
The City of Ansonia posted this image to Facebook in May to promote the idea of selling public land for a private sports complex on Olson Drive.
ANSONIA — A resident has filed a lawsuit alleging the city’s government did not follow its own rules regarding the potential sale of vacant land on Olson Drive to a private developer.
Specifically, the lawsuit alleges the city did not hold a public hearing before deciding to sell the property, a violation of the section of the Ansonia City Charter detailing the rules for selling city property.
In addition, the lawsuit alleges the city has no record of the city advertising whether officials were accepting bids for the Olson Drive property.
The lawsuit is embedded at the bottom of this story.
A Legal Notice From August 2019 by The Valley Indy on Scribd
The lawsuit was filed by Ansonia resident Matt McGowan, who is active with the city’s Democrat Party. He is being represented by Thomas G. Egan, a lawyer based in Ansonia. Neither answered emailed questions from The Valley Indy on Tuesday.
The lawsuit requests a court intervene to compel Ansonia to hold a public hearing on the Olson Drive property, and that Ansonia put the property out to bid.
The lawsuit also requests that the city pay for the costs to file the lawsuit.
The lawsuit is dated May 18. A court hearing has yet to be scheduled.
John Marini, Ansonia’s corporation counsel, said the lawsuit was a ​“clown-like political gimmick” by Ansonia Democrats trying to stop a multi-million investment in Ansonia.
Sheila O’Malley, the city’s economic development director, emailed The Valley Indy a legal notice on Tuesday showing the city published a legal notice in The New Haven Register in August 2019 asking for a request for proposals in connection to Olson Drive — different from a bid. The legal notice is embedded above. The Olson Drive notice is on the bottom left corner of the embedded document.
Marini said the city plans to file a countersuit to recoup any taxpayer money spent on defending the lawsuit because the lawsuit is frivolous.
Olson Drive was previously home to the Riverside Apartments, a federally-subsidized housing complex. It was owned by the Ansonia Housing Authority, an entity under the jurisdiction of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The city and the housing authority worked for years to raze the dilapidated complex. At one point replacement subsidized housing was supposed to go there, then, later, a police station. The land right now is unaccessible open space.
Mayor David Cassetti’s administration launched a plan to purchase the land from the Ansonia Housing Authority, which required HUD approval, so the administration could potentially sell the land to The Primrose Companies, a company that wants to build a private sports complex. Officials said it’s a private investment somewhere in the neighborhood of $13 million, potentially.
In February, the Aldermen voted to authorize the Cassetti administration to finalize a deal with The Primrose Companies, but negotiations are still underway.
In April, the Aldermen unanimously approved transferring $510,000 from the city’s fund balance in order for the city to acquire the property from the Ansonia Housing Authority.
The members of the Ansonia Board of Aldermen were scheduled to meet in executive session Tuesday to go over the final details of the sale with Marini. Executive sessions are closed to the public but are allowed when discussing a real estate deal.
Marini took exception with the lawsuit, saying that since the deal to sell the land to developer John Guedes and his companies is not done, the city still has time to hold a public hearing.
Marini also said the Ansonia City Charter’s section on selling land was not written to address the unique circumstances of Olson Drive: namely the fact before the city could do anything, it needed to convince HUD to release a deed restriction on the property and allow the Ansonia Housing Authority to sell the land.
HUD officials had been saying for years that nothing could go on its Olson Drive land other than federally-subsidized housing. The Cassetti administration wants to see the land generate tax revenue.
As part of that two-year process, Marini said HUD looked favorably at recreation as a favorable future use on the land.
Marini said the city put out a request for recreation proposals.
In order to get HUD to lift the deed restriction, Sheila O’Malley said the city showed HUD the city had interest from a developer willing to invest money in a recreation project.
Those factors, over the course of two years, helped to convince HUD to remove the deed restriction, Marini said, which set up the process for the city to acquire and then consider a sale to a private developer.
​“We solicited proposals, then moved to negotiate that proposal once the property was acquired,” Marini said.
The provision of the charter mentioned in the lawsuit ​“deals with going to bid in the traditional sense, as in the highest bidder will purchase,” Marini said. ​“Not a complex development agreement. Another reason why the argument in the lawsuit makes zero sense in this unique scenario.“
Guedes’ recreation venture would be a for-profit private business, not part of the city’s recreation offerings supported by local tax dollars.
Olson Drive Lawsuit by The Valley Indy on Scribd