Valley Independent Sentinel

Shelton Land Sale Process Moves Forward

by Jodie Mozdzer | Jul 10, 2009 10:46 am

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Posted to: Shelton

The Board of Alderman voted Thursday night to move forward with the lengthy process to sell four city-owned properties.

The city was looking at five properties, but decided Thursday to rule out 470 Howe Ave. as a candidate for sale.

That parcel is the former police department and Naugatuck Valley Health District office, which the fire department has expressed an interest in using for a training facility.

The board voted to send the other properties – 279 Soundview Ave., 58 Perry Hill Road, Access Road and Middle Avenue — to the Planning and Zoning Commission for an official referral.

According to the city’s procedure on selling property, if the Planning and Zoning Commission votes in favor of selling the land, the city will have it appraised and then hold a public hearing. (Read the ordinance on selling properties here. Scroll down to 2-18.)

As part of the official selling procedure, the Board of Alderman already has asked for opinions from the Conservation and Recreation Commissions. Each objected to selling the Soundview Avenue and Perry Hill Road parcels.

Before the votes, Board of Alderman President John Anglace made it clear that voting to send the items to Planning and Zoning would not necessarily mean the land will be put up for sale.

“Tonight we have to determine if we want to proceed in each case with the next step,” Anglace said.

Here’s a map of the properties. Click on the balloons to see descriptions and the board’s vote on each one.

View Shelton Properties: Should the City Sell Them? in a larger map

The Properies

279 Soundview Ave.
This property is about 14 acres of open space with a house and garage. The city is thinking about selling the roughly 1 acre where the house is located. The Conservation and Parks and Recreation commissions have said they want to keep the property.

The Board of Alderman voted 6-2 Thursday night to continue looking at whether it should sell this property.

The Soundview Avenue property has been the topic of much discussion since it appeared on the list. The property was sold to a local developer for $1.4 million while the city was trying to purchase it. In 2008, about a year later, the city purchased the property, which is adjacent to existing open space, from the developer for $2.1 million.

The Conservation Commission has said it would like to use the property for the state’s FarmLink program, which helps match up potential farmers with land.

58 Perry Hill Road

This property has about 1.4 acres of land and a house adjacent to the old intermediate school.

The Board of Alderman Thursday initially rejected a motion to move forward with this property, with a tie vote 4-4. However, Board of Alderman President John Anglace broke the tie vote with a charter-sanctioned second vote in the place of Mayor Mark Lauretti, who was absent from the meeting.

Anglace voted a second time in favor of continuing to look at Perry Hill Lane “since it goes to the next step and just provides additional information and doesn’t make any final decisions.”

Middle Road

This is a “paper-road” that has been abandoned by the city. The Board of Alderman voted unanimously to proceed with the process of selling this parcel.

Access Road
This road is where the former Crabtree car dealership sits, which is the proposed site for a new retail development.

The city has been researching whether the road would revert back to state control if it abandons it.

Questions over what the city is doing with the road led the Planning and Zoning Commission to reject Monty Blakeman’s proposal for the development at its last meeting. Read the Valley Independent Sentinel coverage of that meeting here.

The Board of Alderman unanimously voted to continue the process of potentially selling this land.

Click play on the video to see Blakeman’s attorney Dominick Thomas press the board for answers on this property.

Anglace has said the properties are under consideration for various reasons. For instance, the Perry Hill Road property has a house on it that the city used to rent out, Anglace said in an interview last week. But the city did not like being a landlord, Anglace said.

“We’ve had bad experiences, people who had to be evicted,” Anglace said.

In the case of Access Road, the city has long wanted to help with traffic problems the road creates, Anglace said. And now the road is potentially part of the proposed retail development at the former Crabtree car dealership.

The Howe Avenue property was vacant, and Anglace said the city wanted to see if it could get it back on the tax roles. The Middle Road property was abandoned by the city several years ago and had been requested by an interested buyer. As for Soundview Ave, Anglace said the house has no conservation value along with the open space so it might be worth seeing how much money the city could get for the property.

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