Fair Housing Month To Wrap Up With Property Auctions

By John Voket

April is Fair Housing Month, so it may seem appropriate that the final day of April will feature the municipal auction of five modest homes adjacent to the Fairfield Hills complex on Mile Hill Road South.

Proclaiming, “…our little real estate company is back in business,” selectman William Brimmer, Jr, appeared pleased that the auction, which was originally slated for last fall, would coincide with a celebration of accessible housing opportunities.

“How appropriate that we will be auctioning those homes during Fair Housing Month,” he said when told of the impending auction during last Monday’s Board of Selectmen meeting. “It’s a great thing!”

According to information available on the town website, www.newtown-ct.gov, the auction of the five homes will occur on Saturday, April 30, at noon on the site at the corner of Mile Hill Road South and Wasserman Way. According to First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, interested bidders will have two opportunities to view the homes before bidding.

“We’ll have walk-throughs Saturday, April 16, and for 90-minutes preceding the auction,” he told The Bee Wednesday.

The homes will be open from 1 to 3 pm on April 16, and from 10:30 am to noon on April 30. All proceeds from the sales are predesignated to underwrite environmental remediation on the town-owned Fairfield Hills campus, Mr Rosenthal said.

According to the website, the wood frame houses all contain six rooms, are all on the public water line, and have individual septic systems. The farm-style house at 2 Mile Hill South measures 1,439 square feet, and also has a single-car detached garage and a wooden barn.

That property is also the largest parcel of the five available, with 2.54 acres included. The opening bid on this property is set at $270,000, but sources have disclosed that building may need the greatest amount of rehabilitation to bring it into move-in condition.

While he would not estimate the potential costs to bring any of the residences into move-in shape, Mr Rosenthal did admit that all the houses except for #2 were in better condition than several homes that were auctioned off on Queen Street previously.

“With the four smaller colonials, you would need to probably reoutfit the kitchens and bathrooms with new appliances and fixtures, but certainly with some minor cleaning up and painting, those four houses are close to move-in condition,” he said. All four measure out identically at 1,426 square feet, and will fetch minimum opening bids of $245,000.

The house at #6 has a lot size of 1.24 acres, #8 has .9 acres, #10 has .96 acres, and #12 has .66 acres.

Terms Of The Sale

The terms of sale are as follows: ten percent of minimum bid price in cash, certified or bank check will be necessary to be eligible to bid. The successful bidder must sign a contract at auction.

The deposit is nonrefundable if the winning bidder fails to complete the purchase. The town reserves the right to execute back-up contracts. Each property will be subject to deed restrictions for use exclusively as a single-family residence. Closings must be conducted 30 days from the auction date at the offices of Cohen and Wolf, PC, 158 Deer Hill Avenue, Danbury.

A copy of a proposed contract is available at the Office of the First Selectman at Edmond Town Hall.

All persons desiring to participate in the bidding must register with the clerk prior to the commencement of the auction (on auction day) and tender their deposit for inspection and qualification by the clerk. Bidders will then be issued numbers and bidding will be conducted and recorded by such numbers.

Each property will be sold subject to the following encumbrances:

Any and all provisions of any ordinance, municipal regulation, public or private law, including but not limited to building, zoning, planning, and subdivision regulations of the Town of Newtown.

Taxes due to the Town of Newtown on the List of October 1, 2004 and thereafter.

Such state of facts as a more accurate survey or physical inspection of the premises may disclose.

All easements, covenants ,and restrictions as of record may appear.

Use of the property will be restricted exclusively to residential purposes.

Each property is being sold “as is.” No warranties, either expressed or implied, are made as to its condition and no adjustments will be made for any after-discovered defects. All bids are based on the bidders information and knowledge of the condition of the property acquired through his or her own endeavors and not upon any representations or comments made by the Town of Newtown.

While it was originally proposed that the homes be considered for sale as affordable, Mr Rosenthal said that suggestion would have created two liabilities.

“If they were deemed ‘affordable,’ we would have had to deed restrict them for resale as affordable for some lengthy period of time before they could revert to market rate,” he said. “And we would have to cap the amounts they were selling for, which defeats the purpose of the auction, which is to offset as much of the remediation costs at Fairfield Hills as possible.”

During the discussion, selectmen learned that interest in the small homes has reached near global proportions, with interested potential bidders calling for information from as far away as Hawaii.

Public Hearing

Prior to Monday’s selectmen’s meeting, a public hearing was held on two issues: to take public suggestions for small cities grant projects in relation to the town’s community development and housing needs, and to reaffirm Newtown’s Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing Plan.

Representatives from the Newtown Commission on Aging (NCA) attended the hearing and suggested a community development grant be sought to expand or replace the existing Senior Center. Advocating on behalf of the NCA, Ross Carley asked town officials to weigh the likelihood of success if applying for the maximum allowable grant to underwrite a new senior facility.

“Both Oxford and Monroe were able to utilize grants like these to build new facilities, and I’m not sure either town has as many active seniors as Newtown,” he told officials including Mr Rosenthal, Ms Stocker, and grant consultant Larry Wagner.

The only other development grant currently submitted for consideration is on behalf of Newtown Housing for the Elderly, Inc, a group that operates the Nunnawauk Meadows complex. The organization’s executive director Frank DeLucia submitted a three-tiered proposal for the following:

$200,000 to replace kitchen and bath cabinets, which have deteriorated to the point where they are difficult to open and close, causing problems for residents as well as increased maintenance calls.

$50,000 for repaving of some of the original roadways in the complex.

$14,000 for new front storm doors for 80 units in the complex.

Fair Housing Plan

Before concluding the hearing, Ms Stocker reported that she saw no need to revise the communities Fair Housing Plan.

“Although I have had occasional calls related to landlord-tenant issues, I’ve never filed a complaint based on a fair housing violation,” she said.

According to the existing plan, it is both the policy and strong commitment of Newtown to affirmatively further fair housing and to promote Fair Housing opportunities in all its programs and housing development activities, and to take affirmative action through education and implementation to ensure equal housing opportunities to all persons and families.

In an earlier interview with Ms Stocker, she said that a regular reaffirmation of the Fair Housing Plan is required as a qualifier for the small cities block grant program. As part of her duties as fair housing officer for Newtown, Ms Stocker attends the annual conference sponsored by the Fair Housing Association of Connecticut.