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A Google map image showing the scrapyard on Factory Street in Derby.
DERBY — Mayor Rich Dziekan’s administration is continuing negotiations with the owner of a scrapyard to either purchase the property or take it through eminent domain.
The scrapyard at 2 Factory St. is seen as an impediment to the city’s redevelopment zone, the land between Main Street and the Housatonic River in downtown Derby.
Two redevelopment projects have been approved in the redevelopment zone.
In January, the city’s planning and zoning commission approved “Trolley Pointe,” a 70-unit market-rate apartment building at the former Lifetouch property on Main Street.
In February 2020, the commission approved 200 apartments and 8,000 square feet of retail on Factory Street, between the Trolley Pointe property and the scrap yard.
That project has not moved forward, in part, according to city officials, the developers want to make sure the scrap yard isn’t a neighbor so that they may market their apartments.
The members of the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission received a brief update on the negotiations between the city and the scrap yard owner during a meeting March 16.
“We’ve been pushing to get that removed in some way, shape, or form for months now,” Derby P&Z Chairman Ted Estwan noted, asking Andrew Baklik, Mayor Dziekan’s chief of staff, for an update.
Baklik referred the issue to John Marini, an attorney with Marino, Zabel & Schellenberg. The firm is Derby’s corporation counsel.
Marini said the city is “carving out a path toward acquiring the property.”
He said the city is “running it through legal to make sure we understand and know all the possible avenues and opportunities here.”
“Number one, we wanted to make sure we had done everything that could be done to explore the possibility of essentially a voluntary sale between the city and the property owner,” Marini said. “If that is ruled out the city is interested in exploring the use of eminent domain.”
The property at 2 Factory St. has been operated as a scrapyard for decades. It is owned by Andrew and Barry Jacobs, according to land records. A tenant, Rubino Brothers, Inc., currently operates the business, along with a second location in Stamford.
In January, the city offered $915,000 to purchase the property. That offer was declined, as the property owner thought it was too low. Click here for a previous story.
Dominick Thomas is representing the scrapyard. In an email Friday (March 19) he said negotiations are still happening.
“The city has requested certain information concerning my client’s position on the value of the property and I provided that information. Hopefully we can sit down soon and work things out,” Thomas wrote.
