Vernon Residents Optimistic About Plan To Renovate And Redevelop Mill Complex In Rockville

VERNON, CT — At as recent public forum, Residents seemed optimistic about plan to renovate and redevelop Rockville mill complex primarily into housing with some commercial components.

About 25 people filled the conference room at Citizens Block last week for an update on the
Vernon mills redevelopment program and several expressed optimism and excitement about the
project’s potential to "transform" Rockville.

Shaun Gately, Vernon’s director of development services, briefed residents on the progress of the plan, the vision and the timeline. Joining him were Mayor Dan Champagne, Town Administrator John Kleinhans, Joe Haskett, an architect with Union Studios and a representative of the developer, Camden Management Partners of Atlanta, and David Ruszyk, a licensed environmental professional with GZA Environmental.

The project encompasses three mills: Amerbelle, Daniel’s and Anocoil.

The Hockanum River, which once powered Rockville’s many mills, flows through the site and creates a mill pond before spilling over a pair of waterfalls. One is a spillway directly through the Amerbelle complex.

Several residents expressed excitement about the project and its potential to be transformative for
Rockville and Vernon. That has been Mayor Dan Champagne’s vision since he and town staff tackled the project more than nine years ago and sought grants to cleanup industrial contamination on the site and bring new life to the complex.

"These mills are the gateway to Rockville and this project will transform and further enhance our
downtown," Champagne said. "They represent an important part of Vernon’s history and my goal is
to make them an important part of our future too. In the meantime, we continue to work with the state and federal government to help move this project forward."

The immediate is remediating PCB contamination. Because of the planned residential use of the mills, the PCBs have to be removed, town officials said. "That has complicated and driven up the cost of the cleanup.

Gately has said contamination is particularly heavy in the Daniel’s Mill portion of the project, which was once home to a fireproof paint manufacturer.

Bestech Inc. of Ellington is performing remediation work in Daniel’s Mill. The wood beams that support the structure will have to be removed and replaced because they are contaminated, Gately said.

The complicated work is important and necessary because historic preservation tax credits are a key
component of the project’s financing, and for that reason the historic elements of the structures must be maintained or replicated.

The site plan for the mill complex calls for about 110,000 square feet of residential units, commercial
space and parking. Walkways around the complex and mill pond are also planned.

"It’s an amazing project," Haskett said. "It's an unbelievable site.”

Champagne said a state grant the town applied for is expected to be awarded soon and he is
hopeful the town will receive it.