The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Anonymous flyer opposes Annex sale
Mailing may violate election law
LITCHFIELD — An anonymous, two-page flyer mailed to residents just before Wednesday’s referendum on a proposal to renovate the old Litchfield County Courthouse into a new town hall and sell the Bantam Annex to the Litchfield Housing Trust for affordable housing calls for “no” votes on the questions.
The flyer has no identifying name or group, though according to the State Elections Enforcment Commission, flyers from groups, organizations or businesses or political parties are required by law to identify themselves or whoever is paying for the mailing, also known as full disclosure. An individual can send anonymous flyers or letters, but if the cost of the mailing is more than $1,000, it
must be filed with the town clerk.
“The law is pretty clear about referenda and elections materials,” said attorney Joshua Foley, a spokesman for the SEEC. “The commission fields a lot of complaints about flyers on referenda.”
If a complaint were filed on the Bantam flyer, Foley said, it had not been received. There is no statute of limitations on this type of complaint, he said.
The flyer, sent to residents in Litchfield, Northfield and Bantam, cites numerous reasons why the sale is a bad idea, and offers numerous suggestions for the Bantam Annex building.
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 Bantam 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 flyer claims that letting the Annex out of town hands is a “horrible idea.”
“We are a group of concerned Litchfield citizen taxpayers writing to inform you of important information you should have before you vote on the two very important questions on the referendum,” the flyer says.
It lists the group’s reasons for no votes: that Litchfield’s existing town hall and the Bantam Annex building are enough; that the Annex building can be renovated for a new town hall or rented to provide more income to the town; and town employees and business owners oppose the proposals in the referendum.
The flyer writers offer possible uses
for the Bantam Annex building and its property, including a performing arts center, a school, preschool or adult education center, a dog park, athletic fields or community gardens.
The flyer claims Litchfield is giving the building away and its $1 million property assessment makes it more valuable.
The flyer contains a postal code that uses “EDDM” in part, a postal code for “Every Door Direct Mail” an “affordable targeted advertising technique that lets you map your marketing mail audience by age, income, or household size” or by using “the EDDM mapping tool to choose the ZIP Code,” according to usps.com.
There are no identifying names on the flyers — the only name anywhere is a quote from Realtor David Dean in a red box, which says, “My opinion is simple. Never ... ever ...sell our townowned properties ... there will come a time when you wish you had that property back.”
Dean said his comments were part of a previous, larger conversation about the Annex.
“I still believe (what I said is) true and accurate, but there’s more to the conversation that just that quote,” he said Tuesday. “We’ll see how the vote turns out.”
On Monday, First Selectman Leo Paul said because of the borough’s zoning regulations, nothing can be done with the Annex building except affordable housing. It was appraised at $1 million about five years ago when a previous Town Hall Review Committee was exploring its uses. At that time, Bantam residents and officials asked why the Annex couldn’t become a new town hall. At that time, the committee decided that the cost of renovation or construction in the borough was too high to consider it for a town hall.
In October the Greater Litchfield Preservation Trust offered the old Litchfield courthouse to the town to be renovated for $7.6 million as its new town hall. Wednesday’s referendum asks residents to approve this offer.
The second referendum question asks residents to allow the Board of Selectmen to give the Annex to the Litchfield Housing Trust, which wants 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 stay in place, and Litchfield’s Parks and Recreation Department would remain as well as the gymnasium, used for programs all year. The rest of the property would be used by the housing trust.
Although the flyer writers claim the state is unlikely to fund the housing trust’s project, Paul said there is already money available.
“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,” he said. “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.”
Paul also said the Bantam Borough’s Planning & Zoning Commission hasn’t changed the zoning of the Annex property, to allow other uses to be explored.
“The Bantam Annex is 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.”
The referendum runs from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Residents can vote at the Litchfield Firehouse, the Bantam Borough Hall and the Northfield Firehouse.