CT Blue

This article in the Norwich Bulletin caught my eye this morning as I dutifully trooped off to the Y to put in my daily mile of swimming.

The Northeast Corner of Connecticut, the so called “Quiet Corner” is apparently well suited for distribution centers. Lowes just built one, and now Home Depot wants to follow suit. The article concentrates on the tax benefits (corporations (Gannett) helping corporations), the comments to it, at least those on the front page, mainly take the tack that anyone who opposes this new tax and jobs bonanza is a former city dwelling elitist who wants to drive taxes for everyone else through the roof.

Naturally, Home Depot wants to put its new distribution center on what is now farmland, and there’s the rub as far as I can see. That area of Connecticut, quiet corner or no, is chock full of abandoned mills and land that comes already pre-raped. For some reason, these corporations are allergic to the idea of using used land. Nothing but the virgin stuff will do. These corporate titans must have wet dreams about running bulldozers through national forests. And, of course, they are also totally allergic to the idea that any building should have more than one story. The land in question is 118 acres. Since it will be a distribution center it will need parking only for the trucks that will be coming in and out, and the poorly paid employees. 118 acres is a lot of land. Is that kind of acreage really necessary?

As one small example, the last I heard the Plainfield Dog track is sitting empty or nearly so. (Maybe they have an unneeded betting parlor there-a way station on the way to the casinos) It’s got a parking lot half the size of Rhode Island. Why not put it there? You can halve the foot print of a building without sacrificing storage area by making it two stories high. It wouldn’t take an architectural genius to design it so that trucks could load directly from each story. And, while you’re at it, require them to install a green roof.

Corporations like Home Depot just love the way land use is regulated in this country. Sure, every once in a while they run into a bit of trouble, but for the most part, they get to play off one town against another and flood the country with ugly concrete boxes that destroy the landscape. Any town that wants to try to impose a little rationality risks losing those precious tax dollars. Here in Connecticut, with our completely insane tax structure, it’s even worse. Towns court these ugly behemoths because they represent a quick short term fix. The long term problems come later, and they can be dealt with by the politicians of the future. If we could end the ridiculous local dependence on the property tax, towns like Plainfield could tell Home Depot to stick it.

There’s a reason why Home Depot wants to build along 395. You can figure it out by looking at a map. That corridor is ideally located to reach all of New England, and it even includes easy access to the Mass Pike to head west. If there were reasonable restrictions on where development took place and the manner of development-i.e., outlaw the big box, the corporations would work within them. Those restrictions can’t be imposed by localities. It’s about time that this state, and all states, started thinking in terms of statewide zoning and building requirements that go beyond structural integrity. We need to discourage these giant footprints, and we need to encourage re-use of existing sites. Do we really need to turn Eastern Connecticut into a poor man’s version of Fairfield County, with miles of ugly faceless big box distribution centers instead of miles of shopping malls?

Perhaps it’s trite, but it’s also true. Joni Mitchell was right. You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.