Fairfield Hills - What’s In It For Newtown?

(The following open letter to Ruby Johnson has been received for publication.)

Dear Ruby:

Congratulations on winning a seat in the council. The voters have responded enthusiastically to your leadership in the movement toward town ownership of Fairfield Hills.

You had asked my thoughts about the town purchasing Fairfield Hills. In particular a response to the questions: What is in it for Newtown? How will we manage it?

I have been convinced that Newtown should purchase the property. What we should pay for it depends on the results of the environmental study and an understanding of what was expected of the three developers chosen by the town/state Fairfield Hills committee.

While we are waiting, I believe the town should immediately draw up a 10-year plan that accommodates the town’s needs for passive and active recreation and municipal and commercial development of the property. Development should be designed to create a self-sustaining entity through one or more public/private partnerships (example: town-oriented land is leased to a commercial developer who builds according to his or her own needs). The lease payments could support at least part of the cost of the municipal projects (examples: school, administration offices, teen recreation facility).

I would suggest the town put together a board that would serve in much the same way that the Connecticut Marketing Authority (CMA) guides the work of the Hartford Regional Market. The CMA is made up of persons appointed by the governor and legislators; with a representative from the Department of Community and Economic Development and the Market tenants’ association; the commissioner of agriculture holds the chair.

The CMA hires an executive director (state employee) who oversees the day-to-day development and management of the market. The executive director is responsible for renovation and maintenance; developing public/private partners (the CMA is currently working out a plan to lease property to a tenant that will build its own state-of-the-art food processing and distribution building); and attracting new tenants.

For Fairfield Hills, the board should have representation from each of the voting districts in town plus persons from the education, recreation, and economic development departments.

This board should hire an executive director who would help implement the 10-year plan. I believe the state stands ready to partner with the town. After five years of very close association with state employees, I know first hand there is an interagency network of dedicated persons willing to work with municipalities for the state’s best advantage.

Rich Nuclo is one of the best. I believe that when the town finally comes together with a concrete plan, Mr Nuclo would point the board in the right direction for the help it needs.

There is much at stake here. Not only for the “Campus area” but also for the 250 acres of prime farmland that was once part of Fairfield Hills and is now under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture. I can’t even imagine the difficulties of trying to farm those acres at close proximity to the kinds of residential housing suggested in the developers’ plans.

Buildings not utilized by private developers might be managed by the town to set up incubator space for start-up businesses. The town could offer everything from empty rooms to a state licensed kitchen for processing foods grown right there at Fairfield Hills! These facilities could be set up on a user-fee basis to cover maintenance. If the town can tie into dollars set aside for very small start-up businesses or funds designed to help the disadvantaged get started in business, major parts of the cost to establish these incubator sites could be recovered.

So to answer your questions: What’s in it for Newtown? Our future as self-determining populace. How do we manage? We bite the bullet and set up a management system. Will it cost us money? Probably. Are we setting up a new bureaucracy? Most definitely.

But we will be determining our own destiny, rather than turning this wonderful opportunity over to developers – even the best intended – which by description need to turn a substantial profit.  While it would be the easiest route and even perhaps the quickest route to raising tax revenue for the town, the costs in the long run, I believe, will be far more than the land can bear.

A am a lifelong resident of Newtown and while it is no longer the town I knew as a youngster, it still retains the flavor of a self confident New England town used to managing its own affairs.

We have in our midst brilliant and visionary minds; persons savvy enough to know where to go to get the help we need to unravel the complexities of the town’s latest – and perhaps most vital – challenge.

Again, congratulations and thank you. You moved forward while the rest of us were still muttering, “They oughta.” Thank you for challenging us so that we wouldn’t, too late, be muttering, “They shoulda.”

Sincerely,

Shirley Ferris

Robins Hill Lane, Newtown                                        November 8, 1999