Date: Fri 21-Jun-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

FHH-Commerce-Park-industry

Full Text:

State Lease Plan Would Double The Size Of Commerce Park

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The town and state are developing a plan to roughly double the size of

Commerce Park to increase the level of business and industry there.

First Selectman Robert Cascella and State Rep Julia Wasserman announced

Tuesday that state officials have endorsed the industrial park expansion

concept, which is intended to spur local economic development.

Mr Cascella and Mrs Wasserman are members of the Fairfield Hills

Implementation Oversight Committee, an ad hoc panel formed to oversee the

recommendations made by the former Fairfield Hills Task Force. In 1993 and

1994, the task force studied future possible uses of the Fairfield Hills

campus.

With the closing of the state psychiatric institution at Fairfield Hills in

December 1995, the task force's recommendations took on a new immediacy,

prompting state officials to begin marketing efforts for the sprawling

property.

Last December, voters at a town meeting approved spending $130,000 to buy

about five acres at #6 and #8 Commerce Road to provide an access way to the

site now eyed for industrial development. The five acres, which are adjacent

to The Prudential, provide a site for a possible spur road off Commerce Road

on the east side of the Housatonic Railroad tracks.

"OPM likes the idea. They feel strongly about it," Mr Cascella said of the

state Office of Policy and Management's endorsement for expanding the

industrial area.

The state-owned land would be leased to the town at a minimal fee, perhaps $1

annually, according to Mr Cascella. The roughly 45 acres would be leased to

the town for 15 to 20 years to determine whether the site is a viable one for

economic development, Mrs Wasserman said. Somewhere between 40 and 50 acres

would be involved, she said.

After the particulars of a lease arrangement are developed, the proposal would

be reviewed by the state attorney general's office and the town's legal

counsel, Mr Cascella said.

"This is very, very good news for the town," the first selectman said.

The state is willing to let the town use the land on a long-term lease basis

because that land is considered less valuable to the state than other property

on the sprawling Fairfield Hills grounds, according to Mrs Wasserman.

The expanses of land at Fairfield Hills which the state legislature has

designated for open space and agricultural uses won't be affected by a

long-term lease agreement for industrial development, according to the state

legislator.

Putting the roughly 45 acres next to Commerce Park and the sewage plant to

commercial and industrial uses makes sense for that piece of land, Mrs

Wasserman said. The state's Department of Economic Community Development

(DECD) is willing to work with the town on developing commercial properties,

she said.

It remains unclear just how the town would develop the industrial land. The

town might form a development partnership with the state or with a private

firm, according to Mr Cascella.

A Building For Newtown?

Also, it is unclear which state building or buildings might be available for

future municipal use at Fairfield Hills, Mrs Wasserman said. The state

legislator explained that the state isn't now willing to commit itself to let

the town use any building at Fairfield Hills' core campus until the future

overall uses of the property are known.

If town office space is needed, it would make sense to occupy an existing

building for that purpose at Fairfield Hills, Mr Cascella said.

Even with the 45-acre site for industrial development in use by the town,

there still will be approximately 25 acres at Fairfield Hills designated for

future municipal uses, the first selectman noted. That land could be used for

athletic fields or some type of town facility such as a community center or

gymnasium, he said. That property's location hasn't yet been specified. As

part of a legal agreement which settled a lawsuit filed by the town against

the state over the state's construction of Garner Correctional Institution,

the state agreed to donate about 25 acres at Fairfield Hills to the town.

Small Houses

In a related matter, Mr Cascella and Mrs Wasserman said they are working on

plans to have the state sell about 17 small houses it owns on the Fairfield

Hills campus. The houses are on the east side of Queen Street and the west

side of Mile Hill Road South.

The state installed exterior siding last winter on the houses, which have two

to three bedrooms each.

After appraising the houses, they would be sold to private concerns through a

bidding process, according to Mr Cascella. The oversight committee wants the

houses to be sold on a preferred basis to local, non-profit organizations, he

said.

Newtown Housing for The Elderly, the non-profit group which operates the

120-unit Nunnawauk Meadows apartment complex for the elderly on Nunnawauk

Road, has expressed interest in buying the houses, according to the first

selectman. The oversight committee would also like to have the Merryhill Child

Care Center at 49 Queen Street remain in use as such a facility. The private

child care center operates out of a state-owned building.

Marketing

The OPM and DECD are reviewing various proposals from professional marketing

firms concerning future potential uses for the overall Fairfield Hills campus,

Mr Cascella said.

There aren't very many government-owned properties available for potential

private use such as Fairfield Hills, he noted.

Richard Nuclo, the OPM's director of state assets management who is chairman

of the oversight committee, said Wednesday it is unclear how long it will take

to bring the industrial park plan to fruition, noting the state has never been

involved in such an activity before.

Under the plan to lease land to the town, the town would have to use the

property for economic development, and if that goal isn't realized after a

specified period, the land would revert to the state, he said.

Of the plan to sell the small houses on the campus to private concerns, Mr

Nuclo said the state should seriously look at placing those houses on the

public tax rolls as private properties. Selling those houses wouldn't affect

the state's overall marketing strategy for the campus, he said. "There's a lot

to do there. We're trying to do it one piece at a time."

In its 1994 report, The Fairfield Hills task Force recommended: open space at

Fairfield Hills be permanently preserved; several buildings be reused for

office space; economic development be encouraged through the use of vacant

buildings and an industrial park expansion; a regional educational presence be

encouraged; recreational land uses be encouraged; and affordable housing, as

well as housing for the elderly be provided on the campus.