To the Editor:

I need to be convinced that adding over 200 cars to that small area of Fairfield Hills that this project uses, (The Newtown Bee, “Potential Developers Center Stage At Final Fairfield Hills Info Session,” October 9, 2020) makes any sense. The parking for that area was designed for the small number of doctors and staff using those huge buildings, but with no parking for the hundreds of patients in the facility. One of the major buildings that is being considered under this project would require a huge parking lot to be created on a hill, in the woods, that adjoin the High Meadow and softball and soccer fields. Will these fields need to be converted into parking lots?

The second building would require a parking lot that would use every square footage of grass in the entire area and more. Take a look on the weekend what a parking problem the beer garden causes to the area. And that is just one commercial entity. The parking at the Youth Academy during normal [use] — pre-virus — filled the entire parking designed for them and overflowed to additional parking lots. This is a great facility but I am not sure it is designed to accommodate the amount of cars that this project will generate, or the additional traffic competing with Reed school during school hours.

One building, the Cochran building, does make sense to me. The frontage is large enough to accommodate a large number of cars even if another parking lot needs to be created above the baseball fields for additional parking. Most of all, the area is off to the side and not part of the main FFH community area so the parking there should not interfere with the main part of FFH. And the existing separate road exit can be synchronized with the main traffic light to relieve traffic issues. I do support the FFH’s commission and their efforts to revitalize the area, a difficult undertaking at best. If this referendum does not pass I would support another referendum to specifically repurpose Cochran Hall.

Ed Miklaszewski

4 Chimney Swift, Sandy Hook October 16, 2020