Twelve Months Closer To Renovations At Fairfield Hills

By Kendra Bobowick

Retracing the Fairfield Hills Authority’s footsteps for the last year reveals a course marked with both progress and controversy. A year that began with the daunting task of shaping the former state hospital’s future has ended with accomplishments including more clearly defined plans for a 90-foot baseball field, a distinct route for revamped walking trails, and a specific site and cost estimates for an eventual new town hall.

Crashing into the year as it waned was one concerned citizen’s legal action regarding Fairfield Hills. Matt DeAngelis, a private businessman in town who filed a civil suit against the authority members and individual selectman, contests the foundations of a master plan — a development proposal — detailing the Fairfield Hills project.

Fields, Trails, And Parking

In January there were hopes that resemble current circumstances on the campus, but reached farther than the semicomplete architectural renderings and prints of a baseball diamond and walking trails that have finished the year.

“By this time next year the schedule calls for walking trails and a 90-foot [baseball] field,” preconstruction manager Scott Baillie of O&G Industries had said during the opening of 2006.

Nearly one year ago, Parks and Recreation Director Barbara Kasbarian, for one, had hoped that more than one field would initially be possible. Last January she had said, “I am really hoping for [several] 90-foot fields … and I am still hoping for two.”

Many cost estimates and compromises later, the recreation members can now specifically anticipate one new field with construction beginning after April. Parents carrying lawn chairs and blankets could be setting up to watch a game by next year.

Although the trails and field are not completed, the authority — along with Parks and Recreation Commission members — know exactly where they will be laid out, they have settled on specifics including the exact distance between bases, have agreed to delay installing lighting, and will use a temporary parking area for the time.

The ball field will occupy the space opened when Fairfield House is demolished, according to a report filed this month. The walking trail will reuse existing paved areas, while clearing away new paths. Temporary gravel parking near the field will accommodate guests until a permanent area is designated when the new town hall offices relocate to a revamped Bridgeport Hall.

The field, trails, and parking estimates total $1,836,930.

Reassigning A New Town Hall Site

Around Valentine’s Day authority members learned that Mother Nature was responsible for water damage to many of the basements and rooftops in Fairfield Hills buildings. The damage ultimately provoked the authority to think outside the master plan’s purview and select a site other than Shelton House as specified in the document. Town hall plans refocused on Bridgeport Hall.

In recent months designers and engineers presented detailed plans to town officials revealing the proposed layout of a renovated Bridgeport Hall that would house the Board of Education offices and municipal departments. Offices will move out of Edmond Town Hall on Main Street when renovations are complete.

In February, however, were the first words hinting at water complications, and the first time the authority made moves to prevent deterioration by mothballing, or preserving and sealing, the buildings for future use.

The word “demolition” entered conversations per one consultant’s recommendations. Fairfield Hills Authority members had realized the campus’s skyline may change with the removal of certain buildings.

Plymouth Hall in particular might fall to demolition.

“We recommend you take it down,” Jerry Waters with Tai Soo Kim Partners had said. He discussed the firm’s preliminary findings. Teams had recently looked at the exterior and interior integrity of various buildings including Plymouth, Stratford, and Newtown Halls.

From a reuse perspective, Plymouth “has no redeeming qualities,” he said. Conversely, he had thought that Stratford Hall “was a gem.” Further inspections followed, leading to the ultimate conclusion that Bridgeport Hall was the favorite for town hall’s relocation, and that Shelton, with excessive water in the basement at all times, should come down.

As always, money issues were part of the equation. The reality of any future demolition, renovations, or repairs “becomes a matter of funding,” said FFA member Bob Geckle. The bonded $21 million, approved for the Fairfield Hills project, will fund eventual costs.

A Search For Tenants

In the future residents may be going out to eat at a Fairfield Hills restaurant, or buying something fashionable at a boutique located there. As specified in the master plan, certain buildings deemed reusable would be slated for private use, which would generate income either through sale or lease.

Leasing is the answer.

The authority will retain ownership of Fairfield Hills, period. Murmurs of a Request For Proposal (RFP) to entice potential developers began in early April. By December and under the authority’s direction, real estate consultant Robert Barclay, president of North American Realty Advisory Services, LP, has not only drafted and revised an RFP document with specific developers in mind, but is crossing the final Ts of a final draft. Currently he is making last-minute revisions based on the authority’s December meeting. Residents can have a look for themselves as 2007 dawns, and pages are posted on the Internet.

Mr Barclay’s vision of tenants and the campus has altered little since April.

A corporate headquarters and retail or office space are in his mind’s eye. Addressing the authority’s subcommittee he had said, “This is a quality site. It’s better than I think anyone believes.”

He sees Fairfield Hills as a good headquarters location. “It’s that kind of site,” he said. “And all that green space — parks.”

Emphasizing the importance of window views, he said development often encumbers corporate landscapes, which would not be the case at Fairfield Hills.

Mr Barclay explained his view of the campus’s appeal, saying, “I think with acquisition you get a piece of open property. There is no other property like it in the state, it’s incredible.” As part of a lease or development agreement, “you can use the green around [a building], pulling the land into the value of the building…”

He had also commended the authority saying, “You’re protecting this land forever, it’s part of the town and surrounded by fields and parks and trails.”

The master plan also is guiding the future occupancy of the campus. This document states under future use that certain buildings “are envisioned as buildings to meet community needs including the Senior Center, cultural programs, recreation programs and special community events or assemblies of people such as the Friends of the Library Book Sale.”

Making Room For A Recreation Center

Threads of conversation about the as yet undefined new construction that will likely house the Parks & Recreation Department, Senior Center, and offices for a newly formed Arts Commission reach back to early spring.

The town has a “desperate” need for a recreation center, Parks and Recreation Director Barbara Kasbarian had said. The need is nothing new, however.

“We made our pitch years ago,” she said. By October the recreation department and seniors had made their appeals to the town as they presented Five-Year Capital Plans. Under the Board of Selectmen’s recommendations the two groups began a dialogue about possibly sharing space at a facility at Fairfield Hills. The discussion will likely continue in 2007.

A Lawsuit

Business owner Matt DeAngelis filed a civil action lawsuit in federal court days before Thanksgiving against the Town of Newtown, First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal, the Board of Selectmen, and Fairfield Hills Authority members individually “in their official capacities.” The suit echoes a website, InsideNewtown.com, lambastes the town’s plans for redeveloping roughly 180-plus acres at the former state psychiatric hospital. The website is coordinated by the anonymous group Friends of Newtown, for which Mr DeAngelis is spokesperson.

Maintaining that “I hope I am wrong,” Mr DeAngelis questions sums spent at Fairfield Hills, and has also had a hand in a flurry of Freedom Of Information (FOI) demands inundating town hall and ultimately claimed by Friends of Newtown in the weeks prior to the lawsuit. The town has failed to reply to FOI demands, Mr DeAngelis contended. He also explained he filed the suit in protest. The master plan is not valid, he argued.

Mr DeAngelis has stressed that he believes the selectmen and the authority have violated his constitutional rights in moving forward with work at Fairfield Hills without a master plan approved by the voters. Through the lawsuit he is asking a judge to compel them to put together a valid master plan and order a machine vote on it. These comments are the crux of his arguments against the town’s plans for Fairfield Hills, confirmed Mr DeAngelis’s lawyer, Craig T. Dickinson.

Mr Rosenthal responded succinctly to Mr DeAngelis’s plea that officials follow the rules.

“We have,” Mr Rosenthal said. As 2006 runs into 2007, the lawsuit and ensuing arguments await conclusion.

In Conclusion

The final Fairfield Hills Authority meeting of 2006 looked back on a year of building momentum for redevelopment plans.

 “I think we’re moving now,” Mr Rosenthal said.

Aside from the outside parties occupying space and opening corporate, retail, or restaurant doors in years to come, is the municipal aspect of Fairfield Hills. The centrally located acres now littered with vacant brick buildings are also the future home of a new town hall. Mr Rosenthal believes, as do others, that the town’s interest in relocating offices to the area may be key in creating an appeal to outside developers.

“Others will come if we’re there and investing in the campus,” he said. “Other private users might follow.”