State to pay for developer-promised I-84 upgrades in Danbury

DANBURY -- The state is expected to approve $11 million this week for improvements to Interstate 84 that a private developer had originally agreed to finance.

The release of the state funding comes at the same time the developer, WCI Communities, is looking to sell its interest in the Rivington -- a 300-acre development that calls for the construction of more than 2,000 townhouses and condominiums on the city's west side.

"We are looking at proposals for either all or part of the property, but nothing is firm at this time," said Connie Boyd, vice president of communications for WCI, which emerged from bankruptcy last fall. "We want to refocus our efforts on Florida, where we are known and the state we know the best."

As part of the approval that WCI Communities received for the project in 2007, state transportation officials asked the company to study, and mitigate, its impact on the highway.

The developer submitted plans to add an auxiliary lane between exits 1 and 2 eastbound, as well as make improvements to Exit 2 westbound. WCI agreed to foot the bill, about $10 million.

The project never moved beyond the first phase of construction, because WCI went into bankruptcy in 2008. It emerged from Chapter 11 last September.

Late last month, around the same time rumors began to surface that WCI wanted to sell the project to another large developer, Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced that the state Bond Commission was expected to approve $11 million to pay for the highway improvements when it meets Tuesday.

How the bill for the project landed in the hands of state officials is something of a mystery.

Boyd said it's a "very long, complex issue that I don't have any details on," before referring additional questions to state officials.

Officials in the governor's office referred all questions about the project to the state Department of Transportation.

Kevin Nursick, a spokesman for the DOT, said the need for work along Exit 2 was identified in a study of the highway done 10 years ago.

Because the need for improvements existed before the developer submitted plans for Rivington, and the work has yet to be completed, Nursick said it wouldn't be fair to ask the developer to shoulder the cost of the project.

State Rep. David Scribner, R-Brookfield, said he has long been involved in talks about the project and that it is unusual for a corporation to pay for interstate highway improvements.

While it might look like a "change" in who is paying for the project, Scribner said concerns were raised from the start about WCI paying the bill when others would also benefit from the highway improvements.

"Danbury has done a tremendous job of attracting economic growth," Scribner said. "This is a way for the state to be a partner in that and ensure it happens while not relying on whether a certain corporation has the funding and the willingness to do it."

Mayor Mark Boughton, the GOP's endorsed candidate for lieutenant governor, said the project is critical for economic development along the city's west side and that improvements to the highway were a state project before the developer came along.

"It's gone through several evolutions," he said.

State Rep. Jan Giegler, R-Danbury, said the improvements are important to relieve congestion in the area. At the time WCI agreed to pay for the work, "I was surprised a private developer was going to pay for it," she said.

"It could be that they (WCI) didn't have the money to proceed with it," she said Monday.

Contact Dirk Perrefort at dperrefort@newstimes.com

or at 203-731-3358.