Fairfield Hills Master Plan Review May Yield A Change Of Course

By Kendra Bobowick

The Board of Selectmen is poised to appoint a Fairfield Hills Master Plan Review Committee with discussion beginning at its March 1 meeting. “The timing is really right for a major review,” said First Selectman Pat Llodra.

The original funds bonded in 2001 “are exhausted,” and a desire exists to review the document and reassess its vision, she explained. A new committee can “go back and say what they want to do there and provide the opportunity for people to talk about it.” She also welcomes the chance to review plans to revamp the former state hospital buildings and grounds that in past years have sparked political controversy.

The plan itself also calls for a review, Mrs Llodra noted.

Monday selectmen will “review draft language” for a charge for the committee, and “we’ll discuss who and how many” should be on the committee.

This week Selectman Will Rodgers wrote in an email, “I am definitively supportive of a review. [Mrs Llodra] and I campaigned promising such a review.” The Republican team won voter support in last November’s election.

Mr Rodgers wrote, “We are now at a natural point [for review], and the end of one contemplated phase.” Also favoring a fresh look, he said, are changes in economy, the changed usage with the advent of the Newtown Youth Academy and the Municipal Center, and even declining school enrollments, which are all “deltas” that justify review.

While the intended recreational and municipal uses have seen success on the more than 180 acres, commercial uses have not. “It’s the piece I hear the most consternation about; I think the community is divided on that,” Mrs Llodra said. “We are divided over the vision and that’s the piece the review committee will grapple with.”

Selectman William Furrier had similar thoughts: “I think there may be some disagreement along the way over details, but you know that is part of the process of negotiation.”

As Monday approaches, Mr Rodgers expressed one reservation: “One problem I foresee is creating the correct starting focus. It is a review of the master plan. That is not, at least as a starting point, the abandonment of the master plan.” He added, “I suspect when many longtime Fairfield Hills Master Plan opponents say they want to review, they actually mean they want to start over. Hopefully, we can find a collection of fair, open-minded people to take a look at this.”

Again, Mr Furrier expressed in an email, “We know … that the public perception of Fairfield Hills is a poor one. And we know that obtaining input and participation from the public all along the process will be a critical benchmark for success.”

Mr Furrier referred to his letter to the editor in this week’s newspaper as a “call to action to the community to come to Monday’s [March 1] meeting, or at least to begin to pay attention to the events that follow …”

Since 2001

With a show of hands during the 2001 town meeting, those gathered had voted to appropriate roughly $21 million to purchase the former hospital property from the state. “I was part of that meeting,” Mrs Llodra said this week. “I remember it well and I was committed to the purchase of Fairfield Hills and still am — it’s one of the best things the town ever did.”

The bonded funds paid for work at the Edmond Town Hall, the 180-plus-acre purchase price for Fairfield Hills grounds and buildings, site work, a baseball diamond, hiking trail improvements, the Newtown Municipal Center where town and education administrators’ offices are located as of November last year, various street and infrastructure work, and site remediation. Fairfield Hills Authority members also spent months working with contractors, project managers, and real estate experts.

In past years crews have razed several buildings, renovated Bridgeport Hall into the Newtown Municipal Center, restructured roads and parking lots, installed the ball field, entered a land lease with the Newtown Youth Academy — a new, privately owned facility — revamped the underground infrastructure, installed a central green and sitting area, enhanced the trails system around the campus circumference to promote passive recreation. Work completed by both town crews and contractors found funding in the bond money, which is now used up, and grant funds.

Conflicts In The Mix

Remembering back to 2001, Mrs Llodra said, “There was such a delay from the time of approval to doing anything that views changed.” As school and town needs made demands on the town’s resources, “many wanted a chance to turn the clock back and rethink this,” Mrs Llodra said. “But, the ship had sailed; a lot of that was the underpinning of dissatisfaction.” She stressed that as the review process begins, “It’s important that we not make that mistake again.” Some wanted the money to be for needs they felt were more important, she said.

Two municipal elections ago, former first selectman Joe Borst unseated ten-year first selectman Herb Rosenthal. Fairfield Hills had been a large point of contention during that campaign season when former school proponent and WeCAN (We Care About Newtown) member Po Murray, who won a seat to the Legislative Council for one term, was among a faction of residents to form the Independent Party of Newtown. Many felt schools could use the funds more than Fairfield Hills, among other ideas.

Many also spoke out against the necessity of spending roughly $10 million of the $21 million on renovations to Bridgeport Hall to establish the new town hall, renamed Newtown Municipal Center. Legally, bonded funds could not be shifted to other projects, which town attorneys confirmed. The division became a deciding factor in the 2007 election when the Independents backed Mr Borst.

Since that time more than two years ago, the Independent Party of Newtown has grown and become an established third party in Newtown with growing membership and support, according to its organizers. Selectman William Furrier was elected in 2009 on the IPN ticket.

An Exclusive                  Real Estate Broker

In recent years as the Fairfield Hills Authority attempted to negotiate leases for tenants such as Danbury Hospital’s medical facilities, a veterinary hospital, a restaurant, and retail/office space, the various deals have failed for different reasons. Past weeks have found members looking at a new approach.

The Fairfield Hills Authority is currently seeking a single broker to exclusively market the Fairfield Hills campus buildings slated for reuse — an action not necessarily in conflict with efforts to possibly alter the master plan.

Although the authority’s “timing is really difficult” Mrs Llodra and Mr Rodgers both noted that brokers speaking with the authority are aware of the review process. The outcome could be “no commercial development,” Mrs Llodra said. “[The committee] will review what they want to do; they might make some commitments for future development, they might not,” Mrs Llodra said.

Mr Rodgers said in his email, “Critics have recently protested that efforts to select a realtor to market the property indicates some inviolate desire on the part of town officials to go forward with the master plan unchanged. That is simply not true. Realtors and the town attorney are all aware of possible changes to the master plan and the effort is merely option maximizing. I’m sure everyone would agree that if a dream lessee somehow came along … that information would be quite relevant.”

See the current Fairfield Hills Master Plan at www.fairfieldhills.org/PDF/MastePlan2005.pdf.