Home Care In Simsbury, CT

Simsbury officials have rejected a New Jersey developer’s plan to build 432 apartments and rental houses along Route 10, the second time this month that a central Connecticut community balked at a massive residential complex.

The Silverman Group’s newest version of its Talcott Ridge South proposal would have created 10 three-story apartment buildings, 33 duplexes and 41 single-family houses along Route 10 just south of the sprawling Ridge at Talcott Mountain project.

The Silverman Group last year scaled back its original plan for 580 rental units including a series of four-story apartment buildings, while adding a small retail and restaurant component. But the Zoning Commission concluded that was still too much housing with far too little of the other elements Simsbury wants in a mix-use development of the property.

In a somewhat similar development just a week earlier, Newington officials gave a chilly response to the Raitses family’s proposal to demolish a retail strip center and replace it with 273 apartments.

Newington is already short on retail space, and making the town center more walkable and vibrant requires more than another large-scale influx of apartments, the town plan and zoning commission said in an informal talk with the family. One commissioner after another said redeveloping the strip plaza on Lowrey Place could add housing, but should also provide ground-floor restaurant and retail space.

Officials in both towns acknowledged that the state still faces a serious housing shortage, but said that reason alone doesn’t justify authorizing hundreds of apartments without adequate commercial construction as well.

Simsbury’s zoning commission voted 5-1 last week to reject the controversial Talcott Ridge South proposal, despite the Silverman Group’s recent revisions to make it smaller, boost the percent of affordable apartments and add nonresidential components.

The property is part of The Hartford’s former 172-acre campus along Route 10 that closed a little more than 10 years ago. Simsbury created a special plan for redeveloping the property, with goals of adding offices and space for technology firms, new employment and fresh retail along with apartments.

On the northern end of the property, the Silverman Group years ago built about 420 apartments at the Talcott Ridge North complex. Last year, it proposed building more of the same on the southern end, but with the addition of rental duplexes and one-family homes.

Opposition was strong at public hearings, where residents complained that adding nearly 600 new rental units would bring an influx of students and severely boosting the education budget. They also warned it would worsen traffic on Route 10, ruin scenic views of Talcott Mountain, and create costly new demands on municipal services.

In a prepared statement explaining its vote, the zoning commission last week noted that the area’s development plan called for a blend of different uses to form “a vibrant, walkable community.” The statement said Silverman’s proposal fell short in several ways.

“The applicant’s proposal remains overwhelmingly a residential project in land area, square footage and use mix. One 27,500-square-foot flex commercial building with no specific uses disclosed and one 5,000-square-foot restaurant does not meet the intend of a mixed-use development,” it said.

In addition, a small restaurant and the single commercial building wouldn’t support any long-term way of attracting new jobs jobs and economic development. The development regulations call for office, technology and health care uses complemented by housing and retail, the commission said.

Further, Silverman’s new proposal doesn’t benefit the public by adding public amenities, open space, civic sites or public parks, commissioners said.

The regulations call for permanent employment opportunities to replace some of the jobs and economic development lost when The Hartford shut down its 600,000-square-foot offices and transferred 1,500 employees elsewhere.

The commission also objected to Silverman’s plan for every home to be rented, with no opportunity for purchase. Offering a variety of rental and for-sale homes would be better for the town, it said.

The vote to approve was 5-1, with Commissioner Tucker Salls dissenting.

“We are in a housing crisis, the homeless population in Connecticut is the highest it’s ever been,” Salls said.

“I’m constantly seeing on our social media in Simsbury people asking where they can try to find a place they can afford to live,” Salls said. “Senior citizens cannot downsize, they don’t have anywhere to go, meaning they stay in their existing home. So new residents can’t move into that home.”

Salls pointed out that the Silverman Group added the 27,500-square-foot commercial building to satisfy the commission, even though he projected it would be hard to lease in the current economy. Further, the company boosted the share of affordable apartments from 10% to 15% also to satisfy the commission.

“They were trying to put in 65 deed-restricted affordable units,” Salls said.

SIMSBURY — As the proposition of a 580-unit development looms over Simsbury, multiple residents passionately expressed their opposition to its construction, saying that it could destroy the rural character of the town they call home.

Located at the site of The Hartford's former campus on Hopmeadow Street, the development will comprise 580 units, ranging from one-bedroom apartments to four-bedroom houses, an uptick from the 540 units depicted in an earlier proposal.

Citing concerns over overcrowding local schools and damaging the rural character of the town, more than 15 residents spoke out against The Silverman Group's, a New Jersey-based developer, plans for a residential development at a Zoning Commission public hearing Monday night.

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"We live here, and purchased our homes here because of the character of Simsbury," one long-time resident said, which resulted in applause from the audience.

As a counterpart to the already developed The Ridge at Talcott Mountain North, the new development would occupy the site of the 645,239-square-foot former office complex, which closed in 2013 and was demolished in 2016 to prepare for redevelopment. Developer representatives emphasized Monday that the design of the project prioritized staying within the already disturbed area occupied by The Hartford and its parking lot infrastructure.

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But at 124 acres, the sheer size of the residential community — called The Ridge at Talcott Mountain South — was the source of many residents' opposition, who feared that the construction could mean the beginning of Simsbury's spiral into a more developed town.

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"The town is turning out like the town I left," said Simsbury resident Mary Turner.

Another reason that many residents love Simsbury is because of its quality school system, but building more developments will overcrowd these schools, they said.

The number of public school students that will be generated by The Ridge at Talcott Mountain South development and enrolled in the Simsbury Public School District is estimated at between 96 to 115, according to the school impact study conducted for the developer. But multiple community members said at the meeting that they felt that was an extremely conservative number.

Developers projected that the increases in enrollment would not result in increases above the recommended class size. But Latimer Lane School, which is located less than one mile from the development, is already struggling with capacity, residents said.

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Additionally, several residents said that the traffic in this area was terrible when The Hartford complex was active, and now that there are additional developments nearby as well as potentially this new one, it will be even worse. The project site abuts Hopmeadow Street (Route 10/Route 202), which serves as the main southern gateway and commercial corridor of Simsbury.

"The commission should be representing not people who want to live here, but people who do already live here," said resident Lori Boyko at the public hearing. "By speaking to literally anyone in this town, you know, that this is unequivocally not what any of us want."

But resident Pete Harrison, who is the director of Desegregate Connecticut, also spoke at the public hearing, saying that the need for affordable housing should take precedent.

The Ridge at Talcott Mountain South will set aside 10 percent, or 58, of the dwelling units across all building types as “affordable” units in a manner consistent with the requirements contained in Connecticut General Statutes 8-30g, according to the application.

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Simsbury's affordable housing stock is currently at 5.1 percent, according to a recent statewide report.

However, Harrison did also note that the town should be doing more to create not only rental homes, but homes to buy, an idea that many other residents at the meeting agreed with.

“I would strongly recommend this admission push for some homeownership options,” he said. “We do not have enough homes in Simsbury.”

The one-bedroom apartments will be priced at around $1,600 per month, and the two-bedroom apartments at $2,100 per month, said Holden Sabato, development director of The Silverman Group, at the meeting. The duplex units are priced at $3,500 a month, and the single-family houses are estimated at just over $5,000 in monthly rent.

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In addition to the residential units, a 5,500-square-foot community building, including a playground, gym, game room, and other amenities, is proposed to be centrally located among the cluster of apartment buildings.

The project site is also surrounded by protected wetlands that abut the Farmington River, and development plans also include a multi-use trail system along the site’s frontage that would link the newly extended Farmington River Trail to the north and continue toward the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail Rail Trail (off site) to the west.

The Zoning Commission voted Monday to continue the public hearing to its Jan. 3 meeting.

Full build-out of The Ridge at Talcott Mountain South is estimated to be completed some time between the middle of 2026 and the start of 2027, according to the project application documents.

SIMSBURY — Every October, the steady stream of cars along Hartford Road between Simsbury and Bloomfield slows down slightly, just to get a peek of the larger-than-life, spooky decorations that fill one resident's front yard.

The excited honks, photos snapped through car windows, and frequent stops in the driveway to get a closer look act as a testament to Simsbury resident Jeremy Harrison's hard work.

For Harrison, 41, Halloween preparation begins in March. That gives him enough time to completely design his decorations through computerized models, 3D-print individual pieces of each creation, and put it all together come the first of October.

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"Halloween is a fun time that you can kind of just build something," he said.

And this year, Harrison decided to transform his front yard at 129 Hartford Road into an elaborate display inspired by the Netflix show "Stranger Things," with mannequins of the characters placed strategically throughout his front yard, 3D-printed Demogorgons and a completely DIY-ed, bright red Mind Flayer monster that stands at around 12 feet tall.

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And out of the around 15 years he’s done various yard displays, with a different theme each Halloween, Harrison said the "Stranger Things" theme might be his favorite so far. “There was a lot to work with,” he said. “It was fun.”

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The latest few years Harrison's yard themes were "Star Wars" and most recently, "Ghostbusters," and a yearly display could cost anywhere from $1,000 and $2,000, he said. "It's an expensive hobby."

But, as an IT analyst, Harrison has used his own skills to get creative with how he brings these spooky concepts to life in a way that doesn't completely break the bank.

After the note-taking and inspiration stage, he computerizes his own designs in his home office, drawing from the most recognizable monsters and characters in whichever theme he chooses, and then dices each blueprint into smaller pieces so that it can transfer to his 3D printer in the basement, where his ideas come to life.

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The design process alone can take up to two months, and the printing, piecing together, and painting several more. Beginning in the spring, he dedicates around eight hours a week to working on his display, he said.

But to him, all of the time and effort was completely worth it, he said.

“I love the feeling after I build something and it works,” he said. “When I start to put things out and see things come together from inside my head — that’s my favorite part.”

Seeing his giant Mind Flayer creation come alive at the edge of his yard was especially rewarding, as its size makes it impossible to miss for drivers passing by. This figure is actually made from pool noodles, PVC wrapped in shrink wrap and spray foam, Harrison said.

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And some decorations, like mannequins, he’ll reuse every year, simply changing out the clothes and wigs. But for many of the complex figures in his yard, he starts completely from scratch.

Harrison tries to create what he can from household items, like the vines draped along the entire front of the house that are made using aluminum foil wrapped in black plastic wrap.

Like all kids, Harrison loved Halloween growing up, but it wasn’t until around when he was in college that he began to see it in a new way.

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“Finding out that you know, I kind of really enjoyed the creative aspect of it," he said. "It's a holiday where you can sit there and be like, 'I'm gonna build some crazy stuff. And people are gonna love it.'"

Harrison first started 3D printing smaller figures around seven years ago as a hobby, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped print PPE supplies for local hospitals. "After that was all said and done, I was like, I could use this more for my outside display for Halloween," he recalled.

So, for the past few years, he's been able to use to his own printed creations for the front yard. It’s really time that has helped the most, he said, as he is constantly learning how to improve his decorations, getting better products with every creation.

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"As my wife likes to say, practice makes improvement," he laughed.

And his entire family was supportive of his hobby, acting as a sounding board for bringing fictional worlds to life every year, he said. And because it’s always hard for Harrison to narrow the holiday down to just one theme, he relies on his wife and kids’ input to solidify the theme. That’s where the "Stranger Things" idea came from, he said, as his three daughters had watched the show multiple times, and he'd sit with them and jot down notes to get ideas.

“It makes him happy. He enjoys it,” said his wife, Katie Harrison. “It's a good hobby to have. It’s something that he can do that the family can enjoy, our neighbors can enjoy, everybody seems to enjoy.”

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Hung on the refrigerator and pinned on the wall in the Harrison household are several letters from neighbors and other local residents, all of which express their gratitude for the time he puts into his display every year, and how happy and exciting it is for them to see.

And it’s that kind of community impact that keeps Harrison inspired to do such epic displays every year, he said. Harrison also credits his neighbors, who he said are especially supportive and even helped him carry out the more giant decorations into the front yard when it’s time to finalize the set up. “We lucked out,” he said.

Come Nov. 1, the decorations will start to come down. But even once he’s done a theme, not much goes to waste.

Harrison also throws Halloween events for local schools, in which he brings over his decorations from previous years, like the 30-foot inflatable Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from his "Ghostbusters" display last Halloween that he will be bringing this year.

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And he already has a "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme in mind for next year. Given that he has to start his creative process so early, he's already begun rewatching those movies and taking notes for next year's designs, he said.

Oct 25, 2023

SIMSBURY—The Cambridge Crossing website shows a model houses with classic white porch pillars, manicured lawns and top end landscaping, tree-lined streets and cul de sacs, and brags of a low-cost home owners association that will cover snow and leaf removal, mowing and trash service.

In a note to potential homeowners, Sunlight Construction owner/developer writes that his company's goal is "to provide every client with outstanding service and care as we build their dreams."

But a walk through the half-finished neighborhood off Hoskins Road and near the International Skating Center is far from a dream, local residents say. There are no street or stop signs and street lights remain dark. Storm drains and sewer mains sit above grade because paving has not been completed, even in areas where building has been completed.

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Some houses are partially sided and others have no siding as contractors have stopped work. Curbs and sidewalks are intermittent. Instead of pillars, some homes front porch covers are supported by two-by-fours. Drainage is non-existent in some areas, unfinished in others.

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Frustration has been mounting among homeowners in the unfinished neighborhood, although they were hesitant to speak on the record for fear promised work may never happen.

"Bill refuses to respond to any correspondence from individuals in the community, including local lawyers and mortgage lenders," one owner said, referring to Bill Ferrigno, owner of Sunlight Construction.

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Ferrigno did not respond to several requests for comment about the situation at Cambridge Crossing. A chance encounter at his office on West Main Street in Avon did not yield results either as he declined comment.

Residents have turned to town officials as they look for help getting their neighborhood completed. Simsbury Town Planner George McGregor, who went to work in town about a year ago - the development was approved in 2018 - said the town is using the tools available to it, including declining to issue any more permits for new construction until the current issues are resolved.

McGregor also sent a letter to Ferrigno in January reiterating the residents concerns about the lack of street lights or signs and requested that he take care of the issue by June 1. McGregor also informed Ferrigno that no homes built in the western edge of the development would be given certificates of occupancy until a nearby slope that is eroding is stabilized. Neither the street lights and signs or the erosion control has happened, even after McGregor sent a reminder letter in May.

"The developer has been slow to respond and this has been frustrating to both the town and the residents of Cambridge Crossing," McGregor said in response to questions about the development.

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Different town, similar problem

Simsbury is not alone in its frustration in dealing with Sunlight and Ferrigno. Neighboring Avon has also been working to get compliance with conditions agreed to for the Bailey Road and Stafford Crossing developments.

In a June 1 letter to Ferrigno, Avon Town Manager Brandon Robertson reiterated long standing concerns from residents and town staff about "significant aspects of the development" that remain unfinished.

They include: a lack of final street grading; incomplete landscaping and fence construction; incomplete sanitary sewer installation; an unpaved cul de sac with no curbing; catch basins with improper grading and slope; and unrestored rights of way.

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Robertson said in the letter that he hoped that Ferrigno was not planning to ignore the issues due to recent state legislation that allows developers more than a dozen years to address construction issues.

Avon Town Planner Hiram Peck said the legislation allows developers who had project approved between 2011 and 2021 up to 14 years to complete the work agreed to with towns. The law went into effect in June 2021.

Peck said he believes the law was passed with good intentions to help developers and builders during the pandemic and supply chain shortages, but there have been unintended consequences from a local perspective as major issues related to roads, sidewalks and fences are ignored.

"A lot of this could have been prevented if (legislators) had called land use staff to if there needed to be some conditions," Peck said.

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Owners of homes in Ferrigno's Avon and Simsbury aren't the only ones dissatisfied with their experience with him. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal judgments against him by people who gave him down payments on homes only to have him not build anything, according to legal filings. In some of those cases, plaintiffs accuse Ferrigno of insisting that the buyer give him the down payment instead of having it held in escrow and then built nothing. Five similar lawsuits have been filed in 2023.

He has has had properties attached to make good on two of those judgments. He was also successfully sued for more than $300,000 in unpaid bills by Oxford Lumber and Building Supplies.

There are also mechanics and town tax liens in Avon and town tax and sewer liens in Simsbury that add up to more than $100,000.

Some of those lawsuits were referred to the state attorney general's office. Residents at Cambridge Crossing also complained and were told that because it was an HOA development the agency couldn't do anything. Elizabeth Benton, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office said that while her office is limited in the help it can provide on condominium developments, a separate homeowner complaint has been filed and she confirmed the state Department of Consumer Protection is investigating.

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Back in Simsbury

Homeowners in Cambridge Crossing have been waiting the last few years for constructiont and punch lists of unfinished work to be completed. Some have given up and spent their own money completing work that was included in the purchase price. Others who are still waiting to have their home finished have given up and put the property up for sale.

The community was also formed as a home owner's association, which means monthly HOA fees of $300 for scarce services on top of an initial $1,800 payment. Enough homes have been closed on to facilitate the election of a board, but that has yet to happen. Homeowners suspect that is because the developer would have to show the total amount collected for fees from more than 30 homeowners would have to be disclosed and what the money has been spent on.

"We don't know if that money exists," said one owner.

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June 21, 2023|Updated June 23, 2023 7:33 a.m.

By Steven Goode

Steven has been a reporter for more than 30 years, spending most of that time at the Hartford Courant. He has covered schools, crime, courts, politics, public safety and business and the mortgage industry. In his free time Steven enjoys camping, going to the beach, reading mysteries, discovering new IPAs and rollercoasters and spending time with his family.

SIMSBURY — After numerous, hours-long public hearings that have overtaken zoning meetings in recent months, the town is one step closer to deciding whether to move forward with a large development proposed at the The Hartford's former campus.

The Zoning Commission voted on Feb. 5 to close the public hearing on the New Jersey-based developer The Silverman Group's application for constructing The Ridge at Talcott Mountain-South at 200 Hopmeadow St., with the goal of making a decision later this month.

As a result of comments made during the last few public hearings, The Silverman Group has made a series of modifications to its proposal in recent weeks, including reducing the number of residential units from 580 to 432, and adding a commercial aspect to the site plan, with space for a restaurant and stores, instead of a solely residential development.

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But these adjustments may not be enough to persuade the Zoning Commission to approve the proposed project, as Commission Chairman Bruce Elliott said toward the end of the three-hour meeting Monday that, knowing what they know now, he had doubts that they would be able to get four members to vote in favor of the application.

"We’re trying to add something to the community,” Elliott said. "Not just another sea of apartments."

Members of the public and the commission said they wanted to see something more in line with the ideas outlined in the Hartford-Simsbury Form-Based Code, which applies to the property where this development is proposed.

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The code encourages "the reuse of the South Hartford Site and Building for office, technology, health care and support services, while preserving where feasible the environmentally sensitive design of the overall site, with a mix of complementary uses including housing, retail, offices, commercial services, and civic uses, supporting long-term attractiveness for both employment uses and neighborhood use," according to the code.

The Silverman Group also increased the development's affordable units from 10 to 15 percent, so there would be 65 units set aside as affordable, but stopped short of changing other things commonly brought up throughout the hearings like adding a home ownership option, further reducing the size, and providing more unique mixed-use options for the site.

"It’s unfortunate that the public opinion is so bad toward us considering we built, I think, a good community," said Blake Silverman, president of The Silverman Group, on Monday in reference to their already-constructed development to the north. "But at the end of the day, we want to build something else that's first in class that's going to provide a good benefit for the community."

The new addition of the restaurant and commercial space would be an amenity not only for the residential community, but the town at large, developer representatives said. The revised application also replaces the single-family units on the south side of the site with duplex units, resulting in a decrease of 27 single-family units and increase of 42 duplex units, totaling 41 single-family units and 66 duplex units.

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T.J. Donahue, the attorney representing The Silverman Group, emphasized at the latest public hearing that this application was not a zone change request, and that they were applying within the bounds of the Hartford-Simsbury Form-Based Code, and called those comments "irrelevant."

"Not many of them are helpful, and by my count came from less than 72 individuals balanced against 280 families or individuals who are delighted to live in our northern community, and in the context of 24,000 residents and 7,500 separate residences who were happy to let the process continue to work," he said.

But that comment itself received backlash from some of the residents who spoke on Monday.

"They’re irrelevant to you, sir, maybe, but not to us," said resident Todd Angus. "We live here. They're not irrelevant to the townspeople. They'll have to live with whatever is built here."

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The room in the Simsbury Library filled with claps after the first couple of speakers spoke in opposition to the development before Elliott told them to stop.

Even reducing the sheer number of the apartments, and making all apartment buildings three stories instead of having some with four, seemed to do little to convince residents that this development will fit in with their town.

At the hearing Monday, resident Pat Weisbrich called The Ridge at Talcott Mountain-South a project that should have been dead on arrival. Many speakers encouraged the commission to get more creative when thinking about what else goes at the 124-acre site, and one resident even suggested an amusement park.

Ultimately, multiple residents said the application was not at a state that the commission should feel confident moving forward with, and said they still had unanswered questions and little clarification.

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"We're hearing revision after revision after revision at every meeting, even some tonight, and even some that are projected to be down the road,” said resident Robert Clark.

And that was a sentiment that many commission members said they agreed with. "There’s a lot of uncertainty here," Elliott said, and added that closing the public hearing would allow them to take time to further think about and discuss the information they have.

“I think what we’ve heard from the public has been pretty clear,” said commission member Shannon Leary.

Leary made a motion directing the town to prepare a draft denial motion of The Silverman Group's application for consideration and action at the next meeting. That motion was approved.

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Just because the commission will have a draft denial doesn’t mean it will have to deny the application come Feb. 21, but it would be prepared to do so.

Feb 7, 2024

Natasha Sokoloff is a reporter with Hearst Connecticut Media Group covering the Farmington Valley area. She is originally from Southern California and recently graduated from the University of Richmond with a double major in journalism and leadership studies. Natasha has experience covering local and state government, education and social justice issues.