First Selectman Pat Llodra told members of the Community & Senior Center Design Team and Advisory Committee on July 7 that municipal efforts will be focused on gaining an August 3 site development plan approval from the Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) for the planned community & senior center at Fairfield Hills.P&Z Session

On July 6, the P&Z held the first of three hearings on the project planned for 8 Simpson Street. The next hearing is slated for July 20, with the third hearing scheduled for August 3.

The Fairfield Hills Authority (FHA), which oversees redevelopment projects at the former state psychiatric hospital, has scheduled a meeting for 7 pm on Monday, July 10, at Booth Library, 25 Main Street. The design group that is formulating plans for the community & senior center will present some revised architectural plans for the project to the FHA at that session. The FHA is slated to discuss and possibly act on the external aesthetic aspects of the design proposal.

At the July 7 meeting, George Benson, town planning director, said that by its July 20 session, the P&Z wants all the many reviews of the community & senior center plans by various town officials to be completed.

The plans that the P&Z will be reviewing include: stormwater control; the fire marshal's fire safety requirements; the planting plan for the site; the exterior lighting plan, and the vehicle parking plan; as well as the FHA's comments on the architectural elevation drawings for the project, Mr Benson said.

"We have bits and pieces (of the required information)...We need the final (complete) packet," Mr Benson said of the P&Z's need for complete information for its site development plan review.

Mrs Llodra observed,"Next week will be a very busy week with this project."

Of the recent heightened planning activity for the project, Mrs Llodra said, "This is the first project of its nature at Fairfield Hills...That's why we find ourselves with a lack of clarity."

Mrs Llodra noted that unlike previous redevelopment projects involving new construction at Fairfield Hills, the Town of Newtown is the applicant for the community & senior center, which is a new situation. The creation of the Newtown Youth Academy and the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance's headquarters at Fairfield Hills had other entities as the applicants of record.

During the July 7 session, participants discussed a range of topics including: specifications for the two planned swimming pools; specifics about locker rooms; how space would be used at the senior center; wireless networking in the building; external access to some restrooms at the building; and the potential for creating an independent electric power supply for the structure, plus other nearby buildings, among many other topics.

At the July 6 P&Z public hearing, architect Rusty Malik of Quisenberry Arcari Architects, LLC, of Farmington described the architectural site plan prepared for the community & senior center.

The project's design needs to respect the Neoclassical symmetry exhibited by the layout of the buildings at the former state hospital, which opened in the 1930s, he said. "The campus is a formal environment," he noted.

Thus the northern main entrance to the community/senior center would be located directly across Simpson Street from the southern entrance to Newtown Municipal Center, he said. The senior center's entrance would be on the west side of the new building.

The parking area for the building would hold 150 vehicles, and there also would be "shared parking" in that area, he said.

Open land lying west of the new building would function as a "green," and serve as a site for outdoor events. A bandshell, amphitheater, and water feature would be located near the structure. If the building were to be expanded in the future, there would be space available on its eastern side, Mr Malik said.

No members of the public spoke at the P&Z public hearing.

The redevelopment site formerly held Canaan House, which was a patient housing/treatment building at the former state psychiatric hospital. Crews have been working recently to remove the subterranean remnants of Canaan House's foundation to make the site suitable for new construction.

The project already has received a wetlands/watercourses protection permit from the town's Land Use Agency. That permit was issued by staff members and was not a topic at an Inland Wetlands Commission meeting.

According to general plans presented by the town, the new building would contain more than 45,000 square feet of enclosed space, including the community center, the senior center, two swimming pools and related facilities, plus shared space for mechanical equipment.