Lisa Mizzone’s business, The Hair Spa, is about making things beautiful. But in the nine years her salon has been in its current spot on Naugatuck Avenue in Milford, she’s been dealing with an eyesore: a vacant property directly across the street that has been the focus of several blight complaints.
Milford’s Devon section has seen many improvements and investments in recent years, yet the property at 257 Naugatuck Ave. – a former business – has seemingly remained frozen in time. Mizzone tells NBC Connecticut her customers have taken notice.
“They're constantly complaining. They pull up, they say ‘the business looks nice, what about that building across the street?’” Mizzone said. “It just brings the value of everything down.”
A shell of a building still stands on the lot, but a view from NBC Connecticut’s DroneRanger shows it is missing a roof and floor, with vegetation growing inside.
Plywood covers spaces where windows used to be. Some neighbors in the area said after decades of sitting vacant, they’re tired of looking at it.
“It's a blight to the neighborhood, I'm sure it brings down our property values,” said Carol Rutledge.
Carmen Samirshody lives behind the property.
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“I don't know if there is any limitation for how long they're going to keep the property like that,” she said, adding she hopes to see it developed soon.
Documents from the city’s Health Department obtained by NBC Connecticut through a Freedom of Information Act request show at least nine blight complaints and investigations at 257 Naugatuck Ave. since 2007. There are no records of any fines issued to the various owners in that time period.
City Health Department director Deepa Joseph reviewed the records and confirmed when the property was close to being referred to the law department for fines or liens, there was a change of ownership. Joseph explained the city tries to work with owners to develop an abatement plan and often grants time extensions.
In 2009, the building was deemed unsafe and ordered to be demolished within 30 days. It never was.
Joseph Griffith, the current building inspector, explains that then-owner Titanium Properties boarded up the building to secure it and presented plans to develop it. The plans never took shape before it was sold again.
The bottom line for neighbors?
“We all just really want to know -- what's going on? If there is going to be anything done about it,” questioned Mizzone.
NBC Connecticut tracked down the current owner to find out.
Christopher Saley, a local real estate developer behind successful projects like the Bridge House restaurant and nearby apartment buildings, bought the property with a partner in 2013 before being appointed Milford’s Public Works director in 2014.
“A project like this shouldn't take this long,” Saley admitted. “…(B)ut I would tell you that it's been there for 20 years, look at the other projects that I've done in the area, they're all nice projects, we care about the community.”
Saley showed NBC Connecticut his plans for the property, a split commercial and residential building. The plans were approved by Milford’s Planning and Zoning committee in 2014. However, Saley explained permitting issues and the death of his original project engineer set the project back.
“The building is clean though in the sense that the grass is cut, it's maintained, it's secure, and we'll get to it in the next month and a half,” he said.
One neighbor questioned why the shell of a building should remain standing in the meantime, saying an empty, grassy lot would be less of an eyesore. Saley explained there’s “structural steel” still inside that he intends to use in his proposed project.
Saley added he hopes to have it finished within nine months, and that he appreciates the patience of neighbors in the area.
