Governance, Policy & Economic Development Subcommittee - Special Meeting

going to call the meeting to order. It is 6:02 this evening, Wednesday, May 5th. Welcome those in the room and online. It's great to see everyone again. Two nights in a row, folks. So, appreciate you. We do have a full committee here. Yes, we do. So, we have all members present and accounted for. Thank you colleagues for joining on this lovely evening. We'll move right into new business. Today is a very special day. We have uh James Michelle, the chair of the Town Center Economic Development Commission or authority, uh here to give us a rundown and a report out on all the wonderful work they've been doing with our amazing consultants and York for the last year and a half if if that. Um, and we're excited to hear the plan and ultimately the action tonight that is being requested by not only law but by the commission authority, excuse me, is to roll it up to the full body for consideration of adoption and ultimately approval from the state economic development commission. So, this is a wonderful opportunity. Uh, Mr. Michelle, chair, you have the floor whenever you're ready. And it's good to see you, sir. Do you need any assistance with technology? Are you sharing anything? And just so I can keep conscious of time, roughly how long do we think we'll need? Excellent. Okay. Can you make it 10, please, sir? Since we're since we know about this already. Yes. And just as a reminder, the full town council are actual ad hoc members of this committee and a lot of us have been uh very closely um tied to it and in close proximity and conversations with the commission members. So we thank you all again for all of your hard work around the clock.

Good evening, madam chair mayor. Good evening all. James Michelle. I'm the chair of the town center economic development commission. Uh let me start by extending my thanks and appreciation to the mayor and the council for entrusting in us this very important role in future of the development of Bloomfield. And I also want to thank my commission members my fellow commissioners um Julio Krillo and Antonet Ghoulie Lenny Hudin and moral Riley. Lenny is here today. L put your hand up L so good know who you are. Thank you very much. And also uh John Coleman and his team for assisting us as we went through the process and um Gman and York and their team have got have gotten us to where we are today. As the as uh the mayor indicated, we have been at this for over 14 months and we've been meeting monthly and sometime twice a month lately, three times a month. And um so I think what we going to present to the coun to this this committee this evening uh reflect the amount of work that we've done reflect the the input from the town council members input from the town and we there's a lot of passion about the town center across the board. People they want the town center to be fixed because they know it's been an issue for about at least two or three decades. They're looking for action from the town council. So within the plan we presented to you gives you a a work in progress. It's a final document. It's a strategy. It's a strategic document to be develop evolved over time uh with TPZ and other commission's input. But the town residents have come out and very vocal about what they're looking to um see in the town center and we've incorporate that in this strategic plan.

Don will go walk you through the process and we know as we move forward there will be more opportunities for the town council town residents to give more input as we refine the plan so that whatever we come up with in across the street in in town center will reflect the town of Bloomfield's needs and desires. So with that said I just want to pass it on to Don. But once again thank you very much for this opportunity to participate in this effort to get the ball moving. We know we're just getting started. Thank you very much. Thank you chairman. Uh India, could I ask you to share the slide deck? Thanks. So I'll just start with some general introduction uh while the slide deck comes up. So for the record, my name is Don Poland. I'm managing director of planning and strategy for GMAN York. And as was just stated, we've been assisting the town center economic development commission with the creation of this master plan in chapter 132 municipal development plan. Uh the presentation I'm going to give you tonight is short. I will cut it in half. Uh so we'll move through some of the slides quickly, but it's an overview of the plan document itself. Kind of a summary of the executive summary. And next slide. So town center boundary that we use for the study area matches the tiff district boundary which was established approximately 5 years ago. Next slide. Sorry India, I'm going to keep you

moving. Next one. Uh, chapter one at the end of the day kind of explains why we engaged in this plan and what we engaged in. And I just want to remind the community that there has been frustrations for a very long time over some of the uh, I'll say economic and aesthetic conditions of the town center. And that there has been a desire to do something for at least 10 years. uh probably more but kind of formal discussions I'd say around 10 years and that's what was the impetus to the formation of the town center economic development commission as a development authority for the community and then ultimately pursuing the chapter 132 uh municipal development plan. Next slide. Chapter 2 talks about the changing landscape and essentially how the world has changed, demographics have changed, uh, commercial development has changed in this property, the one of the key properties in the town center. Uh, while it had good functionality back probably in the 1970s and 80s and even into the '9s, today it's essentially reached the point of functional obsolescence. Next slide. Chapter three gets into the existing conditions, things like demographics, economics, uh, labor force, and so forth. Bloomfield's in an interesting situation. You're in a slow growth state in a slow growth region. So, negative attributes go beyond your borders. They're not just about you. But at the end of the day, there's a lot of positive things going on in Bloomfield that aren't occurring elsewhere. Uh one is you've actually had real population growth which many communities have not. The state uh the state and the county have had growth of only around 1%. Whereas the town of Bloomfield actually saw growth between 2010 2015 of 5%. That

is a meaningful and positive number. Uh your economics around labor force and stuff kind of mirror uh Harford County and the state. Next slide. As part of the existing conditions assessment, sorry, with my eye issues, I can't read the slides across the room. Uh, we did a property survey. Uh, one of our staff persons walked the town center and did a visual survey of all the properties and listing their conditions. And this is the result of that survey. And at the end of the day, the majority of properties uh or many properties within the center rate on the poorer side of the scale. And within the municipal development plan area, which I'll discuss later, uh all the properties are on the poorer side of the scale. So there is this kind of deferred maintenance or uh mixed message to the marketplace of some well-maintained properties and some poorly maintained properties. Next slide. We took a look at commercial rent values. Uh also did some comparative analysis between Cottage Grove Road and the town center. You know, in a society today that has kind of mixed feelings about automobiles, especially within the planning profession. Uh at the end of the day, traffic counts matter. And in your town center, the traffic counts are on the weak side. And when we did this comparative analysis, we end up finding that, you know, a shopping center, Capacco, out on the suburban strip of town, uh, is performing a lot better. It's a much more vibrant marketplace than in the town center. That being said, the town center has tons of potential, and we're convinced it can be a destination. There are businesses here already that show it is a destination. Next slide. We engaged in an extensive public

outreach. This slide provides some summary of that. The chapter provides more details. But we did focus groups. We did large community meetings. We also had a online survey. When we did the large community meetings, we engaged the public in activities to give us additional feedback into the process. And one of the things I can say is there was overwhelming consensus across the community about the challenges that exist within the town center and especially within that municipal development plan core area that once again I will discuss a bit later. Next slide. Uh focus groups. I want to key in on one thing because it was a conversation I was having with uh uh Councilman Merritt earlier and something he mentioned, but it was the large businesses in the community that kind of, you know, said to us two things. One was when they have visitors, business clients in town, they typically send them elsewhere uh when they're looking for places to dine or places to stay and so forth. and they truly emphasize the importance of the town center in the context of reflecting the image of the community and how supportive they are of if Bloomfield had a more dynamic, more vibrant town center and how important that would be to them. So, investment in the town center really is an investment in the entire community. Next slide. Uh the next chapter, and I'll just do this one really quick, uh really lays a framework to think about investing strategically in the town center and how you take a place that's underperforming and reposition it to attract investment and improvement. Next slide. Chapter 7 talks about the amenities of place. These are your existing strengths. These are the things that bring value to your center. And the thing we heard the most from everyone throughout the process was the value of the town center the town green. People absolutely love the town green in this community. Get excited whenever

discussions about various events that go on there. And ultimately a realization through this process some some stuff we already know but realize is the small size of the town green actually creates challenges uh in that it's difficult to program on and attract large crowds. So, one of the recommendations, as you'll see in the conceptual plan, is to essentially triple the size of the green as part of this, but other things like Philly Park, the library, even the town hall lawn, which is often used for community events and so forth, is a critical asset uh and amenity to the community. Next slide. So I always stress in planning it's important to identify ask the right questions and identify what problems we're actually trying to solve. And in the case of the town center it's really about physical conditions market and image. You need to pro improve the physical conditions of property within the center. You need to actually grow market demand in the center. And you need to improve the overall image of the center. And each one of these feeds on each other. So that's what we set out to do with the creation of the plan. Next slide. So this section starts into we tied back to the 2020 uh tiff district plan. A lot of the recommendations around community investment into public spaces within the center there. Some of the stuff which we know have already been implemented. other stuff that's in the works and other stuff that's still out there to be implemented. But this provided a framework for a starting point because much of this is still very much true. So next slide. So these two slides, this slide and the following one uh really lay out the things that need to be done uh at a

macro scale. things like enhancing parking and pedestrian accessibility, uh implementing public infrastructure improvements, other financial incentives to encourage, you know, private investment, work with property owners to renovate and redevelopment properties and so forth. I'm not going to go through all of them. There's another dozen on the next page. But these are things that are really about the town being strategic about its investment of public dollars into the public realm in the center and encouraging property owners to come along with them. So this chapter is more about a town centerwide economic investment strategy and it provides the foundation for then the chapter 130 strategy. So India you can skip the next slide and go to the following. Thank you. So this is the start of kind of the chapter 130 strategy. We I showed you the larger boundary previously of the entire town center. This now targets a core area that starts at kind of like Gab Road and runs up to around Whittenberry. And we believe this is the area that should most be invested in. You probably don't have the resources as no communities would to invest in the whole area at once. So target the resources. Next slide. And first bullet there, target the resources. Number of other things that we actually list out here is things like improving the aesthetics, remediate uh blighted conditions, uh remove barriers to investment, an entire chapter on or section on addressing zoning. Next slide. And then a reworked version of that prior map I showed you from the TIFF plan of kind of investments in the town center. This time it's following along the same way, but these are big picture things that like conceptualize the east

coast grown uh east coast greenway. He's going to say growthway greenway into the center uh and as part of this development. We know that neither project is, you know, fully conceptualized as of yet or fully complete. But kind of making that recognition of there need to be those synergies moving forward. Next slide. And with that in the context of the public improvements, we provided an estimated budget on physical infrastructure and public improvements approximately $5 million. This is envisioned as being a CIP framework that the town could adopt this or could consider this to in looking at your CIP each year for specific investments you can make in the center. And this should be viewed as part of but separate from the funding for uh the chapter 132 plan. Next slide. Which then gets us to the triangular area on the right hand side. The area bound between Park, Jerome, Tungstus, and Wintonberry is essentially and the railway uh is essentially uh the chapter 132 municipal development plan. Next slide. A map of the parcel boundaries within that. It includes the town green, the Winintonberry site, the bank site, the gas station site, the package store site, and the depot lot site. Next map and the complete boundary then picks up the public infrastructure of Jerome A as that is part of the plan. Next slide. We went through many drafts of the plan. This one is the initial concept that we came up with as we were trying to just sort out how this site could be developed, where things could be placed. Next

slide. And that evolved into multiple diagrams and sketches that arrives at this final conceptual plan. I say conceptual because for us this was about testing the site. How much space could be built on it? uh what uses commercial versus residential versus parking and what do we think is plausible within the marketplace. We did market research. We did financial analysis. There is a uh summary of a financial plan in here and ultimately what we came up with is approximately 65,000 to 80,000 square ft of commercial and between I think 180 and 260 uh residential apartment units and a complete build out of up to 850 parking spaces. I do not believe the final development will have 850 parking spaces. It's probably more like 600, but we wanted to be able to show uh that it could support it. We played out different scenarios on the residential the large building there on the depot site. Uh we did that as a one as a threetory, as a fourstory, and also as a fivetory. There is a resistance within the community that we've been confronted with as to height of buildings in the town center. I've jokingly called it the heirloom effect. Uh as I think the c the town has reacted to the height of heirloom, but the reality is uh you need the density of the residential development to make the finances feasible on the whole development. So, while the community would probably like to see two or three stories, I think you as the council and the uh town center economic development commission really need to consider four or five stories to truly attract a private developer with

interest. But all of this is pliable. Think of it as play-doh. Uh the town at some point, if this is adopted, will be able to go out to RFP. And in that RFP, they can stress to a developer, potential developer, what it is they want. This is the framework to provide that. And then the developer is going to come back trying to meet all your wants as best as possible. And then it's going to end up being a negotiation. The lower lefthand corner you see the expanded town green, which we think are key. Just above it are greenfacing commercial structures conceptualized as hospitality restaurants with outdoor dining and possible roof rooftop dining uh with then additional commercial back behind it. The commercial square footage at 6500 65,000 square ft is half of what's out there today. And if you look at the amount of vacancy out there today, we believe that's a reasonable starting point. Maybe up to 80,000, maybe 85,000 could be accommodated. Next slide. And then uh this just explains in greater detail what I just talked about. Next slide. And these are the actual addresses of properties within the municipal development plan area that would have to be acquired by the town uh through fair market offers uh or other means as provided by law. Next slide please. This is basic breakdown of the financials so I get my numbers right here. Uh for the construction side of the development, on the private investment, uh we estimate about $84 million to achieve this. On the property acquisition, infrastructure

uh acquisition, and so forth, we're estimating around $29 million. Combine those for a total number. Fact is, there's going to need to be public participation. We do not explain what that public participation is. We assume it will be a mixture of state and local participation. I know the council has committed some funding already. If you go to the next slide, please. Uh we did do an analysis of utilizing the tiff district. Take the present value and take the future value if what was proposed there was developed and take the difference between the taxes on those two values and play that out over I can't remember how many years we ran this on now. I think it was a 20 years that we ran it. Sorry, we ran so many different models. Uh there's approximately there's between probably 17 and 21 million. Thank you. Uh 17 and $22 million available through the tiff to actually fund this. So, when I say there's probably a $29 million public investment, uh, you do have the ability with the TIFF district to use the future value of the development to finance bonds to help finance the development. I also don't want you to become fixated. This is the last thing I'll say and I'll turn it back to you. Sorry, I've been long. Uh, the one last thing about financing and money I want to make clear is this is not you have to reach into your pockets and come up with $29 million to do this. This is a long lengthy project and it needs to be broken up into phases. So the first thing will be property acquisition funds. The next thing will be public infrastructure and public improvement funds and the next thing will then be you know and these things

may overlap but will then be the attraction of a developer and the private investment and so forth. So there are different steps along the way, different buckets of money that need to be accessed and provided. I wouldn't become overwhelmed by the large numbers, but break it up into the small pieces. Next slide, which I hope is Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. You guys, I'm available for any questions if you have them. Thank you so much. I Every time I see this presentation, it just excites me. Um and you know so this is just you know something that we're not seeing for the first time but it it just feels like the first time so it's just excellent. So thank you so much. So we'll open it up to questions from councelor. So councelor mccclary and councelor merit. Great. Thank you for the presentation. Uh I think I think James left but thank you to everybody who's been involved in this school New York town staff um community members. Uh I have a question. um probably already know the answer to it, but just wanted to get on record. Uh page uh 13, you talk about the um repositioning the town center and economic development strategy. Given the high cost of like private do uh private monies, right, interest rates are high, banks aren't lending at the rate they should be. Um, how do outside of physical conditions and image, how do we get national brands to come in and show them that Bloomfield is the place to be when we do do all of the physical condition improvements, the image of the town center. Like I know you guys are involved Gorman New York and like the retail conference all across the country shopped in malls and retail shops and the national brands. How do we get them to show that they're going to get the return on their investment and not to just look at their

balance sheet, right? And come and invest in this community like they do like West Hartford, Manchester, Glastonbury, etc. Right? So my the first thing I'm going to say is uh you already have national brands here. I want to be clear with that. When you look out at College Grove, where they're kind of missing in some ways is here in the center. You are dealing with two very different markets. And that's why we took a look at those daily traffic counts. You know, 13 14,000 vehicles a day out on Cottage Grove is very different than 5 to 7,000 on each of the segments of roads. One of the things that we did that is proposed conceptually is the closing of Winterberry Road to get rid of the five directional or six directional intersection that's out here. That is challenging. that also will reroute traffic through Parkav and also through Jerome to tie in uh Winintonberry and that will so those disperate numbers will become combined which I think will push you up into the 12,000 range. It's really hard to attract national retailers when there's traffic counts under 15,000. As I said though, up in Cottage Grove, you've got 13,000 14,000 and they are there. So, I wouldn't just have my heart set on national retailers, but I think there is a possibility if this development were to go through if it was successful. Could you attract just to say someone like a Chipotle into it? Yeah, I think that's possible. So, there are some nationals that are possible. I think the key thing here would be build upon kind of the uh the regional brands that you have and attract more of those regional brands. You have some great businesses that are part of larger brands like the Republic, like uh Carbones and so forth, and there's other brands like them out there. So I think those are the key ones

you're going to be able to attract into this kind of development at the start and as it grows attention it'll get better. You know Starbucks wasn't the first or Chipotle wasn't the first to locate in the West Harford Center. It was the local brands the regional brands and then the nationals came. I think that's important because I know um at the public hearing um there was a resident who talked about small business micro loans and given the constraints of municipality in the state um yeah we don't see as much federal and state dollars going in to build entrepreneurship and you know we're trying here locally with Elevate Bloomfield but how do we help the Carbones and the um the Republic group. What's the group name for Republic? I forget their group's name. M&R ML. Yeah, MRG group, right? To bring their luxury brands here when you know the buildout costs and when you look at what it costs for the commercial space in Bloomfield, it's expensive compared to the Hartford County and then you look at having to put up a hood that's $125,000. How do we support when you do that? How do we support outside of the li the constraints that we have support those brands to make sure that when we build this if we build this that they come because you know the saying for a while was that like oh we have to put density in the town center and we have a bunch of density now with the heirloom flats and they haven't come right and so that's just my concern I fully support this plan but I just want to make sure that we are we're thinking about different strategies I don't want to hold this up but long-term think about strategies as we move forward on how we can build to make sure that when we build this the senators pop in. I will just interject and just a slight perception correction. Council mccclary to your point they are not here

and they haven't come. Do they want to? The answer is yes. So that's just two different Yeah. two different um pieces just to if I could just add to that briefly. I mean one in the context of quality regional brands and that's not to say anything negative of your local brands. There's some great local businesses here. But in the context of a republic, that brand uh is already here, right? They chose this place. Same with Carbones. Uh and there's possibly others out there that would want to be here. But right now, the aesthetic quality of the center, the vacancy that looms large, it's near impossible to attract them in. If you have a new development, while we have built residential in the center, uh I don't think we can dismiss it and say, well, we built it and they didn't come. Uh it's about building a critical mass, and you're not there yet with a critical mass. There there still needs to be more. Uh the residential on that site will help there be more. Uh and I also think you it's a reasonable question to pose. I don't know if it wasn't for the residential that's been built in the town center if all the businesses that are here today would still be here that these developments have contributed to them. So we have to look at this holistically and collectively and building towards something. If you have a new development, if you have these brands that have committed to staying here, they want to be here, uh, and you have some energy around it, then you will attract others. So, last question, um, last followup. So, at the original community form, you presented like these target and Starbucks communities. Um, how would you define this conceptual plan? What type of community would that transform us into in your opinion? That's a good question. I'm not sure it

total I'm not sure it makes a drastic change. As I said, I think back then you guys are kind of both. You have the Dunkin Donuts, you have the Starbucks, you're not one or the other. Uh the fact that you have a Starbucks is important. Not every community gets one. It shows that you have some core uh wealth and so forth. That's not to dismiss, you know, households that struggle. Also, uh, you know, there is there is a uniqueness about Bloomfield in some ways, and I know I hate that I always compare the West Harford. West Harford's an interesting suburb, though, in that it has older neighborhoods with smaller houses. It has modern neighborhoods with large houses. It has a diversity of commercial, diversity of housing. And in some ways, there is a similarity of Bloomfield to that that you do have different areas of housing. you do have, you know, different levels of wealth. You are the most diverse, you know, racially community in the region and you actually have some pretty good diversity in your commercial sectors also. So, in the one area where you have been lacking up until more recent times, I think is in the modern multifamily product. There is some older product out there. M uh but I think you guys are in a great position to continue to evolve upon what you have. So I don't see it as a transformation of from one community to another. I see it as an evolution uh and adding I don't know more of a vibrant uh aesthetically pleasing gem of a town center that's been kind of lacking to better enhance everything that's already here. I know you I said final question, but this is the final. I'm happy I'm happy you said that because it it all connects like I don't think people realize how this plan and the proposal for housing connects with the Bloomfield affordable housing

plan and the amount of units that we need to build in order to like meet our A30G in the future. And I think this plan connects to the affordable housing plan to the inclusionary zoning that is being proposed to the housing trust fund that was proposed in the housing plan that was done by Grim New York that connects with the plan of conservation and development. And so we're not just doing like these oneoff projects. They all connect together for the future of Bloomfield. And as you told us in um in 2017 in class, I remember I went back and looked at some of my notes where you said you want to have a mixture of things like when you look at Waterberry, they were just a clock town and they've focused strictly on that. G New York has done a very good job of making our community a very diverse community as it relates to economic development. Thank you all um for that. Thank you. I always get scared when my class lectures come back at me, but but thankfully that was in a positive way. So, thank you, Councilman. I I have uh I'll just start with one question then come back later with Paul. Uh I I'm when we talk about mixing residential and commercial. I had the picture in my mind of a commercial on the ground floor and second floor and third floor maybe being residential. And that's in fact we tried to make that happen with the the apartments that have grown up and it didn't work. I'm Does that not work? I mean, that is the image we had and I'm just curious about Yeah, it's it's challenging. Uh, and it's kind of it's the planning ideal, you know, residential over retail. That's what everyone wants. And you have a little bit of it, say, in a blue back square or whatever. Uh, but there's a few things that make it challenging. One is you typically have residential developers and you have commercial developers, and they typically don't do both. and talk to

each other. So, it it can be hard to get that synergy to get them to work together to do it. The other key thing is building codes change and they change the cost. So, right now under the building code, you can build a three-story apartment building as a walk up with no elevators and you can meet your ADA requirements on the first floor, right? So, you keep the elevator out, you keep the construction cost down and that's workable. The second you put commercial on the ground floor, you then have to have an elevated structure for the upper floors to be residential because you can no longer meet your ADA requirements on the ground floor. So now it needs to be an elevated structure and the construction costs go way up. So there's multiple things at play there that just make it a lot more challenging. And I like to think about what we're seeing most out there is what I call is mixed proximate. It's on the same site or adjacent sites with residential and commercial clustered together. The immediate does a good job at that. Yash I I have always wanted a hotel in Bloomfield. There is no hotel and uh I know this hasn't got the traffic that you'd like to see for a hotel and hotels probably aren't the big thing right now but uh I and and with a conference center a small one I'm wondering about but there still is a need in town and Sigma would send some people to that hotel and maybe the University of Hartford would um so even in the center which isn't as close to them as you might like it I'm wondering if we could make something like that happen. Is it that out of the picture for If this was 2019, I would envision this plan would have had a hotel in it. But the pandemic

changed travel. Uh leisure travel has come back. Business travel hasn't come back as much. The hotel market is tricky and finicky. A lot of the units were lost. The best locations survived. uh and new construction really isn't happening in a meaningful way in Connecticut. It's not shown here. I wouldn't rule it out. If it's a desire of the community, I'd keep it on kind of the front plate and talk about it and push it and present it. And if things change, hopefully a developer could make it happen either as part of that site as you move forward or elsewhere in the center. So I I even think for the East Coast Greenway, somebody who is biking from Florida to Maine may want to stop somewhere for the night and uh have a hotel hostel for them. Yep. Anyway, thank you. Keep the dream alive. Exactly. So, uh, I won't belver the point, but basically I want to give thanks to, uh, the Economic Development Commission and your organization for putting this plan together. It's it's exceptional. And last night at the meeting, you talked about relocation costs. And I just wanted our public to hear about the fact that it's not as expensive as was once thought and I know that's a concern of many of the uh organizations that are fun that right. Yeah. So let me talk about that. One thing is in the construction cost on the developer side, we did include some costs for fit out of spaces. That's not typically in new construction cost, but some developers do run their performance that way. So, we figured we'd include

that. That means the finishing of interior space in the buildings. So, one, I think there's some wiggle room on that side. Uh number two is as part of a chapter 132 plan where the municipality acquires property regardless of how it acquires property. Uh you are on the hook for assisting and aiding those businesses that exist in those properties to assist them with relocation offsite into other places or to assist them with relocation within the site if they are to remain. So when we're at the point of developing the draft plan and getting it out for that 35day public review period, uh I was struggling to get hard numbers as to what those costs would be for the relocations of uh businesses. So I made some educated guesses. I put a number in the plan that's somewhere around $5 million. Uh we then since then have gotten some hard numbers back and I believe them to be in kind of on an average number probably around $65,000 per business is a good number to look at on a recent occurrence where a municipality did the same thing. So I think that number is over inflated right now. Uh I think probably you're talking to maybe 2.5 million at most on that relocation and assistance. Uh, but I feel more comfortable having that larger number there cuz that's definitely one area we don't want to fall short on. So Mhm. Okay. Thank you. Can I follow I'll ask one more question. You I'm sure you're going to be a bit more long-winded than I. So, so I didn't fully review the plan as yet and a lot of people are wondering is there any space for a movie theater?

So, this has this has come up from time to time. Uh we don't we I mean at the end of the day, we're not promoting it nor are we excluding it. You know, we conceptualize consu commercial space as being leaning towards because we think the entertainment value here is important. Leaning towards restaurants, uh, leaning towards serviceoriented businesses, kind of like many of the much of the stuff you have in the center already, barber shops and so forth, insurance companies, uh, chiropractors, stuff like that. Uh so we think that's going to be the predominance of the kind of commercial space, retail, personal and business service and restaurants. Uh could there be an entertainment venue? Might that be a theater? Could it be something else? Uh we think in entertainment is of high value here because this is a central gathering place. So hopefully you'll encounter a creative developer that has an idea or has a program or something that can work, but I can't promise it and we're not saying no to it. And this is my last question. The the building that used to be the hardware store, is that falling within the framework of the buildings ac the the across the road, the new construction there? Yes. Yes. That's not within the district. Okay. It's Yeah, it's within the wider economic development strategy, but it's not within the chapter 132 boundary. Okay. It's on the other side of the road. Okay. Thank you. Y councelor Cooper, I wanted to speak. Let let him go. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, first of all, thank you to the economic development commission and chair James Michelle and everyone involved with it. Uh, did just had a a couple of questions. You know, the aesthetics,

right? Um, first of all, the aesthetics within the boundaries and then the attractions outside of the boundaries. So, when you say that, um, there has to be is that is that a a must or shall or might with the parking, right? I noticed there were like nine parking pads and you said there were probably 800 or so spaces. I would I I would think from a perspective um of keeping the um the buildings low and the parking high, right? Instead of doing that, just replace the parking with a a taller structure where folks could could um park at. But then that also would allow you to put more pads for that um density of of um houses because they're not homes until people move in. But y for those houses that could be put there and then you would I think we'd be able to have the density uh to do that and also keeping with the aesthetics of of what you're looking for those brownstones maybe expand on something like that. Um that's just a thought number one and uh or or we can stop there because I do have another thought. But uh if if it had been thought about outside of those boundaries, right? Has there been any um uh uh you know discussion or or how the town could alleviate um uh where folks how folks live like say for a um a bed and breakfast, you know, where where people have and can see maybe to the towns that are not too far out where we might be able to do something like that or would that be a recommendation uh that we would um adjust our ordinances uh in order to have people who visitors who would be coming in um to to you know look at the to have the access to a town center or

or what was a recommendation be for Sonic? Yeah. So let me start with the second one first. uh in the chapter on the town center economic development strategy, we put forth I think six or seven sites uh around town center that we feel have future development potential and we kind of conceptualized them out. The conversion of the office building on on Jerome into residential or a mix of keep commercial in one portion of it and residential in another portion. Uh we conceptualized possible redevelopment of the police station. We conceptualized the Wintonberry building on the other side of the tracks. And there were others along the way. We did conceptual designs around kind of reducing maybe some functionally obsolescent office space and increasing residential density as we believe it's critical. But it's not a recommendation that that's has to be what it is. So, someone coming in and wanting to do a small boutique hotel or large boutique uh bed and breakfast in the Winterberry building, I think are just, you know, opportunities you should explore and consider moving forward. On the prior question related to the parking and stuff, at the end of the day, it's why I said this is a conceptual plan so we could spec out and see what we think's feasible out there. We didn't go higher with buildings and we didn't go higher with parking. Behind the depot building, we do have a parking deck, a onestory parking deck. We didn't make that into a garage, two or three stories, because we weren't showing the density to require that. But the reason why we weren't showing the density to require that was cuz every time I said anything three stories or more, the public pushed back

on me. So, we were trying to walk that fine line. That's not shutting down more density out there. uh if this community moving forward through the various processes it will take to get to the end goal here. If this council, if the committee, if the planning and zoning commission, if whoever else is involved agrees that there's opportunities for greater density out there, then I encourage you to, you know, pursue them. And that's why I don't want you to view what we conceptualized as cast in stone. There's opportunities to adjust it as you go. Larry, we're gonna wrap it up. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. So, this plan, as I said earlier, kind of reminds me of two different places that are my favorite places to go. The National Harbor with the brownstones and the shops and the entertainment and one Louden uh and uh Lowden County, Virginia, outside of Leburg, Virginia. And I'm so happy about this, but I want to go back to uh the deputy mayor's question around um relocation fees. So, hypothetically speaking, if we start to do redevelopment of this site, they're not going to tear down the whole potential site, they'll move somebody over to the north side, build out their space, build up, and then they'll have the opportunity once that's finished to move back to the location. Yeah. So there is in the plan, I can't remember what specific pages, but it's in the chapter 132 redevelopment plan section where I talk about a phasing plan. In that phasing plan, I did specifically to address that issue of tenants. Uh you have a large structure out there that's mostly vacant. There's ample space to move tenants around. That

adds cost. You're doing fit outs multiple times. But on the first phase, like the wing at the east end, if Jerome were to be relocated, needs to be demolished first. So you could take tenants that are in that end and move them to the west end of the building. The second phase, we would focus, we recommend focusing on the expansion of the town green. The west end of the building then has to go away and get demolished. So we recommend moving of tenants then back to the thing. We believe it is possible with the few tenants that are out there, the amount of space that we could maintain uh the tenants on site if they choose to remain there. It just will make for a challenging period and a complicated phasing that will possibly add cost, but it's possible. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Concludes my question, Mr. Town Manager. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, the only um thing I would like to mention and uh this may or may not be applicable is when we uh came to a point of our Philly Park uh development and it and it pertained to decorative lighting. Um we ran into a situation where uh we determined that we wanted the lighting uh to be done within the state code. Uh but the way the lighting uh can be installed um via Eversource, they don't follow that same code. and and what uh that resulted in is an inability for um the electricity to be shut off and to be controlled so that it didn't become electrified and and cause a risk to the public uh with the decorative lighting on the premises of um of Philly Park.

So, um I would just ask if if that seems to be something we need to consider for uh the decorative lighting. We're talking here uh that uh we just take that under consideration because there was an additional cost that was um uh not planned for uh with Philly Park that we were exposed to. Uh but for the sake of the public, we uh captured that cost to do what was best for for the safety of of the public. So, uh, I'm sure, um, uh, Mr. Dwight Carlson and and John Coleman will be able to shed put some more meat on the bones for you in in regard to what I'm speaking of. Uh, it may or may not um, be applicable, but I I wanted to just voice the concern and I appreciate that. I can just say in the public infrastructure budget, why did while I was not aware of that, did not take that into consideration, I think there's a 20% contingency in there which I hope would cover. uh if not at the end of the day these numbers are for planning purposes and through engineering and design that would have to be addressed and worked out. So thank you. Excellent. Thank you. Uh I'll put my two cents in here. I think that this plan and this work product from the authority and our consultants is absolutely a remarkable and beautifully written out planned framework and conceptual master plan that essentially does continue to allow this community to evolve and be pioneers of something that we haven't seen in the metro Hartford area. Um I'm not a fan of mirroring things from other communities. I think that we have a we are positioned to really drive home innovative solutions which I believe this plan uh reflects. So I'm super excited as being born and raised in this town to see the implementation the building of the center a lot of it and then what it could be moving forward for generations to come. And like my colleague counselor McCclary, I often I lived in Virginia

for a very long time and I went to school down there. And this brings in a little bit of those essences from the Northern Virginia area. These beautifully um um centers um for or you know different um what do they call lifestyle centers if you will uh that have their own character that attract um different things for communities specifically. So, so thank you for your work um members of the the commission and the authority. We definitely appreciate it. And now to the business end of uh this item. And so to remind my colleagues on the dis uh the commission uh urges the town council to approve the town center plan and thereby authorized the implementation process to commence. And so they unanimously essentially kicked it up to this subcommittee so we could ask our questions, review the plan, and ultimately kick it up to the town council. So I will move the following resolution. We don't have a Do I need to read the entire resolution? Still just for All right. I will I will move the following resolution uh to kick it up to the full body of the council for formal adoption and essentially for state to review. Whereas the town uh the Bloomfield Town Center Economic Development Commission was established by the Bloomfield Town Council in accordance with uh CGS chapter 130 section 8-126 as Bloomfield's redevelopment agency and whereas in accordance with CGS chapter 132 section 8-18 and the Bloomfield Town Council uh the BTCEDC is the designated development agency with authorities granting under CGS chapters 130 and 132 to engage in the creation of a municipal development project and plan. And whereas the BDC

EDC has prepared the town center master plan centered and strong which is in its entirety is the municipal development project plan for the proposed municipal development project described therein. And whereas the BDT BDTC EDC believes the town center master plan meets all the requirements of chapter 132 for the municipal development project and plan. And whereas a public hearing on the town center master plan was held by the BD BTC EDC on April 29th, 2025. And whereas the Bloomfield Town Plan and Zoning Commission has found that the town center master plan is in accordance with Bloomfield's plan of conservation and development. And whereas the capital region council of governments or CROG has found that the town center master plan is in accordance with KROG's regional plan of conservation and development and whereas the town center master plan was prepared uh giving due consideration to the state plan of conservation and development. And whereas the project will contribute to the economic welfare of Bloomfield and the state and that to carry out and administer the project public action under 132 is required. Now therefore, it be resolved that the Bloomfield Town Center Economic Development Commission hereby approves the Town Center Master Plan, centered and strong, dated May 6th, 2025, and be it further resolved, the Bloomfield Town Center Economic Development Commission in accordance with CGS Chapter 132, Section 8-19 hereby submits said Town Center Master Plan to the Bloomfield Town Council for the Town Council's consideration and action. Is there a motion to this up to the full body? Moved by council mccclary, seconded by councelor mayor and the deputy mayor. Any further discussion on the motion on the floor. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any objections? Any abstensions? The more the mayor votes I. The motion passes

unanimously. Thank you so much. What question is that for Monday's meeting? Right. Thank you. All right, moving into the next item. Uh this is a formality required by the uh state uh development agency, excuse me, state economic agency. I will move um for the following resolution. Whereas the town of Bloomfield has been awarded a grant by the state of Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development Community Investment Fund or CIF uh for the purposes of the Rockwell Park Improvement Project in the amount of $4 million. And whereas it is desirable and in the public interest that the Bloomfield Town Council uh the town of Bloomfield accept such grant. Now therefore it be resolved by the Town of Bloomfield Town Council Governance Subcommittee that our town manager Alvin D. Schwap Jr. town manager is hereby authorized and directed to accept the grant awarded by the state of Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development for the amount of $4 million on behalf of the town of Bloomfield and to affix the seal of the town of Bloomfield before I have a motion. Um, council before a motion for formality is does it um Mr. Molesco, does this need to go to the full body? Yes. On Monday as well. Okay, understood. So, I just wanted to make sure that in addition to the resolution read on the floor live into the record that we will uh support this positively endorse this to the full body for adoption on Monday, May 12th. Move to the folk body. Yes, sir. I so move. Uh, council mccclary. Is there a second by councelor Cooper and deputy mayor? Any further discussion on the resolution? All those in favor, please say I. I. Mayor votes I. Motion passes. Thank you so much. Public comment. Public comment. Anyone in the room or on the line, please raise your virtual hand. Or if you are in the room, please sign in and be

recognized. Last call for public comment. Last call for public comment. Last call for public comment. Moving into adjournment. Moved by council mayor. Second. Have a wonderful night. Thank you so much.