GOOGLE MAPS
This overhead photo from Google Maps shows what Olson Drive looked like immediately after one half of the complex was demolished.
ANSONIA — City Hall is exploring whether land on Olson Drive once home to hundreds of low-income residents can be redeveloped into a recreation complex.
“We’re putting that basic idea out there and we’re going to see what the interest is,” John Marini, the city’s corporation counsel, told The Valley Indy last week.
To that end, city government issued a “request for proposals” looking for recreation-related concepts from private developers.
The proposals were due Sept. 3, but the deadline was extended to today (Monday, Sept. 9).
Click here to read precisely what the city asked for (but note the date has been changed.
Background
The 165-unit, federally-subsidized Riverside Apartments opened in 1963. By the mid-2000s the buildings were in terrible shape. The apartments were demolished in phases, along with a community center, in 2009 and 2014.
The apartments and land were the property of the Ansonia Housing Authority, an agency under the control of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Initially HUD said the Riverside Apartments had to be rebuilt. A park or open space was out of the question, federal officials said.
In 2012, HUD and the city agreed on 100 new units at Olson Drive, 48 units of which were to be federally subsidized.
But the 8.4‑acre parcel is now a grass field surrounded by a chain-link fence. It has sat vacant since the buildings were demolished.
The property is next to the Naugatuck River, across the river from West Main Street.
Marini said the Ansonia Housing Authority has spent about six years working with HUD regarding the property.
According to Marini, the Ansonia Housing Authority is now obligated to provide about 32 subsidized units to meet HUD’s requirements.
However, those replacement units are within properties spread throughout Ansonia — in “scattered sites,” to use federal housing jargon.
Now What?
That puts Olson Drive back into play for something other than high-density housing.
“Now that housing isn’t returning to Olson Drive, the question now is: ‘What will the future bring?’ Marini said. “So this (request for proposals) is an exploration of, ‘Will a recreation complex work? If so what will it look like? Can this recreation complex serve in a certain way residents of the housing authority as well?”
There’s a need for more recreation space in Ansonia, Marini and Sheila O’Malley, the city’s economic development director, said.
“There has been a lot of discussion from our various sports organizations about fields, or the lack of space,” O’Malley said.
“We think a recreation use would bring traffic and families into the downtown area, while at the same time meeting a very real need, and that need being — we need additional space for recreation,” Marini said.
But the city doesn’t want to spend tons of money on a recreation complex.
Ideally, city officials are hoping a private entity will come forward and be willing to make an investment, develop the property and negotiate with the city on some type of agreement for its use.
“That’s the reason for the private-public approach. We don’t want to get into a situation where we are building a new recreation complex, and then having to maintain it, and then having to staff it,” Marini said. “Can we work with a private company to do this better for the taxpayers?”
The city at one point had been contemplating a police station on one side of the property, but said flood-plain issues made it impossible. Presumably that adds another challenge for private investors.
HUD HUD HUD
But HUD is really the key player in Olson Drive’s future.
Right now there is a deed restriction that forbids anything from being built there other than housing.
O’Malley said the Ansonia Housing Authority has an application to HUD to change the use of the property. The city can help that effort by showing HUD there is a long-term, viable plan in place for Olson Drive, O’Malley said.
“It’s a little delicate because it not only involves negotiations between the city and the local housing authority, but also HUD,” Marini said. “We’ve spoken directly to HUD, and they have indicated the exact application process we need to follow.”
If a proposal or proposals arrive at Ansonia City Hall today, and they look good on paper, city staff will review them, talk to the company or companies, and bring the proposals to the Board of Aldermen.
Any project would have to involve the Ansonia Planning and Zoning Commission for approval.
But first — the city needs to see if there is interest from the private sector.
The proposals are due by 3 p.m.
