Ansonia meeting on Olson Drive property moved to July 12
ANSONIA — Residents wishing to make their voices heard on a controversial site plan proposal for Olson Drive will have to wait another two weeks.
The city announced postponed a public hearing on the proposal Tuesday, just hours before its scheduled start time. The meeting will instead be held on July 12 at the Ansonia Armory at 6 p.m.
Corporate Counsel John Marini said the rescheduled meeting would allow for more participation.
“We’re moving to a larger venue to the Ansonia Armory. And given the litigation and that we haven’t got a hearing on yet, we’re trying to essentially accommodate the public as much as we can, increase transparency as much as we can,” Marini said.
The reason for the move, Marini said, was that Fire Marshal Darrick Lundeen advised the city Monday to move the meeting to the armory or the high school, citing overcrowding concerns.
But Ansonia Democratic Town Committee chair John Feddern said the rescheduled meeting will actually make it harder for residents to participate citing various safety and accessibility concerns.
“Having it at the armory is totally antithetical to being transparent. It will suppress turnout. The armory has no ventilation or air conditioning,” Feddern said.
The armory also lacks Wi-Fi, Feddern said, meaning it will not be possible to live stream the event.
Marini confirmed the city will not live stream the event and did not have air conditioning but said people have used the armory without issue and it also doubles as a cooling center. Moving it to a later date means more people have a chance to voice their opinions, he said.
Feddern also stated in an email that the meeting as originally scheduled was improperly noticed and would have been illegal. Any municipal public hearing regarding the sale of city-owned property needs to be publicized at least 10 days before the event. The city publicized the meeting on June 21, seven days before the planned June 28 date.
The city has been sued regarding the development of the property over allegations Ansonia did not follow its city charter and didn’t solicit public input or an open bidding process before it entered negotiations with Primrose Companies. City officials including Marini defended the process, saying the city needed a detailed proposal before the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would release the deed restriction on the property.
HUD spokesperson Christine Baumann, said that was not the case.
“We did not require detailed site plans of the future use,” Baumann said last
month. “HUD only required that the Housing Authority obtain fair market value and use those proceeds for an
affordable housing purpose. They could have sold it to someone else for another purpose.”