Newtown Sports Center—

Town Ponders Wisdom Of Sewer Line Extension

By Andrew Gorosko

Town officials are researching the economic practicality of a proposal to extend a sanitary sewer line to the Mt Pleasant Road site of a proposed major private recreational indoor/outdoor sports complex, known as Newtown Sports Center.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley said July 18 he would meet with Fuss & O’Neill, Inc, of Manchester, the town’s consulting engineers on sewers, to discuss possible design layouts for an expanded Hawleyville municipal sewer system, which would collect wastewater from the 93 Mt Pleasant Road sports center site for disposal at the regional waste treatment plant on Plumtrees Road in Danbury.

Developer SEPG, LLC, has a purchase option to buy the sloping 33.4-acre site in a M-2A (Industrial) zone where it wants to build the sports complex. Extending sanitary sewer service to the site is considered a key element of the controversial project, which would contain extensive facilities for sports club members.

Residents living in the nearby Whippoorwill Hill Road and Tory Lane neighborhoods have objected that living near such a facility would be disruptive due to the traffic that it would generate, the crowds that it would attract, and the sports field lighting that would be installed, among other factors. The site would contain an estimated 500 parking spaces.

Those residents have submitted an application to the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) in seeking to have that agency eliminate “sports complexes” as a permitted land use in a M-2A zone. A P&Z public hearing on that application was scheduled for the night of July 19, after the deadline for this edition of The Newtown Bee.

In April, the P&Z unanimously approved a set of zoning rule changes for the M-2A zone requested by the developer, which would allow it to submit a P&Z application for a proposed sports club complex. The nearby residents have charged that a legal notice which advertised a March P&Z public hearing on the then-requested zoning rule changes was vague, leaving them unaware of the project.

SEPG would require many town approvals before a sports complex could be built, including approvals from the P&Z and the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC).

SEPG has received an endorsement for the sports complex proposal from the town Economic Development Commission (EDC). The EDC also has recommended that the Water and Sewer Authority (WSA) consider extending sanitary sewers to the site.

Mr Hurley said that any extension of a sewer line to the sports complex site has to make economic sense for the town.

“It’s got to make business sense, because this is a business deal,” he said.

The Hawleyville sewer system began operation in 2001 to serve The Homesteads at Newtown, a 100-unit assisted-living complex at 166 Mt Pleasant Road. That sewer system now also serves Liberty at Newtown, a 96-unit age-restricted condominium complex at 178 Mt Pleasant Road. The sewer system also is designed to serve The Woods at Newtown, a planned 178-unit age-restricted condo complex at Mt Pleasant Road.

The Hawleyville sewer system was constructed to support local economic development.

By contrast, the town’s central sewer system, which began operation in 1997, was built to resolve longstanding environmental problems posed by groundwater pollution caused by failing septic systems.

The Hawleyville sewer system’s current terminus is a sewage pumping station at the driveway entrance to The Homesteads. The sports complex site is about 6,300 feet east of that pumping station. A sewer system expansion amid the hilly terrain would require a second sewage pumping station to be built near the intersection of Mt Pleasant Road and Hawleyville Road.

Such a sewage pumping station would likely cost more than $750,000 to construct, Mr Hurley said.

Depending on the specific sewering layout that would be constructed, the price of a Hawleyville sewer system expansion could range from $3 million to $5 million, according to Fuss & O’Neill.

Mr Hurley noted that when a municipal sewer line was extended to The Homesteads, the town and The Homesteads made a 50/50 spilt of the project’s costs.

Scope Of Project

The WSA is seeking to gauge the scope of a possible sewer extension to the sports complex site in estimating the economics of such a project, Mr Hurley said. If underground rock ledge is encountered in excavating trenches for new sewer lines, it would increase project costs.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal said the town needs to perform an economic analysis of extending a sewer line to the sports complex site to understand the municipal revenue implications of such a project. 

Previous town planning for a Hawleyville sewer system expansion envisioned extending a sewer line from Mt Pleasant Road northward on Hawleyville Road, and then potentially eastward from Hawleyville Road to Barnabas Road.

Town officials must decide whether the property tax revenue that would be generated by a Hawleyville sewer system extension to the sports center site at 93 Mt Pleasant Road makes economic sense for the town, Mr Rosenthal said.

Mr Rosenthal asked whether the sports center would be a large enough project to justify extending municipal sewers to the site.

“What is the endgame of this [sports center] project…Is it really going to happen?” he asked.

The selectmen want to review the economic aspects of the project in determining whether it makes sense to extend a sewer line to the area, he said.

“There’s got to be some future payback [to the town] for doing this,” the first selectman said.

After the WSA assembles technical and financial information on extending sewers to the sports center site, the selectmen would review the data, Mr Rosenthal said.

Architect/engineer Peder Scott, a partner in SEPG who represents the development group, has said the four-building sports center project is estimated to generate 25,000 gallons of sewage flow per day.

Whether sewer service is provided for the project would be a major factor in site planning.

The initial construction phase would include indoor and outdoor sports facilities, as well as office space. Future phases would include office space and industrial space. One version of the overall project has been proposed to enclose more than 320,000 square feet of space.

WSA members plan to again discuss the sports center sewering request when they meet on August 9.