Governor Dan Malloy's bill 6851 creates a Transit Corridor Authority which would retain all of the voting power to take control of development within a half mile range of any new rail or Bus Rapid Transit stop. With the eminent coming of Bristol's downtown Transit-Oriented hub, which has been in state planning documents for years, there is great cause for concern. HB 6851 provides the power to this authority to, according to state legislators and municipal organizations, "essentially do whatever it wants" within this radius. The bill received staunch opposition from a number of legislators and the Connecticut Council of Municipalities during it's public hearing . As a consequence, the committee redrafted the bill to change some of the language and it passed committee by a margin of three votes. The new language of the bill has yet to be revealed but the intentions have been made clear. No person's property is safe within the corridor. You can read more about the bill and it's opposition by clicking here.
In all, nine of twenty-one P&D Committee members voted against the revised bill on Friday the 27th.
Ranking Committee Member, State Representative Bill Aman describes why the revised bill is still philosophically unworthy of support, asking, "Do we want the state to take control of transit areas and develop them?".
State Representative Mike France calls the redrafted bill "A dangerous precedent".
As State Representative Sam Belsito states, the redrafted committee bill still provides your municipality ONLY ONE VOTE.
THE CT LIGHT RAIL STUDY'S LATEST NEWS RELEASE SUGGESTS A NEW RAIL STATION OR BUSWAY STATION WILL BE BUILT AT DEPOT SQUARE. Governor's Malloy's bill 6851, creating a new TRANSIT CORRIDOR AUTHORITY would provide the city of Bristol's elected representatives ONLY ONE VOTE on a panel of state appointees to making decisions about what would be built within a half mile radius of any rail station. Do you remember what happened with Kelo vs New London? Bugryn vs the City of Bristol?
BIG GOVERNMENT ADVOCATES say DON'T WORRY while they sneak through this legislation!
According to the CT Rail Study website, the latest news is:
"The State of Connecticut, through CTDOT, has determined the need to conduct a market analysis and feasibility study regarding the implementation of fixed-guideway rail or bus transit service in the Central Connecticut Corridor, directly serving the cities of Waterbury, Bristol, and New Britain and adjacent towns of Plainville, Berlin, and Plymouth. This initiative is referred to as the Central Connecticut Rail Study (CCRS).
This website will be actively used as a tool to help keep the public informed of all activities related to study, as well as provide a method for the public to provide input on the study as it progresses.
News
1/8/2015: The third Advisory Committee meeting for the CCRS was held on November 20, 2014. To view the report of this meeting, including the presentation that was given, please click here. :
http://centralctrailstudy.com/docs/2015-0108%20CCRS%20AC%20Meeting%203%20Report%20of%20Meeting_FINAL.pdf
Click here for the site's landing page:
http://centralctrailstudy.com/
Learn more about the intent of this bill's original draft and purpose from Jim Cameron's blog here:
http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2015/03/malloys-transit-land-grab.html
Jim Cameron was Former NBC News director and anchor, now a professional communications consultant, JIM CAMERON leads workshops on media training, speech and presentations skills and preps clients for analyst briefings and legislative testimony. Jim served for 19 years on the CT Metro-North Rail Commuter Council, is an elected member of the Darien Representative Town Meeting (RTM) and is Program Director of Darien TV79, his town's government TV station.
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