Town Finally Poised To Act

On Fairfield Hills

By Steve Bigham

It’s not exactly the Louisiana Purchase, but next week the Town of Newtown will decide whether it wants to go forward with what is being considered the biggest public property purchase in the town’s history. Proportionately for Newtown, buying the 185-acre Fairfield Hills campus would be like the United States buying an area equivalent to Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire.

After a decade’s worth of discussion, it all comes down to next week’s town meeting.

The state last week offered to sell the former state mental health property to the town for $3.9 million. That figure will be part of the much bigger $21.7 million package, which will be on the table next week. That price entitled “Fairfield Hills and other capital costs” includes the construction of ball fields, the rebuilding of fields behind the high school, and much-needed code updates and maintenance at Edmond Town Hall. And last week, First Selectman Herb Rosenthal recommended that Shelton House be renovated to house all town offices. As part of the process, town officials also plan to sell the town-owned homes on Queen Street to help offset some of the cost.

The $21.7 million vote will take place next Wednesday at 7:30 pm in the high school auditorium. Also up for a separate vote at the town meeting is the proposed 5/6 school, with a price tag to the town of $27 million. Many believe that project will win voter approval (see related story).

As for Fairfield Hills, the jury is still out, although there does not appear to be any organized opposition to the purchase. Many believe this will be Newtown’s only chance to ensure that the property goes to “good” use. A “no” vote next week would likely leave the state with no other choice but to sell the property to the highest bidder – probably a developer – or as some have suggested, possibly use the campus for state rehab programs as an alternative to incarceration.

“I think we have to assume this will be our only chance to acquire the property,” Mr Rosenthal said this week. “For me, the most important thing for people to think about is that this allows us to control our destiny by controlling what happens on that campus.”

While this destiny may be manifest to some, critics of the plan suggest that it may simply be delusions of grandeur for the town to try to take on something so big. At the heart of this criticism are concerns about the unknowns associated with the site, particularly when it comes to environmental issues.

Mr Rosenthal says $500,000 worth of environmental insurance will go a long way toward addressing those unknowns, adding that Phase I, II, and III environmental studies of the site have turned up little. The first selectman last week attempted to fill in many of the blanks of the Fairfield Hills purchase plan when he released the final terms of the sale with the state, adding with it his three-phased approach to the purchase and re-use of the property by the town.

The first selectman stressed this week that a “no” vote will not make the costs associated with Fairfield Hills go away.

“If we don’t renovate the buildings for municipal space, then we’ll have to do it somewhere else. We’ll have to do it one way or another. It’s the same with the fields. We’ll have to build them somewhere else if we don’t do it there,” he explained. “Also, future school sites we won’t have to purchase.”

The possibilities for how to use Fairfield Hills once the town owns it are myriad and also concern critics. They argue that a master plan needed to be prepared before putting the issue to a vote. Proponents of the purchase argue that coming up with a master plan ahead of time was simply impossible. Even the Legislative Council, which deals mostly with concrete figures, had to agree. Last week, the council voted in favor of sending the issue to a town meeting.

Under Mr Rosenthal’s proposal, a commission would create the master plan after the purchase price is approved. The commission will hold various forums to obtain public input. Once completed, the proposed master plan will be submitted for the approval of the Board of Selectmen, Legislative Council, town meeting, and finally the Planning and Zoning Commission, although the town charter requires only the P&Z’s approval.

“If I’m first selectman, this is the process that I will follow,” Mr Rosenthal said.

A master plan would resolve questions like, will Plymouth Hall become the next Parks & Recreation center? Which buildings will be used for economic development? What land will be banked for future school sites? Will Bridgeport Hall be used as a banquet facility?

A $21.7 million commitment is a big one, Mr Rosenthal acknowledges, but a large portion of the debt service was already approved in the 2001-2002 budget. The impact on future budgets is just under one mill in total. The costs to the town do not take into account potential revenue through economic development on the campus in the coming years. That too will be addressed in the master plan.

Last week, the town and state reached a final agreement on the terms of the Fairfield Hills sale. At a price of $3.9 million, the town would receive the 185-acre campus and the more than 1 million square feet of buildings on the site. Newtown would also receive a firehouse/laundry building, greenhouse, and about 4-5 acres across the street on Trades Lane, which were not part of the original offer.

Last week’s deal did not “indemnify” the state from liability for any environmental problems at Fairfield Hills as was reported in last week’s paper. Mr Rosenthal said the issue did not come up in negotiations, although it may be added before the final contract is signed. Either way, the town will spend $500,000 for environmental insurance.

The buildings contain asbestos and the town will be responsible for all abatement and demolition costs. At a projected cost of $7 million, this work has already been included in the Fairfield Hills package to be voted on June 6.

As part of the agreement, the state will transfer rights for Fairfield Hills Water Company to the town and will purchase water from the town for state needs in the Fairfield Hills area, including Garner Correctional Facility and the Governor’s Horse Guard facility. The town has agreed to preserve the two 500,000-gallon holding tanks to provide fire protection to both state and town property.

The town will also assume responsibility for providing water for town, state, and Nunnawauk Meadows Housing for the elderly needs. To do this, the town will enter into an agreement with Pootatuck Club, which owns the wells on the property.

The town received an additional 100,000 gallons per day of sewer capacity, which has a value of about $1 million. Also, Mr Rosenthal said state officials would be willing to negotiate additional sewage capacity for the town in the future.

Mr Rosenthal said 8-9 of the larger buildings on the campus do not seem to have any re-use value. Those buildings, which include Canaan, Kent, Greenwich, Cochran, Fairfield, Litchfield, and Bridgewater houses, will probably be demolished.

The balance of the buildings – Stamford, Newtown, Woodbury, Plymouth, Bridgeport, Norwalk, Danbury, Stratford and Shelton halls – as well as a number of single-family houses, will be the focus of an adaptive re-use analysis for town use and compatible economic development uses. The buildings along the entry plaza would likely be used for some economic development activity, such as small professional offices.