August 20—

Town Meeting Set On Sale Of Queen Street Homes

By Steve Bigham

The Board of Selectmen on Monday scheduled a town meeting for Monday, August 20, for residents to authorize the sale of town-owned houses on Queen Street. The meeting is slated to begin at 7:30 am, although a location has not yet been determined.

The Town Charter requires the first selectman to receive approval at a town meeting before any town-owned land can be sold. There is not expected to be much opposition to the plan, if any, since many residents have favored re-selling the homes from the start. The town is also expected to turn a profit. Interested buyers have been calling the first selectman’s office about the homes for nearly two years. Each time, they have been told that the homes are not yet for sale.

That is likely to all change in the coming months.

The Legislative Council — after putting the issue on the backburner for months, while awaiting the resolution of the Fairfield Hills issue — finally approved the sale last month, opening the door for a town meeting on the issue.

“It’s been a long time in coming,” First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said. “I don’t think there is anyone who is really in opposition to this. The only calls I’ve ever had on it ask when the town is going to sell the properties.”

If approved by voters, the six homes and a handful of vacant lots will likely be sold at a public auction some time after Labor Day. Up for sale will be all of the former state-owned lots, except for three one-acre lots most known for the scenic rolling hills and meadows behind them. The town plans to keep these properties.

Each of the homes would be sold with deed restrictions, requiring them to remain single-family units.

The town purchased the homes from the state two years ago after residents approved the $1.2 million acquisition at a January 1999 town meeting. All along, the plan was to buy the homes to ensure that the town had control over future development along this scenic parcel. Then, it would turn around and re-sell the homes with deed restrictions.

Most residents said they voted in favor of the purchase in an effort to control future development along Queen Street. Town residents felt the area might become vulnerable to higher density housing since the properties are all hooked up to municipal water and sewer facilities.

Mr Rosenthal has been an advocate of the prompt sale (or demolition) of the Queen Street homes, especially in recent months as the homes continued to deteriorate.

“I get more calls from the public annoyed that we haven’t sold them. They see them deteriorating. Two homes have been broken into and have had vagrants living there,” he told the council.

Recently, Mr Rosenthal entered one of the homes with police to find mattresses and pillows on the floor.

It costs the town $10,000 per year to maintain the lots located on a half-mile strip along the eastern side of Queen Street.

The sale of the Queen Street properties has been held up by uncertainty over the town’s future with Fairfield Hills. That obstacle was removed more than a month ago when voters approved the purchase of the campus from the state.

During budget meetings this past spring, the Legislative Council established a mechanism for the sale of the town-owned Queen Street homes and for using the proceeds to purchase open space as an alternative to development in the coming year. It recommended that $750,000 worth of anticipated revenue from the sale of the properties be added to the budget. At the same time, the council allocated that money to the town’s capital reserve fund.

Last year, some council members, ignoring a recommendation from the Board of Selectmen, suggested the town hold onto the six homes and eight lots. They argued that it would cost the town more to sell the homes in the long run that to hold onto them, especially if the homes were sold to families with school-age children. Serious consideration of that approach has since been abandoned.

The town purchased each home at a cost that ranged from $76,500 to $140,000.

The homes were once a part of the Fairfield Hills campus and were occupied by staff members.