Date: Fri 07-Aug-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-Fairfield-Hills

Full Text:

ED INK: Wanted: A Developer With Vision

Yet another Fairfield Hills panel convened last week. This one, the Fairfield

Hills Selection Committee, is taking responsibility for the endgame of a

strategy that started several years ago with the work of the Fairfield Hills

Task Force and was continued in recent years by the Fairfield Hills

Implementation Oversight Committee.

The strategy all along has been to both realize the economic potential of a

prime piece of state real estate and to preserve the scenic beauty of the

property. The latter has been accomplished largely through a transfer of 300

acres of open space to the state's Department of Agriculture, which is

currently leasing the rolling fields of Fairfield Hills to farmers. It is up

to the Fairfield Hills Selection Committee to find a developer to come up with

a plan to make the 185-acre "core campus" of the former mental hospital as

much of an economic resource as the rest of the land is a scenic resource.

The selection committee is working with an outline for a "mixed-use scenario"

developed by Arthur Andersen consultants, which suggests such possible uses as

health care, office space, retail sales, housing, educational facilities, a

hotel, resort, spa, conference center, golf course and recreational

facilities. The challenge the panel has set for itself is to find a single

developer who will come up with the right mix that satisfies the objectives of

both the state and town through judicious use of masonry, steel, and the

wrecking ball.

We are encouraged with the direction Fairfield Hills is taking in its

migration from the public to the private sector. This final stage of the

process is critical, however. Finding the right firm to transform all the

theoretical planning into a functioning economic engine will mean the

difference between boon and boondoggle in the heart of Newtown at Fairfield

Hills.

Fortunately, through the efforts of State Rep Julia Wasserman, Newtown

representatives occupy half the chairs at the meetings of the Fairfield Hills

Selection Committee, and those members are well grounded in conservation and

zoning issues, business, economic development, and public affairs. The town's

interests should be well represented in this final phase of planning for the

future of Fairfield Hills. The new panel is poised to successfully bring all

the work that has gone before to fruition. Now all we need is a developer with

deep pockets and soaring vision.