Connecticut

Drugmaker Pfizer has announced plans to move offices and 1,400 employees out of New London, Connecticut, where it had ignited a heated debate over eminent domain that spawned the landmark Kelo v. New London Supreme Court case. Locals are not happy.

The 2005 Supreme Court decision on Kelo v. New London was a landmark in eminent domain law, paving the way for Pfizer to develop there. Four years later, Pfizer is pulling up stakes.

Chabad Lubavitch of Connecticut has filed suit against the Historic District Commission for denying its application to develop a property there into a center. The Commission said it would consider a revised plan, but Chabad says it's anti-Hasidism.

Instead of waiting for developers to come into town with plans for affordable housing, some Connecticut towns are taking advantage of a statewide grant program that helps establish zones for high density and affordable housing.

In an odd twist of the urban vs. suburban debate, here's an interesting nuance - bank robbers are finding the open atmosphere of suburban banks to be more appealing than the bulletproof glass-protected tellers that one often sees in busy urban areas.

Greenwich cites concerns over aesthetics and liability.

Stamford, Connecticut's Downtown Special Services District knew that their zoning was causing needless delays and roadblocks to development. They hired the Regional Plan Association to do something about it.

A local committee in Easton, Connecticut, has made a suggestion on the location of a 9/11 Memorial Site -- the same site that was denied by the Planning and Zoning Commission six months ago.

An elevated section of 1-84 cut right through downtown Hartford. As repair plans are put in place, citizens are calling for the stretch of highway to be torn down instead.

A walking tour of tamford downtown development projects started at the Government Center.

Officials of Bridgeport admitted that the city's Master Plan of Conservation and Development was improperly adopted last year.

Regional Plan Association of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut has mapped out the impact of all MTA's service cuts for every State Assembly and Senate district in the region. There's also an interactive Google Map.

At Yale, a modernist landmark is preserved and revitalized. Ada Louise Huxtable looks at the challenges in updating the harshness of brutalist architecture.

Matthew Klauer had intended to build a 44-room country inn on the 27-acre plot he purchased in Washington, Connecticut. Rejected by locals, Klauer is changing the plan and building 33 small homes using an affordable housing law.

The State of Connecticut will enact a new green building code in January, and builders are already calling it "awkward" and "unworkable".

Greenwich, Connecticut is a rich enclave of hedge fund managers- and thus is feeling the pain of the current financial crisis like a ton of bricks. Ned Lamont, a Greenwich resident who ran for Senate in 2006, says, 'This is our Katrina.'

New London, Connecticut, like many victims of the 1970s, was saddled with a harsh, ineffective public plaza at the heart of its downtown. Planners are working to return the plaza to its historic form.