Selectmen To Decide Their

Next Move On Queen St

By Steve Bigham

It has been more than three months since the town of Newtown officially took over ownership of six houses and eight vacant lots along Queen Street. Next week, the Board of Selectmen will meet to discuss what to do with this property, which the town bought from the state for $1.25 million.

In all likelihood, the town will sell the houses and First Selectman Herb Rosenthal hopes things can move forward quickly.

“The real estate market is good so if we do decide to sell them it’s a good idea to get moving on this,” he said. “The town can sell them, make a small profit, and still have reasonably priced homes on Queen Street.”

Housatonic Habitat for Humanity has expressed interest in purchasing at least one of the houses, and the rest would likely be sold at a public auction. The first selectman said the homes would be sold with deed restrictions that would limit their usage to single-family housing.

Mr Rosenthal said he had hoped to address the Queen Street issue earlier this summer, but was unable to fit the issue on the selectmen’s agenda. A big issue last year, Queen Street appears to have fallen by the wayside as Fairfield Hills has become the focus of public discussion.

Newtown resident Heidi Winslow suggested that Queen Street be assigned to an ad hoc committee for review. However, Mr Rosenthal said the selectmen might go forward on their own with this one.

“I hate to have committees just to have committees,” he said. “I think if the selectmen decide we want to sell the properties that it will move along pretty quickly.”

The disposition of town-owned property requires the approval of the Legislative Council and the public at a town meeting.

As for the large open lot across the street from Lovells Lane, Mr Rosenthal said he has not ruled out the possibility of using it for ball fields, although some Queen Street area residents are opposed to the idea.

Last January, Newtown residents voted, 155 to 8, in favor of buying the land and houses, which were once parts of the Fairfield Hills Hospital campus. Many said they voted for the plan in an effort to control future development along Queen Street. They spoke of the beautiful vistas of fields and rolling hills, which might have been threatened had the land been sold to an outside developer. The town would also be have been vulnerable to higher density housing since the properties are hooked up to municipal water and sewer facilities.

As required under state law, Newtown was given right-of-first-refusal when the state decided to sell the properties. The parcels cover about 15 acres along the east side of Queen Street and include empty, asbestos-filled houses once used by staff members of the former state mental health hospital, plus a barn and a stone outbuilding.