Council To Shape FFH Authority

By John Voket

A little over a week after Governor Jodi Rell signed enabling legislation permitting Newtown to install a nonpolicy-making authority to manage development activities at Fairfield Hills, the Legislative Council’s ordinance subcommittee met to draft a local ordinance to establish the body.

The subcommittee was joined Wednesday evening by First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, Council Chairman Will Rodgers, and Judge William Lavery, who currently serves on the ad hoc Fairfield Hills Management Committee. According to the first selectman, he expects council members to fast-track the ordinance now that the state legislation has been approved.

The public act, HB 6712, becomes effective July 1, 2005. Mr Rodgers told The Bee Wednesday that the full Legislative Council would likely review the recommended ordinance at its next meeting, and could schedule a public hearing on the measure and take action to reject or adopt the ordinance at its July 6 meeting.

During discussion on the ordinance this week, ordinance subcommittee members including Chairman Francis Pennarola, Peggy Baiad, Joseph Hemingway, Tim Holian, and Joseph Borst made several minor changes to a draft that reflected the legislative document. During the discussion Mr Borst suggested an original stipulation in the draft be changed.

He asked that the ordinance be amended to stipulate that any appointee to the authority be subject to approval by both the Board of Selectmen and the council, instead of exclusively by selectmen. His amendment was defeated, however.

Once the initiative came to a vote, Mr Borst cast the only dissenting vote and the measure passed as amended.

Following the meeting, Mr Rosenthal pointed out that every other appointment and vacancy to town boards and commissions, except the council, are made by the first selectman according to a charter directive. Mr Rodgers added that ultimately, the council can keep the appointment process in check by amending or rescinding the ordinance in the future.

During discussion on the measure, Mr Rosenthal suggested additional language that would further clarify the authority could not conduct any business that violated the directives in the Fairfield Hills Master Plan, or make policy that would affect development criteria approved by the town Planning and Zoning Commission.

“I want to make it clear the authority is not a policy-making body,” Mr Rosenthal said to the subcommittee. “Shouldn’t we spell out that [the authority members] won’t have the power to change the master plan?”

But subcommittee members and Judge Lavery asserted that regulations on development and use of the property provided the ultimate guidelines, and the ordinance (and authority) could not supercede those rules.

The enabling legislation that was approved by Gov Rell May 17, was a collaboration of efforts among town officials, Representative Julia Wasserman and Senator John McKinney. Rep Wasserman said earlier this week that she was satisfied language in the act was sufficient to limit its application exclusively to Newtown.

While the act was endorsed as a statewide measure, she said it was written to apply to only certain communities with a population between 25,000 and 30,000 people, occupying a total area of not less than 59-square-miles, and is the site of a state correctional facility. Newtown is the only Connecticut community fulfilling those three criteria.

“I think all the research on this bill was properly done,” Ms Wasserman said Tuesday. “I have to say that it was about the most highly scrutinized piece of legislation I can remember.”

Ms Wasserman said the act was necessary for the town to move ahead with improvements to the former state hospital and campus.

“The final result will be an ordinance the town needs,” she said. “It’s vitally important for the future of the entire town, as it relates to the future of one of its largest investments.”

She urged anyone who is interested in being heard on the proposed ordinance come out to the as yet unscheduled public hearing. While not setting a firm date, Mr Pennarola estimated the hearing would likely be held before the first full council meeting in July.

The act states that the community meeting the aforementioned criteria may, “by ordinance adopted by the legislative body, establish an authority to oversee development and redevelopment of a specified parcel that is located in and owned by the municipality.”

The legislation directs the community to establish such an ordinance containing the legal boundaries of that parcel, the method of appointing members, the “powers and duties of the authority which shall include implementation of a master plan of development, hiring employees, building, maintaining and operating improvements to the land in accordance with such master plan and negotiating and entering into leases for any part of the land and improvements thereon…”

The act goes on to state that, “no master plan…may be implemented by the authority unless there has been opportunity for public comment on such master plan.” It also mandates the authority to provide a schedule of reporting progress on the implementation of the master plan to the town’s legislative body and other appropriate municipal officials or agencies.