Hooray for Newtown and the Fairfield Hills Campus as Governor Ned Lamont recently announced that Newtown had received a $610,000 grant for hazardous materials abatement of a 0.28-acre duplex building site at the former Fairfield Hills Campus. The buildings, which have been vacant since 1995, will house the Newtown Parks and Recreation Department and be leased for commercial use.

The five duplex buildings have long been thought of as having high potential for renovation and use for commercial and other development, but have sat vacant other than the one currently housing Newtown Parent Connection. It has been envisioned as a thriving opportunity for economic development in town and hopefully a grant for hazardous materials abatement will help increase the value of the buildings by reducing the cost of potential renovations and making these spaces more attractive to businesses.

Moving the Parks & Recreation Department into one of those buildings will also help the town since it currently has its Recreation offices in the Community Center and its Parks offices located across from Reed Intermediate School on Trades Lane. It will also provide potential foot traffic that could be appealing to businesses.

So good job to both the State of Connecticut and any town officials who might have helped bring the grant to the town, and hopefully helping to finally realize the potential of those buildings.

The grant is part of an annual program by the state to help rehabilitate brownfields and contaminated sites and turn them into positives in the state for economic development. The grant is part of a total of $20 million that will be used to support the remediation and redevelopment of 21 blighted properties consisting of 150 acres of contaminated land in 18 municipalities across Connecticut, including a property in Newtown. The funds will be used to support the costs of cleaning up these vacant properties so they can be redeveloped and put back into productive use to support economic growth and housing needs.

The grants are being released through the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development’s Brownfield Remediation and Development Program. These state investments are expected to leverage approximately $530 million in private investments and facilitate the creation of 1,392 units of new housing, as well as the growth of new businesses.

“All of these blighted properties have been vacant for years when we should be using them to grow new businesses and support the development of badly needed housing,” Governor Lamont said. “This series of state grants enables us to partner with developers who will take these zombie properties and bring them back from the dead, cleaning up contaminated land and bringing life back to these neighborhoods.”

“Under the leadership of Governor Lamont, Connecticut continues to make impactful investments in our communities that are building vibrancy, creating jobs, and improving the lives of our residents,” Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Daniel O’Keefe said. “This latest round of brownfield investments is noteworthy for the high amount of private investment it is leveraging and for how it is helping to address one our state’s most pressing needs — increasing the supply of quality housing.”

The grants announced today under this funding round include: Ansonia, Canton, Cornwall, Cromwell, East Haven and New Haven, Enfield, two locations in Hartford, Naugatuck, New Haven, Norwich, Stamford, Stonington, two locations in Torrington, two locations in Waterbury, West Hartford, Winchester, and Windham.

According to ctbrownfields.gov, “Connecticut law defines a brownfield as “any abandoned or underutilized site where redevelopment, reuse or expansion has not occurred due to the presence or potential presence of pollution in the buildings, soil or groundwater that requires investigation or remediation before or in conjunction with the redevelopment, reuse or expansion of the property.” Brownfield sites exist in every corner of the state and in communities large and small.”

The mission of OBRD is to “return brownfield sites across the state to productive re-use, including mixed-use, residential, commercial, industrial, retail and open space uses.”

The grants represent round 20 of the ongoing program.