WINDSOR LOCKS — Thursday’s announcement that Windsor Locks won a $250,000 state grant to plan a transit-oriented mixed-use development downtown was hailed by town officials as a major step in the long effort to move the train station back to Main Street.
“This is moving forward,” First Selectman Steven Wawruck said.
“We’re very pleased that the town got the planning grant,” John Bernick, manager of the state Department of Transportation’s New Haven-Hartford-Springfield high-speed and commuter rail line project, said.
“I’m more than pleased,” Selectman Joe Calsetta said. “It will demonstrate to the DOT that the downtown location is more viable, would increase ridership, and would have a positive economic impact on Windsor Locks and the surrounding area as opposed to the current location, which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere.”
The grant is part of $5 million awarded to 11 cities, towns, and regional planning organizations — also including Windsor, which will receive $250,000 — for economic development and train station plans related to the proposed New Haven-Hartford-Springfield rail line due to be completed in 2016.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said that “finding smart, practical ways to connect housing and employment centers to transportation is a critical step in growing the state’s economy and making Connecticut a more vibrant place to work and live.”
The grants will help towns “take tangible steps in making their communities more walkable, more accessible, and more attractive to residents and employers alike.”
Windsor Locks is slated to be a major stop on the line because it links up with bus service to and from Bradley International Airport.
The grant will pay for a study of potential mixed uses, parking, utility improvements, traffic mitigation efforts, and how to make that area pedestrian-friendly, Town economic development consultant Patrick McMahon said.
Whether DOT will support moving the station to downtown depends on the environmental assessments — required for federal funding of the high-speed line — of the current station site and the site of the proposed downtown train stop, Project Manager Bernick said. A partial study found no major problems at the downtown site.
“It’s difficult to predict the outcome until the environmental assessment process is complete,” Bernick said.
The environmental assessment report is due in early November. DOT wants public comments on the two sites after that, with a public hearing set for the beginning of December.
Public comments will weigh heavily, Bernick said. A decision is expected in January.
Meanwhile, Amtrak officials have been enthusiastic about relocating the train stop and selling or leasing the long-neglected historic train station and its site to the town. The town already has $220,000 in state grant money for planning and design work for restoring and weatherizing the building, which would act as a tourist attraction, adding to the downtown’s draw.
“Our Main Street was very vibrant when the platform was in the center of town,” Wawruck said. “Once it moved, the heart and soul was ripped right out of the center of Windsor Locks, and now we have a chance to work with the state and the railroad to bring the platform back and make Windsor Locks what it once was.”
Other grants went to Hartford, $730,000; Meriden, $850,000; New Britain, $750,000; New Haven, $390,000; New London, $319,000; Norwalk, $486,000; Stamford, $460,000; Stratford, $250,000, and Derby and Shelton, $265,000.
