TOWN OF SOUTH WINDSOR
WORK SESSION MINUTES
TOWN COUNCIL MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 2011
COUNCIL CHAMBERS TIME: 7:00 P.M.
1. Call Meeting to Order
Mayor Pelkey called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
2. Roll Call
Members Present: Mayor John Pelkey
Deputy Mayor Ed Havens
Councillor Gary Bazzano
Councillor Tom Delnicki
Councillor Janice Favreau
Councillor Kathryn Hale (arrived at 7:01 p.m.)
Councillor Kevin McCann
Councillor Cary Prague (arrived at 7:10 p.m.)
Councillor Keith Yagaloff
Also Present: Matthew Galligan, Town Manager
3. Public Participation
None
4. Communications
None
5. Town Manager’s Report
Will be discussed at the Regular Meeting
6. Items for Discussion
- Excess property that will be sold at 765 Sullivan Avenue, questions and concerns of Inland Wetlands Agency/Conservation Commission and Open Space Task Force (Elizabeth Warren from IWA/CC and Pat Botteron from Open Space Task Force to be present) (requested by Councillor Delnicki)
Councillor Delnicki began discussions by explaining that he had spoken to Pat Botteron from Open Space Task Force and it was indicated by her that Open Space Task Force does not have any issues revolving around this discussion. Elizabeth Warren had written the Town Council a memo and requested that the Town Council bring this item forward for discussion. Councillor Delnicki read the letter into the record from Elizabeth Warren, dated November 11, 2010 regarding 765 Sullivan Avenue property, as shown in attached Exhibit A.
ITEM:
6. A. (Continued)
Ms. Elizabeth Warren, Chairperson of IWA/CC came before the Town Council. Ms. Warren explained that the Commission feels very strongly that the property should be subdivided prior to sale in the manner that was presented to IWA/CC at the time of the application process. The Commission has maps as part of the application that shows the commercial developed area, the firehouse lot and the open space. The firehouse is located on 4.45 acres, the commercial parcel is 6.65 acres and the open space parcel is 13.78 acres. The firehouse was actually moved a little bit into an area that was regulated in order to make the property for commercial sale more desirable. A parking lot was installed by an Eagle Scout on the Sullivan Avenue side to access a trail to the Major Michael Donnelly Preserve. The
trail was installed with the understanding that this parcel would be open space. IWA/CC would like to know why the application was submitted in a manner to suggest there would be open space. An easement on the property is a possibility if the Town Council does not like the open space area which would not change the land for impervious coverage. The Commission was very dismayed to be in this position and is here tonight to hopefully rectify this situation.
Ms. Barbara Kelly, 27 Pine Knob Circle who is the Vice Chair of IWA/CC concurred with Chairperson Warren. Clearly the statute requires IWA/CC to take into consideration a number of factors in terms of alternatives, potential future development that may be shaped by a beginning development on a piece and IWA/CC weighed that but did not make a specific condition on the permit that IWA/CC granted. A large piece of the parcel that is projected to be open space is indeed the Podunk River, the 100 year flood plain, clearly not something subject to development. Ms. Kelly requested that the Town Council give considerations to split the parcel of lands up when putting these parcels on the market.
Councillor Delnicki felt it would be beneficial for the Council to get verbatim minutes of this IWA/CC meeting to find out the legislative intent.
Mr. Galligan stated that he agrees with the map in the sense of the developable pieces, but the more restrictions put on a piece of property, the harder the property is to market. Staff, Boards and Commissions should review these parcels.
Mayor Pelkey felt that Council members should have tapes made of the meeting instead of verbatim minutes.
Answering questions from the Council, Mr. Galligan stated that open space money was not used to purchase this property.
Councillor Hale questioned if IWA/CC would be satisfied if the property were put up for sale with a provision that the area that is denominated as open space on the map be a conservation easement? Ms. Warren felt that would be acceptable.
ITEM:
6. A. (Continued)
Councillor Hale then read a note from the Open Space Task Force into the record which read: Motion of the Open Space Task Force takes the position that the balance of the property be offered for sale.
Councillor Hale felt that the Open Space Task Force does not seem to care about preserving that open space. Ms. Warren stated that she was at the Open Space Task Force meeting and believes the main concern in the majority of the members was the fact that perhaps it would sell for the highest price without any restrictions on the property. In light of how this property was presented to IWA/CC there is a certain matter of integrity involved. If this application was from an independent contractor, presenting something of this nature and then later after it was passed the contractor saying they were not going to do what was approved, the first thing the Town would have is a violation, perhaps even a lawsuit. If the Town will not follow their own rules in the process of an application then how can the
Town expect it of anyone that comes before IWA/CC.
Answering questions from the Council, Ms. Warren explained that the Town Manager, Town Council member or anyone from the Public Building Commission were not present at the meeting when the application was presented. The only individual present was Chief Crombie.
Councillor Yagaloff stated that in his recollection the Town Council was intending to sell the balance of property but wanted the Town to recover a large part of that property, the part that is not developable, to be combined with the Town open space. The area adjacent to the Donnelly property and along Sullivan Avenue that was not developable those pieces of property would go to some form of open space. The concept was that the developer would come in and have to negotiate with the Town in order to build their project. The Town would market the parcel to include the open space areas and then negotiate the areas contiguous to open space being given back to the Town.
Mr. Galligan stated that was his intentions from the beginning. Certain areas are able to link the Donnelly property from one portion of Sullivan Avenue to the other. What the Town wanted to do is make sure the developer could use the areas being given back to the Town for impervious coverage purposes. Rather than putting an easement on the property right away which takes away some value of having the whole area marketed.
Councillor Yagaloff felt that IWA/CC is requesting some kind of reassurance that their approval was contingent upon what their expectations were. Councillor Yagaloff felt the Council should draft a resolution that any purchase sale agreement with a developer includes that provision so it would not be sold with the hopes that the Town would get the land back from the developer but with the expectation in the contract.
ITEM:
6. A. (Continued)
Mr. Galligan also thought during those negotiations there could be improvements upon those properties.
Councillor McCann questioned if the open space would be available for use by the Town for active recreation. For example, this is an area that is served by the Podunk River. Could the Town build a large shallow depression, flood it and use it for ice skating? Ms. Warren explained that the Open Space Task Force usually looks at all of the possibilities for recreation on any given piece. IWA/CC would have to see how much disturbance there would be to wetlands in order to make a determination if this would be a viable idea.
Mayor Pelkey stated that when this piece of property was purchased to locate the firehouse on it, the Fire Department building was pushed back as much as possible to make the best use of this property for the Town. The Town paid a fair amount of money for this 26 acre piece of property and the Town would like to recover a good portion of the money as possible. Nothing will be built on the area that is marked open space. The Town marketing the whole piece of property and then splitting off the area of open space is still a valid approach and has not changed from previous discussions.
Deputy Mayor Havens stated that when the Town purchased this property to locate the firehouse, the commercial piece of property was going to be sold and open space was going to stay as open space.
Mayor Pelkey felt that after this issue has been researched and tapes listened to there should be another work session to discuss all of the details. Mayor Pelkey suggested that the Town Manager create an outline based on what has been discussed tonight of how the property would be marketed and that may alleviate some of the concerns from the Towns Boards and Commissions.
Ms. Warren explained that at this point it is Town owned land so the ability to create the open space lies in the hands of the Town and no way is any developer required to give back that open space if they choose not to. The Town can set the perimeters before the property is marketed. An easement should be considered by the Town Council because that will not change the developer’s right to the impervious coverage numbers.
Mr. Galligan stated that the Town puts restrictions on RFP’s. When the RFP goes out it is stated in the RFP what the Town wants done and then negotiate the easement with the developer. The Town Attorney should review this item to make sure the Town is moving in the right direction.
ITEM:
6. A. (Continued)
Councillor Hale felt the Town Council should get the Town Attorney’s opinion as to what the differences are if this sale is put out there subject to an easement that the Town has already created versus if the sale is put out in a bid document saying the Town expects to get back an easement. Councillor Hale thought there may be different tax benefits for the developer.
Mayor Pelkey ended the discussion by stating the Town Council has control of how this property will be sold and feels there may be different ways that this sale could be handled but the Council always had the same intention of keeping the area marked open space as open space.
B. Promoting Civic Events (requested by Councillor Prague)
Councillor Prague began discussions regarding promoting Civic Events. The Towns Civic Groups raise over ¼ million dollars per year for this Town. Presently various Civic Groups have signs erected on different private properties all over Town. Some of the signs are so small you can’t read them or they are destroyed by weather. Councillor Prague is requesting that the Town put up eight semi-permanent stanchions which would be used to put signs on for different civic events that happen in Town. Rules would have to be developed for the use of these stanchions and they would have to be placed in an area where cars would have the ability to pull over and place their signs on them safely. The stanchion locations would also have to be in an area that would not block site lines.
Councillor Prague suggested different locations where the stanchions could be erected. This would allow the civic events in Town to be publicized which could give residents the ability to know about different events. Councillor Prague stated he would like to have $1,000 allocated for this purpose.
Mr. Galligan suggested that the suggested locations be placed on the GIS mapping and give a copy to the Council of where those locations would be; have Public Works get quotes and come up with a budgetary number.
Mayor Pelkey felt that these structures should be more of a permanent solution then temporary. The structures should be attractive even when they are empty.
Deputy Mayor Havens felt this was a good idea but pointed out that the maintenance of these structures is very important and would need to be enforced. May want to fund this by selling the space on each of the boards to individual companies sponsoring the events. It would be advertising the event, not the sponsor.
Mayor Pelkey recessed the Work Session at 8:08 p.m. in order to call the Regular Meeting to order, then recessed the Regular Meeting in order to finish the Work Session.
ITEM:
6. B. (Continued)
Councillor Favreau stated that once the public is aware that there is a particular location where they can go and look to see what events are happening in town, they will go out of their way to check. Councillor Favreau felt this is a great idea and would be supporting it.
7. Executive Session
None
8. Adjournment
At 8:09 p.m. Councillor Delnicki made a motion to adjourn the Work Session. Councillor Yagaloff seconded the motion; and it was approved, unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
Deborah W. Reid
Recording Secretary
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