The Fairfield Hills Authority Planning Meeting held a Meeting Tuesday, February 3, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. in Conference Room C at the Kendro Building on Pecks Lane, Newtown, CT. John Reed called the meeting to order at 9:38 a.m.
Present: Amy Dent, John Reed, and John Madzula.
Also Present: Elizabeth Stocker, Director of Planning & Community Development.
Public Participation: None
Brainstorming: Amy Dent opened and asked John Reed to give an overview of the purpose of the meeting. Mr. Reed stated that the purpose for the meeting was to do some “Brainstorming” to improve communications by the Fairfield Hills Authority to the residents of Newtown regarding future lease agreements for the Fairfield Hills Campus.
After a lengthy discussion period the committee came up with the following recommendations to be presented to the Fairfield Hills Authority at their February 2009 meeting.
1. Lease in final format before a Public Hearing is held.
This will help expedite the signing by the Board of Selectmen and more of the details of the lease agreement will be able to be discussed at the public hearing.
2. A Presentation is to be given at the beginning of each public hearing for every future lease agreement along with a “Bullet Point” hand-out explaining the key points in the Final Lease such as how many years, renewal options and the lease terms.
3. A wrap-up at the end of the Public Hearing to help answer any questions that may have arisen during the Public Presentation section of the hearing.
4. An Economic Impact study. This will be put together by the various departments in the town, i.e. Planning & Community Development and Finance.
5. Create a “Construction Oversight Committee”. This group would consist of a member from the Authority and representatives from the following departments: Land Use, Public Works and Property Manager. The Planning Committee feels this is prudent to avoid any miscommunications between the Town of Newtown and the Leasee once construction at the site as begun.
6. Rules of Operations – This will be put together by John Madzula with assistance from the Property Manager to give the Leasee guidelines for the town requirements for the construction site and what departments need to be notified throughout the project.
This ended the “Brainstorming” section of the meeting.
Amy Dent brought up two other areas that needed to be addressed. Ms. Dent said that there seems to be a gap between the Landscape Guidelines for the Fairfield Hills Campus and the zoning regulations regarding signage on the campus. Ms. Dent asked Elizabeth Stocker to review the zoning regulations to ensure that they match with the campus guidelines.
Ms. Dent then requested that the planning committee re-address the fact that Kent House is formerly identified as school site in the Master Plan. The committee agreed that this should be researched because the location is not large enough to be used as an actual school site.
At 11:55 the meeting was adjourned.
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