CT Construction Digest Thursday October 10, 2024
West Hartford, amidst a major housing boom, approves affordable housing plan
WEST HARTFORD — Affordability will remain at the forefront of decisions town leaders make when it comes to considering new housing developments in town.
On Tuesday, the Town Council voted to approve its long-awaited affordable housing plan — one that was due to the state over two years ago.
"I will note that we’re late," said Ben Wenograd, the Democrat who serves as deputy mayor. "I would tell people the reason we’re late is we’re actually doing the work."
And Wenograd is right — West Hartford has moved the needle on increasing the amount of its housing stock that's considered by the state as affordable housing, with 522 units slated to come online as affordable units over the next few years.
The largest chunk of those new units, though, already existed as affordable housing — namely the 213 units at the West Hartford Fellowship Housing campus, which provides affordable housing for older residents and people with disabilities. But because they were naturally occurring — meaning they were affordable because the nonprofit wanted them to be — they weren't legally protected or counted by the state until the nonprofit recently announced plans to renovate and expand its campus, adding 87 brand-new homes and gaining protected status on the existing renovated units through an agreement with the Town Council.
The other affordable homes come from a variety of other projects, particularly the ones created with affordable housing in mind, like the renovation of the former West Hartford Inn into the 100 percent affordable The Camelot and the conversion of the former Agudas Achim synagogue into The Elle.
In all, West Hartford's recognized affordable housing will increase from 7.6 percent of its housing stock to 9 percent, just shy of the state's goal of 10 percent.
West Hartford — which is experiencing a housing boom over the last few years that has seen over a 1,000 units be approved for construction — views that threshold as a start and not an end.
"Our plan is to not only get to that 10 percent over time, but to get over that number," Town Manager Rick Ledwith said. "It didn't take a state statute for us to address affordable housing. This council has been focused on affordable housing long before this state statute became effective."
The plan, which was approved by an 8-1 vote, includes a number of ways the town might continue to encourage and incentivize affordable housing in town, including tax abatements, lower building permit fees, and inclusionary zoning. The plan isn't policy, but rather serves as a tool kit for town officials to use as they consider future housing development proposals.
Mary Fay, a Republican member of the council, was the lone vote against the plan. Fay said that tax abatements are a "hard pill to swallow" and worried about initiatives that might impact the town's current taxpayers.
"Obviously I support everybody and all people coming and being welcomed in our town," Fay said. "I think there is a housing crisis, no doubt about it, in terms of affordability. A lot of the things that are in this plan hurt existing taxpayers and I’m always going to be mindful of that."
Other members of the council celebrated the plan, including Republican member Alberto Cortes, who stressed that implementing just the bare minimum of affordable housing isn't enough.
"It’s high-quality living for our seniors and for our disabled," Cortes said about how he envisions affordable housing. "It’s more than just the (area median income) that we talk about here. We don’t do enough. When we look at 80 percent (area median income) that’s anybody. That’s young professionals. That’s someone who is going to be there for a very short time."
Barry Walters, a Democrat member of the council, agreed with Cortes, adding that housing set aside for those making 80 percent or less of the area median income is not affordable housing, but rather "attainable" housing.
"I’m glad this plan builds upon what we’ve already done and that West Hartford recognizes that truly affordable housing is not attainable housing," Walters said. "It is less than that. The challenge is to make sure that less than does not feel less than and that people are treated with dignity and respect and have the same kind of access to quality homes that the rest of us have. This is a great start to the future and it lays out the foundation."
In West Hartford, while many of the affordable housing units included in some recently approved developments indeed sit at that 80 percent threshold, other projects like ones spearheaded by the West Hartford Housing Authority feature deeply affordable housing. Some at the former synagogue project they're currently working on will be made available for those making 30 percent or less of the area median income.
The town also has a 4.4 percent renter vacancy rate, which Ledwith said signals a strong market and "signals a need for additional supply." Renters have also expressed trouble finding affordable options in town.
Tiffani McGinnis, a Democrat member of the council and the chairwoman of the committee the plan came out of, said this type of housing would have been beneficial to her when she was younger. Her hope is to see more of it.
"It’s important that we continue to move forward," McGinnis said. "This document is not the end of what we’re going to do. It’s the beginning. No one should think we’re done working to provide more affordable housing for people."
And that seems likely, as West Hartford's elected officials have firmly and often shown a desire to say yes to new housing proposals. Even so much so that Mayor Shari Cantor promised Tuesday that they aren't finished with their work.
"We don't have enough inventory," Cantor said. "Affordability is a problem. That’s always a challenge. It’s an intentional effort. This does not happen by accident. Developers don't build this just because. I’m very proud of what we’ve done. This is not complete. We’re not finished."
How does Amazon pick its Connecticut locations? Its new massive warehouse proposal offers clues
Minutes from the Connecticut line in Charlton, Massachusetts, the massive new Amazon warehouse is virtually invisible to many nearby residents, perched on a hilltop with a deep screen of trees to block sightlines from neighbors below.
Only time will tell whether a developer will achieve a similar effect for a planned fulfillment center Amazon wants south of Interstate 84 on a leafy hilltop spanning the Waterbury-Naugatuck line. Inland wetlands commission hearings for Bluewater Property Group's planned Amazon warehouse were tabled on short notice last week in Waterbury and Naugatuck to the first week of November, providing extra time for analysis of the site by external consultant Tighe & Bond.
Already the largest corporate employer in Connecticut with some 17,000 workers and more during the holidays, Amazon would get bigger yet in hiring between 500 and 1,000 people to staff the new fulfillment center if it is built in the Waterbury-Naugatuck Industrial Park.
Among the major questions for some nearby residents — how visible will the facility be, and will the economic benefits outweigh any disruptions to surrounding residential neighborhoods during construction and subsequent operation?
Steve Schrag is among the skeptics, having been a long-time resident of the Gilmartin neighborhood just east of the site. Schrag is familiar with Waterbury's economic history, whether collapsed industries that have dotted the city with polluted sites that are difficult to redevelop; the Brass Mill Center mall which has struggled with vacancies in recent years; or decisions by major employers like Webster Financial which moved headquarters functions to Stamford more than two years ago.
"There's mixed feelings in the neighborhood — there are some people who are unalterably opposed to it and want to keep the land the way it is, and there are some people who are open to something else," Schrag said. "Their track record, and our city's track record with corporate visitors, is not good."
Regionalization
To date in Connecticut, Amazon has grabbed commercial properties in varying settings for its fulfillment, sorting and delivery facilities — with some noteworthy gaps in the geographic map today.
Visible from a lengthy distance on Day Hill Road in Windsor, Amazon's Old Iron Ore Road facility is located in a district dominated by existing commercial facilities with easy highway access.
The facade of Amazon's massive facility on Kennedy Road in Windsor is likewise in plain view from the roadway, with OJ Thrall's historic shade tobacco barn next door offering a contrasting visual of Connecticut's historic agrarian days with the modern economy. But along the nearest residential neighborhood off River Road, many houses are at lower elevations with intervening tree canopies on the slope providing a visual barrier for all but a few properties.
A South Windsor delivery center is adjacent to highway ramps to minimize the impact of traffic on neighbors, and a Stratford center is located in an existing commercial park occupied by FedEx, which sees similar levels of commercial vehicle traffic. But in Connecticut and the wider region, Amazon has not shied away from siting its delivery stations in commercial zones that are in close proximity to residential streets, including on a single-lane stretch of Route 25 on the Trumbull-Monroe line that is several miles from the nearest highway.
Amazon still has what amount to delivery station deserts in Connecticut, notably in congested lower Fairfield County and in eastern Connecticut where the company does not list any major locations today. Amazon had been moving ahead with the shuttered Plainfield Greyhound Park site on Interstate 395 for a warehouse midway between Norwich and Killingly, but the company tabled the development with no indication whether it would try to get it back into motion at a future date.
In Norwalk, the sprawling Norden Park property on Interstate 95 has long represented a potential candidate site, but with neighborhood opposition likely to be stiff given tight residential streets and highway ramps that are susceptible to gridlock already.
In an initial response to CT Insider questions on its Connecticut expansion and site selection process, an Amazon spokesperson provided little insight into what drives the timing and location for new centers, stating only decisions were driven by "business need and serving customers, employees, and partners" as worded in an email. Left unanswered as well was the specific rationale for the Waterbury-Naugatuck Industrial Park location, versus other sites Amazon and Bluewater might have considered east or west on I-84.
"In an effort to deliver products quicker and more efficiently to our customers we’ve engaged with a developer about the possibility of adding a new fulfillment center creating up to 1,000 full-time jobs with comprehensive benefits along the Waterbury-Naugatuck border," stated Amazon spokesperson Mike Murphy. "The developer is in the early stages of local approvals with the municipalities and discussions with the community. We look forward to the prospects of this development opportunity.”
Amazon relies on a hub-and-spoke model to get products to customers. Fulfillment centers act as hubs, taking bulk shipments of products to be stocked in coded bins and delivered to packing stations to fulfill incoming orders. Amazon trucks those orders to sortation centers, where they are redistributed to delivery stations for the final, "last mile" hop to homes and businesses.
In early August, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy expanded on what is driving the push to get more delivery stations closer to customers along with supporting fulfillment and sortation centers, repeatedly citing an internal "cost-to-serve" formula Amazon applies, during a conference call reviewing the company's most recent quarterly results.
"Regionalizing our inbound network ... [is] going to lower our cost-to-serve and get items more close to end users, and diminish the amount of time it takes to get them to customers," Jassy said in August. "That allows us to add more selection. And we see this time-in and time-out when we add more selection: customers actually consider us for more of their purchases, and spend more with us down the line."
Tandem economic development?
The closest Amazon delivery center to the Waterbury-Naugatuck Industrial Park is about 20 miles distant in Bristol near ESPN's headquarters campus. A Danbury delivery center just off I-84 is the farthest outpost from any Amazon fulfillment or sortation center in Connecticut, with the Waterbury-Naugatuck site about 30 miles distant.
Amazon has multiple distribution facilities west of Danbury in the lower Hudson River valley as well, including a "receive" facility on a former IBM property in East Fishkill that stores bulk shipments from product companies for subsequent transfer to fulfillment centers.
At any given moment, Amazon trucks and vans face a gauntlet of traffic at the Connecticut-New York line and passing through Danbury on I-84 depending on volumes and accidents, but the company has not been averse to choosing other locations in Connecticut prone to congestion, such as I-95, I-91 and I-291. The Waterbury-Naugatuck Industrial Park is located just off a Route 8 exit a few miles south of the cities' "Mixmaster" bridge over the Naugatuck River, another notorious Connecticut choke point for traffic.
Bluewater Property Group has made public birds-eye view approximations of tree buffers it would leave in place at wooded Waterbury-Naugatuck Industrial Park, and filed sample photos two years ago with city planners to illustrate the views from nearby properties when branches are stripped bare in winter. A few daytime photos show that small portions of the building's facade would be visible from some properties on streets that ring part of the hilltop, with the impact of nighttime lighting at the facility unclear. Bluewater plans to plant an additional screen of fir trees that would further hide the building's facades as they grow over time.
"They are going to be very selective about which trees have to come down and which ones can ultimately stay," said Thomas Hyde, executive director of the Waterbury Development Corp. and CEO of the Naugatuck Valley Regional Development Corp. "They're not just going to go in there and clearcut it — wherever they can keep those trees up to have that buffer, they're going to do that."
With Waterbury a city of hills, the facility would be in plain view from other elevated sections of the city where the tree line does not block sightlines completely, particularly in winter. But Brass City residents are accustomed to an industrialized setting, even if the sheer scale of the new Amazon facility goes on beyond what they have seen before.
Amazon likewise chose a hill for a sortation center in Charlton, Massachusetts, which is expected to open by November less than 15 minutes from where I-84 enters Connecticut. Andrew Golas, Charlton's town administrator, told CT Insider the developer was successful in tucking the Amazon facility behind an upward sloping buffer of trees. Charlton had been trying for two decades to lure a big employer to the Route 20 corridor running parallel with the Massachusetts Turnpike, Golas added, with the town kicking in property tax incentives over a 10-year period to help cement Amazon's decision to land there.
"There's a limited number of places where you can get that effect," Golas said. "I'm sure that they were looking at other locations. ... This, with its proximity to [I-84] and the Mass Pike, really fit within their logistical plan."
Amazon released a study last week estimating that for every dollar it spends in the United States on its distribution facilities, that generates an extra $1.20 in economic impact. Analyzing mid-size counties where Amazon has built centers, annual median income is $1,350 higher in the counties where it has centers than those where it does not, Amazon reported.
Add it up, and it equates to a $1 trillion ripple effect since 2010 — though with a devastating boomerang effect on brick-and-mortar retailers who have lost business to Amazon over the years. Amazon notes that it supports independent sellers with its platform that employed more than 1.8 million people as of 2023 by its estimate.
Charlton now hopes to capitalize on the new fulfillment center by dangling candidate sites for other commercial developers, Golas said. The home run? A new supermarket which the town does not have today.
"We're hoping this is kind of a hub. We're going to have a lot of jobs for a lot of people in this central location, but then off of that we know there's all the ancillary developments that can occur down the road that are going to support all these people coming to town to work," Golas said. "The people who want grocery stores or the people who want restaurants — our hope is that this will help Charlton foster this economic revival here in town."
Hyde said that would be Waterbury's and Naugatuck's playbook as well — but he expects the cities to wait until the project is a full go before setting up those channels for ripple commercial development.
"There's a time to do that, and I would say we're quickly getting to that time," Hyde said. "We don't think there's anything that's going to cause this project not to get through — but at the same time you don't want to be out in front of a project before it's a done deal."
What's next
From the perspective of some Waterbury and Naugatuck residents, it is not a done deal yet as Schrag sees it. In 2022, Bluewater won changes in zoning regulations in Naugatuck and Waterbury to accommodate the Amazon fulfillment center design, but it still requires an overall approval from city zoning officials, according to Hyde. Beyond next month's inland wetlands commission hearings and vetting processes, Bluewater still needs to complete the land acquisition and obtain an OK from the Connecticut Department of Transportation.
A coordinator for the Hopeville Neighborhood Association adjacent to the property told CT Insider the group plans to discuss the project at a Wednesday meeting.
"I do ... know some are bothered with how there will be extra traffic," Lani Brown wrote in a text message.
In addition to traffic on neighborhood roads, Schrag said the cities need to give careful consideration to the impact on nearby properties of construction, and the destruction of a hilltop wooded oasis in the city's South End. The hilltop's ledges will require blasting, which Schrag worries could cause damage to foundations of nearby homes. He says he is not alone.
"I think that there's unanimity on that," Schrag said.
Includes prior reporting by Liese Klein, Paul Schott and Luther Turmelle, who contributed to this report.
New Wilton police station moves forward with steel-topping ceremony: 'Impressive' construction
WILTON — The town of Wilton is one step closer to unveiling its new police station, which is expected to open by next summer.
Police officers, town officials and building contractors celebrated a big step in the construction with a steel-topping ceremony on Oct. 1, which symbolizes the last metal steel beam placed on the new facility.
"We're really looking forward to improving the work environment," First Selectwoman Toni Boucher said in an interview.
The police station, which hosts 41 officers, has been in need of replacement for many years, Boucher said. In 2022, the Representative Town Meeting voted for $16 million to go toward building a new home for the department. Work on the project began in May.
The steel-topping ceremony means all the steel beams have been placed, with the last one signed by those involved in the project. Boucher said community members were able to watch the last beam be placed, with an American flag flying high.
"It's nice to come to something like this," Boucher said.
Now that the beams are erected, siding and roofing will be added to the building, with the interior construction following, she said. With this progress, it is estimated that the new facility will be completed in about June or July 2025.
After the new facility debuts, the old building will be torn down, providing space for covered parking, she said.
Boucher said the current police building, which is over 50 years old, has exceeded its lifespan. It is not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, lacks space for services and was built to serve only male officers, who previously dominated the field.
In an interview, Deputy Police Chief Robert Cipolla said the new building will be about double the size of the current one, which was designed for only about 25 male officers.
With the force growing over the years and the addition of female officers, Cipolla said the police department had to get creative with its use of space.
The jail space will also be upgraded, with sound and sight separations for adults and juveniles, he said. There are four cells currently, and with need projections, the new building will offer only three cells.
"It's been impressive to watch, to see it happening," he said of the construction project.
Cipolla, who has been with the Wilton Police Department for 20 years, said he will be sad to see the old building go. But the new one, he said, "is for the future."
"We needed this building for our police department to continue to provide the modern and professional police services that we do now," Cipolla said.
Police Chief Thomas Conlan previously said the new station will appeal to new recruits, as it will be able to host the department's 45-officer maximum.
The new facility will be better equipped for its function and staffing, specifically with bathroom facilities, ADA compliance, new heating and electrical systems, and computer wiring, Boucher said.
The new police station will also be an improved environment for the community, she added.
Boucher said the Wilton schools were top priority when it came to construction, then police and other first responders. After this, the town administration is looking to tackle repairs at Town Hall and Ambler Farm, she said.
Final steel beam tops South Norwalk School: 'Future of education,' with planned fall 2025 opening
NORWALK — School district leaders along with city and state officials stood chattering while taking turns at signing their names on a white steel beam, the last finishing touch on the skeleton of the new South Norwalk School.
Their excitement came ahead of that steel beam — bedecked with an artificial tree roughly 3 feet tall on one end and an American flag on the other — being raised atop the structure of the soon-to-be school.
Mike Buswell, who represented building, sales and development at Eastern Metal Works Inc., one of the school project’s subcontractors under Newfield Construction, said he wasn’t sure of the official reason for the artificial tree balancing the flag on the beam, but said it represented growth and opportunity to him.
This sentiment abounded at the Tuesday morning ceremony for the beam-topping, where Mayor Harry Rilling, state Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, Common Council President Darlene Young, Norwalk Public Schools Superintendent Alexandra Estrella — donning a pink cowgirl hard hat — and others lauded the opportunity the school will offer to the community once completed.
The principal of South Norwalk School emphasized the importance of the first new neighborhood school in the area in over 40 years. His school’s current campus is the site of the old Columbus Magnet School, which has since been renamed and relocated to 21 Hunters Lane as Concord Magnet School.
“I feel the joy,” Principal Randall Austin said. “I’m excited for the joy we’re going to fill these halls with.”
Austin said he is most excited for the school and community events programming that can take place in the new school’s gym, noting that being the principal of the school in the neighborhood he grew up in is rewarding.
The students will be equally eager to enter the new school building, Superintendent Estrella said.
“It’s going to be very exciting for the kids to transfer over and be able to graduate in the new complex,” Estrella said. “This is a site that symbolizes a lot of community advocacy and efforts to ensure students have a place they can go with home close by.”
Without traveling far to go to another school, students can be “fully immersed in the learning experience,” she said.
The new school building, on which crews broke ground in April, is a marker of development and progress in education on Norwalk, Duff said.
“Today marks a significant milestone not only for the South Norwalk community but for the future of education in our city,” he said. “This new school represents a long-overdue investment in our children, giving them a state-of-the-art facility to learn and thrive.”
The school at 1 Meadow St. Ext. is slated to open and welcome students in fall 2025, initially serving prekindergarten through third grade students. It will phase in additional grades in the following years to serve up to fifth grade students.
With funding for a nearby roundabout, the new school will emphasize community, walkability and safety, according to city Department of Transportation, Mobility and Parking Director Jim Travers.
The school building project itself has a 60 percent reimbursement rate from the state.
“It will save our taxpayers millions and millions of dollars,” Rilling said of the project priced at $76 million.
The state’s utility regulator has issued draft decisions imposing $75 million in cuts on two natural gas utilities, which their parent company, Orange-based Avangrid Inc., says will cause infrastructure upgrades to be deferred and lead to higher prices for customers.
Last week, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) issued a draft decision in a rate case for utility companies Connecticut Natural Gas (CNG) and Southern Connecticut Gas (SCG), reducing each company’s revenue by more than $35 million.
In the draft decision for CNG, PURA set a revenue requirement of $403.4 million, which is $38.8 million less than the utility’s current funding level, or an 8.8% decrease.
CNG requested a 4.46% increase in revenue, which it said would fund “essential reliability and resiliency projects across its service area.”
For SCG, PURA set the company’s revenue requirement at $399.4 million, which is $36.6 million less than the utility’s current level, or an 8.4% decrease.
SCG requested a 9.92% increase in revenue, also for reliability and resiliency projects.
CNG and SCG had not requested an increase in rates since 2018 and 2017, respectively.
The president and CEO of both utilities, Frank Reynolds, said the companies oppose the revenue cuts.
“These exorbitant decreases, which exceed the net income the companies earned last year, will almost certainly lead to immediate credit rating downgrades, even by more than one rating,” Reynolds said. “Already, credit agencies are evaluating these draft decisions as ‘worse than expected, ‘punitive’ and demonstrative of ‘a challenging regulatory environment in Connecticut’ – all of which signal downgrades on the horizon.”
A credit rating downgrade would affect the utilities’ ability to access capital at affordable rates, he said.
That would cause investments in system reliability and sustainability to be deferred, and customers will see higher prices as the companies have to sell bonds at higher prices, Reynolds said.
PURA rejected nearly all funding for cybersecurity, which could put customers’ personal identifying information at risk, he added.
PURA denied capital expenditures that it determined were "not used and useful." Under PURA's new ratemaking policy, it will allow a utility to earn a reasonable return on invested capital once the project has been completed and is providing a benefit to the public.
For example, CNG sought to recover costs for gas mains that have not yet gone into service, claiming that "the mains are used and useful because they are capitalized consistent with generally accepted accounting principles..."
PURA wasn't convinced.
"Nonetheless, while the mains may meet the company's definition of used and useful for accounting purposes, they do not meet the used and useful standard for utility service."
The draft decisions denied funding for any capital infrastructure investments after April 2024, which Reynolds said “paralyzes our ability to build an energy system of the future, forcing us to meet tomorrow’s demands with yesterday’s resources.”
Together, CNG and SCG serve 391,000 customers in Connecticut.
Final decisions in the rate case are expected on Nov. 18.