Fairfield Hills forum to address housing

Developers seek to convert old buildings

NEWTOWN — Voters, who will decide on Election Day whether housing should be allowed in two of the largest former hospital buildings on the Fairfield Hills campus, can hear this week from the only side yet to weigh in on the controversial subject.

Two prospective developers with ideas to convert the empty red-brick hulks into affordable housing will be the featured presenters during a virtual community forum on Monday night.

“This is part of our process of being transparent and open,” said Newtown First Selectman Dan Rosenthal. “We want to put the information out there, so that people can draw their own conclusions.”

Rosenthal, who believes affordable housing is the only option developers have left to convert the 1930s hospital buildings into modern use, understands the option is unpopular with voters who consider the 185-acre Fairfield Hills campus Newtown’s Central

Park.

Last year, Rosenthal launched a series of community forums to discuss everything from the vision Newtown had in 2004 when it bought the property off the development market to the demolition costs Newtown faces if it doesn’t allow two of the largest buildings to be converted to housing.

The final forum with prospective developers, which was canceled in the spring because of coronavirus-related restrictions on crowd sizes, is meant to give Newtown residents an idea of “who’s kicking the tires.”

“I don’t shy away from saying I think this is an important thing for our community to consider,” Rosenthal said Thursday. “The developers will each get a certain amount of time to make their presentations, which will be live-streamed and recorded.”

The scheduling of the final forum about housing

An overhead image of Newtown’s Fairfield Hills campus.

at Fairfield Hills comes 32 days before voters go to the polls to chose between Donald Trump and Joe Biden — a turnout that Rosenthal expects will be 85 or 90 percent of registered voters in Newtown.

As such, he says, the referendum about whether to permit housing as part of a commercial redevelopment in no more than two of the former hospital buildings should decide the question for the foreseeable future.

Should the referendum pass, Rosenthal said a twopart public process will occur before a specific housing proposal could be considered.

The housing question is part of a long-term plan to transform Fairfield Hills into the civic and cultural center of Newtown.

To date, Newtown has spent $38 million on Fairfield Hills, a figure that includes the demolition of abandoned buildings and the construction of new buildings, including the Newtown Municipal Center, and the newly opened Newtown Community Center.

The town stands to spend another $25 million in future demolition costs if nothing is done with the 500,000 square feet of abandoned buildings, Rosenthal said.

The community forum with developers is planned for 7 p.m. Monday at face book.com/TheNewtownBee/

A video of the forum will be posted to newtown-ct. gov/board-selectmen/ pages/fairfield-hills-forums