Simsbury vote to decide whether to preserve 288-acre Meadowood land, blocking affordable housing plan
Simsbury voters decide Tuesday whether to preserve a sprawling parcel of fields and former farmland in a move that would block the risk of a nearly 300-home subdivision.
About a third of those homes were designated to be affordable, but in Simsbury — one of central Connecticut’s pricier suburbs — there has been no public campaign to support the construction plan.
There has been little debate over the acquisition, and nearly all of it has centered on money. If the referendum passes, the town would put up $2.5 million toward the Trust for Public Land’s acquisition of the Meadowood land.
Advocates say preserving the land would keep out a 288-home subdivision, which was approved years ago but never built. It would create new pressure on the school budget by bringing in more students, do away with scenic vistas and preclude the chance for walking trails and passive recreation on the property, they said.
The town and the Trust for Public Land also intends to set aside 4 acres — including three barns facing Firetown Road — for historic preservation and an interpretive display about Martin Luther King Jr.’s summer working on a farm in the area.
A few residents have suggested taxpayers can’t afford the purchase, but so far they’ve been outnumbered by supporters. When residents wrote to the town before its budget hearing last month; Town Manager Maria Capriola reported that 54 supported the purchase, and three opposed it.
Only one, Dr. Michael Rinaldi, cited affordable housing as a reason, and suggested King would not have supported the purchase.
“How do you take out the last large developable land that is already zoned for affordable housing? What would Martin Luther King say, ‘Put a monument to me on it or put affordable housing on it?’,” Rinaldi wrote in a letter to selectmen.
“How do you make Simsbury affordable when it has the 8th highest ‘equalized’ tax rate in a state that has the 2nd highest taxation rate in the USA?,” he wrote.
But others say the affordable housing is a red herring.
“It is a false choice, based on incomplete information,” Susan Masino, vice president of the Simsbury Grange, said in an email to The Courant.
The 88 units in the approved Meadowood development plan were only proposed, not guaranteed, she said. And priced at $280,000 apiece, they would have been costlier than a third of the existing housing in town.
Resident Susan Van Kleef made the same argument to selectmen, noting that the acquisition would set aside 24 acres for the town to use as it wants.
“Maybe the town can build some actual affordable housing and not $280,000 deed-restricted homes that were only included to usurp the zoning commission and don’t really seem affordable to people who fall within the income restrictions to purchase affordable homes,” she wrote.
