Time To Come Together

On Fairfield Hills

To the Editor,

Now is the time for the town to come together on the issue of what to do about Fairfield Hills. The easiest thing would be for the various factions to tug on opposite ends of this rope which will create a “do nothing” result. In that event, the town ends up with a two million dollar a year maintenance bill because the state is not going to carry the cost any longer. In the “do nothing” scenario the town does not get a school for fifth and sixth graders or playing fields, or a teen center or a senior center. In the “do nothing” plan each faction stymies the other, the property continues to deteriorate and no reputable developer steps forward because of what the current developers have been subjected to over the last year.

But what if? What if the leaders of the various factions meet relentlessly to hammer out a plan which works for Newtown?

Last week the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the State Historical Commission and our town’s historian each addressed the importance of preserving a treasure which, if demolished, will represent a great loss. They indicated repeatedly that the Becker & Becker plan is the only plan which preserves the property.

The architecture of Fairfield Hills is extraordinary, as is the symmetry of the campus. Once we allow chopping it up or knocking some of it down, an opportunity is lost forever. Ruby Johnson’s group wants what is best for the town, and so does Herb Rosenthal, and Dr. Reed, and so does each of the people who have weighed in on this subject at meetings or in committees or over coffee.

But one overarching fact remains. To renovate the buildings and preserve their exteriors will cost $300,000 per day for two years or $150,000,000. That’s one hundred and fifty million dollars! The town cannot bear this burden. Where is the plan to do this? Do we want our town managers in the real estate development business?

There is no perfect plan, but we must now pick the best plan. Is everyone in town aware of the fact that our first selectman (who is very capable of rational decisions and is a person we elected to lead us) is not permitted to talk to the three developers who have presented plans? He has been handcuffed and our town will suffer because of it. This is one of the more irrational states of affairs imaginable.

Think of it. This is one of the largest site preservation projects of this century in New England and the town’s highest elected official is not permitted to speak with the companies which each spend hundreds of thousands of dollars preparing plans for us!? What’s going on here?

Let’s start with the misinformation… A red herring… opponents of the Becker & Becker plan (which, again, is the only plan which renovates and preserves the buildings and campus) are saying that Mr Becker sought to place the property on the historic register secretly and in his own interest. The fact is that this plan was reported freely in September on the front page of the New York Times Metro Section. That’s not secret – and why place the property on the Historic Register? There is the little matter of a $3.25 million tax credit on the 5/6 school and a half million tax credit on town offices if the property receives that status. We, the citizens of Newtown receive that benefit and we get a school which costs five million dollars less than if we destroy the campus symmetry and build a new school from the ground up. We also get the school six months to a year sooner!

Another myth is that once the campus is on the National Historic Register no building can be demolished. They can be, but why would we want that?

Where are our cultural values? What will result if we “do nothing” but keep sniping at each other on this page? This is our only opportunity to preserve this property in its entirety. Let’s not squander it.

We have the chance for a model public/private partnership. This is not an economic partnership with potential liability for the town, but one in which the town works with the private developer to get what we want. To be able to do that Herb must be allowed to clear the air and actually speak to the developers.

If these three proposals from the hand-picked developers are rejected and the town carries the property for the next 5 – 10 years of further deterioration, we will be forced to sell the campus for a dollar and watch it be demolished for yet another mall or a thousand homes because no developer will ever be willing to propose a plan which preserves the property. No developer will want to work with the Town of Newtown. They will demand autonomy in exchange for taking the mess off our hands.

Where does the town propose to get $150,000,000 to restore the buildings… with a dinner dance? In spite of a Herculean effort, a private town group can’t even find the support to pay off the new press box at the high school football field. The Hawley Manor sat empty for years while crack addicts squatted there – right in the middle of Main Street. There is a gas station eyesore on Church Street the town can do nothing about. We can’t even make Town Hall South inhabitable and Watertown Hall which is in the Fairfield Hills campus and was turned over to the town two years ago is now completely uninhabitable because we could not afford to maintain it.

Please, concerned citizens, let Herb know you want this property, this unique architectural treasure, preserved and ask him to form an executive committee of concerned citizens to help him manage this massive decision. This is no time for town politics or factions to stymie us. This is our town. We need to get what we want, but within the context of the real world requirements… rational thought and rational action.

Sincerely,

Tom Belli

4 Taunton Hill Road, Newtown                            December 22, 1999