Date: Fri 15-May-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Fairfield-Hills-Nuclo

Full Text:

Watertown Hall Property Conveyed To Town

(with cut)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

A major piece of the Fairfield Hills land-use puzzle has fallen into place

with the town's acceptance of the deed and record map for a 22.6-acre parcel

and two buildings on the grounds of the former state psychiatric institution.

In ceremonies May 7 in the Mary Hawley Room at Edmond Town Hall, Richard

Nuclo, director of assets management for the state Office of Policy and

Management (OPM), presented First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal with the deed

and record map for the 22.6-acre parcel at Fairfield Hills, which contains

Watertown Hall, which was a 32,348-square-foot Fairfield Hills workers'

dormitory, and a 7,316-square-foot multi-bay garage. State Rep Julia Wasserman

and Town Clerk Cynthia Curtis Simon attended the May 7 event.

The land lies on either side of Old Farm Road, to the northwest of Mile Mill

Road's intersection with Mile Hill Road South. The property also contains

athletic fields.

The sprawling Fairfield Hills property which now covers about 600 acres

contains approximately 1.65 million square feet of enclosed space.

The transfer of the land and buildings by the state to the town represents a

portion of the 1991 settlement of the lawsuit that the town filed against the

state over the state's construction of Garner Correctional Institution, the

state's high-security prison which houses more than 700 men on Nunnawauk Road.

Mr Nuclo said that he and Mr Rosenthal have been discussing the terms of a

lease agreement which would have the state provide a long-term, low-interest

lease to the town for 37.5 acres at Fairfield Hills for future industrial

development. That property is adjacent to the the joint town-state sewage

treatment plant and the existing industrial park at Commerce Road.

To gain access to that acreage, a spur road would be extended from Commerce

Road.

The town would have the option to buy the land from the state at its fair

market value.

Later on May 7, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members approved rezoning

that land from Residential to M-5 Industrial.

Besides those parcels, the state has transferred eight acres of Fairfield

Hills land to the town as the site for the joint town-state sewage treatment

plant.

Over the years, the state has donated 45 acres at Fairfield Hills to the

Newtown Housing for The Elderly (NHE) as NHE's Nunnawauk Meadows elderly

housing complex has expanded to include 120 rental apartments.

Also, the state legislature May 6 approved transferring 21.6 acres of state

land along both sides of Deep Brook at Fairfield Hills to the town. The land

is designated for passive recreation such as walking, hiking, and nature

study.

With the planned transfer of the riverine corridor, the town will have a strip

of municipally-owned land extending northeastward across Fairfield Hills from

the intersection of Mile Hill Road and Mile Hill Road South to the joint

town-state sewage treatment plant.

Also, the state legislature agreed to designate yet another 50 acres of

state-owned land at Fairfield Hills for land conservation and agricultural

uses, bringing to 300 acres the amount of state property dedicated there for

such purposes, according to Mrs Wasserman.

Mr Nuclo said the state and town have cooperated well in planning future land

uses at Fairfield Hills.

The state is awaiting the results of a marketing study on the best potential

uses of Fairfield Hills which is being conducted by Arthur Andersen

Consulting. A public information session on the preliminary recommendations of

that study has been scheduled for May 28.

The state wants to sell or lease the land and buildings at the Fairfield Hills

core campus, as well as some adjacent undeveloped prime real estate.