New Home Building Slows In Newtown

 As Commercial Development Surges

By Andrew Gorosko

Although the rate of new home construction starts has slowed significantly in recent months, the level of commercial and industrial growth has increased in Newtown. A variety of projects are providing local firms with new and expanded facilities, as well as providing the town with an expanding property tax base, according to Elizabeth Stocker, the town’s community development director.

New residential construction hit an annual peak of 238 new houses in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1998. In the following fiscal year ending June 30, 1999, that number fell to 197 homes.

In the most recent complete fiscal year ending June 30, 2000, the town issued 126 permits for new houses.

In the first four full months of this fiscal year, from July through October, the town issued 36 permits for new houses, compared to 57 new house permits having been issued for the first four months of the preceding fiscal year.

Although housing starts continue to decline, the level of commercial/industrial growth has increased.

New commercial and industrial projects that have been built or are underway include the 10,000-square-foot Fairfield Equine Associates veterinary horse hospital on Barnabas Road in Hawleyville; a 50,000-square-foot self-storage complex being built by CAP Properties Newtown, LLC, on South Main Street; a mixed-use commercial/residential building in Sandy Hook Center being constructed by developer Michael Burton; a 41,000-square-foot warehouse addition to Curtis Packaging Corporation on Toddy Hill Road; the 298-unit Homesteads at Newtown elderly housing complex on Mt Pleasant Road in Hawleyville; a 7,500-square-foot office building at 15 Berkshire Road, where the Western Connecticut Federal Credit Union is the prime tenant; Robert Mathison’s 6,000-square-foot retail flooring store on South Main Street; an expansion of the Lockwood Lodge assisted living complex at Ashlar of Newtown on Toddy Hill Road, increasing it from 48 units to 56 units; and the conversion of the former Gordon Fraser Gallery on South Main Street into the Fraser Woods School by the Newtown Montessori Society.

Also, a 3,500-square-foot Botsford post office is now being built on Botsford Hill Road.

Ms Stocker described the completed and planned commercial/industrial growth in a talk titled “Local Economic Condition and Outlook” given at a recent business awards ceremony sponsored by the Economic Development Commission.

Projects planned for the coming year, which have been approved by the town, include an 18,000-square-foot office building on Commerce Road; a 6,500-square-foot office/retail building on South Main Street; and a 15,500-square-foot addition to an existing factory on Commerce Road, she said.

Also, Curtis Packaging Corporation has a proposal pending before the town to construct a 13-lot industrial subdivision on its land adjacent to its packaging materials factory in Sandy Hook.

There was an approximately $6 million increase in the value of new industrial equipment in the Grand List of October 1, 1999, compared to the preceding grand list one year earlier, she said.

Employment

The town has experienced a four-year trend of employment growth, according to Ms Stocker. Between 1996 and 1999, local employment increased by 16.7 percent, she said. The local labor force continues to be near full employment, with the average unemployment rate for 1999 at 1.9 percent, marking the lowest unemployment rate the town has experienced in recent history, she said.

Ms Stocker provided a profile of local employment, as of March 2000.

The largest local employer is the Town of Newtown, with 578 total employees, 142 of whom are town government workers, with the remaining 436 working for the Board of Education.

The state employs 348 workers, most of whom work for the Department of Correction. Kendro Laboratory Products has 300 workers. The Taunton Press has 251 employees. Hubbell Wiring Devices-Kellems has 250 workers.

The Super Stop & Shop supermarket has 189 employees. Curtis Packaging has 170 workers. Charter Communications employs 155 people. Ashlar of Newtown has 148 workers.

Future economic growth is expected with the redevelopment of the Fairfield Hills campus and the creation of a new industrial park off Commerce Road, according to Ms Stocker.

The foundation for future growth in Hawleyville was established with the town’s adoption of new zoning regulations and new land-use zones for that area, coupled with the installation of sanitary sewers and public water lines along Mt Pleasant Road, she added.

The Economic Development Commission has consistently supported local business growth and economic development, Ms Stocker said. The commission will continue to support development applications which its members consider to benefit the town’s economic health, and will object to other proposals which the members do not support, she added.