To the Editor:

We have a referendum question before us about housing at Fairfield Hills. Voters consistently have rejected housing proposals for Fairfield Hills in the past. Indeed, the very reason the Town first exercised its right of first refusal to buy Fairfield Hills was to prevent large-scale residential development there.

The current proposal of course differs from large-scale residential development and instead is of the “mixed” use variety but in some ways allowing such housing at what has become primarily a community campus carries an even greater risk. Specifically, as both an attorney who has practiced in the land use arena and as a former local elected official, I have witnessed the “moving to the nuisance” problems that can be created when dropping a residential component into a broader use setting. I am frankly fearful that any residents at the campus could become the tail that wags the dog, so to speak, as to future development and uses for the campus. The Town will continue to have land needs in the future, and large tracts of available land are dwindling. We should develop the campus in a way that does not restrict the Town’s ability to consider all development options for the campus in the future.

Will Rodgers

208 Hattertown Road, Newtown