Council

Takes On Fairfield Hills

By Steve Bigham

Legislative Council members will receive a guided tour of the most talked-about place in town next Wednesday – the Fairfield Hills campus. The tour begins at 2 pm and will be given by representatives from Tunxis Management Company, which has managed the site for the state since it closed in 1995.

The council’s involvement in the town’s pending purchase of the 186-acre campus continues to increase. Nowhere was that more evident than at this week’s regular meeting of the council, where, for nearly an hour, the council took part in serious discussion of the issue. And finances were just part of the discussion.

Wednesday night, the council met with the Fairfield Hills Advisory Committee, an ad hoc group created by the Board of Selectmen to come up with a vision for the redevelopment of the property – under town ownership.

Some council members expressed reservations regarding the current status of the town’s decision process. Some questioned the committee’s endorsement of a corporate park vision and wondered how the town would handle all that traffic. They asked about the future of the police department and reiterated concerns about putting the town in a real estate management position. One council member wondered privately earlier in the week whether something was going on behind the scenes that the Legislative Council was unaware of.

The meeting appeared headed toward a lengthy debate on philosophical issues, such as what type of use was most beneficial to the town – a corporate-based plan or one that addresses municipal needs first. However, Advisory Committee members appeared to soothe the council’s apprehensions by reminding members that their plan is just a “concept of utilization.”

“This is in no way is going to cast in stone what the town may ultimately go forward with,” noted Michael Taylor, a Newtown resident who has worked to facilitate the committee under the firm Vita Nuova, LLC. “We’re simply asking: is it viable to move forward based on the range of options to consider? Any development would have to go through a master plan of development.”

The Advisory Committee was scheduled to present a varied menu of options to residents at a public meeting Thursday night. The committee’s vision focuses on six different “elements” for redevelopment of the campus with several different options for each. Those six elements are open space, schools, town offices, sports hall, entry plaza and corporate park.

Advisory Committee Chairman Michael Floros pointed out that there is no reference to any type of housing in the plan. His board is recommending that the town use Stamford Hall (56,000 square feet) for municipal office space. That eliminates the need for expansion at Edmond Town Hall, he said.

Mr Floros also pointed out that several members of the Advisory Committee – Walter Motyka, Mike Snyder and others – were against town purchase of Fairfield Hills… until they heard a presentation made by the real estate development firm of Spaulding & Slye.

“I changed my mind. I think it’s a viable prospect,” said Mr Snyder.

But, asked council Chairman Pierre Rochman, didn’t the state already try to market Fairfield Hills to large companies with little success?

Yes, replied Mr Motyka, but marketing property is not the state’s strong suit.

“A lot of the firms were not aware of all the positives of Fairfield Hills,” he said. “It has not been properly marketed to the Fortune 500 companies.”

Council member Ruby Johnson resigned from the Advisory Committee last week, saying she could not go along with its corporate park “vision.” She fears using the five largest buildings on the campus to generate revenue would be giving too much away. She also fears the town might “give away” Newtown and Woodbury halls, the two showpiece buildings in the entry plaza. She asked the committee whether that was still in the cards.

“If a developer wants that then we would support that, but if it had no use for those buildings, then they would still be left unassigned,” Mr Motyka said.

They could be “moth balled” for future town use or could be used for short-term leases to keep the town’s options open, noted committee member Ed Marks.

Mrs Johnson also wondered about traffic – that’s an additional 1,500 people employed in the center of town should a corporation move in, she said. Also, she suggested, a corporate park might put the town in competition with itself for business at the proposed Technology Park on Commerce Road and in Hawleyville where the town is pushing economic development.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said Commerce Park would be a different kind of development with much smaller buildings – incubator properties - on two-acre lots. Also, he said, Hawleyville would be made up of privately owned businesses. The Planning & Zoning Commission re-zoned the area in anticipation of business development at exit 9.

Mr Rosenthal said Fairfield Hills has already been re-zoned to allow such uses as corporate offices, research, medical facilities, etc. The only restrictions it put on Fairfield Hills was on the total number of housing units permitted.

Following this week’s public meeting at the high school, the Advisory Committee will present its final recommendations to the Board of Selectmen in early March. Mr Rochman requested that a joint meeting of the selectmen and council be held at that time to hear the committee’s recommendation.