Review Of Ansonia Sports Complex Could Start Monday

A screen shot of a PDF showing a site plan for the project.

ANSONIA – The city’s planning and zoning commission is scheduled to start reviewing plans for a recreation complex on Olson Drive starting Monday, according to a meeting agenda posted to the City of Ansonia’s website.

Monday’s meeting starts at 7 p.m. and will be held online, using the Zoom video conferencing platform. The public can watch the meeting by using the Zoom login info posted on the meeting’s agenda, which is available as a PDF here.

The Zoom info needed to watch the meeting is also posted under the meeting’ section of the city’s home page. Click here to check it out.


BACKGROUND

In July, immediately after a public hearing, the Ansonia Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to sell about 8 acres on Olson Drive to John Guedes’ Primrose Companies for $510,000.

Guedes intends to build a sports complex on the land, which straddles both sides of High Street. The complex will include a 39,000-square foot indoor soccer facility and an outdoor soccer field, along with a NCAA-regulation size indoor skating rink.

CORRECTION: Guedes contacted The Valley Indy Aug. 29 that there is no rink.

The first building, 38,000 square feet, has been leased to Ole Soccer training. The second building, 49,000 square feet, has been leased, half to a basketball training company, and the second (half of the second building) to a firm that trains lacrosse and football players,” he said in an email.

While Guedes and his company own the land, they will not be operating the businesses that open there. Space will be leased to the businesses, including Olé Soccer, a soccer program and business that is launching its own team.

Mayor David Cassetti has been a proponent for Guedes’ project since 2019, when the Olson Drive property was still owned by the Ansonia Housing Authority (the site was previously home to the Riverside Apartments, a federally-subsidized housing apartment complex).

The Cassetti administration labored through a lengthy bureaucratic process with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to clear a path that allowed the Ansonia Housing Authority to sell the land to the city while Guedes and his project waited in the wings, after responding to a request for proposals from the city.

The administration has pitched the project as an important economic development initiative because the Olson Drive land is next to downtown and hasn’t been generating tax revenue since 1962.

The sale of the Olson Drive property to Guedes included a tax break to make the project doable.

The tax deal freezes the property’s current assessment of $2 million for three years, meaning the city will not collect more than about $75,000 in taxes per year for the first three years.

After three years, the assessment will increase 5 percent a year for 14 years.

The sale also included language saying Ansonia residents get a 10 percent discount at any programs offered at the new sports complex.

PARKING, NEW AND PROPOSED

None of the public discussions on the Olson Drive redevelopment project have involved parking for the new facility.

Parking (including how many spaces are required), building layout, traffic impact, how vehicles will get in and out of the new complex all fall under the purview of the Ansonia Planning and Zoning Commission, so those discussions should start shortly.

However, in advance of Monday’s site plan review, Guedes and the Cassetti administration partnered to add 137 diagonal parking spaces to Olson Drive.

Officials said the city picked a private contractor – Wheeler Farms Trucking of Milford – to lay down the lines, and Guedes paid the contractor $1,000 for the work.

The new parking spaces on Olson Drive. The new recreation complex is proposed to be built where the fence is on the left (Falbo-Sosnovich photo).

The appearance of the parking spaces surprised Ansonia residents, at least as demonstrated by the more than 150 comments under a Aug. 21 post about the new parking spaces in the Facebook group Ansonia CT Community Updates and Forum.”

There are some surprises at Olson Drive. Be careful,” former Alderman Bill Phipps posted, along with two photos showing the new spaces.

The Valley Indy asked Guedes and the Cassetti administration whether the new spots were created so that the recreation complex could meet parking requirements required by the Ansonia Planning and Zoning Commission.

Guedes said it is up to the commission to determine how many spots the project requires. However, Guedes pointed out his site plan does not include the new on-street parking spots. Guedes said his site plan shows roughly 250 spaces within his property.

The Cassetti administration says the new parking spaces were created to anchor the redevelopment of Olson Drive, of which the new recreation complex will be the catalyst.

The developer can build the complex without that parking (on Olson), but we are supporting our businesses, and responsible cities increase parking when there is increased demand for parking,” said Sheila O’Malley, the city’s economic development director. We did the same with the apartments on East Main and Main to accommodate the proposed increase in residents. Promoting parking is a no-brainer. It shows commitment by the developer to make it work one way or another.”

Guedes said the new parking spots do not belong to the recreation complex – they’re public spots on a public street.

The parking spots are a sign of progress, O’Malley said.

We want investment in the community. We will be looking at expanding parking in other areas. It’s what a city does when they want to grow and improve.”

The Ansonia Democratic Committee has been critical of the process by which the land on Olson Drive transitioned from public land to private development.

Matt McGowan, a city resident, has a civil lawsuit pending in civil court alleging the process by which the city sold the land violated the Ansonia City Charter and state law, accusations the administration denies and has characterized as politically motivated.

That lawsuit has a remote hearing scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday, Aug. 29. The public should be able to view the hearing at this link, assuming the court goes into public session.

John Feddern, the chairman of the Ansonia Democratic Town Committee, questioned whether the city allowing the developer to paint parking spaces on a public street before the Ansonia Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed the project was putting the cart before the horse.”

He said the addition of on-street parking spaces wasn’t talked about at the public hearing in July, when the Cassetti administration went over the terms of the land sale with the public.

I imagine it’s because they knew residents would object,” Feddern said.

Feddern questioned whether the new lined parking spaces make traveling on Olson Drive less safe for motorists.

Car accidents will occur, congestion will occur, the quality of life of residents will be impacted, and property values around this facility may go down. But once again, the current mayor and his yes men and women’ do whatever they want,” Feddern said.

Feddern asked whether anyone had conducted a safety study before adding the spaces. He called the sudden appearance of the parking spaces an example of the Cassetti’s administration’s misguided, chaotic bravado.”

O’Malley said Olson Drive is more than wide enough to handle the new parking stripes.

Guedes said the idea for new parking spaces on Olson Drive surfaced after the public hearing in July. It was not a condition of the sale. He said he didn’t ask the city to create the spaces, but offered to pay because adding spaces was a good idea.

Cassetti said the parking spaces were his idea.

He said the recreation complex will be transformative for the city. The spaces will be used as Olson Drive continues to develop, which will bring more people, and cars, and as the city’s riverwalk expands.

I’m the one that ordered it because I am preparing everyone who drives by for what’s about to come on that property, and get them used to it,” Cassetti told The Valley Indy on Friday. I did not do it as a favor to Guedes. I barely know him. I just know he’s a very good developer and this is going to transform our entire city. My opponents are trying to cause problems on all fronts of this administration for its advancement. My 97-year old mother says it’s jealousy of your success and your way with people.’ ”

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