Mansfield town council to vote on project agreement

Storrs Center Concept Plan 2010

The town council appears ready to vote next week on a proposed agree­ment with the developers for the first two phas­es of the Storrs Center project after reviewing the latest version Wednesday.

The council will hold a special meeting Jan. 4 at 6:30 p.m. in the Audrey P. Beck Municipal Office Building, when it could vote to autho­rize Town Manager Matt Hart to sign the document.

The agreement would spell out the respon­sibilities for the town, Leyland Alliance and Education Realty Trust, or EDR, in phases 1A and 1B of the $220 million mixed-use project.

Leyland Alliance, the sole member of the Storrs Center Alliance, is the project’s master developer and has hired EDR to build the 290 rental units included in the first portion of the project.

The council, which had to reschedule its regular meeting from Monday to Wednesday due to the weather, reviewed the latest draft Wednesday after raising concerns earlier this month.

Town attorney Dennis O’Brien said Wednes­day the concerns, including ones about poten­tial tenants in the apartments, were good, but he felt revisions would prevent any issues.

Some councilmen pointed to EDR’s history of building student-oriented housing near other college campuses and said that was not the intent of Storrs Center, a concern also raised by residents.

They asked for additional language in the contract to address those concerns, and O’Brien told the council Wednesday he was “impressed” with EDR’s response, as well as its history of property management.

The agreement now includes language requiring EDR to mar­ket the apartments to the general public and not just undergradu­ate students at the University of Connecticut.

It also would require on- site management during regular busi­ness hours and on-call manage­ment 24 hours daily for emer­gency purposes.

Leyland Alliance Executive Vice President Howard Kaufman said the on- call person would either live in the complex or in a nearby home and would have a beeper to allow for immediate contact.

The latest draft also states the EDR would lease the apartments by the unit, and not by the bed or bedroom, for one-year peri­ods, although EDR has the right to issue shorter leases if it has vacancies.

EDR must also follow “best management practices” to main­tain a “first-class” complex, and O’Brien said the town could use experts to define those practices should legal action be necessary.

“That’s a commitment to us, it’s a commitment to SCA,” he said of EDR’s agreement to the “strong language.” Kaufman, meanwhile, said both Leyland Alliance and EDR were ready to sign to the lat­est draft if approved by the town.

O’Brien, who has represented both tenants and landlords in the past, also said he was impressed with EDR’s record of enforcing leases and managing behavior of tenants in other complexes.

O’Brien said the latest drafts also allowed the town to have more control over the town square, where it can hold weekly farmer’s markets and other events.

Councilman Meredith Lindsey did raise a concern that the agree­ment did not include a land de­scription for a $3 million tax abatement.

Kaufman said he would try to have one ready in time for Tuesday’s meeting, but other councilmen said they did not think the description was neces­sary because abatement is just on the 290 rental units, and not on any land.

O’Brien, meanwhile, said the town could approve the authoriza­tion Tuesday with a condition that the council approve a description in the future before Hart can actu­ally sign the agreement.

Lindsey also questioned the town consultant’s fiscal analysis of the project, noting projections for town expenses were signif­icantly lower than an analysis completed in 2008.

But Kaufman and Hart said the consultant did a more thorough analysis, while current plans for the first phase of construction are smaller than previously expected. The council cannot vote on the agreement before Tuesday because is waiting on a recom­mendation from the planning and zoning commission, which meets Monday.

State statutes require agree­ments involving town ownership of land to be referred to the PZC so the commission can determine if they fit with the town’s plan of conservation and development.

O’Brien said Monday’s meeting is the last PZC meeting within its timeframe to make a decision, and state law states  a failure to vote would result in an automatic recommendation from the PZC.

But if the PZC votes to not recommend that agreement, the council would need a two-thirds majority to approve authorizing Hart to sign it.

The council hopes to have a vote before current Deputy Mayor Gregory Haddad, elected as state representative in November, re­signs once he is sworn into office Jan. 5.

A few residents addressed the council Wednesday, saying the council should take more time to review the agreement before reaching a decision.

They said the agreement as written is not in the town’s best interest, raising specific concerns about the parking garage, which the town would own and operate.

Opponents raised concerns that a parking garage built by Leyland Alliance on UConn-owned land nearby would compete, but Kaufman said the two sides are rewriting the lease to prohibit a second garage.

Some residents also said the agreement left the town with all of the risk, and one even urged the council to hold more public discussions with residents before making a final decision.

Posted 12-30-2010

‘Jazz’ is Huskies' 12th man as they take on Oklahoma in Fiesta Bowl

Former UConn player Jasper Howard, wearing the now very familiar number 6, brings down a North Carolina ballcarrier a few weeks before his death in the fall of 2009. File photo © 2009 by Vito J. Leo for HTNP.com Sports.

The University of Connecticut football team is in the desert right now, not exactly wandering, but perhaps wondering what might have been if cornerback Jasper Howard hadn’t died some 14 months ago.

Head coach Randy Edsall has led his team to the BCS promised land in Arizona, although down deep he probably wishes the Huskies were headed to the Deep South, to Miami. Not because palm trees are prettier than a cactus plant; not because beaches are more enjoyable than a desert. And that old dry-heat versus humid-rain debate isn’t really relevant in this first week of winter.

No, the reason Edsall wishes his team had been invited to the Orange Bowl rather than the Fiesta Bowl is because one of his favorite player-sons was born in Miami – and murdered in Connecticut.

Jasper Howard was stabbed to death during a campus fight in October 2009, but he is still a very big part of this over-achieving football team.

“We think about him all the time,” said wide receiver Michael Smith, who was holding his pal and teammate as he lay dying in front of the student center.

“We know that, ultimately, this would have been his last game as a Husky so we are going to go out there and try to do it for him. He is always here with us, though,” Smith said of his friend “Jazz” who was taken away in the autumn of his junior year.

In the euphoria of the post-game celebration following that dramatic 19-16 win over South Florida that gave UConn the Big East’s automatic BCS berth, Edsall was swarmed by reporters, one of whom asked him if he had a preference between the two possible destinations, Arizona or Florida.

He replied that if he had a choice – which he knew, of course, that he didn’t – he would definitely choose the Orange Bowl, “because that’s where Jazz is from and it would be a fitting way to end this season, playing right there in Jazz’s backyard in front of his family and friends and former teammates.”

Instead, Edsall and his Huskies await their showdown in Arizona. The nationally televised game on New Year’s Day (8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN) pits the Huskies against the formidable Oklahoma Sooners, a fitting opponent for UConn’s first trip to a BCS Bowl which came much “Sooner” than anyone, perhaps even the head coach, could have expected.

“It is a tremendous opportunity for us, for our program to only be seven years in the Big East and nine years as an FBS school, to get here this quickly and be in our first BCS game,” Edsall said upon his arrival in Glendale.

“(This) is something that these young men have dreamed about since they started playing the game. To get this opportunity and to know that because of team work, taking one game at a time and being able to fight through adversity, which they had to this year to get here, makes it that much more rewarding,” he added.

Opportunity

“It says so much about the kids, our program and the university. It is really hard to imagine that this has happened this quickly,” he said.

Too quickly, in the opinion of sports pundits who say UConn’s lackluster 8-4 record is not worthy of one of the 10 coveted BCS berths.

But Edsall believes there’s more to football than just X’s and O’s or W’s and L’s.

Jasper Howard. Courtesy photo

“I think the bigger message is about what this team has accomplished and what opportunities college football can give kids,” he said. “This to me is something that people should focus on, giving these young men the opportunity to go and get an education and play football.”

Which, of course, is exactly what Jasper Howard was doing. He had fled the so-called “hood” of northwest Miami for the supposedly kinder, gentler atmosphere in Storrs, Connecticut.

Even now, as the players practice in Arizona, Howard’s accused killer, a 21-year-old resident of Bloomfield who did not attend the university, languishes in a Connecticut jail cell.

He is awaiting a trial at the end of which, the foreman will render a verdict based on what the jury believes happened on Oct. 18, 2009 only a few yards from Gampel Pavilion.

Since that tragic night, the Huskies have been playing with a 12th man of their own, Jazz, of course, always there in spirit.

Family

After their teammate’s untimely death, the Huskies struck out three times – against West Virginia, Rutgers and Cincinnati – trying valiantly to win one for Jazz, a goal they finally achieved with a double overtime victory in South Bend.

Fullback Anthony Sherman, one of the team’s four captains this season, said Jazz’s death served to bring the players even closer together than football teams have to be to operate efficiently.

Sherman says that Howard’s death “brought us together last year, because that was our family. We’re one big family now, definitely a close-knit group,” said the senior fullback who still vividly recalls the sad events of the week following the homecoming win over Louisville a year ago.

“I don’t think you ever overcome it. You put it in the back of your head and you use that for fuel or in a bad situation. You look at it and you’re like, ‘You know, we’ve been here before,’ or ‘We can do this for Jazz.’ That’s the biggest thing this year. This is all for him that we wanted to do last year, but it didn’t work out as well as we had hoped. This year’s definitely his senior year, so we wanted to go out on top for him.”

On top

And UConn is on top right now – atop the Big East standings and very near the summit of the entire college football mountain, with Oklahoma/Everest staring them squarely in the eye.

And the Huskies aren’t about to blink in the face of Oklahoma’s vaunted gridiron history, at least not if defensive stalwart Kendall Reyes has anything to say about it. The 6-foot-4, 300-pound defensive lineman has never backed down from a fight and sees no reason why the Huskies can’t finish the season with their sixth straight win.

“We are definitely excited. We are pumped. We have been practicing for this game forever, and we feel like we are ready. We just want to go out and play Saturday night,” he said.

And come midnight Saturday evening, win or lose, it will be the final game for several seniors, including a couple of homegrown products who grew up not far from the UConn campus.

Zach Hurd, for one, from Waterford, has developed into a 6-foot-7, 325-pound bohemeth, anchoring the offensive line.

He’s not Hurd a word of all that disrespect aimed at Connecticut as they prepare for the biggest game in the program’s history.

“It doesn’t matter what anybody else says. It doesn’t matter what the media or anybody else’s opinion is. It is the opinion of the players in our locker room and our coaches and the supporting staff,” said Hurd. “They are the ones that know what we have sacrificed and put into this program. Now, everything has fallen into place for us.”

A veritable young boy’s fantasy come true, according to another native Nutmegger, linebacker and captain Scott Lutrus of Brookfield, Connecticut.

“This is awesome. Every kid dreams of being in this position. It is not something I ever could have imagined, being part of this as part of the UConn football team,” Lutrus said. “The success we have had over the past five years I have been here, it has been awesome. I wish this week would go on forever because it’s my last game [and] I don’t want to leave this program, this team.”

“We’ve got one more game to play and one more game to win,” he said.

And don’t be surprised if they do just that in the 2011 Fiesta Bowl. And wouldn’t that be the ultimate tribute to their departed friend, doing all that, Jazz, all that just for you.

Posted Dec. 30, 2010

Mansfield looks at its plans for future

The past year saw town officials and residents start or continue a number of initia­tives they hope will improve the town in the future.

Storrs Center, a proposed $220 million mixed-use project, for ex­ample, achieved many milestones and town and project officials hope to break ground in the spring.

The Mansfield Downtown Partner­ship, the nonprofit organization overseeing the project, received let­ters of intent from two more busi­nesses this year. Tailoring by Tima, in February, and Insomnia Cookies, in July, joined a list that also includes Pom­fret’s Vanilla Bean Café, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Storrs Automotive, Wings Over Storrs, Travel Planners, Campus Cuts, Body Language and Cosimo’s Italian Restaurant.

Also in July, the Downtown Partnership received a $4.9 million grant to build an intermodal hub to accommodate buses, bicyclists and pedestrians, as well as motorists.

In September, Leyland Alliance, the project’s master developer, selected Education Realty Trust (EDR) to build 290 rental units included in phases 1A and 1B, scheduled for ground breaking in the spring.

Some residents have raised con­cerns about EDR and its history of building student housing in other college towns nationwide.

But supporters hope a pro­posed agreement between Leyland Alliance, EDR and the town, first unveiled publicly on Dec. 1, will help ensure EDR targets a broader range of residents.

Mayor Elizabeth “Betsy” Pater­son said the agreement, which was recently revised, and the Storrs Center project in general, are just two of many issues the council is examining as the calendar rolls over into 2011.

“There are a lot of things devel­oping,” she said. Among other issues, the council is “earnestly looking” at possibilities for a school building project.

The council is hoping to have a referendum in May, but must first decide if it wants to build one new elementary school, two smaller ones or renovate the three exist­ing schools. All three projects would also entail renovations to Mansfield Middle School.

A school building project com­mittee recommended the one­ school option, but the school board supported the two-school option, and the council has been examining all the factors, includ­ing cost.

Another possible project in­cludes Mansonicare, the town’s preferred developer for an assist­ed- living complex for seniors.

A number of seniors raised con­cerns to the council about delays in the project, but the company voted in October to continue pur­suing the project, which could be located on Maple Road.

Paterson said another issue like­ly to receive attention is an ongo­ing police study, which is examin­ing options for police services in town in the future.

Along with partying by Uni­versity of Connecticut students during Spring Weekend, typically the weekend before the last week of classes, resident troopers have had to deal with large crowds dur­ing fall weekends.

State police reported dealing with thousands of students on weekend nights from late August through the end of October.

Town officials have said they want to examine all of the town’s policing needs, but also said par­tying among off-campus students will likely be a major factor.

Paterson said each of these ongoing issues will likely see plenty of discussion during the early part of 2011. “When you have that many important issues on your plate, there’re going to be a lot of meetings,” she said.

The council will also need to welcome a new member next year after Deputy Mayor Gregory Haddad was elected in November to replace state Rep. Denise Merrill, D-Mansfield.

Merrill, currently the House majority leader, is leaving her post after she was elected secre­tary of the state, and both will be sworn into office Jan. 5.

But not everything in town will result in further discussion by municipal boards, as some things actually meant the end of ongoing efforts.

E.O. Smith High School, for example, will have a new track and synthetic turf field after the Regional School District 19 school board’s $2.17 million pro­posal passed at a September ref­erendum.

Residents in Ashford and Will­ington, which also sends students to the high school, rejected the proposal, but Mansfield voters supported it by a large enough margin to approve the project.

School officials had been say­ing the track was no longer safe for use, but had to scale back work to other fields after voters rejected a $3.95 million proposal in February 2009.

The case of Suzanne Listro, who ultimately was found not guilty of first-degree manslaugh­ter and risk of injury to a minor, attracted statewide attention.

Listro, a former state Depart­ment of Children and Families employee, was accused of shak­ing Michael Brown Jr., an infant foster child placed in her custody, and killing him in 2008.

She waived her right to a jury trial in February, and Rockville Superior Court Judge William Bright found her not guilty in late March after a 15-day trial.

Despite the final verdict, state officials have pointed to the case as part of the many reasons dem­onstrating the need for major changes at DCF.

Posted 12-30-2010