular traffic on the bridge would disrupt residents who for 20 years were used to not having the extra traffic come through their neighborhood. She said she wanted to hear from the residents about the bridge replacement.

Majority Leader Nina Sherwood, D-8, however, disagreed that a separate public hearing was needed, saying during the meeting another public hearing would delay the process of picking a replacement for the bridge another month. 

She said Stamford residents can speak about the potential bridge replacements during the public comment period before the next full board meeting on March 3. She has also supported restoring the bridge and reopening it to vehicle traffic for years. 

"There has been and there is still an opportunity for the public to speak," Sherwood said. 

Rep. Chanta Graham, D-3, said she wanted to open the bridge to vehicular traffic because an incoming apartment complex near the bridge could produce more traffic in the area and that the bridge would “allow the traffic to move freely.” 

Jeffrey Stella, D-9, said he spoke with residents in the area around the temporary bridge and said he’s heard that people want a vehicular bridge. 

“Many of us live in this community,” Stella said. “This is our backyard.”

West Hartford approves 118 new homes, retail at long-vacant and 'deteriorating' former UConn campus

Michael Walsh

WEST HARTFORD — After nearly a decade of sitting vacant, with both buildings and the grounds deteriorating, the former University of Connecticut campus in West Hartford has found its next life.

On Tuesday, the Town Council voted to approve zoning changes that will pave the way for Heritage Park, a mixed-use development that will create 118 new homes — 25 of which will be owner-occupied townhouses — combined with an assisted living facility, a grocery store, a restaurant, a spa and more.

It's the culmination of a lengthy and winding road to get the property redeveloped, a timeline that saw the town itself balk twice at buying the property — which has PCB contaminations — and another private developer bail on its plans to redevelop the site.

But WeHa Development Group LLC is moving forward with its vision to transform the site at 1800 Asylum Ave. into a place that combines living with retail and recreation, including public spaces and the expansion of the town's Trout Brook Trail through the campus. The group first revealed its plans to redevelop the site in October of 2022. 

Those final plans also included the redevelopment of 1700 Asylum Ave., the parcel that sits across Trout Brook Drive and was used as the campus' parking lot. Those plans to build 322 new multifamily homes were separately considered by the Town Council and were approved last April. The development group has since sold that site to another developer for $22 million.

But in all, the two parcels will account for 440 new homes in West Hartford, which town leaders have repeatedly expressed a need for as Connecticut faces a housing crisis. Of those new homes, there will be 31 affordable housing units spread between both properties. The project is part of 11 ongoing housing developments in town and is certainly the biggest development in West Hartford since Blue Back Square. 

"We have been talking about this particular development for years," said Mayor Shari Cantor at Tuesday's Town Council meeting. "Since (UConn moved) that property has been left fallow and has been deteriorating in front of people's eyes. It’s overtime to do the right development there and that's what I think we have seen."

The development, which needed zoning changes in order to build multifamily housing on the site, passed with a seven to two vote, with two Republican councilors — Alberto Cortes and Mary Fay — voting against the project. 

While Cortes called it an "exciting project" that adds homes for sale, he also wondered whether the Town Council was settling for this project, citing concerns over some retail vacancies in Blue Back Square.

Deputy Mayor Ben Wenograd said he didn't feel like they were settling at all.

"This is a high quality project with a developer who has bent over backwards to meet every reasonable and some unreasonable, frankly, demands we have put on them," Wenograd said. "It’s complicated to build on this site. They figured out the way to do it and make this work. It’s time to move it forward. If we want to build things, we have to build things. The best way to build housing is to build housing. And we need it."

East Haven to Pay $11M Settlement in Quarry Lawsuit

Nick Sambides Jr

EAST HAVEN — A Willington businessman will receive an $11 million settlement after suing the town for $55 million, alleging officials illegally shut down his Barberry Road quarry for corrupt political reasons.

The settlement, announced Wednesday, resolves claims filed in 2017 against the administration of retired Republican Mayor Joe Maturo Jr. It follows a federal judge’s ruling awarding quarry owner John Patton $9.47 million in damages, plus more than $1 million in prejudgment interest and attorney’s fees, according to Ed Sabatino, the city’s assistant director of administration under Democratic Mayor Joe Carfora.

“The Town’s liability would have risen to over $12 million in the coming months, and had the case not settled, post judgment interest would have continued to accrue at approximately $38,000 per month,” Sabatino said in a Wednesday statement.

Patton was unable to be reached for comment.

Carfora’s administration, which inherited the case when Carfora took office in 2019, began negotiating a settlement with Patton’s counsel in December. 

Patton, the managing member of the quarry’s corporate owner, One Barberry Real Estate Holding LLC, originally filed a $30 million lawsuit against the town and a second $25 million federal complaint against Maturo, former Zoning Enforcement Officer Christopher Soto and former Assessor Michael J. Milici.

The city argued that the shutdown, which occurred in May 2017, occurred because the multimillion-dollar basalt trap rock quarry violated town zoning regulations. Patton argued that the quarry, which he rented in 2013 and purchased in 2016, was a non-conforming use that predated the town’s zoning laws by many years.

‘Conscience-shocking’ corruption

A 119-page ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Sarala V. Nagala in 2023 cleared Milici of wrongdoing, but said that Patton and One Barberry had “proven by a preponderance of the evidence that the Town, Maturo, and Soto deprived them of substantive due process protections in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.” 

The amendment guarantees due process and equal protection under the law.

Nagala wrote that Maturo, Soto and other town officials engaged in a lengthy fight, from approximately 2008 to 2017, against quarry operations at 1 Barberry Road near the East Haven-Branford line in response to heavy residential opposition to quarry operations. They repeatedly shut down the quarry and delayed its blasting permits in attempts to harass Patton, Nagala wrote.

Maturo, mayor from 1997 to 2007 and from 2011 until his retirement in 2019, was accused of repeatedly demonstrating selfish political motivation in battling the quarry and using his influence to effectively neuter the Zoning Board of Appeals as an independent body when Patton appealed city actions.

She called the actions of Maturo and Soto “conscience-shocking.”

At one point, Maturo directed Soto to issue a cease-and-desist order against the quarry. Trial evidence revealed that he partly attributed his 2007 mayoral loss to the controversy surrounding the quarry. Over the years, he repeatedly pressured Patton to make decisions against his own interests and leveraged his connections with other town officials to turn them against Patton while bolstering his own 2017 reelection efforts, Nagala wrote.

“Maturo acted in selfish pursuit of his own political interests,” Nagala wrote.

Nagala wrote that Soto ignored the law in deciding on one occasion to shut down Patton’s operation on false claims of an alleged lack of safety in quarry operations. Nagala cited how Soto’s testimony at trial contradicted his actions with the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Soto testified to the board in support of a cease-and-desist order shutting down the quarry “that he observed numerous rocks and boulders rolling down the hill on the property, which he believed to pose a risk of danger. But he did not show the Court the photos or video that he showed the ZBA evincing that multiple rocks and boulders were indeed rolling down the hill on the property,” Nagala wrote.

Soto told the ZBA that the zoning office’s phone log contained 35 phone messages demonstrating many complaints about the quarry, but “relatively few of those messages were complaints about the quarry,” Nagala wrote.

“A zoning enforcement officer cannot simply choose which of his predecessors’ binding decisions he likes and does not like, and ignore those with which he does not agree, to the detriment of an individual’s property interest; such conduct is, by its very nature, arbitrary,” Nagala wrote in her decision.

Insurance coverage

The town and Patton reached a tentative agreement to settle the lawsuit about two weeks ago. The final settlement terms were recently completed, and the necessary documents have been submitted to the court. 

Dismissal documents will soon be filed with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Sabatino said.

Town officials, expecting a settlement of some sort since August, deposited $13.5 million into a restricted interest-bearing account to secure the judgment rather than purchasing an appeal bond and incurring its associated costs. 

The account has accrued over $220,000 in interest. The settlement payment was made from this account, and the remaining balance of approximately $2.7 million was returned to the town, Sabatino said.

The town, meanwhile, is pursuing a claim against its two insurance carriers, arguing that the carriers should have indemnified the town against the lawsuit from the beginning, he said.

Norwich awards $4.7M construction management contract for two new schools

Daniel Drainville

Norwich — The School Building Committee has chosen Torrington-based O&G Industries as the construction manager for the Uncas and John M. Moriarty schools, the second two of four schools that will be built as part of a $385 million citywide school construction project.

The new Uncas and Moriarty schools are in the early phases of being designed, building committee Chairman and Alderman Mark Bettencourt said Wednesday.

The first two schools, Stanton and Greeneville elementary schools, are closer to being built and expect to break ground this spring. The construction manager for the first two schools is Downes Construction.

The new Stanton, Uncas and Moriarty buildings will be built on the grounds of the current schools while they continue to operate. Once completed, the old schools will be torn down and used to create playgrounds and athletic fields.

Greeneville, meanwhile, will be built on the grounds of the demolished Greeneville School and adjacent land on Golden Street.

The overall project also calls for Teachers’ Memorial Global Studies Middle School to be either renovated or replaced, and for the former Samuel Huntington Elementary School to be converted into a central office and adult education building.

The city has hired Construction Solutions Group as project manager and DRA Architects as the project architect for all four projects.

Impact of Trump tariffs

The amount the city can spend on all six buildings is the $385 million approved by voters in 2022.

“We had to modify some plans for the future due to budgetary considerations,” Bettencourt said, adding that the total cost hasn’t changed at this point.

Bettencourt said that once the city gets proposals back for subcontracting work, it will have a better idea about the actual project costs.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed proclamations that will place 25% tariffs on steel, aluminum and Canadian wood.

Bettencourt said the building committee is concerned over the effect of the tariffs. He said costs will depend on where the materials are procured and their cost at the time.

The design work for the new Stanton and Greeneville schools is complete, Bettencourt said. In November, the school board approved new designs that will save money.

The state is reimbursing the city for 80% of the costs for the Greeneville and Stanton schools, Bettencourt said. After that, it will reimburse the city a minimum of 67% for the other four buildings.

Bettencourt said the city has tried to separate the timing of the projects so that all four schools are not being built at the same time.

O&G is one of the region’s largest providers of construction services. It was one of four companies in to submit a proposal to the city to oversee the building of the Moriarty and Uncas schools but was not the low bidder. Three of the four were interviewed this week. Downes had also submitted a bid but was not chosen.

Cost was just one of the various factors considered by the committee in choosing a firm.

According to bid documents, O&G will charge the city $2.3 million for constructing the Moriarty school, and another $2.4 million for Uncas. Bettencourt said the city still needs to negotiate the terms of its contract with O&G.

Bettencourt said committee members had been impressed by an O&G employee they met while another committee member had experience with O&G on a previous school project.

According to its website, O&G has experience building hundreds of schools, including providing construction management services for the building of the Groton Consolidated Middle School, along with the Thames River Magnet School and Mystic River Magnet School.

Thursday meeting for controversial Old Lyme project postponed

Jack Lakowsky

Old Lyme — The Zoning Commission, at the request of First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker, postponed a Thursday meeting about a controversial zone change that would allow mixed-use development on Halls Road.

The plan is aimed at revitalizing the commercial area that includes the Old Lyme Shopping Center, whose sign is cracked and coated in lichen, and Big Y.

The Halls Road Overlay District plan has drawn vocal opposition and support, and aims to change the area’s zoning to allow multifamily housing, which is currently not permitted.

In a letter to Zoning Commission Chairman Paul Orzel, Shoemaker said she and the Halls Road Improvements Committee “acknowledge that the zoning commission has received many additional exhibits and request additional time to review them.”

Shoemaker requested a postponement until late March.

She declined further comment Wednesday, instead pointing to the dozens of letters the town had received in the last few weeks.

A petition submitted to the town Tuesday has almost 950 signatures opposing the project, and states that although its signers “understand the need for thoughtful progress and economic growth, we believe this specific project will negatively impact the character, environment, and quality of life in our cherished community.”

Halls Road business owners were hesitant to speak about the project Wednesday, worried they’d alienate customers. Attorney Conrad Ost Seifert, whose office Seifert & Hogan is in the Old Lyme Marketplace across the street from shopping center, said that he felt neutral about the meeting’s postponement and that it’s better to do things right even if it takes a bit more time.

“We have a housing crisis going on, and we don’t want to prevent affordable housing, especially on this strip where it’s possible,” Seifert said.

In 2015 the Halls Road Improvements Committee began discussing measures to improve conditions for pedestrians in the commercial district, such as adding sidewalks. But as the group worked, members heard about the declining value of strip malls and the growing importance of bringing affordable housing to town, committee Chairwoman Edie Twining said last week. Seniors and young families have struggled to keep up with the local cost of living, she said.

Members envisioned more retail buildings facing the road while residences would be located behind the businesses, according to a plan developed by the committee and attorney William Sweeney.

According to the overlay zone plan, 10% of housing units must be affordable while no new building could be longer than 200 feet or taller than 35 feet.

The opposition petition states that the overlay zone could add up to 1,600 residences, bringing 3,200 new residents to the town, “potentially stressing our schools, public safety and, ultimately, our taxes.”

The committee has said the 1,600 figure, based on the town’s limit of 40 residential units per acre, ignores that the overlay zone does not apply to every lot within the district. The committee says its highest estimate is 400-450 units, assuming no additional restrictions imposed by septic systems and the environment.

“When those factors are taken into account, the number that could actually be built may be 220-225,” the committee wrote.

But the petition states that the proposal has “egregiously expanded” in one year — for example, by allowing concrete parking garages up to three stories tall. Current regulations prohibit stand-alone garages but allow parking structures tied to specific projects.

The opposition petition also states that the overlay district is adjacent to wetlands and that the Lieutenant River and will affect critical wildlife and habitat. The petition raises concerns about stormwater runoff and light pollution. The committee, though, has said these environmental concerns are “misguided” and that the developments along Halls Road are decades old and built before existing, more stringent environmental laws. New developments, the committee said, would adhere to current laws, improving existing conditions.

The opposition petition states that the project would create a “multitude of 200-foot-long, 40 foot-deep retail and high-density housing buildings along Halls Road, all three stories tall and set back zero to 15 feet from the street,” with similarly sized parking garages.

The committee has said this claim ignores limits the town already has in place. The committee’s proposal says the new zoning would allow multifamily housing when the majority of a parcel’s Halls Road frontage is developed with businesses.

Some residents have signed a letter expressing support for the plan. The letter says Halls Road should be developed with the “aim of making it look, feel and function as a pedestrian-friendly town center.” It points out that with existing zoning, only stores can built, and that the town’s housing stock is overwhelmingly single-family.

Smith Neck Road resident Peter McKillop wrote that “the zoning board can maintain a decaying strip mall or push ahead with a well-designed mixed-use community that preserves the best commercial and residential values” of the town.

UConn board of trustees set to approve extra funding for $290M science building renovation

Andrew Larson

Amassive renovation of UConn’s Edward V. Gant Science Complex, which is entering its third phase, is expected to cost an additional $121.5 million.

The uptick brings the total cost of the project to about $290 million. 

Today, UConn’s board of trustees is expected to approve an additional $21.5 million to begin the third and final phase of the renovation. 

The money will allow the design of the third phase to be completed and for demolition and environmental remediation to begin, members of the board of trustees’ finance committee said during a meeting Tuesday.

In addition, the $21.5 million allocation will be used to purchase long-lead items for the last phase of construction.

The project will go out to bid this summer. After that, the board will request the remaining $100 million, committee members said.

The landmark academic building on UConn’s Storrs campus features three wings for the math, physics and materials sciences departments, including dozens of classrooms and labs. It’s also home to the Up & Atom Cafe.

The U-shaped building currently spans 285,000 square feet. The renovation will add 25,000 square feet of new space.

As part of the project, the building facade and roof are being reconstructed to provide better energy performance. Also, the exterior and plaza areas are being improved to make them “more inviting and accessible.”

The first two phases, which included work on the south and west wings, and the addition of an amenity space, have been completed and are being used by UConn students and staff.

Phase one was completed in 2019, and phase two was completed in 2021.

Phase three, which includes the north wing renovation and expansion, is expected to be finished in fall 2027.

The goal of the renovation is to “expand educational opportunities, research and innovation in the science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines at UConn,” the university said.

The Gant complex, constructed between 1974 and 1978, was named for Edward V. Gant, a longtime civil engineering professor at UConn. Gant served as acting president in 1969, 1972-73 and 1978-79. He died in 1985.