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06/27/2017 03:39 PMThe Village at Mill Pond development that’s to be built on the property of the old Morgan School has been delayed due to issues obtaining permits at the state level, according to First Selectman Bruce Farmer.
Farmer said delays at the state level, particularly due to cuts in the staffing of the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) office, have delayed the process of obtaining permits related to the site’s wastewater plan. According to Farmer, the developer, Henry Resnikoff, has presented his plan to DEEP, but because of the backlog in the office the permit isn’t likely to be reviewed until sometime in August.
“It’s one of those situations where everything is connected to everything else. The folks that want to do his financing for them, they have to know where he stands with his permits,” Farmer said at a June 14 Board of Selectmen meeting. “He could fill up all the retail space tomorrow, except they won’t commit until they know the financing commitment.”
Resnikoff did not return multiple calls for comment.
Farmer said Resnikoff has options he could use to speed up the process, but compared it to someone calling in their chips, saying “you hate to use certain chips unless you absolutely have to.”
Farmer could not be reached for further comment.
At a Board of Finance Meeting on June 19, Farmer was asked about the project again by a member of the board. Farmer said that last year Resnikoff had lost one of his financial backers when they pulled out of the project.
With rumors about the project swirling, Farmer did caution at the June 14 meeting that the majority of what people are hearing about the project is probably untrue. Farmer also said that Resnikoff has hired “probably the best sanitation engineers in the state” for his wastewater plan.
The Village at Mill Pond was originally announced in as a plan to turn the 38-acre property into a mix of retail and residential use. In addition to the stores and residential use, the property also plans to have a hotel and restaurants. Initially, Mill Pond LLC hoped to break ground on the project in late 2016. With the current delays, however, it is unknown when the project will start or if any of the plans for the project have changed.