Redding Pilot
Redding
State project delays prompt expedited application proposal

May 11, 2008

First Selectman Natalie Ketcham, along with David Pattee, Conservation Commission chairman, and Nancy King, a Planning Commission member, recently attended a Land Use Leadership Alliance program.

The four-day workshop was by invitation only. It was sponsored by Pace University and The Nature Conservancy. Stephen Soler, Georgetown Land Development Company president, gave a presentation on his company’s redevelopment project in Georgetown.

Ms. Ketcham said the presentation included a timeline on how much each step, to date, has taken. “At the seminar, we discussed why it took so long,” Ms. Ketcham said.

The project has been held up because of delays in getting required state permits.
The first selectman is also a member of the state’s Responsible Growth Task Force. Mr. Soler also spoke before this group, she said, “so the commissioners understood what happened and how detrimental it was to this project, and how detrimental it could be to state economic development.”

When the task force made its report to the General Assembly in February, she said, it recommended an expedited permit process at the state level for projects that meet the criteria for a smart growth development.

Mr. Soler’s experience, Ms. Ketcham said, “was the direct catalyst for that recommendation, which the state is beginning to implement.”