Town/School Offices—

P&Z Endorses Fairfield Hills Master Plan Revisions

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have approved revisions to the Fairfield Hills Master Plan, which shift the planned location for town/school offices there from Shelton House to Bridgeport Hall.

P&Z members approved the master plan revisions in a 4-to-1 vote on May 17, with members Lilla Dean, Robert Poulin, Jane Brymer, and Dennis Bloom in favor, and Sten Wilson opposed.

P&Z members endorsed the master plan revisions based on the recommendations of the Fairfield Hills Authority and the Board of Selectmen.

Fairfield Hills is a former state psychiatric hospital that closed in 1995, which the town purchased for $3.9 million in 2004. Bridgeport Hall formerly served as the main dining/kitchen facility at Fairfield Hills. Shelton House formerly served as a patient residence hall.

P&Z members decided that Bridgeport Hall, which had been designated for assembly space, office space, and community reuse in the original Fairfield Hills Master Plan, now instead be designated for town/school office reuse.

In the original master plan, Shelton House was designated for reuse as a town hall, or for demolition with the resulting site to be used for new town hall construction.   

In the revised master plan, Shelton House would be demolished, with no specific future use listed for the site.

Also, P&Z members decided that the demolition of Shelton House should not be allowed to adversely affect Deep Brook, a nearby stream where native trout breed.

The master plan revisions approved by the P&Z on May 17 create a mechanism to allow the town to submit for P&Z review proposed site plans for the conversion of Bridgeport Hall into town/school offices.

The town initially had proposed that the site of a demolished Shelton House have a “water feature,” or pond, created for both aesthetic and environmental protection reasons. The town later withdrew the pond proposal.

Objections

In a discussion before the May 17 vote on the master plan revisions, Mr Wilson said, “I think we’re moving a little too fast on this…I’m still not sure that we need a new town hall.”

Mr Wilson said the town had not presented enough information to the P&Z to support the master plan revisions.

But Ms Dean noted that in 2005, the P&Z had approved a Fairfield Hills Master Plan, which included provisions for town/school offices at Fairfield Hills.

“It’s just a change in buildings,” she said.

Ms Dean expressed reservations about the town’s earlier proposal to create a “water feature” at the site of a demolished Shelton House.

Trout Unlimited, a private conservation group, had opposed the water feature proposal at an April 12 P&Z public hearing, charging that creating such a body of water could result in damage to the cold water habitat for native trout in Deep Brook downstream of a pond.

Of the master plan revisions, Ms Dean said, “This is not a huge change.”

“Every single citizen in town has a [Fairfield Hills] plan in their heads that’s better than what we have on paper,” she said of divergent public views about the future uses of the municipally owned Fairfield Hills.

“We have to start somewhere…This is not an awful plan,” she said.

But, Mr Wilson cautioned, “There are other alternatives…I think we’re jumping into this…I’m erring on the side of caution based on what I heard at the [April 12] public hearing.”

At that hearing on the master plan revisions, the proposed use of Bridgeport Hall for town/school office space drew criticism from some residents, who questioned whether such a project is necessary.

Mr Wilson has suggested that the town reconfigure Edmond Town Hall at 45 Main Street to make better use of its interior space for offices, instead of creating facilities elsewhere.

But Mr Bloom urged that the town start work on creating town/school offices at Fairfield Hills.

Ms Brymer urged that the P&Z create a special Fairfield Hills application format, which the town would use when applying to the P&Z for various redevelopment projects at Fairfield Hills, to streamline the application process.

As the town redevelops Fairfield Hills in the coming years, the P&Z will receive a series of site redevelopment plans for review.

Following structural and architectural analyses performed for the town, the selectmen had concluded that Shelton House would not effectively meet municipal office space needs through a renovation project. Additionally, the presence of flowing groundwater at the Shelton House site would make it unsuitable for the construction of a new office building, the selectmen found. Thus, the selectmen sought master plan revisions that are keyed to renovating the adjacent Bridgeport Hall for office use.

The 45,000 square feet of space required for town/school offices would be available at Bridgeport Hall. Of that 45,000 square feet of space, 33,000 square feet would be assigned for specific uses, and the remaining 12,000 square feet would be common areas.