To the Editor:

Dan Rosenthal did a very nice job of covering the history of [Fairfield Hills] and the status of the campus at Monday night’s forum. It looked like about 130 people attended, although much lower than the 1,800 residents who were interested in filling out the Master Plan survey.

What was most impressive about the presentation was the progress that has been made on implementing the current Master Plan. Seventeen buildings have been taken down, an additional four have been renovated, and another four building have been constructed. That’s in addition to a long list of improvement to the campus. Only nine buildings remain to be developed or be taken down. We are already 75 percent of the way to completing the buildings section of the current Master Plan.

Our previous First Selectman, Pat Llodra, did a marvelous job of following the Master Plan’s vision and achieving robust results. All of this done without compromising the vision of no private residential housing on the Campus.

The recent recommendation by the Master Plan Review Committee to allow residential housing on the Fairfield Hill Campus runs counter to the vision of the campus that has been followed since its purchase in 2004.

We have made great progress on developing the campus as a destination for current and future generations. There is little reason to abandon that vision for some short term financial gain. Fairfield Hill belongs to all the people and should not be divided up into personal residences off limits to the rest of the population.

Let’s stay the course and achieve the vision, YES WE CAN.

Bruce Walczak

12 Glover Avenue, Newtown September 25, 2019