Date: Fri 17-Sep-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Fairfield-Hills-public-forum

Full Text:

Public Forum On Fairfield Hills Set For Sept. 21

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Three firms will present proposals on how they would privately redevelop the

186-acre core campus at Fairfield Hills at a public forum scheduled for

Tuesday, September 21.

Representatives of the three companies are slated to make presentations and

field questions from the public at the session planned for 7 pm at Newtown

High School auditorium, 12 Berkshire Road.

In the competition for the right to acquire and redevelop the site of the

former state psychiatric hospital are: Becker and Becker Associates, Inc of

New Canaan; SBC Associates, LLC, of Greenwich; and Wilder Balter Partners,

LLC, of Elmsford, NY. Copies of the three development proposals are available

for public review at Booth Library, 25 Main Street. Detailed summaries of the

development proposals also are available at The Bee 's home page on the World

Wide Web (www.thebee.com).

Each of the three firms will be given one hour of time at the forum, including

a presentation of the proposal followed by questions and answers.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal said Tuesday the forum will focus on aspects

of the three private redevelopment proposals, not on a possible town

acquisition of the property. Discussion of that topic will come at a future

forum, according to the first selectman.

Public comments will help members of the joint town-state Fairfield Hills

Selection Committee refine their thinking on the purchase decision, said Mr

Rosenthal, who is a member of that committee.

The joint committee had planned to recommend one of the three firms for the

redevelopment project by the end of September. But the complexities of

choosing a firm, coupled with the state's need to perform a detailed

environmental study of contamination problems at Fairfield Hills, has resulted

in that purchase decision being delayed. A preliminary environmental study

performed earlier this year showed there are areas of environmental concern

both inside and outside the core campus buildings. (See related story.)

Complicating the redevelopment picture is the town's having the right of first

refusal on acquiring Fairfield Hills. A local citizens group has been lobbying

the town government to acquire the property in the geographic center of town.

Becker and Becker's building preservation and renovation proposal includes: a

family YMCA, expanded athletic fields, a variety of types of senior citizen

housing, multi-family housing, an extended-stay hotel, multi-tenant medical

and corporate offices, child day care, a public grade 5/6 school in Canaan

House, and municipal offices. Becker and Becker is seeking to have the town

become a partner with it in redeveloping five of the 16 major buildings, as

well as preserving open space for recreational use.

SBC Associates proposes a development called Legacy at Newtown. It proposes

residential, recreational and commercial uses.

"The mixed-use project includes a variety of housing including senior and

independent living, live/work spaces, neighborhood retail, professional

offices, a country inn and recreational and open spaces," according to SBC.

The plan also provides for a children's museum, library, and three sites for

the town to build schools, town offices, and cultural spaces. SBC would

preserve six buildings at Fairfield Hills and would demolish the others to

make way for new construction.

Wilder Balter Partners proposes Renaissance at Fairfield Hills. The firm

proposes preserving Newtown Hall, Woodbury Hall, Shelton House and the Green.

The company wants to build residential units in four communities, plus 10,000

square feet of new commercial space. It also wants to construct a nine-hole

golf course among residential development areas, or an 18-hole course,

provided that it has access to land which is now zoned as a

conservation/agriculture open space area.

The state closed Fairfield Hills in December 1995 an era of patient

"deinstitutionalization." The facility once housed more than 3,000 psychiatric

patients.