The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Residents to vote on town hall, annex
Bantam Annex future also part of referendum
LITCHFIELD — Town residents will vote Wednesday on the future use of two important pieces of property: the vintage courthouse on West Street and the old Bantam School in Bantam.
Both sites were used for court facilities until two years ago, when the state’s new courthouse opened in Torrington. The West Street building is now owned by the Greater Litchfield Preservation Trust, while the Bantam school, commonly known as the Bantan Annex, is owned by the town.
Since early fall, the boards of selectmen and finance, and a Town Hall Review Committee, have gathered public comments and heard proposals for both sites.
The referendum Wednesday has two questions. The first asks whether Litchfield should accept the courthouse from the preservation trust and borrow $7.6 million to renovate it for a new town hall. The second asks for voters’ approval to transfer ownership the Bantam Annex to the Litchfield Housing Trust, which would seek funding to convert it to affordable housing.
The referendum runs from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Residents can vote at the Bantam Borough Hall and the firehouses in Litchfield and Northfield.
Litchfield courthouse
The boards of selectman and finance and the review commitee held three public meetings in October to discuss the proposals for each of the buildings. The first, held Oct. 18 at the Litchfield Intermediate School, drew a mostly positive response to the idea of using the old courthouse on for a town hall. The second and third meetings were held in Bantam and Northfield.
The preservation trust invested its own funds to develop a plan for the building, including surveys and designs, and concluded Litchfield would be well served by having its town hall inside the building.
First Selectman Leo Paul thinks the trust should have asked the selectmen first.
“Four of us on the Board of Selectmen said no to this option,” he said. “People are worried that the old courthouse will fall apart, that it will crumble if it’s not used — that’s not true at all. The preservation trust has already said they will sell it if the town doesn’t want it. This is the first time the public has been asked to decide on it.
“Butt the preservation trust never asked us about it,” he said. “They never told us they were planning to buy it. They never talked to the selectmen, to consider it as a town hall site. They just proposed it. I feel it’s being forced on us. The presevation trust is not the community, but they decided on their own that this is where the town hall should be, and the only board member who supports it is Jeff Zullo. The rest of us don’t.”
The referendum question asks residents to approve spending $7.6 million to convert the old courthouse into a town hall, with three floors of office space to bring all municipal offices to the center of town. The Litchfield Town Hall is too small to accommodate all departments, which is why the zoning office, parks and recreation and the fire marshal are now housed in the Bantam Annex.
Last month, when the referendum question on the trust’s courthouse plan was brought to selectmen, the board rejected it 4-1, and proposed building a new town hall for $9.2 million. On Nov. 13, the Board of Finance refused the selectmen’s proposal for a new town hall.
The preservation trust then gathered 145 signatures — it only needed 20 — and petitioned the finance board for a special meeting and referendum to vote on its proposal. The special meeting was held last week, and adjourned to Wednesday’s referendum.
Perley Grimes, president of the preservation trust, has maintained throughout the process that “the town must decide” the fate of the old courthouse.
“We succeeded in finally getting the voters to decide, and that’s what’s going to happen,” he said Monday. “The trust is very encouraged by this referendum (Wednesday) because it finally gives the voters a chance to decide. We’re looking forward to the results.”
Before the old county courthouse was proposed for a town hall, renovation of the old town hall or a new building were options considered by the review committee. In September, the preservation trust announced its intention to give the courthouse to Litchfield. That announcement was accompanied by a complete set of plans, engineering and environmental studies for the courthouse to transform it into a municipal building, while preserving the historic structure and “returning it to Litchfield,” according to Grimes.
Bantam Annex
The fate of the Bantam Annex building is another long-debated decision. If the referendum question is approved on Wednesday, the housing trust hopes to build 14 rental apartments and 10 single-family homes on the annex property, or “workforce” housing, reserved for individuals and families who work for the community and who meet income requirements.
The post office, located adjacent to the old court offices, would remain where it is. Litchfield’s parks and recreation department would also stay in the building, while other town offices housed there, including the zoning office, social services and the fire marshal’s office, would move to the “new” town hall on West Street.
A number of residents want the Bantam Annex to stay in town hands.
At past public meetings, people have expressed concern about using the property for affordable housing, saying it could be delayed by a lack of funding from the federal government. Paul, however, said the Bantam Borough’s reluctance to change the property’s zoning, which is 2-acre residential, made this happen.
The Bantam Borough is overseen by a Board of Warden and Burgesses and has its own zoning and planning commission to oversee development. It is part of the town of Litchfield.
“My sense for the Bantam Annex is simple — it’s zoned as 2-acre residential, and so there’s nothing else we can put there,” Paul said. “Since 2006, we’ve been asking the Bantam Planning & Zoning Commission to change the zoning, and they haven’t done that. So the only capable use is housing.”
Paul said the annex property was appraised for $1.1 million, and was deemed appropriate for up to 65 affordable housing units, which is “an intensity that’s far too much” for the property, he said.
“When you consider what the housing trust wants to do, and the property’s value, this is the best use,” Paul said. “Housing trust present Bob Petricone and I went to see the federal Commissioner of Housing about it. They told us to apply for predevelpment money (for designs).
“Within two weeks, they gave us $264,000, for the trust to use for those designs. So there’s money there to develop the property. That housing would also put $100,000 on the town’s tax rolls. It won’t happen overnight — it might take ... a few years. But this is the best use.”