Derby business owners, residents invited to charrette at City Hall

Sharing message from Derby Town/City Clerk Marc Garofalo:

Dear Derby Leaders and Stakeholders,

The Derby business community, residents, and other interested stakeholders will have the opportunity to provide input to a major transportation planning study being conducted by the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments. 

A design workshop, known as a charrette, will be held in Derby City Hall Thursday.  
The event will be held from 6-8 p.m. and focus on the transit hub in and around the Derby-Shelton rail station.

The study is designed to ensure certain future transportation projects best meet the needs of businesses, the local workforce and all residents. 

It is assessing alternative transit modes within the Route 8/Waterbury branch rail line corridors and developing transit-supportive land use plans.

The study team incorporated information and data on the existing conditions within the corridor into an initial round of charrette presentations in November and December 2017. The follow-up charrettes will give stakeholders, local officials, and residents the opportunity to provide feedback on preliminary study recommendations. 

The Study Team will be presenting preliminary “model” concepts based on the input from the first round of Charrettes.

Public input provided at these events will be integrated into study recommendations that will be provided to the state Department of Transportation, with a goal of incorporating improvements in the corridor into the department’s capital plan. 
They will also be provided to area municipalities and the region’s state legislative delegation. Working toward developing a strategy and plan for implementing preferred options, the study is scheduled to be completed in late 2018.

Interested persons can also contact the study team through the “Contact Us” page which lists several ways the public can contact the Team to offer comment or ask questions. 
An email address has also been established to contact the Team: rt8corridorstudy@nvcog.org.

Derby residents who cannot attend any of the presentations are encouraged to provide study input via a brief online visual preference survey, which can be found here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Route8visualpreferencesurvey

Design workshop at Derby City Hall to focus on city's transit hub

DERBY - The city's business community, residents, and interested stakeholders will have an opportunity to provide input to a major transportation planning study conducted by the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments. 

A design workshop, known as a charrette, will be held March 15 in Derby City Hall.  

The event will be held from 6-8 p.m. and focus on the transit hub in and around the Derby-Shelton rail station.

The study is designed to ensure certain future transportation projects best meet the needs of businesses, the local workforce, and all residents. It is assessing alternative transit modes within the Route 8 / Waterbury branch rail line corridors and developing transit-supportive land use plans.

The study team incorporated information and data on the existing conditions within the corridor into an initial round of charrette presentations in November and December 2017. The follow up charrettes will give stakeholders, local officials and residents the opportunity to provide feedback on preliminary study recommendations. 

The team will be presenting preliminary “model” concepts based on the input from the first round of charrettes.

Public input provided at these events will be integrated into study recommendations that will be provided to the state Department of Transportation, with a goal of incorporating improvements in the corridor into the department’s capital plan. They will also be provided to area municipalities and the region’s state legislative delegation. Working toward developing a strategy and plan for implementing preferred options, the study is scheduled to be completed in late 2018.

Interested persons can also contact the study team through the “Contact Us” page which lists several ways the public can contact the Team to offer comment or ask questions. 

An email address has also been established to contact the team: rt8corridorstudy@nvcog.org

Also, Derby residents who cannot attend any of the presentations are encouraged to provide study input via a brief online visual preference survey, which can be found here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Route8visualpreferencesurvey .

This is a press release from Derby City Hall.

Public invited to charrette in Derby next week

DERBY - Mayor Anita Dugatto is inviting residents to the Charrette, the culminating public event of Downtown Now! Derby’s Blueprint for Progress.

The Charrette, an intensive and interactive multi-day design workshop, will be held at The Ballroom at 33 Elizabeth St. and will be led by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ) – world leaders in traditional urban design.

The five-day event will start on Monday and run through Nov. 18. During this time, the public will have several opportunities, through scheduled drop-in times and formal presentations, to weigh-in and help define the redevelopment plan for the south side of downtown Main Street.
“At the Charrette, members of the DPZ team will put pen to paper, giving shape to the ideas that have been collected from the community leading up to this point,” Dugatto said. “Members of the design team will take inspiration from the vision shared by citizens at the two preceding public workshops and will anchor that vision in reality.”

To facilitate the work of the DPZ team, The Ballroom will be transformed into an architect and urban designer studio.
“The Charrette is an intensive and highly visual event. We will be starting with blank sheets of paper and will fill them in with drawings and ideas as the week progresses,” said Marina Khoury, DPZ team leader. “Input by the public at this creative stage in the design process is very important to the future of the redevelopment site, downtown Derby, and the city as a whole.”
On Tuesday, community members are invited to attend a public meeting where a preview of the preliminary design ideas will be presented. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at The Ballroom.

As planners and designers develop design alternatives, the public is encouraged to drop in and comment on what the DPZ team is doing. 
Citizens will be able to interact with the team by viewing their progress, offering feedback, and asking questions.
Drop-in sessions are as follows: Tuesday and Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday’s hours are abbreviated to allow the DPZ team time to complete the design and prepare for the presentation of the preferred design alternatives.

Preferred design alternatives will be presented at a public meeting Thursday at 6 p.m. at The Ballroom. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

The City of Derby has appointed a citizen Advisory Committee to guide the development of the plan. Advisory Committee members include: Shane Mangado, Jack Walsh, Christian Meagher, Jim Gildea, Christina DiMartino, Natasha Kelly, Virginia Russo, Willetta Capelle, Beth Colette, and Sarah Widomski.

With offices in Miami and Washington, D.C., DPZ Partners is one of the country’s preeminent urban design and planning firms, having designed over 400 new and existing communities in the U.S. and abroad.

For Downtown Now! DPZ Partners has joined forces with CDM Smith who will provide infrastructure and environmental engineering support; The Williams Group who will conduct market analysis to determine what the market can support, develop, and finance; Urban 3 who will analyze the tax revenue implication of proposed alternatives; Gianni Longo and Associates who will lead public engagement; New Haven-based Robert Orr Associates who will focus on the unique character of Derby’s urbanism and architecture; and Good Earth Advisors (GEA), also based in Connecticut, who will assist with community outreach and act as a local liaison.