Builder decries ‘indefinite’ wait
Developer seeks FEMA approval; asks Danbury to change rules to save his tax break
DANBURY — A builder who wants Danbury to change the rules and certify his Main Street apartments are complete without a final sign off by a federal flood management agency says he doesn’t have an “indefinite” amount of time to wait, because his tax break is at stake.
But a city planning official says the risks and repercussions of changing the rules for the newly opened 149-unit apartment building at 333 Main St. “could result in a FEMA determination that the city had not adequately enforced (federal) floodplain regulations,” and therefore the city planning official is advising against it.
“FEMA could suspend Danbury from the (National Flood Insurance Program),” said Jennifer Emminger, the city’s deputy planning director, in a letter to the Planning Commission, which will have a public hearing about the developer’s request on Wednesday. “The consequences and ramifications are far reaching, including losing the eligibility of residents to apply for flood insurance and to access federal disaster assistance in the event of a declared disaster.”
The urgency for developer Dan Bertram is that he has until Dec. 31 for the city to declare his Brookview West apartment house complete in order to receive his break that defers the increase he would have to pay on his real estate at 333 Main St., former site of the NewsTimes headquarters, for seven years. The City Council has already granted Bertram three extensions by which to have his downtown apartments certified complete — the last being this summer, when Bertram assured them it would be the last time he would ask for more time.
“We want the (rule) change because we have no idea when the (FEMA sign off ) process will conclude, which, like other
federal processes, is very slow,” Bertram told Hearst Connecticut Media on Tuesday. “We have called FEMA to confirm they have everything they need but there is no mechanism that will expedite this process.”
Bertram needs FEMA to sign off on the changes his project made to the floodplain when he built a bridge over Padanaram Brook to connect the Main Street apartments with an existing Bertram apartment house on Crosby Street. The changes to the brook, which FEMA gave conditional approval for in 2020, require a final sign off from FEMA now that the project is finished to be sure it complies with the approved design.
The problem is that Bertram has been waiting so long for the FEMA sign off that he can’t wait any longer, said his representative, who wants the Planning Commission to change its approval to allow the city to certify the apartment house as complete without FEMA’s final sign off.
“We are requesting this change due to the indefinite time frame the Federal Emergency Management Agency has to process the (sign off ),” wrote Steven Sullivan, an engineer representing Bertram, in a letter to the city’s planning department. “We feel it is impractical to hold up a certificate of zoning compliance because of what we believe is a FEMA administrative process that the applicant has no control over.”
The state disagrees, saying Danbury’s requirement for FEMA to sign off on Bertram’s constructed project as a condition of the city declaring it complete “was a prudent course of action by the city to ensure National Flood Insurance Program compliance.”
Diane Ifkovic, a federal flood program coordinator at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, warned in a letter to Danbury that if FEMA does not sign off on the constructed project “it will indicate the project was not constructed as shown in the (2020) application.”
“This may mean that a violation exists that needs to be corrected within the project area, which can include additional site construction,” Ifkovic said. “If (Bertram is) not willing to correct any site issues, the city of Danbury may be left with a violation that needs to be corrected at taxpayer expense.”
Bertram’s battle with bureaucracy comes at a time when his ambitious west side proposal to refit the defunct Crowne Plaza hotel with 198 micro apartments has two strikes against it for a second time. Bertram’s request to convert the 10-story hotel into innovation studios was denied this summer. He made two changes in his plans and came back for approval a second time, with the same negative recommendations from the city’s planning director and its Planning Commission that plagued him the first time when he was denied by the Zoning Commission.
Bertram said no one in the city was being served by waiting indefinitely for FEMA to sign off.
“We made an investment (at 333 Main St.) that I think everyone would agree is fully in-line with what everyone hoped,” Bertram said. “This kind of frustration is a headwind for other people who are deciding whether to invest in the downtown.”