Negotiations With Town Expected - State May Expedite Fairfield Hills Sale
Negotiations With Town Expected â
State May Expedite Fairfield Hills Sale
By Steve Bigham
As support for town purchase of Fairfield Hills continues to gain momentum, there is now talk that the state may bypass offering the land to a developer and begin immediate negotiations with Newtown.
First Selectman Herb Rosenthal made that announcement Tuesday night at a workshop of the Fairfield Hills advisory committee. The original plan called for the joint state/town Selection Committee to choose one of the three development firms. Then, per state law, the state would give Newtown right-of-first refusal before selling the land and buildings to the chosen developer.
âThe state could just decide that the process is not going anywhere and just offer a price to the town,â Mr Rosenthal explained. âWe have the right to buy it at any time. The state may just say, âNewtown, hereâs your price.ââ
What that price may be has not been disclosed.
Mr Rosenthal said he has confirmed this fact with Richard Nuclo, the stateâs director of Office of Policy and Management (OPM) and chairman of the Fairfield Hills Selection Committee.
And the stateâs offer to the town could come very soon. That is why Mr Rosenthal, who late last month said he now favors the idea of buying Fairfield Hills, urged the advisory committee to come up with a final recommendation as soon as possible. The advisory committee has been assigned to answer two important questions. The first: Should Newtown purchase Fairfield Hills? appears to have been answered with a âyesâ vote, although the development firm of Becker and Beckerâs latest proposal to give Newtown ownership of all undeveloped land and five buildings for $4.5 million has added a new wrinkle. (See related story.)
The second question â What should Newtown do with the property once it owns it? â is still being tossed around and may be for some time.
This week, advisory committee members shared their visions and ideas for the future of Fairfield Hills at a workshop at Newtown High School. Their suggestions could be summed up into two categories. The first puts more weight on commercial development with the emphasis on generating revenue for the town. The second calls for a plan that addresses municipal needs, with an emphasis on school and office space needs, and âland banking.â
The key, according to advisory committee chairman Michael Floros, is to eventually come to a town-wide consensus and to have a plan in place.
âThe town has to have a plan that there will be an organization that will execute what the final consensus turns out to be,â he said.
The advisory committeeâs efforts have been aided by professional facilitators Michael Taylor (a Newtown resident) and Don Watson of Vita Nuova, LLC, who specialize in working with towns and corporations in the reclamation of âbrownfields,â properties with residual environmental hazards from previous uses.
The biggest question still to be answered is the extent of the environmental contamination at Fairfield Hills. Town environmental consultant RW Bartley & Associates of Tolland has already documented the levels of asbestos inside buildings and tunnels. However, sub-surface contamination is still being analyzed. The stateâs Phase II environmental study is expected to provide the answers, but that study is not expected to be complete until early next year.
According to Mr Taylor, the overall cost to remove environmental material is contingent upon what is developed there. The extent of the removal would be lessened with commercial use and heightened if the property was to be used for schools or housing.
Mr Rosenthal said he hopes any offer from the state would come after all Phase II environmental testing is done.
News that Hartford may offer Fairfield Hills directly to the Town of Newtown came as a surprise to some, especially after the lengthy process of choosing prospective developers. However, as Mr Rosenthal points out, the state is trying to unload a lot of land these days. The quicker the better, one would imagine, since it costs the state a million dollars a year for security and maintenance at Fairfield Hills. The costs are undoubtedly high, too, at the stateâs two other former mental health hospitals in Norwich and at the Seaside Regional Center for mental retardation in Waterford. Both are also on the market.
The acceleration of the sale of Fairfield Hills would also be to the townâs advantage, Mr Rosenthal said. Several capital projects are on hold as the town awaits Fairfield Hills. Topping the list is the Board of Educationâs need for a 5/6 school and the need to resolve the lack of town hall space. Some town employees have been âtemporarilyâ located in Canaan House at Fairfield Hills for nearly three years.
âItâs hard to move forward on anything right now until we have all the pieces together,â Mr Rosenthal said earlier this fall. âThe Legislative Council has made it clear that it is not willing to fund any other projects until we determine where Fairfield Hills is going.â