AA Learn more about in-home care options for your loved ones

CLINTON – A proposal to turn a former motel into an apartment complex faced concerns from commissioners and residents at a Planning and Zoning meeting Monday that the redevelopment would push out poorer residents currently living there on short-term leases.

During the public hearing on Westbrook-based Dattilo Group’s plans to develop a complex of 40 one-bedroom apartments – with four designated affordable units – other commissioners felt the project would be a welcome facelift to the property, but worried a “floating zone” the developer is proposing sets a dangerous precedent.

The property, the former A Victorian Village Inn at 345 E. Main St. on the border with Westbrook, has been leased to residents who can’t afford to live elsewhere in Clinton, Commissioner Cinzia Lettieri said at the meeting.

“We have residents who can’t afford to live in long-term rentals, and because they most likely can’t afford to live in apartments or buy a home in Clinton, I’m concerned we haven’t talked about if they will be displaced,” Lettieri said.

A letter from an anonymous tenant that was read into the record said there are at least 35 people who would be left homeless if the project went ahead, mostly manual laborers who can’t afford market-rate rents.

“We go to bed hopeless and we wake up hopeless,” the letter read. “[Three] cabins have lived there 13 years while Dattilo took their rent.”

Dan Ackerman, with Dattilo Group, said they are not looking to charge “exorbitant prices” for the new units and price people out. He said they would try to avoid disturbing existing tenants as much as possible.

“It’d be our intention to try to retain the current tenancy as much as possible, and we’d work with them in order to do so,” Ackerman said.

Dattilo attorney Andrea Gomes said there have not been conversations with current residents yet. But she said they have to consider the Fair Housing Act, and giving existing tenants or Clinton residents preference for the new units keeps other people from having fair access.

Dattilo’s proposal involves demolishing four buildings at the back of the property and building a two-story building with 26 apartments. The remaining eight buildings would be converted into 14 one-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot apartments.

Gomes argued the concerns of existing residents are valid, but aren’t part of the commission’s decision on whether to approve a floating zone that would allow a multifamily residential development in what is now an industrial zone.

She said the project advances the town’s development goals by bringing new rentals and renovating properties in the corridor at the town line with Westbrook.

In their letter, the anonymous tenant disputed that the proposed development would be a more “welcoming and cohesive” character as the entryway into Clinton, as Gomes maintained when first presenting the concept in May.

“It’s a big old parking lot with Tyvek buildings. (60 car spaces!),” the letter said. “Nothing welcoming or cohesive about that.”

Commissioner Ellen Dahlgren said the proposal appears to improve the corridor and would provide some low-cost housing, but she continues to have major reservations about using floating zones.

Dahlgren said she thought it was a mistake to include them in the zoning regulations in the first place, when it allowed them in 2016 to pave the way for a CVS on Boston Post Road, which Commissioner Eddie Alberino said he still hears complaints about.

Dahlgren said the town is due to write a new Plan of Conservation and Development in a couple of years, and they may reconsider whether floating zones should still be allowed going forward.

“This would institute one more floating zone, making it that much more difficult to reevaluate the entire notion going forward,” she said.

Commissioner Bo Clark said approving this floating zone is essentially agreeing to multifamily housing anywhere in the industrial zone. He said that it opens speculation about certain developers benefiting from favoritism, warranted or not.

“In my opinion, these floating zones are just a dangerous thing for any town to have. I’d much rather see a zone change to something else that could incorporate this type of use,” Clark said. “This is the type of use that makes people say, ‘This is favoritism, the fix was in,’ because it leaves so much up to opinion.”

Commissioner Adam Moore said he’s not necessarily opposed to floating zones, and suggested the commissioners should have changed the regulations before this application.

“If we don’t want them, we should come up with new regulations, not bring it up in the middle of somebody’s application,” he said.

Gomes said Dattilo decided to propose a floating zone because it most closely fit what they were trying to accomplish. It would have been “messy” to try to amend the industrial zone standards to allow the development, and creating a new zone could be considered spot zoning – a fear the commission raised back in May, she said.

“Providing the commission with the discretion to first land [the floating zone], and then have to approve a special exception and site plan was the cleaner and more palatable approach to redeveloping the site without butchering your existing zoning regulations,” Gomes said.

The commission tabled a decision on the floating zone until its next meeting. If the floating zone is approved, the commission would then have to decide whether to approve the site plan for the development.

Brendan Crowley covers energy and the environment for CT Examiner. T: 860 598-0050

[email protected]

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

CLINTON — The Planning and Zoning Commission is set to deliberate two applications that would be the first steps to turn the Victorian Village Inn into 40 apartments if approved.

The two proposed zone changes would amend the town’s regulations to allow a Multifamily Adaptive Reuse Zone [MARZ], an overlay zone, and then “landing” it at the property at 345 West Main St., home to the decades-old short-term rental motel.

The deadline nears as the PZC must make a decision or seek an extension — with the applicant’s agreement — on the MARZ zone proposal at the Oct. 16 meeting. The commission has 65 days to make a decision after a public hearing is opened, according to Town Planner Abby Piersall.

However, zoners have more time to decide on the second application, which proposes to overlay the MARZ floating zone on the 1.8-acre property, according to Piersall. The hearing on the second part of the proposal was opened Sept. 11.

The public hearing on creating the MARZ zone was held in August, continued in September and tabled until Oct. 16.

Piersall stressed that if both applications were approved, the applicant would need to seek a special exception permit for the development to go forward.

At the first hearing in August on the MARZ zone, some residents and commissioners expressed concern that the apartment project would displace low-income tenants.

At the Aug. 14 meeting, one tenant said in a letter to the PZC that if the development “happens as planned, there will be at least 35 people left permanently homeless.”

“These people are mostly manual laborers and can’t afford post-Covid rent prices,” Diana Chase said in her letter. Three cabins have had tenants for 13 years, she said.

PZC member Cinzia Lettieri noted that many tenants are “immigrants to the country” and that she is “extremely and extraordinarily concerned about their wellbeing.”

More for you

“This is already an existing residential use, it’s supposed to be for short term rental purposes. It’s actually not,” Lettieri said, noting that “long-term residents” live there now.

The term “short-term rentals” means tenants pay month to month or have leases that are less than a year, according to an attorney representing the applicant. It does not refer to the number of years a resident has lived there, the attorney said.

Lettieri also said she would like to see an increase in the number of units designated as affordable housing.

“I don’t think Clinton needs any more houses being built that are $3,000 a month,” she said.

A representative for the applicant, Daniel Ackerman responded, “We’re not looking to charge exorbitant prices for these new units, by the way, and price people out,“ Ackerman said. “That’s not the intention.”

He said the applicant would try to “retain the current tenancy as much as possible, and we’d work with them.” He added, “A good many are already close to one-year leases as it is.”

At the September meeting, in a memo read into the record, attorneys said that while the concern “has no bearing on the application to rezone the property … the applicant intends to work with existing residents to the extent possible, and within the strictures of the Fair Housing Act, to ensure that all existing residents have an option to remain at the site, as redeveloped.” Attorney Scott MacNeil made the presentation at the Sept. 11 meeting.

PZC members also said rental costs had no bearing on these applications and the issue would be more appropriately addressed when a special exception application for the project comes before them.

According to attorney Timothy S. Hollister, who is also representing Victorian Village LLC, the number of units restricted as affordable housing will be “in the range of 15 percent.”

Hollister took over for fellow attorney, Andrea Gomes, who represented the developer up until the Sept. 11 meeting.

“All the units will look the same,” Gomes said in an earlier interview, referring to the appearance of the affordable versus market-rate units.

Preliminary plans are to demolish four buildings on the site and renovate the remaining eight buildings — interior and exterior — and turn them into 14 rental units, according to Gomes.

At the rear of the site, “a U-shaped building,” two stories high that will house 26 units will be constructed.

“So, we’re repurposing what we can on-site, putting in a big, beautiful building, all the bells and whistles that come with that,” Gomes said. “Improved stormwater, landscaping, lighting, parking with electric vehicle charging stations. There will be a grill area with a small gazebo.”

“It’s a bit of an unusual site. It was a motel. It’s now being used for short-term residential. It’s outdated. It needs work,” Gomes explained.

“But it’s surrounded — you’ve got the nursery there and Goodwill and Quality Propane in the back. A number of restaurants to the south,” she said.

The applicant took the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development into consideration as far as Clinton’s affordable housing plan, Gomes said.

“There’s a marked need for affordable housing and for housing generally,” Gomes said.

She added, “Another goal of the POCD is to modernize some of these older motels that are being used as short-term residential facilities.”

CLINTON – Connecticut Water will ask state regulators to boost its revenues by $21 million, or 18 percent, starting next July, the company said on Thursday.

The company did not say what the impact would be for customers — saying it would depend on the location and type of customer — but the company said it would raise the cost of a gallon of water from 1.5 cents to 1.8 cents, or 20 percent.

In 2021, Connecticut Water asked for a $20.2 million, or 20 percent, rate increase that would have raised the average residential customer’s bills by about $10.50 a month.

With headquarters in Clinton, Connecticut Water provides water to about 107,000 customers in 60 Connecticut towns, across over 1,800 miles of water main. Connecticut Water spokesman Dan Meaney said the rate hike request reflects continued investment in water infrastructure, increased costs of power and treatment chemicals, and the cost of borrowing since the last rate case.

Connecticut Water President Craig Patla said in a letter to PURA and state officials on Thursday that the company will complete $220 million worth of infrastructure projects between 2020 and January 2024 to maintain water quality, address “emerging contaminants” like PFAS, and meet new regulations for drinking water.

“We’re also not immune to the inflationary pressures of the current economy — in particular, rising prices in energy and chemicals — have had a direct impact on the cost of providing service to our customers and communities,” Patla said.

When PURA rejected Connecticut Water’s rate hike in 2021, allowing a revenue increase of just 1 percent, the company called it “among the harshest Connecticut utility rate decisions in recent memory,” and said it would have to return promptly to ask for another rate hike.

Connecticut utilities have bristled at PURA’s decisions since then. Last week, PURA approved a much smaller rate increase than Fairfield and New Haven county-based electric utility United Illuminating requested.

The decision followed a tense public argument between the company and state officials who thought UI’s public lobbying for their rate hike went too far. United Illuminating argued that PURA’s heightened scrutiny under Chair Marissa Gillett would hurt outside investment in the company, making it harder to finance grid improvements.

And Eversource subsidiary Aquarion Water is in court fighting PURA’s order that it cut its rates, instead of increasing its revenue by 28 percent as the company requested. That rate cut is on hold after a judge agreed to a stay until the appeal is decided.

“Connecticut Water understands that PURA has raised the standard for utilities to demonstrate that increasing rates is prudent and reasonable and we are preparing our case with that in mind,” Meaney said.

Brendan Crowley covers energy and the environment for CT Examiner. T: 860 598-0050

This post is sponsored and contributed by Thumbtack, a Patch Brand Partner.

Seasonal & Holidays

Taking care of your home can be scary! Tackle those household demons with professional help this fall.

The arrival of fall not only marks a change in season, but also reminds us of spine-chilling spider webs, ghoulish decor, and the thrill of Halloween. While many of us like our homes to be festively scary this time of year, we certainly don’t want it to give our neighbors the creeps year-round. Fortunately, Thumbtack, a home services app used by millions, has Clinton residents covered.

Burst water pipes, the dryer that shakes, and creaks in the floorboards are household woes that can turn up the scary factor in your home. But with a reliable partner like Thumbtack, these house horrors can be handled — no exorcist required!

Thumbtack connects homeowners with local professionals who can fix malfunctioning appliances, tame unruly landscaping, and repair structural troubles that haunt your everyday life. Whether you're looking for a one-time home improvement project or regular lawn maintenance services, Thumbtack makes it simple to search for and hire a professional who caters to your specific needs.

The Clinton community has plenty of pros ready to handle the horror and help with:

You can contact pros and request free cost estimates, allowing you to compare prices and choose the professional that best fits your budget. You can also read reviews, view how many times a business has been hired by others, and identify how long a business has been open.

Find out what's happening in Clintonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Remember: It may be Halloween, but that doesn’t mean your home has to be scary! With regular, proactive maintenance, Thumbtack can help you continuously care for your home so it’s in perfect shape all year long.

Caring for your home can be scary! Find and hire top-rated Clinton area pros to tackle even the most haunting of home projects.

This post is sponsored and contributed by Thumbtack, a Patch Brand Partner.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

10

Life seems to flow slowly, timelessly, inside the gates of the Kelseytown Reservoir in the upper reaches of Clinton, nestled in the Cockaponset State Forest far from Route 1 and the bustling shoreline.

There, the Connecticut Water Co. has operated one of its five surface water treatment plants since 1980, turning out up to 4 million drinkable gallons a day with just a few people watching over the pipes, valves and holding tanks in a ballet of nature and chemistry. Kelseytown has hydrated local customers since 1904, long before Connecticut Water formed.

It's a calming scene but as Paul Andrews, the company's water treatment plant supervisor, leads me on the water's path, the reality comes clear: This treatment plant, with $12 million in new upgrades just in the last five years, is part of a complex, expensive and changing water landscape in a state that still has some 400 independent, community water systems.

FALL SALE! Get 6 Months of Access for 99¢.

We are about to see a rate hike request from Connecticut Water to the state's Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, a case that will test the for-profit company's claim that it needs more money to modernize its home state's water purification and delivery. The company is expected to file preliminary papers for the rate case this week and while executives aren't saying the percent increase they will seek, it could be substantial.

This rate case comes at a watershed moment, pardon the pun. Regulators are not in a generous mood these days with utilities when it comes to spending customers' money. PURA, as the authority is known, has just whacked two utilities -- Aquarion, the state's largest water supplier, and United Illuminating, the electric company in parts of Fairfield and New Haven counties -- in rebukes that were heroic to weary ratepayers but bloody to the utilities crying foul.

Now comes Connecticut Water Co. with its bid. Third sacrificial lamb in the lion's den? No, says Craig Patla, the company president. He's confident that his company has the culture regulators want to see as they embrace something called performance-based ratemaking, driven by new state legislation.

"Connecticut Water is confident that our record of serving customers, communities, employees and the environment does make us a different kind of utility and in going through the rigorous process of a general rate case, we’ll get to proof that out," Patla said. "We are ready and willing to meet the standards of prudency and service to stakeholders that the authority has set.”

Balance among 'building blocks'

Patla, sitting in his company's modest offices on Route 1 in Clinton, described the five "building blocks" of Connecticut Water: employees, customers, shareholders, communities and the environment.

"We believe strongly that when we have balance for those five building blocks that we will achieve success for all of those building blocks," Patla said. "We measure our employee satisfaction twice a year. We measure our customer satisfaction twice a year."

A longtime industry veteran, Patla doesn't see a fight, but rather a sort of kumbaya moment -- my words -- that will bring out a different reaction from the PURA lion, when it comes to weighing the company's performance, not just reimbursing it for spending money.

"We welcome that concept," Patla told me. "A lot of the metrics around performance, we excel at...We don’t fear it because we perform well in the components that are being measured."

I have no way to judge the merits of Patla's claim that his company is a different kind of utility. In theory, a utility of any kind ought to be able to use larger size to shave costs for customers. That never seems to work out. So regulators closely monitor shareholder profits. Connecticut Water, which owns a water company in Maine, was bought out in 2019 by SJW Group, the publicly traded parent of the San Jose Water Co. in California.

Like its larger competitor, Aquarion, Connecticut Water has been buying up many of the old community water works, at their request. These tiny systems might have lower rates but many of them can't do the job anymore in an age of droughts and severe storms caused by climate change; PFAS and other emerging contaminants; tighter regulations; declining volunteer ranks; and aging infrastructure that these providers on old wells have let slip.

More for you

Connecticut Water, with about 110,000 customers in Connecticut and 232 employees, runs 66 non-connected water systems in 60 cities and towns, some with just one or two wells.

Following two tough rulings

All of that requires big ongoing investments. But in March, PURA whacked Aquarion's $32 million rate hike request down not just to zero, but to a $2 million giveback for customers. Aquarion, a unit of Eversource, the giant regional electric utility, filed a lawsuit. A state judge issued a rare stay of the rate reduction in May and the case is pending.

Then last week, PURA allowed just $23 million of a $131 million rate hike request from United Illuminating, after a July draft decision that would have left UI with less than $2 million more from ratepayers. UI has not said whether it will appeal in the courts.

Connecticut Water's rate request follows a 2021 rate case that gave the company a 7.1 percent average increase, or about $7.3 million. Patla talks about the company's efforts to encourage water conservation -- not easy in a part of the world where life's liquid runs in abundance most of the time -- and he talks about those building blocks.

"I would make the argument that pursuit of balance really sets us apart," he said.

We'll see how that goes in the hearings.

Back at the treatment plant at the Kelseytown Reservoir, we see water flowing into tanks with compounds that make particles come together to form "floc" sludge, then we see the water filtering up through that sludge, then filtering through four feet of granular, activated carbon. Then the system adds lime, phosphate, chlorine and fluoride in critical amounts with disastrous results if done incorrectly.

Making filtered water from raw water, as Paul Andrews calls it, requires a different kind of balance than what Patla describes. Different, but related through the modernization of a fractured industry. The question is how much we the drinking, flushing, showering, washing and lawn-watering public need to pay to make it flow.

[email protected]