Commercial Development

And School Population

To the Editor:

After attending the recent Legislative Council meeting at which Collins Enterprises gave their presentation for a technology park for the Fairfield Hills property, I am perplexed by Mr Collins’ comment that his technology enterprise (which would provide 2,500 jobs) would have no impact on Newtown’s housing market.

One of my concerns about this or any other commercial development of this magnitude is the impact on our school population. If one were to assume that one quarter (about 625) of the people filling these jobs decided to reside in Newtown, this would probably add a minimum of 625 children to our school system. To me, this translates into a school addition of perhaps another school in the relatively near future for which we can conservatively project building costs somewhere in the range of 20-50 million dollars.

A recent article in the Sunday New York Times reported how the Town of Fairfield is currently wrestling with the problem of school expansion. They are looking at building costs in the area of 120 million dollars.

When you weigh the millions of dollars it would cost us for school expansion against the possibility of generating a few (unsubstantiated) million dollars of revenue each year from a development, I ask, “Are we being penny wise and pound foolish?”

Sincerely,

William R. Colbert

19 Church Hill Road, Newtown                                   November 5, 2000