Hartford Business Journal

28 Hartford Business Journal • September 12, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com OPINION & COMMENTARY EDITORIAL Planning and zoning redo a positive step for Hartford T he city of Hartford has taken its share of hits this year, largely due to its tenuous fiscal position and the mismanagement of Dunkin' Donuts Park. But one area where the city deserves credit is its new planning and zoning regulations, which many agree will make development in Hartford an easier task. As Hartford Business Journal News Editor Gregory Seay reported in our Sept. 5 issue, the city since the start of this year has been using a revised playbook to assess and approve zoning and land-use applications, which aim to make it easier to push developments through the approval process. Among the biggest changes is a revision to the city's parking-space requirements for all new downtown development. It eliminates the requirement that downtown developers include parking in their proj- ects, a mandate that added about $50,000 per parking space to the development price tag, according to Sara Bronin, chair of the city's Planning and Zoning Commission. Instead, the city is only requiring new downtown developments to provide park- ing for bicycles as well as charging sta- tions for electric vehicles. Downtown Hartford is already a sea of parking lots so eliminating the need for more parking spaces is a smart move. In fact, a con- sultant's report found that 9,000 downtown parking spaces go unused daily, not count- ing another 4,000 spaces reserved for corpo- rate officials and special events. Meantime, many vibrant cities long ago de-emphasized automobiles in favor of mass-transit options, walking and bicycling, which the city of Hart- ford has begun to do with its new regulations as well as the adoption of the CTfastrak bus- way that links the Capital City to West Hart- ford, Newington and New Britain. The new regulations also provide more flexibility in the way the city reviews and approves land-use applications, allowing city planning staff to sign off on certain development proposals without waiting for the city's Planning and Zoning Commission. The city has also embraced the development-review concept, known as "form-based code.'' Under it, individual buildings and other elements of large, master-planned projects are reviewed as a single package, rather than individually, saving developers time and money. The business community often cites Connecticut's regulatory environment as a major impediment to job growth, so cities and towns that make it easier to get through the develop- ment approval process have a competitive advantage. For the higher-cost city of Hartford hav- ing more flexible and development-friendly policies on the books is particularly important. Most of the attention right now is centered on how the city will get through its major fis- cal challenges, but that doesn't mean Hartford officials should only focus on dealing with its budget deficits. The more the city does now to improve its business climate, the stronger it will be able to come out of the gates once it has a plan in place to regain fiscal stability. n OTHER VOICES Hartford must dare to think 'greatly,' again By Jay Sloves H artford has been a town that has dared greatly for 400 years. We were founded by those who dared greatly to seek religious freedom and who dared greatly in the formation of our great American experiment — in the face of tyranny committing to paper, and perhaps signing their own death war- rants, the first writ- ten constitution. And when slavery dared to divide our nation and the freedom for all, Hartford dared in words and deeds to help bind us together through the words of a daring little Hart- ford woman: Harriet Beecher Stowe. We were a town that dared in arts, business and innovation, too. Mark Twain's "Huck- leberry Finn" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" were both penned in Hartford. Amer- ica's first public art museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and first publicly financed public park, Bushnell Park, were both daring ideas that became the cornerstones of how cities can serve the greater good. Our city's business leaders dared by cre- ating an entire new industry — insur- ance. Samuel Colt dared with his use of interchangeable parts creating "The Colt Peacemaker" that helped our nation grow and prosper. We even dared to leave our earthly bonds with the build- ing of another new industry — aviation. We pioneered air trav- el; the legendary WASP engine was built right on Capitol Avenue in Hartford. The industry that engine helped create later lifted us even higher with the fashioning of a special suit for perhaps one of the most daring achievements of the 20th century — Neil Armstrong's first walk on the moon. There were also those who dared greatly to bring the NHL to Hartford. Who would have thought it at the time? Every Hartford century has shown us what daring greatly can accomplish. But sometimes daring greatly comes at a cost. There are those who build roadblocks instead of bridges. There are those who don't want to take that step because they fear the look of failure instead of embracing the face of success. I'm reminded of a story when the Con- necticut Children's Medical Center and LEGO came together to create a unique fundraiser — the LEGO Walk of Fame on the River- front Plaza in downtown Hartford. The Walk of Fame, built out of 500,000 LEGO bricks, would showcase life-sized statues of those who dared to make Hartford great — Mark Twain and Coach Jim Calhoun among them. But instead of welcoming this wonderful program with open arms, there were those who actually wanted to knock it down before the statues were even built. "What happens if the statues are vandalized? That wouldn't make us look good," they said. But Riverfront Recapture took a chance, and in reality it wasn't a chance at all, as not a single brick out of 500,000 was ever disturbed. "It was a homerun," said Joe Marfuggi, the former head of Riverfront Recapture. While there were skeptics, there was a valuable lesson from this simple child's toy, noted Marfuggi: "We must dare to trust ourselves and our neighbors to do the right thing. Great things are built even when done one small brick at a time." So herein lies the truth of Hartford looking forward. Like those LEGO statues, the building blocks are already here. All we need to do is dare greatly, again. n Jay Sloves is the president of Elkinson + Sloves Inc., a Farmington-based marketing and advertising firm. HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM POLL Would a $15 minimum wage help or hurt CT's economy? ● Help ● Hurt ● No impact To vote, go online to HartfordBusiness.com. Last week's poll results: Has CTfastrak been a good investment for the state? 46.3% Yes 53.8% No Jay Sloves ▶ ▶ … Sometimes daring greatly comes at a cost. There are those who build roadblocks instead of bridges. There are those who don't want to take that step because they fear the look of failure instead of embracing the face of success. Send Us Your Letters The Hartford Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and guest commentaries for our opinion pages. Electronic submissions are preferred and welcome at: editor@HartfordBusiness.com. ▶ ▶ The business community often cites Connecticut's regulatory environment as a major impediment to job growth, so cities and towns that make it easier to get through the development approval process have a competitive advantage. For the higher- cost city of Hartford having more flexible and development-friendly policies on the books is particularly important.

• Cover