Open Space Purchase and Blight Ordinance Approved at Council

(Richard Brock addresses the Common Council.)

In a busy night at the Common Council, both an important open space purchase of development rights, and a new Property Maintenance and Code Enforcement ordinance passed unanimously.

The farm will be purchased with a combination of funds from the city's Open Space Bond Referendum, the state's Department of Environmental Protection grant, and a grant from the
Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service.

When the Council passed the purchase of development rights on the 44 acres Brock Farm, one of Connecticut's oldest and most productive, family members hugged and wiped away tears.

Earlier in the meeting Richard Brock explained how his family had farmed the land for 12 generations from 1652, and that it has been deemed some of the most fertile and productive land in Connecticut.

"For the past 25 years we have turned down more offers from developers than you can imagine, including some as late as this spring," Richard Brock explained to the Council.

The Brock family will continue to farm the land, hoping to expand current crops to include vineyards and blueberries.

Council member David Bauer urged the family to grow asparagus, but Council member James Streeto had other ideas.

"I personally want to urge you not to give up on wine," he laughed. "And if you give up on wine, I hope you consider hops."

Several members of the public, including several North End residents who were involved in a workshop with city officials on the city's blight ordinance urged council members to pass an ordinance which will supersede the blight law. The new ordinance will give a code enforcement task force more leverage to seek immediate fixes on health, building and zoning violations, and will provide the legal power to pursue property owners for fines and related costs associated with violations.

The new ordinance passed without discussion.

Debate about the showmobile nearly stalled the meeting as Council members pondered how to honor their promise to cuts costs, including waiving of showmobile fees, and still assist non-profits with events that benefit the city. The Council voted to co-sponsor and waive fees for City of Middletown Second Annual Music Festival Fundraiser to support individuals and families dealing with autism, and they provided retroactive relief by waiving fees for the Annual Relay for Life which was held in May.

The Council also voted to hire a new temporary employee for the new parking department and to extend Honeywell's analysis of energy costs in the city. The Honeywell study identifed thousands of dollars in savings in buildings managed by the Board of Education, and that study will now be extended to city-owned buildings.

Blight Ordinance on the Agenda

A building on Middletown's "Blight List"

You may or may not have been following the revisions to Middletown's new blight ordinance. So, here's an update:

This past June, (read about it in the Middletown Press) after many years of complaints by residents who were tired of living next to blighted buildings, NEAT held a workshop to discuss the efficacy of Middletown's Blight Ordinance. Many council people, city department heads and community members came together to discuss the pros and cons, the weaknesses and strengths. At that meeting, everyone agreed that the current ordinance is not an effective document, and that over the next few months it would be rewritten based on Bristol, CT's model.

Since then, the document has gone through department review, ordinance review and review by NEAT members. You can read the new draft here.

It is a much more complete document now, with a greater focus on code enforcement. Before, the ordinance was effective in designating a property as "blighted," but it stopped there. There was little in place to help with remedy. This new ordinance is more focused on preventing buildings from deteriorating to a blighted state in the first place.

This ordinance is a very important document, with implications for the entire city. NEAT feels that this is not just a North End issue, it's an issue for the entire city.


I urge you to come (and spread the word) to the common council meeting this Tuesday, September 8th to sit with NEAT members and (if you're comfortable) speak in favor of this new ordinance which has much tougher enforcement rules and standards.

The meeting is at 7 pm in the council chambers at city hall (245 deKoven Dr.)

NEAT also believes that we need to take this a step farther and create a liscensing program for property owners, where the revenue generated could pay for an additional inspection officer to regularly inspect rental properties in Middletown. NEAT will be working with the city to create a model that works for Middletown.

Please contact NEAT if you'd like more information. Also, you can check out the article in this month's Chronicle (sorry, no link), and there will be stories on this in this weekend's Hartford Courant and next Sunday's New York Times Real Estate Section.