Reps approve street project that could invoke eminent domain
STAMFORD – After years of talk and months on the table, a project to widen Washington Boulevard and Pulaski Street is set to move ahead.
It ran into an old conundrum – the rights of individuals vs. the needs of a city.
It’s because the project involves eminent domain – a government power to take property, after negotiating a price with the owner, for the public good.
The work, which has been discussed for two decades, is designed to ease traffic bottlenecks near the train station and improve access to Waterside and the South End.
That’s the public-good part. To do it, the city must acquire all of 274 Washington Blvd. and 21 Pulaski St., and parts of 256 Washington Blvd. and 4 Pulaski St.
See Project on A6
“The city cannot grow and progress without this ability to move traffic around the busy train station, and in and out of Waterside and the South End, two growing neighborhoods.”
Rep. Virgil de la Cruz, D-2
That’s the individual rights part.
The project has been stalled largely because many city lawmakers abhor the idea of government taking people’s property.
“I will never vote for eminent domain, in a wealthy city like this, against a few residents just for cars” to move around, said Rep. Elise Coleman, D-3.
“My heart cries out for the little guy, and the little guy here is not the city,” said Rep. Annie Summerville, D-6. “I will not ever vote for someone’s home to be taken away.”
“I hope someday soon eminent domain will be abolished,” said Rep. Alice Liebson, D-11.
Coleman, Summerville and Liebson were among 12 members of the Board of Representatives to vote against the project this week.
They were overruled by 24 representatives who thought otherwise.
Rep. Virgil de la Cruz, D-2, whose district includes the project site, was a “yes.”
“The city cannot grow and progress without this ability to move traffic around the busy train station, and in and out of Waterside and the South End, two growing neighborhoods,” de la Cruz said. “Otherwise there is stagnation.”
As part of the vote to launch the street-widening project, the board approved a report from Sandra Dennies, the interim director of administration who representatives voted into the permanent position during this week’s meeting.
In her report Dennies explained how she held a June 17 hearing for Washington Boulevard and Pulaski Street property owners to discuss price. She wrote that the city obtained two appraisals from certified state appraisers for each property, as state law requires.
Dennies in the report laid out the estimated costs for taxpayers.
Construction, which includes widening Washington Boulevard between Henry and Atlantic streets, and widening Pulaski Street between Washington and the Pulaski Street bridge, will cost the city just under $2 million.
The rest of the construction costs will be covered by state and federal funding and by developer Building & Land Technology and Charter Communications, city officials have said. BLT is building Charter a new headquarters on Washington Boulevard near the train station and the two have agreed to make road improvements nearby.
The prices the city will pay to obtain the properties is being negotiated. The city will exercise eminent domain only if agreements cannot be reached, de la Cruz said.
Dennies reported that the offer to the owner of 4 Pulaski St., Holy Name of Jesus Church, is $192,000 for 2,658 square feet of street-front land.
The offer to the owner of 21 Pulaski St., who lives in the three-family house, is $1 million, which is 30 percent above the acquisition value, Dennies wrote. The offer adds $50,000 in relocation costs for the owner and his tenants.
The offer to the owners of the 18 units in Bridgewater Condominiums, the report states, is $44,500 for 938 square feet of street-front land. Besides that, the owners of two end units are offered $7,944 each because their homes will be closer to the street, diminishing the value.
Finally, the offer for 274 Washington Blvd., a vacant two-family house with 11 listed owners, is $810,000, which represents an increase in value similar to the 21 Pulaski St. offer, Dennies reported.
De la Cruz, trying to persuade his colleagues to approve the plan during the meeting, said the offers to the multifamily homeowners reflect the wishes representatives expressed in the months of deliberations over the project.
“The city has raised the offers as far as they can in response to the board’s concerns,” de la Cruz said.
The $1 million offer to 21 Pulaski St. owner Roland Lesperance was suggested by the Board of Finance, which has approved the plan, Rep. Bradley Michelson, R-1, pointed out.
“I think it’s very generous,” Michelson said.
Lesperance, however, earlier this year listed his house for sale for $1.6 million. Fritz Chery of WEB Realty Company, Lesperance’s broker, said Friday that Lesperance about a week ago lowered his asking price to $1.53 million.
“If the city came today and said we accept $1.53 million, Mr. Lesperance would sell his property,” Chery said.
Lesperance’s attorney, John Morgan, said Friday the two sides are talking.
“We’re negotiating with the city now,” Morgan said. “How long it takes, we’ll have to see.”
Negotiations notwithstanding, property acquisitions and construction as outlined in Dennies’ report would cost Stamford taxpayers $4.1 million.
The Washington Boulevard and Pulaski Street road widenings are among several plans for the congested area around the train station, which includes a busy Interstate 95 on-ramp.
The traffic-easing projects include a one-way circular at Davenport Street and Greenwich Avenue; a roundabout at Pulaski Street and Greenwich Avenue, a wider South State Street bridge over Mill River, a state project; and a new train station garage on South State Street, a state project that’s supposed to start in a year.
The city must expand roads as it grows, proponents of the Washington Boulevard plan said.
But representatives’ reservations about eminent domain clearly remain.
“It’s a good project but the way the city is doing it with eminent domain is not good,” said Rep. Terry Adams, D-3. “People should pay attention. This will not be the last time this happens.”