From the CT Post:
General Electric Co. will try again Tuesday night to gain a key city panel’s approval for tearing down its vast abandoned factory complex at 1285 Boston Ave.
The company will present its case once more to the city’s Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency. General Electric failed to win approval for the East Side demolition on June 28, even though four of the seven agency members present voted to support its application. The agency’s bylaws require that applicants win approval from five of the nine agency members. General Electric has since contested the decision in State Superior Court.
The three dissenting agency members in June were concerned that the project would environmentally damage nearby Stillman Pond and the two brooks flowing through the property.
*** Hell yeah! ***
The buildings are obsolete for manufacturing in the 21st Century.
Attempts to generate commercial or residential interest for reuse have failed.
Environmental rehabilitation or protection can easily be made (would have to be made) part of a redevelopment plan. (Doesn’t anyone have any idea what existed [may still exist] in Remington Woods to the north?!?)
Set the explosives and hand over the plunger. Give the city a break, and start with a clean parcel.
The buildings are of historical value. GE was a lifeblood to the City for so long. Although grossly neglected at this stage, why not convert them to low-income housing? I’ve seen so many historic buildings torn down in Milford for the sake of progress and so much history is lost.
If there is one thing this city does not need it’s more high-rise low-income housing. We have learned warehousing the poor does not work.
Old GE should be torn down period. The structures cannot be remediated to accommodate modern manufacturing practices. Efficient use of space and energy and access to materials and a QUALIFIED labor force is what business owners look for. If Timpanelli and Don Calamari knew what they were doing, they would be beating the bushes finding a corporation willing to come to this town to make things. Let the city take the lead and create a state of the art manufacturing facility to attract new manufacturing back here. All we need is one. Anybody ever ask Sikorsky why they continually search outside of the state for new manufacturing sites? Why not begin to chat that up with them?