Full Text:

Fairfield Hills Advisory Board Hears Early Impacts Of Proposed Developments

(with photo)

BY JEFF WHITE

Members of the Fairfield Hills Advisory Board (FHAB) met Thursday night, July

22, to hear representatives from Harrall-Michalowski Associates (HMA)

summarize the direct fiscal impacts of the three proposals for developing

Fairfield Hills made public two weeks ago.

The Hamden firm was hired by the town of Newtown to perform economic and

environmental impact studies to assist the town in determining whether it

should purchase the 186-acre core campus.

"We have waited for the proposals to be submitted because we think it will be

far more cost effective for the town to examine the proposals together, and

then consider the fourth alternative, which would be the option of the town

purchasing the property," said HMA official Richard Harrall.

Mr Harrall and Roy O'Neil, another representative, were able to cull some

preliminary fiscal impact numbers from their initial reading of the three

proposals, which they presented to the board in the form of handouts.

The early study performed by HMA looked into the direct benefits and costs for

Newtown. Among the town benefits highlighted were the Town of Newtown real

estate taxes, which listed each developer's estimate of the annual amount of

real estate taxes that the project will pay to Newtown upon completion. Each

developer based these approximations on the likely assessed value of the

proposed construction.

SBC Associates of Greenwich estimated a net incremental payment of $3.5

million to the town, while Becker & Becker Associates of New Canaan estimated

a payment of $2.3 million, and Wilder-Balter Partners of Elmsford, New York,

estimated a payment of $1.5 million.

Mr Harrall and Mr O'Neil also listed some incremental costs of the proposals

for Newtown, including residential educational costs, general administration

costs and non-residential general administration costs. Becker & Becker's cost

to the town was estimated at $1.7 million; the costs for the proposals of both

SBC and Wilder-Balter were approximated lower, at $1.25 million and $403,843

respectively.

The HMA officials indicated that each proposal came out with a positive net

direct fiscal impact for Newtown. However, Mr Harrall and Mr O'Neil were

adamant about the early nature of the numbers they were presenting to the

FHAB.

"We are not going to take these presentations at face value," said Mr O'Neil.

"One of things that we'll do as part of our work is to use the numbers that

have been presented [by the developers] and try and set the comparison up so

that all of the costs and all of the revenues are included in all of the

alternatives."

Both officials recognized that the initial estimates supplied by each

developer were in a great deal of flux; the further each proposal is

evaluated, the more concrete the numbers will become.

Moreover, Mr Harrall and Mr O'Neil commented on the importance of analyzing

not only the direct but also the indirect fiscal impact for the town, such as

the loss of athletic playing fields and the relocation of town administration

offices.

Most FHAB members had not had the opportunity to fully read through the myriad

details of each proposal, but early reactions to the development scheme hinted

at concerns about the environmental impacts of the projects. HMA plans to do a

full study of such impacts as well.

FHAB chairperson Michael Floros moved to adjourn the meeting in favor of

another meeting in early August, by which time each member will have had the

opportunity to dive into the nuances of each proposal, allowing them to bring

specific concerns and insights to the table for discussion.

The board members plan to work so that when the time comes, they can give a

definitive recommendation concerning whether the town should purchase the

property, a decision that is scheduled to be made in the fall.

While the FHAB goes through the fine print, HMA will continue its studies on

the economic and environmental impacts of each proposal, so that they may

indicate if there is any value in the town purchasing the property.

"What we have here is just a first blush look at the proposals," said Mr

Harrall. "There are a lot of variations, and further review is going to be

conducted so that we can get a complete picture on what the impact of the

proposals are going to be for the town of Newtown."