Sale Of Queen Street Properties

Will Have To Wait For Another Town Meeting

By Steve Bigham

First Selectman herb Rosenthal this week voiced his disappointment in the Legislative Council’s failure to act on the Board of Selectmen’s recommendation to sell eight town-owned Queen Street homes.

He had hoped that the town would have been set on that issue, allowing him to present that to the voters at this week’s town meeting. On Wednesday, the town was slated to vote on a proposed $21.8 million spending plan, which included the purchase of Fairfield Hills and a variety of other large capital projects.

Mr Rosenthal felt a town plan to sell the Queen Street homes to offset the overall cost would have been an important piece of information for townspeople to consider. However, the issue never made it onto the council’s agenda, even after the selectmen had formally recommended the sale.

“It was a misunderstanding on my part. Agenda items are usually put on as a request. This particular item came as a list of recommendations from the Board of Selectmen. I just didn’t think it was a request for putting it on the agenda, so I didn’t,” explained council chairman Pierre Rochman. “The council has stated that it does intend to sell the Queen Street properties to help with both the purchase of Fairfield Hills and for funding some open space purchases.”

Mr Rochman said he planned to reassure voters at this week’s town meeting that the council does “have every intention” of selling the homes. That means another town meeting will have to be called sometime down the road.

When and if the council does vote to sell the homes, town officials can once again expect a flurry of inquiries from interested buyers. It would be the third such rush of phone calls to the first selectman’s office. The first “Queen Street rush” occurred soon after the town purchased the homes from the state back in 1999. The suggestion at the time that the homes might be sold sparked intense interest from potential buyers. The second rush was brought about by a budgetary decision made this past March by the Legislative Council, which anticipated the sale of the Queen Street homes and allocating some of the proceeds at a future date for open space as an alternative to development.

It seems the phone calls come every time talk of selling the “fixer-uppers” is in the news. Each time, callers are informed that the homes are not yet for sale.

That may all change soon, especially following this week’s approval to buy Fairfield Hills. All along, town officials have said it would make no sense to sell its property on Queen Street if it did not buy Fairfield Hills because it would need the Queen Street land for town offices or a firehouse.

Under the town charter, the Legislative Council must first vote to recommend that a town meeting be held to determine if the homes should be sold. Then, if approved at a town meeting, the Board of Selectmen would be charged with conducting the sale, which can either be done by sealed bid or public auction.

In January 2000, the Board of Selectmen recommended that the homes be sold “as is.” However, the Legislative Council soon thereafter voted against selling the homes for fear it would be a costly move in the long run. Last year, council member Donald Studley, an accountant, suggested that the town demolish the houses and keep the land for town use either as open space or for future municipal space needs. He presented figures that indicated that selling the homes to families with school-age children would be costlier over time than simply tearing the houses down. Under one Studley scenario, which made several assumptions, selling the homes would end up costing the town about $4 million over the next 25 years. Mr Studley figured in the cost to educate children over several years compared to the relatively small return in taxes. These are not $750,000 homes, council member John Kortze said.

Demolishing the buildings would save the town $809,000 over time, Mr Studley said.

The town purchased each home at a cost that ranged from $76,500 to $140,000.

The homes were once a part of the Fairfield Hills. The town originally purchased the homes and property for $1.2 million in an effort to control future development in that area of town. As required under state law, Newtown was given right-of-first-refusal when the state decided to sell the properties. The parcels cover about 15 acres along the east side of Queen Street and include empty houses once used for staff at Fairfield Hills. There is also a barn and stone outbuilding. All of the homes are connected to public water and sewer lines.