Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • February 19, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 17 Development Director Jamie Bratt said the city's revised plan of conservation and development and new zoning rules "gives us a really good tool'' for encouraging and reviewing infill development. "Our zoning along the CTfastrak corridor," Bratt said, "essentially mirrors the achievable density of downtown.'' According to Michael Piscetelli, New Haven's deputy economic development administrator, infill development generally refers to the redevelopment of vacant sites in a settled area. For example, back during urban renewal, buildings would be cleared to remove blight, expand parcel size or any number of other reasons. In New Haven, a number of those sites are being acquired and developed for mixed-use and multifamily rental housing, Piscetelli said. One is from Spinnaker Development, at the downtown corner of State and Audubon streets, that for years was surface parking for former Southern New England Telephone, and later for Frontier Communications. Infill embraced, rejected Over ensuing years, once overlooked vacant tracts, coupled with blighted or underused properties, have become enticing development targets, experts say. Parcels in more desirable neighborhoods or communities are especially prized for redevelopment. Sparse undeveloped acreage was the reason Torrington builder Steven Temkin agreed to buy and redevelop the 9-acre Gledhill Nursery tract in West Hartford into luxury homes. "There's not that much vacant land in West Hartford," said Temkin, CEO of T&M Building Co. Inc., adding he briefly competed with a local church for the Gledhill tract. In Rocky Hill, T&M is underway with infill construction on 14 half-acre lots on 11 acres, near the Wethersfield border. Those dwellings bear many of the design features as those planned for Gledhill, Temkin said. Many of today's homebuyers, he said, want dwellings packed with lots of features and comforts missing from older units that require costly and time- consuming remodeling to attain. Also, smaller lot sizes appeal to those eager to downsize after raising families and weary of mowing and clearing snow. Not all infill development, however, is welcomed. In Hartford's historic Asylum Hill section in the West End, a redevelopment plan by nonprofit Chrysalis Center Inc. to convert several buildings there into low-income housing has raised residents' concerns about the impact on neighborhood property values and quality of life. In Avon, neighbors oppose a proposed affordable- housing subdivision in their neighborhood. That has prompted the town to weigh a moratorium on such development. However, Avon town planner Hiram Peck said the town recently changed its land- use regulations, allowing owners of existing commercial buildings to expand their footprints, if they meet certain town guidelines. It was this change, Peck said, that has cleared the way for furniture retail Raymour & Flanigan to acquire and work on enlarging the former Nassau Furniture/Broyles Furniture showroom, at the corner of Albany Turnpike/Routes 44 and 10. Also pending, he said, is an application from The Shops at Nod Brook, 315 W. Main St./Route 44, for a 16,000-square-foot building addition. "The regulation was a perfect fit for them,'' Peck said. What is infill development? Infill development is new development sited on underutilized or undeveloped land within an existing community, according to the Capitol Region Council of Governments (CRCOG). Infill development can take several forms. In suburban areas, it might take the form of redevelopment of shopping malls or commercial strip centers. In urban areas it might be building single-family homes or apartments on vacant lots or larger-scale redevelopment on abandoned commercial/industrial sites, according to CRCOG. Successful infill development can: • Support mass transit • Help reduce greenhouse gas emissions • Stabilize and revitalize existing neighborhoods and commercial centers • Utilize existing infrastructure Quality Construction + Butler Manufacturing = Repeat Customers www.borghesibuilding.com © 2011 BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing™ is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. 2155 East Main Street • Torrington, Connecticut 06790 Wittmann Battenfeld, Torrington, CT | 2000 | 37,000 sq. ft. 2006 | Addition — 14,400 sq. ft. 2013 | Addition — 18,900 sq. ft. Contact us at 860-482-7613 or visit us on the web. Redevelopment of the Gledhill Nursery site in West Hartford is the latest example of expanding infill development occurring in the region.

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