CT agency aims to build housing in downtowns, near public transit
The Naugatuck train station is a small plexiglass box with a single bench, a lone dot in the expanse of the concrete parking lot, just across from the loading dock of a post office.
It’s exactly the type of car-centric development that David Kooris, executive director of the Connecticut Municipal Development Authority, wants to avoid. A construction site just south of the station will soon be the home of a larger train station and a mixed-use apartment complex with homes on top and businesses on the bottom floor.
“We want vibrancy,” said Mayor Pete Hess, on a recent walking tour of the site. “We want people walking, eating, drinking, shopping using the train.”
It’s paired with a project to improve walkability in the nearby downtown, where workers were putting in new brick sidewalks late last month. It’s an expensive project, and the town will need improved infrastructure, Hess said. Just when he was worrying over the small town being unable to afford the cost, “out of nowhere, an angel came from above, and it was CMDA.”
