Finance Committee OK's City's Purchase of Church and Morse Property

The city is one step closer to purchasing two South Colony Street properties it says are vital to controlling flooding downtown – including the site of the Church and Morse building. 

At its meeting Tuesday night, the City Council's Finance Committee approved resolutions to buy parcels of land at 33 South Colony and at 51 and 53 South Colony Street, together a total of $305,000. The money would come out of the city's Flood Control Reserve Fund.

The resolutions will now likely be routed to the city's Inland/Wetlands and Watercourse Commission and possibly others for discussion and approval before they come before the City Council as a whole, city councilors said at the meeting. 

The two properties figure heavily in the city's long-range flood control plans, according to staff. Public Works Director Bob Bass said the city plans to raze the buildings on the properties to uncover Harbor Brook, which runs underneath, and re-align it. 

Currently the brook has an abrupt 45-degree angle turn in it in the portion under the properties that in heavy rainfall can cause water to back up at a nearby railroad bridge. That backup can result in flooding of the city's center, including the Hub site, Cedar Street, and Mill Street according to Bass. The city has plans (visible in the photos attached) to correct that sharp angle and create a smoother flow. 

"By rerouting this brook, we have better dynamics for the flood of water beneath the bridge," Bass said. 

The city has already submitted master flood control plans that include these changes to state and federal agencies including the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Army Corps of Engineers, and FEMA, according to City Manager Lawrence Kendzior. Changing them now could delay getting permits from DEEP for 18 - 20 months, Kendzior said, and it would be difficult and expensive to find a workaround. 

"Work needs to be done if we're going to protect the center city from flooding in the future," Kendzior said, stressing the urgency of the project. City flooding in 1992 and 1994, cost property owners in the city more than $28 million, Kendzior said.

The property at 33 South Colony houses the Church and Morse building, the site of a more than 80-year Meriden hardware store that went out of business in late 2010. The owner, who according to city land records is Church Real Estate of Norwalk, has agreed to sell it to the city for $175,000, less than the current $201,300 value listed on the city's property search page.

The city has negotiated a price of $130,000 for the land at 51 and 53 South Colony Road, which also has a large building on it. It is owned by Alfred Liseo, according to land records, and the city puts the value of the properties together at $141,600. Between $54,000 and $60,000 of the city's payment will go directly back to the city to pay back taxes on a number of Liseo's properties, Kendzior said.   

Demolishing the buildings on the two sites and performing environmental cleanup on the sites, will likely cost the city close to $800,000, Bass said.