1. Notice of Scoping for State Buildings Space Needs in Hartford

Municipality where proposed project might be located: City of Hartford

Addresses of Possible Project Locations: Due to the nature of the project involving property acquisitions and leases, the sponsoring agency has determined that disclosing specific property locations, and associated real estate material, would not be in the best interest of the State under Connecticut General Statute Section 1-210(b).  However, the sponsoring agency wishes to strike a balance between providing as much information as possible to receive meaningful comments on this proposed action without compromising real estate negotiations and transactions.  Therefore, the project description and project maps below provide information to assist in collecting comments on the potential environmental impacts.

Project Description: The Department of Administrative Service (DAS) (sponsoring agency) intends to implement a long-term plan to consolidate various leased space into state-owned property and/or existing leased space within the City of Hartford.  As part of this plan, DAS envisions acquiring additional real property to house state agencies and relocate agencies from existing state buildings to other state buildings.  Currently, the effort is to consolidate leases within the Greater Hartford area and relocate State agencies that are located in those leased space into the City of Hartford.  Due to the need of office space, DAS is only considering acquiring property that is currently developed and zoned as “B-1 Downtown Development District” and “B-2 Downtown Perimeter District” according to the City of Hartford’s Adopted Zoning Map (City of Hartford Planning Department, February 11, 2008).  To further narrow the potential locations within the City of Hartford and provide as much information as possible without disclosing specific acquisition sites, the following criteria are guiding the decision-making process:

• property owner must be a willing seller (no use of eminent domain);
• must be existing office space and use;
• areas zoned or used as residential, commercial, industrial, parks, designated open space, public venues, cemeteries, places of worship, schools, and areas generally outside of the B-1 and B-2 zones are excluded; and 
• no zone change.

The plan does not include or contemplate construction of new buildings; however, renovation of existing buildings may be necessary.  Consolidation of leases may also occur by co-locating agencies, as may be appropriate, in currently leased space to maximize usage of the leased space; however, the overall intent is to vacate leased spaces as leases expire. 

The overall magnitude of the project envisions space programming and planning to relocate approximately 3,000 state employees into 720,000 – 975,000 net useable square feet (NUSF) or 875,000 – 1,115,000 gross square feet.  As part of the space planning, DAS is considering increasing the space efficiency standard from 250 NUSF per employee to 200 NUSF.  It is anticipated an equal amount of parking spaces to the number of employees will be associated with each agency relocation site.  To accommodate parking, DAS is considering maximizing existing state owned or leased parking areas, as well as augmenting parking through purchase or lease spaces, as appropriate within the relocated agency areas.

The project would involve multiple phases that could span over 3-5 years.  It is anticipated that the work would be done with multiple schedules and phases since agency relocations will be phased in as leases terminate.

Project Maps:  Click here to view the General Location and here for the Potential Acquisition Areas.

Written comments from the public are welcomed and will be accepted until the close of business on:  November 1, 2012.

Any person can ask the sponsoring agency to hold a Public Scoping Meeting by sending such a request to the address below.  If a meeting is requested by 25 or more individuals, or by an association that represents 25 or more members, the sponsoring agency shall schedule a Public Scoping Meeting.  Such requests must be made by October 12, 2012 by 5:00 PM.

Written comments and/or requests for a Public Scoping Meeting should be sent to:

If you have questions about the public meeting, or other questions about the scoping for this project, contact:

The agency expects to make a determination on whether to prepare an Environmental Impact Evaluation for this project after receiving written comments.

Other information:

City of Hartford Adopted Zoning Map

Department of Administrative Services website