What are Hartford’s strengths and weaknesses, and which need to be accelerated or curtailed? Those are some of the big questions planning officials are posing to thousands of city residents and stakeholders as they prepare Hartford’s next master plan, which will focus heavily on economic development.
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What are Hartford’s strengths and weaknesses, and which need to be accelerated or curtailed?
Those are some of the big questions planning officials are posing to thousands of city residents and stakeholders as they prepare Hartford’s next master plan, which will focus heavily on economic development.
Connecticut municipalities are required to develop a new master plan every 10 years. As Hartford approaches its 400th birthday in 2035, the city, with help from nonprofit iQuilt Partnership, is now working on a 15-year plan that will go through an approval process with the city council before it’s potentially adopted sometime this summer.
A draft of the so-called “Plan 2035” is expected to air at several public meetings in March.
“What we are focusing on in our city plan is not just the land-use aspects, … but to set out goals in the areas of housing, transportation, sustainability, arts and culture and basic living conditions,” said Sara Bronin, chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission, which is leading the master-plan process.
“Everybody has been participating in the plan whether they are politicians, neighborhood leaders, residents or people who work in Hartford,” she continued.
To date, architects of the upcoming master plan, which will serve as a roadmap for the city to encourage equity and economic development opportunities both downtown and in surrounding neighborhoods, have surveyed nearly 2,000 people via dozens of public meetings and questionnaires, asking participants about how they view Hartford today and how they want the city to evolve in the future.
Public input varies greatly, but Bronin said respondents largely agree in one particular area: Hartford needs to capitalize on its dense arts and culture scene. That’s why a fifth of the new master plan will likely focus on promoting and tying together arts and culture with entertainment, sports and nightlife, she said.
The key question is how to jumpstart Hartford’s entertainment and nightlife scene as the city tries to become more of a live, work and play destination. Progress has been made in recent years as thousands of new apartments have been added and occupied downtown, but there is still a lack of activity outside of the traditional 9-to-5 workday and week.
“We need to be very proactive about how we treat nightlife, because nightlife is an essential part of the identity of a city,” said Bronin, who is married to Mayor Luke Bronin. “Sitting here in 2020, we don’t really have a coherent plan or vision for how nightlife should be developed in the city. It’s one of those components of a city that makes a city attractive” to people ages 18 to 35.
Bronin said the master plan will also address businesses’ concerns that Hartford lacks adequate workforce-development opportunities to upskill residents in jobs and industries of the future, including in health care, financial services, insurance, technology and advanced manufacturing.
Workforce strategies are expected to be geared toward both college-level jobs and others not requiring a college degree, which is especially needed because many Hartford residents lack access to higher education, she said.
There will also be a focus on creating greater access to public transportation and bike infrastructure, Bronin said.
“Here in Hartford, 25 percent of our residents lack access to a car,” she said. “It’s very important for us to ensure we have good bus service, solid bike infrastructure and access to rails so people can move between cities.”
Deal Roundup
Windsor’s A.E. Petsche Co., a wholesale distributor of electrical components and equipment wiring supplies, has relocated to a 31,250-square-foot office building in East Granby, brokers say.
A.E. Petsche, a division of Colorado-based Arrow Electronics, recently moved into 12,000 square feet at 33 Nicholson Road, which is owned by landlord B&B Parallel East Granby LLC.
Hartford broker Sentry Commercial said it represented the landlord in the deal; Newmark Knight Frank Inc. represented A.E. Petsche.
Sentry said there is about 19,000 square feet available in the East Granby office building.
Joe Cooper is HBJ’s web editor and real estate writer. He pens “The Real Deal” column about Greater Hartford’s commercial real estate industry.
