Government Administration and Elections Committee
AN ACT CONCERNING THE CONVEYANCE OF CERTAIN PARCELS OF STATE LAND
SUMMARY: This act:
1. authorizes conveyances of state property to the towns of Bridgeport, East Lyme, Putnam, South Windsor, Stamford, and Trumbull;
2. amends prior conveyances in Greenwich, Griswold, Middletown, New Britain, New Haven, Norwalk, and Windham;
3. requires (a) the Department of Transportation (DOT) to convey an easement to Danbury, (b) the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to lease property to Ridgefield, and (c) the Department of Public Works (DPW) to grant an easement to Norwich at Three Rivers Community College and transfer and convey an easement for the Department of Developmental Services to Enfield;
4. authorizes DPW to acquire title from Torrington for a portion of Clark Street;
5. allows DEP to lease or authorize occupancy to preserve the Penfield Lighthouse; and
6. exempts the sale of a particular parcel of electric company real property in Rocky Hill from the law that requires the company to use sale proceeds to reduce its stranded costs.
The act replaces a process for disposing of property taken for the expansion of Route 6 with one that requires its sale at the request of a former property owner (or an heir) and reinstates a restriction on the DOT commissioner's control of property adjacent to Route 7 in Danbury.
The act authorizes the exchange of maintenance facilities between DOT (a 3. 375 acre parcel) and the town of Westbrook (2. 087 acres). The transaction is subject to State Properties Review Board (SPRB) approval and the town must pay the administrative costs while DOT is required to pay for any property survey. It requires another exchange of parcels between DEP (17. 4 acres) and the Goodspeed Opera House Foundation, Inc. (all or part of a 2. 7-acre parcel) and Riverhouse Properties, LLC (all or part of 87. 7 acres). The exchange, by mutual agreement reached by December 31, 2009, must follow a public hearing on the matter and is subject to SPRB approval.
Finally, the act gives DEP exclusive custody and control of all publicly-owned Connecticut River islands north of East Windsor across to South Windsor and south of King's Island.
EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage, except for the section dealing with the Route 7 Expressway Project, which is effective July 1, 2009.
NEW CONVEYANCES
The act requires the following conveyances from the agencies to the towns named for the purpose specified:
1. the Military Department to East Lyme for municipal purposes (0. 9 acres);
2. DOT to South Windsor for economic development purposes, provided that proceeds from any sale or lease of all or part of the parcel must be deposited in the state's General Fund (4. 84 acres);
3. the Military Department to Putnam for recreational or municipal purposes (3. 56 acres);
4. DOT to Trumbull for fair market value plus administrative costs (0. 32 unrestricted acres); and
5. DEP to Bridgeport, two parcels (33 acres located in Trumbull) for $2. 8 million plus administrative costs for educational and municipal purposes.
Unless Bridgeport begins construction of a regional magnet high school within 10 years or maintains the property as a public park (with such a restriction recorded in Trumbull land records), the property reverts to the state. The DEP commissioner must use the sale proceeds to purchase property in Bridgeport and may consider a previously identified 10-acre site.
Within 120 days of the act's passage, the act requires DEP to lease to Ridgefield for $1 per year for a term of 10 years, 2. 146 acres for recreational purposes. DEP must give the town at least two years' notice before changing the terms of the lease.
The act also requires the State Department of Education (SDE) to lease land (18. 6 acres) and improvements at the J. M. Wright Technical High School to Stamford, if the department discontinues the vocational education programs there. The lease must be for 20 years at $1 per year. SDE must give five years' notice to change lease terms, and Stamford must use the property for municipal purposes.
Each of the new conveyances and the lease agreements are subject to the SPRB's approval within 30 days and must be made at a cost equal to the administrative cost of the conveyance, unless otherwise noted. The property reverts to the state and the Ridgefield and Stamford leases terminate if the recipient uses the parcel for any purpose other than that specified in the act.
CONVEYANCE AMENDMENTS
The act amends a 2007 land conveyance from the DOT to Derek Viel, conveying the 0. 06-acre parcel instead to the city of New Britain.
The act adds the improvements on two parcels of land that the Department of Children and Families conveyed to Middletown in 1999 at fair market value. It changes the specified use from redevelopment to open space, thus amending the price of the property that was to have been reduced by the amount of demolition and disposal costs necessary to redevelop the parcels. Under the act, the price reduction compensates the city for its costs to prepare the parcels for use as open space. It also deletes a provision that required the proceeds from the sale to be deposited in the Connecticut Juvenile Training School's donation fund.
The act substitutes municipal purposes for open space as the required use for 0. 49 acres of DPW property conveyed in 1998 to Greenwich. It deletes from the reversion clause a requirement in a 2007 conveyance from DEP to Griswold that it develop recreational fields within five years of the conveyance. It makes a technical correction to a 2008 authorization to convey land from Norwalk to the state.
The act requires DEP to convey to Loretta M. Budkofsky for $825 land in Windham that the state mistakenly acquired.
It conveys property adjacent to the Air Rights Garage in New Haven to the city of New Haven, rather than transferring it to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS). The city must use the 2. 7-acre parcel for economic development; under the 2007 conveyance, DMHAS had to use it for Connecticut Mental Health Center parking. The conveyance to the city includes the typical conditions that it be made for administrative costs and subject to the SPRB's approval, and includes the reversion requirement. Under the act, New Haven may convey or lease all or part of the property for economic development and, if it does so, must transfer to the state any proceeds above the cost of improvements. New Haven must get State Traffic Commission and DOT approval to adjust the Route 34 right-of-way.
EASEMENTS
The act requires DOT to convey to Danbury, for the fair market value of a defined trail corridor, an easement over DOT land for the creation of the Ives Trail and Greenway. DPW must grant an easement in favor of Norwich at Three Rivers Community College along New London Turnpike to provide sidewalks and a snow shelf area.
LIGHTHOUSE
The act authorizes DEP to lease or otherwise authorize control over the Penfield Reef Lighthouse with a right of occupancy to preserve it pursuant to provisions of state and federal law. It limits any lease to no more than 10 years, subject to renewal, and allows for reasonable public access, preservation, and education.
UTILITY COMPANY PROPERTY
By law, the net proceeds of all sales and leases of electric company real property received after July 1, 1998 must be used to reduce the company's stranded costs. These are costs that the company had incurred, with the approval of the Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC), whose recovery was jeopardized with the passage of the electric deregulation law. The act exempts the sale of part of a specific parcel from this requirement. The exemption applies if DPUC approves the sale, before July 1, 2011, of approximately 26 acres and applies to approximately 22 acres of this parcel that (1) is no longer used or useful, as determined by DPUC; (2) is not and never was in the company's rate base; and (3) was maintained by the company's shareholders. By law, utility companies are allowed to recover in rates the cost of property in their rate bases, as long as this property is used and useful.
HIGHWAY PROPERTIES
Route 6
The act repeals the 2007 law that authorized and established procedures for the DOT commissioner, with advice and consent from the secretary of the Office of Policy and Management and the SPRB, to sell, lease, and convey or otherwise dispose of or enter into agreements regarding the land and state-owned buildings obtained for the Route 6 Expressway that are no longer needed for the project. Under the prior law, the commissioner had to notify the chief elected official and local legislators where the property is located within one year after the property is declared surplus. The law set out the procedures and requirements for transactions involving such property, including Federal Highway Administration approval. It included a requirement that, for 25 years after the property's acquisition by the state, the former property owner or owners have the right of first refusal to purchase it for the amount of its appraised value. Within a year of declaring the property unnecessary, DOT had to send a notice of the offering to the owners.
The act instead gives a former owner (or the heir of a former owner) of property taken to expand Route 6 the option, upon his or her written request, to repurchase it at fair market value. The fair market value is determined by the state, but in no case can it be less than the price DOT paid to acquire the property. The act seems to require DOT (in consultation with DEP) to adopt and publish a master plan for retention or disposition of the Route 6 expansion property within two years of the act's passage.
Route 7
The act reinstates a change made by PA 09-186 (an act vetoed, then overridden) that eliminates provisions in current law on the sale or use of property acquired for the Route 7 Expressway Project. It restores the provision barring the DOT commissioner from selling, or using in any manner that is incompatible with transportation purposes, any property under his control in Danbury adjacent to Route 7 and south of Wooster Heights Road.
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