Pizzuto uses state law for local issue

#MiddleburyCT #DistributionCenter #Pizzuto

The locations of two proposed buildings on the Timex/764 Southford Road property, Southford Park, are outlined in black on this aerial view of the properties. Also shown are the parking spaces and the entry/exit road onto Southford Road. (SLR International Corporation rendering)

By MARJORIE NEEDHAM

State Representative William Pizzuto (R), a Middlebury resident, used state law to stop the proposed development of a more than 700,000 square foot distribution center in Middlebury. The proposed project, on the opposite side of Christian Road from Pizzuto’s Avalon Farms home, has faced strong opposition from a significant number of local residents since they learned of it last December.

Pizzuto’s response to a June 15 request from this newspaper for an interview was to instead have Pat O’Neil, Republican spokesperson for the Connecticut House of Representatives, call the newspaper to say Pizzuto was having his car fixed and was too busy to speak to this reporter. Instead, O’Neil said, Pizzuto asked him to send the newspaper a statement. That statement, dated June 8, follows:

“The 2023-25 biennial budget was passed in the House in overwhelming bipartisan fashion on Monday night by a vote of 139-12. To suggest, as the developer’s lawyer has, that any consideration of a controversial project such as the one his group is trying to foist on the town of Middlebury [is] in exchange for a budget vote, is absurd on its face.

“I was elected by the people of Middlebury to serve their best interests, not outsiders who have no real vested stake in our community. Ultimately, the 832-page budget document that was approved nearly unanimously with unprecedented support, was the collaborative result of months of bipartisan exchanges and negotiations. The legislative process, at times, may not be as neat to everyone’s liking, but all voices on this matter were heard.”

The text Pizzuto inserted in the state budget originally stated that, in municipalities with fewer than 8,000 people, neither the municipality nor one of its boards or commissions could approve the siting, construction, permitting, operation or use of a warehousing or distribution facility exceeding an area of 100,000 square feet if the facility was on less than 150 acres, contained more than five acres of wetlands and was not more than two miles from an elementary school.

The final text stated (changes in bold) in municipalities with more than 6,000 but fewer than 8,000 people, neither the municipality nor one of its boards or commissions could approve the siting, construction, permitting, operation or use of a warehousing or distribution facility exceeding an area of 100,000 square feet if the facility was on less than 150 acres, contained more than five acres of wetlands and was not more than two miles from a public school.

The original text, at least by population, would have applied to 57 towns other than Middlebury. The state’s Office of Fiscal Analysis amended the text on June 5, 2023, to apply only to towns with populations between 6,000 and 8,000. It stated the change “eliminates any associated fiscal impact to municipalities with a population of less than 6,000.” This leaves 11 towns other than Middlebury in which the actions of town officials and the town’s boards and commissions are governed by state law.

Will the text have a fiscal impact on those 11 towns? Unanswered questions we had of Pizzuto include, “Did you speak to officials in the other affected towns in advance? If so, how did they react?”

Pizzuto gave Middlebury’s elected officials no advance notice of his plans to insert text in the state budget bill. First Selectman Edward B. St. John, a Republican, said, “I had to read about it in the Tuesday newspaper.”

Those opposed to the distribution center are hailing Pizzuto as a hero. But have Pizzuto and those supporting his text change considered the immediate and long-term impacts of this text to Middlebury and 11 other towns? Will the Pizzuto text also affect home rule, not just in Middlebury and the 11 other towns, but across the state as other legislators follow his lead and decide to use state law to end local controversies?

Since Pizzuto declined to be interviewed by this consituent, we didn’t get to ask him these questions. We are researching both the immediate and long term effects of his action, what we shall refer to as “The Pizzuto Effect,” on Middlebury and the 11 other towns whose fate was sealed into state law with Governor Ned Lamont’s signing of the state budget bill on June 12, 2023. Look for more reporting on this issue.

UPDATED June 17 to correct the date the governor signed the state budget bill.