Date: Fri 10-Oct-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Fairfield-Hills-OPM-Nuclo

Full Text:

Pieces Of The Fairfield Hills Puzzle Are Slowly Coming Together

BY ANDREW GOROSKOo

HARTFORD - Members of the Fairfield Hills Implementation Oversight Committee

met Tuesday at the state Office of Policy and Management (OPM) to discuss the

ongoing plans to put the former psychiatric hospital and its sprawling grounds

to new uses in an era of patient "deinstitutionalization."

Fairfield Hills was once the home of 3,000 psychiatric patients. OPM is

seeking new uses for the 650-acre facility in the center of Newtown, either

through the sale or lease of state assets there.

Besides oversight committee members, the session was attended by Russ Melita,

Republican candidate for first selectman, and Herbert Rosenthal and Joseph

Bojnowski, Democratic candidates for first selectman and selectman,

respectively.

Committee members discussed the many pieces of the puzzle that comprise the

state's incremental project to put the hospital and its grounds to new uses.

Bypass Road

Richard Nuclo, OPM's director of state assets management, said the contractor

building the Fairfield Hills bypass road, also known as the east-west

connector, has assured the state that traffic will be able to flow over the

new road by the end of 1998. The road, however, won't receive its final layer

of asphalt until 1999, he said. Also, a cleanup project at the site and

landscaping work will be done in 1999.

A bridge now under construction over the Pootatuck River should be completed

in the spring of 1998, according to James F. Sullivan, commissioner of the

state Department of Transportation (DOT). During the coming winter, the

relocation of existing public utilities alongside the bypass road is

scheduled.

The bypass road project has long-term significance for Newtown, and its

scheduled work should be done in a timely manner, Mr Nuclo said.

Although some gasoline contamination of soil near the Pootatuck River has been

found, it is not expected to delay the bypass-road schedule, he said.

Workmen installed a temporary bridge over the river last weekend to allow

traffic to pass through the area while the new bridge is being built.

The bypass road project has encountered more issues than is typical for such a

construction project, Mr Nuclo said. And more issues are expected to surface,

he added.

Open Space

The former Fairfield Hills Task Force, an ad hoc committee that studied future

uses of Fairfield Hills in 1993 and 1994, emphasized the need to protect

existing open-space land at the campus, Mr Nuclo said. A survey of the

property to establish actual state holdings at Fairfield Hills is about 90

percent complete, he said. The survey is immeasurably helpful to the state in

planning future uses of the property, he said.

The survey has established that the state has put 247 acres of open space land

under the stewardship of the state Department of Agriculture (DOAg), he said.

The acreage consists of three large pieces of land north of Mile Hill Road.

Jay Dippel, director of DOAg's farmland preservation program, told oversight

committee members the agency has awarded bids to three area groups and

individuals for agricultural use of 115 acres of that land. One hundred acres

will be used to grow hay and vegetables, ten acres will be used for vegetable

farming, and five acres will be used by a veterans' group for organic farming

in greenhouses, Mr Dippel said. The agricultural leases will be in effect for

five years.

The DOAg will explore allowing limited public access for passive recreation on

another 50 acres it controls at Fairfield Hills, he said.

Members of the public clearly informed task-force members that land at

Fairfield Hills should be held as open space, said state Rep Julia Wasserman,

an oversight committee member and chairman of the former task force.

"It's beautiful land. It should belong to all the people, not some of them,"

Mrs Wasserman said.

Farmers who grow crops at Fairfield Hills likely would be amenable to allowing

the public to walk through the areas they lease when that land is not in

active agricultural use during the off-season, Mr Dippel said.

Mr Nuclo said he will have OPM, DOAg and the state Department of Environmental

Protection (DEP) confer on providing public access to the open-space land. The

sprawling fields at Fairfield Hills are currently off limits to the public.

Mrs Wasserman stressed that if the state should seek to sell the land placed

under the control of DOAg, "I will tell you, I will fight with all my

ability."

"This is the pearl, the center of town, and it should belong to the people,"

she said.

Mrs Wasserman said she wants to introduce legislation in the next session of

the General Assembly to reserve more open space land than the 247 acres

already designated by the state.

Town Assets

The 1991 agreement between the town and the state, which settled the lawsuit

the town filed against the state over the construction of Garner Correctional

Institution adjacent to Fairfield Hills, provides in part that the state give

the town 75 acres at Fairfield Hills.

Forty-five of those acres were provided for the expansion of Nunnawauk

Meadows, a rental complex for the elderly. Eight acres were provided to the

town for the new joint town-state sewage treatment plant. That leaves about 22

acres, Mr Nuclo said.

Last spring, the state offered the town 22.6 acres and Watertown Hall, which

is a former dormitory for Fairfield Hills workers, as well as a multi-bay

garage. The acreage is probably the best land north of Mile Hill Road other

than the open-space land, Mr Nuclo said. The Legislative Council accepted the

state's offer of land and buildings.

Mr Nuclo said he is pressing the state Department of Public Works (DPW) to

provide a "quit claim" deed for the land to the town. DPW has taken overall

control of Fairfield Hills from the state Department of Mental Health (DMH).

Mr Rosenthal questioned the quality of Watertown Hall, saying there are

water-leakage and peeling-paint problems in it. Also, the building contains

asbestos, a hazardous substance, he said.

The physical condition of Watertown Hall is typical of many buildings at

Fairfield Hills, Mr Nuclo said.

Asbestos removal can be expensive, Mr Bojnowski said. It could prove very

expensive to improve Watertown Hall to a point where the public could use it,

he added.

Mr Nuclo said OPM made it clear to town officials that the town would be given

Watertown Hall on an "as-is" basis. The building is structurally sound, he

said. If the town doesn't want to renovate it, the building could be torn

down, he said.

Mr Rosenthal said the state pressured the town to quickly accept Watertown

Hall.

Mr Nuclo responded the town can weigh the costs of renovating Watertown Hall

against constructing a new building. The state could have opted to give the

town Fairfield Hills land next to Commerce Park, thus closing out the town

from owning land in the core campus, he said.

After the state offered the town the 22 acres and buildings, swift action to

accept it was necessary, Mrs Wasserman said.

The town did not have an environmental inspection for Watertown Hall before

accepting it, Mr Rosenthal said. If the state will not certify the building is

environmentally sound, then any environmental problems there will be inherited

by the town, Mr Rosenthal noted.

Houses and Lots

Along Queen Street and Mile Hill Road South, at the western edge of the

Fairfield Hills property, the state owns small vacant houses and land it plans

to sell on the open market. The properties on Queen Street lie both in the

borough and the town.

There are seven lots containing houses on Queen Street. There is enough

state-owned land there to constitute eight, or possibly nine, building lots on

Queen Street.

Five lots contain houses on Mile Hill Road South. Four of the lots there would

meet town zoning requirements. One lot would need a town zoning variance, Mr

Nuclo said.

When the state sells the 12 houses and eight building lots, possibly within a

few months, it does not want to continue providing water and sewer service to

them, Mr Nuclo said.

The houses on Mile Hill Road South typically are in better condition than

those on Queen Street, he said.

"We [state] have not sold a great deal of property. ... This is all new to

us," Mr Nuclo said, noting the state in the past more typically has bought

property.

The state owns the building that houses Merryhill Child Care Center at 49

Queen Street. The state realizes the value of the facility and wants it to

stay in business, Mr Nuclo said. The state hopes to sell the building to

Merryhill or provide a long-term lease to the center, he said.

Mrs Wasserman asked whether the Newtown Hook and Ladder Volunteer Fire Company

has inquired about acquiring state acreage on Queen Street as the site for a

possible new firehouse.

Mr Nuclo responded that state will be offering building lots for sale in the

coming months.

Commerce Park

OPM has formulated a draft lease to the town under which the town could obtain

land for an expansion of the Commerce Road industrial area, Mr Nuclo said.

The state is offering to lease 37.5 acres to the town adjacent to the

industrial park. The town would have an option to buy the land, he said. The

land would be reserved for economic development only, he said.

The town could lease the land for 99 years at $1 per year, Mr Nuclo said.

The first selectman has been provided with a draft copy of the lease, he said.

"We tried to make it simple," Mr Nuclo said.

"It's not a very complicated lease. It's not biased to the state. It's a

pretty straightforward document," he said.

Marketing Study

Arthur Andersen Consulting is conducting a marketing study of the Fairfield

Hills campus to learn the "highest and best use" of the property, according to

Mr Nuclo. Andersen has hired Asset Management Solutions, Inc, as a

subcontractor.

Andersen will be concentrating on future uses of land south of Mile Hill Road.

Overall, there are roughly 300 acres south of that road, of which the core

campus buildings occupy about 120 acres, he said. The other 180 acres are

undeveloped.

"We will work with the town and Representative Wasserman every step of the

way" in studying future uses of the property, Mr Nuclo said.

Andersen is expected to return next spring with a preliminary version of its

marketing study.

An organization known as Addiction Prevention Therapy (APT) occupies Greenwich

House at Fairfield Hills. It provide substance-abuse therapy for its

residential patients.

The state has sought to have the non-profit APT leave Fairfield Hills since

December 1995, when DMH left to make the property more marketable, but APT has

resisted leaving.

Mr Nuclo said state officials do not feel the presence of the counseling

program would fit in well with the future uses of Fairfield Hills. APT has

sought to have the state provide it with comparable quarters elsewhere to

continue its program if it leaves Fairfield Hills.