PLAN OF REDEVELOPMENT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION I. COMPLIANCE WITH CONNECTICUT GENERAL STATUTES
SECTION II. DESCRIPTION OF REDEVELOPMENT AREA
SECTION VI. PRESENT AND PROPOSED ZONING
EXHIBITS
EXHIBIT 3. CONDITION OF PROPERTIES
EXHIBIT 4. LISTING OF PROPERTY OWNERS
EXHIBIT 5. COPY OF RELOCATION PLAN .
EXHIBIT 6. CENTER DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
DISTRICT (CDD) ZONE REGULATIONS
The Board of Aldermen of the City of Derby established the Derby Redevelopment Agency (DRA) as its redevelopment agency pursuant to Chapter 130, Section 8-126 of the Connecticut General Statutes. The purpose of the Redevelopment Agency is to eliminate existing blight and existing slums within a designated project area consisting of areas of deteriorated, substandard structures or vacant land. The DRA has the power to rehabilitate, demolish structures, build new structures and parks improve infrastructure and streets, acquire, assemble and sell property, and make loans upon approval of the Board of Aldermen.
The Derby Redevelopment Area Plan (the "Redevelopment Plan") proposes to revitalize the Business Revitalization District located in the Central Business District of Derby into an active residential, retail, commercial, and office district. The combination of available land, location, accessibility to mass transit, and the municipal need for this type of development presents a unique opportunity for a successful district that will assist in the revitalization of Derbys downtown area.
The Redevelopment Area comprises an approximate fourteen acre site situated at the confluence of the Housatonic and Naugatuck Rivers. A substantial portion of the Redevelopment Area is municipally controlled; the majority of the Redevelopment Area does not have any currently ongoing enterprises. The current use of the occupied portions of the Redevelopment Area consist of commercial and industrial uses.
SECTION I. COMPLIANCE WITH CONNECTICUT GENERAL
STATUTES
The Derby Redevelopment Agency ("DRA") finds that in a portion of the City of Derby there exists and will continue to exist substandard, unsanitary, deteriorated, slum or blighted areas which constitute a serious and growing menace, injurious and inimical to the public health, safety, morals and welfare of the residents of Derby and the state; that the existence of such areas contributes substantially and increasingly to the spread of disease and crime, necessitating excessive and disproportionate expenditures of public funds for the preservation of the public health and safety, for crime prevention, correction, prosecution, punishment and the treatment of juvenile delinquency and for the maintenance of adequate police, fire and accident protection and other public services and facilities; that the existence of such areas constitutes an economic and social liability, substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of the City of Derby and its residents, and retards the provision of housing accommodation; that this menace is beyond remedy and control solely by regulatory process in the exercise of the police power and cannot be dealt with effectively by the ordinary operations of private enterprises without the aids herein provided; that the acquisition of property for the purpose of eliminating substandard, unsanitary, deteriorated, deteriorating, slum or blighted conditions thereon or preventing recurrence of such conditions in the area, the removal of structures and improvement of sites, the disposition of the property for redevelopment incidental to the foregoing, the exercise of powers by the City of Derby acting by and through the DRA pursuant to Section 8-124. et seq., of the General Statutes, and any assistance which may be given by any public body in connection therewith, are public uses and purposes for which public money may be expended and the power of eminent domain exercised; and that the necessity in the public interest for the provisions of Part I, Chapter 130 of the General Statutes is hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination.
Accordingly, the DRA presents this Redevelopment Plan which, pursuant to Section 8-125 of the General Statutes, includes:
1) A description of the Redevelopment Area and the condition, type and use of the structures therein;
2) the location and extent of the land uses proposed for and within the area, such as housing, recreation, business, industry, schools, civic activities, open spaces or other categories of public and private use;
3) the location and extent of streets and other public utilities, facilities and works within the area;
4) schedules showing the number of families displaced by the proposed improvement, the method of temporary relocation of such families and the availability of sufficient suitable living accommodations at prices and rentals within the financial reach of such families and located within a reasonable distance of the area from which they are displaced;
5) present and proposed zoning regulations in the Redevelopment Area; and
6) any other detail including financial aspects of redevelopment which, in the judgment of the redevelopment agency, is necessary to give it adequate information.
This Redevelopment Plan has been prepared in accordance with Chapter 130, Part I Redevelopment of the General Statutes of Connecticut.
B. WRITTEN OPINION OF PLANNING AGENCY
The planning agency for the City of Derby is the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission ("DPZC"), and the DPZC approved the Redevelopment Plan on ____________________ pursuant to Connecticut General Statutes Section 8-127.
SECTION II. DESCRIPTION OF REDEVELOPMENT AREA
The property within the City of Derby which shall be subject to this Redevelopment Plan is an area known as Derbys Business Revitalization District, an approximate fourteen (14) acre riverfront parcel located in the Central Business District of Derby, situated on a peninsula at the confluence of the Housatonic and Naugatuck Rivers (the "Redevelopment Area"). The Redevelopment Area is depicted on the map attached to this Redevelopment Plan as Exhibit 1, and further described in the legal description attached to this Redevelopment Plan as Exhibit 2.
The Redevelopment Area is bounded by State Route 34 (Main Street), a roadway connecting New Haven to Danbury; the westerly streetline of Factory Street; the former right-of-way or land now or formerly of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Co.; the Housatonic River.
The Redevelopment Area contains a substantial number of municipally controlled properties along with other parcels. Currently ongoing enterprises, consisting of commercial and industrial uses, occupy fewer than five of the approximate fourteen acres comprising the Redevelopment Area. There is no occupied residential use within the Redevelopment Area.
A more detailed description of the condition, type and use of properties within the Redevelopment Area is contained in Exhibit 3. A listing of property owners is contained in Exhibit 4.
The proposed uses within the Redevelopment Plan shall be governed by the Center Design Development District (CDD) Zone regulations which are set forth and described in Section VI of this Redevelopment Plan. The permitted uses within the CDD Zone and the Redevelopment Area include, but are not limited to:
Retail, Personal, Business and Financial Services
Professional and General Offices
Restaurants (excluding fast food restaurants)
Public and Semi-Public Institutions
Hotels, Motels, Conference Centers, Residential Uses and Clubs
The uses to be permitted within the CDD Zone and the Redevelopment Area shall be those which are found to be harmonious with the goals and objectives of the Derby Plan of Zoning; harmonious with center type uses not disruptive of the general retail; harmonious with the service and residential character and function of the center and its pedestrian orientation; not of a quasi-industrial or highway oriented character or overly dependent on truck or auto traffic as a primary means of conducting business.
The relocation or abandonment of any public service facility, as defined in Section 8-133a of the Connecticut General Statutes to include any sewer, pipe, main, conduit, cable, wire, pole, tower building or utility appliance owned or operated by an electric, gas, telephone, telegraph, water or community antenna television service company, as a result of the abandonment of any public street or right-of-way in the Redevelopment Area, which abandonment results in the temporary or permanent readjustment, relocation or removal of such public service facility including the existing plan and equipment of such public service facility and/or results in the location or installation of new plant and equipment, will be executed, implemented and paid for in accordance with the terms and conditions of said Section 8-133a.
A. Roadways
As previously stated, the northern boundary of the Redevelopment Area is State Route 34 (Main Street).
The local municipal streets situated within the Redevelopment Area are anticipated to undergo construction and upgrading to improve standards of safety and capacity.
B. Sanitary Sewer
Sanitary sewer service is provided in the Redevelopment Area by the City of Derby Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) and is adequate to support the Redevelopment Plan requirements.
C. Other Utilities
Water, electrical and telephone service lines currently exist in the Redevelopment Area, are provided by Birmingham Utilities, Southern New England Gas, United Illuminating, and Southern New England Telephone, respectively, and are adequate, and can be readily improved or upgraded to support the needs of the Redevelopment Area.
D. Mass Transit
1. Passenger Rail Service
Metro-North Commuter Rail operates intercommuter rail service through Derby between Waterbury and Bridgeport, Connecticut with Metro North and Amtrak providing service from Bridgeport to Boston, New London, New Haven, Stamford, and Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station in New York City.
Derby passengers also have access to Amtrak Northeast Corridor passenger trains connecting Boston, Washington, D.C., and points south at the Bridgeport Station.
2. Freight Rail Service
CSX and Springfield Terminal Railway provide freight rail service to an area near the Redevelopment Area.
3. Air Service
The Redevelopment Area has access to national and international air services as well as general aviation and corporate services. There ware eight airports within a reasonable driving or mass transit distance from the Redevelopment Area, including, Tweed-New Haven Airport; Oxford Airport; Sikorsky Memorial Airport; White Plains Airport; Bradley International Airport; LaGuardia Airport; Kennedy Airport; and Newark Airport.
4. Ferry Service
Water borne ferry service operates between Bridgeport and Port Jefferson, Long Island, New York. The ferry terminal is twenty minutes south of the Redevelopment Area and easily accessible.
5. Bus Service
CT Transit serves most major commercial areas between New Haven, Derby, and Waterbury, operating on a ten minute schedule in the Redevelopment Area. The Greater Bridgeport Transit District serves the Redevelopment Area with hourly service connecting Derby and Bridgeport and points between. The Valley Transit District provides service throughout Derby and the Greater Naugatuck Valley Region.
6. Multi-Modal Center
Multi-Modal access and transportation facilities exist in downtown Derby adjacent to the Redevelopment Area. All rail, bus and taxi services use the Derby Train Station as a terminal, which includes free commuter parking. Expansion of this multi-modal center is anticipated in conjunction with the development of the Redevelopment Area.
A relocation plan pertaining to residential and commercial uses within the Redevelopment Area which shall be relocated in conjunction with the development of the Redevelopment Area shall be adopted by the City of Derby and incorporated into this Redevelopment Plan. A copy of the Relocation Plan is attached as Exhibit 5.
SECTION VI. PRESENT AND PROPOSED ZONING
The Redevelopment Area is presently located within the CDD Zone. A copy of the provisions of the Zoning Regulations of the City of Derby pertaining to the CDD Zone District is attached as Exhibit 6.
LIST OF EXHIBITS
EXHIBIT 1 Map
EXHIBIT 3 Condition of Properties
EXHIBIT 4 Listing of Property Owners
EXHIBIT 5 Copy of Relocation Plan
EXHIBIT 6 Center Design Development
District (CDD) Zone Regulations