City wins grants for brownfield site

State gives $100,000 for cleanup of the former Hendey Machine Co./ Stone Container Corp. property

TORRINGTON — The city has been awarded a $100,000 brownfield grant for cleanup of the former Hendey Machine Co./Stone Container Corp. property, the governor’s office said in a release.

The property is located between 200 Litchfield St., 105 Summer St. and Turner Avenue, near the Torrington Commons Shopping Center, and the plan is to turn part of the site into a regional transit facility.

In addition to the $100,000 state grant, the city was awarded $200,000 assessment grant to prepare for future revitalization. The money is to be used for a hazardous building material investigation and environmental assessment of the same property, officials said in the release.

The state Department of Transportation plans for the transit facility to be used by the Northwestern Connecticut Transit District for the storage and maintenance of its buses and includes demolishing the buildings on site. However, the Torrington Historic Preservation Trust has objected to that plan. The Torrington Historical Society has suggested a mixedused development on the property.

Plans to find a use for the brownfield property have been in the works for at least four years.

The grants are part of $3.6 million in state funding announced by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy onWednesday to 11 projects in eight Connecticut municipalities to assess, remediate and revitalize blighted properties in their communities – also known as “brownfields” – and put them back into productive use. These projects encompass 59 acres of redevelopment, the governor’s office said in the release.

“The redevelopment of brownfields presents a huge economic potential,” Malloy said in the release. “Over the past eight years we have done just that, and today thousands of acres of once contaminated former industrial land and buildings have been repurposed to meet the needs of today’s businesses and communities. Brownfield remediation benefits neighbors, local economies, and the environment, and this round of funding will make our cities and towns better, more vibrant places to live and work.”

Under this week’s round of funding announcements, a total of $2.95 million will be awarded to seven remediation and redevelopment projects. An additional $625,000 will be awarded for four assessment projects for future revitalization. All funds will be awarded through the state Department of Economic

and Community Development.

Since Malloy took office in 2011, state investments of approximately $206 million have supported more than 234 brownfield projects across 72 municipalities, remediating 3,062 acres and leveraging approximately

$3.2 billion in non-DECD funds, the release said. In addition, these investments are helping create more than 3,000 permanent and 15,000 construction jobs, according to the release.

“Brownfield investments like the ones we are announcing today are a central part of the state’s larger plan to spur economic growth at the local level, and the positive impacts are

wide-ranging,” DECD Commissioner Catherine Smith said in the release. “They help create jobs, address contamination issues, reverse blight, support new housing development and promote transit-oriented development – just to name a few.”

The remediation of brownfield sites are a win not only for the economy, but the environment as well, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Rob Klee said.

“Brownfields are a wise choice for redevelopment, as they already have the infrastructure in place to support new growth, reduce the need to develop valuable open space, with the added benefit of cleaning up the environment,” Klee said in the release.