Southbury seeks state approval to broaden development options for 45-acre Training School tract; town wants flexibility beyond senior-only housing restriction from 2013 act

May 4, 2025 (News-Times) –

May 4—SOUTHBURY — Local leaders are asking the state legislature for freedom to decide how to develop housing on 45 acres on the Southbury Training School property that was conveyed to the town for senior-only housing purposes 12 years ago.

The original 2013 conveyance act restricted Southbury to leasing the tract to a nonprofit organization for developing senior housing, but plans for an affordable elderly housing community called Pierce Hollow Village stalled, and the restriction is limiting future development options there.

The legislature's Government Oversight Committee is scheduled to hear testimony Monday on legislation proposing to amend the 2013 act to allow the town more flexibility in determining the type of housing to be developed on the 45 acres that was set aside on the southern side of the Southbury Training School campus off South Britain Road .

The proposed legislative changes would remove the requirements that Southbury convey the land to a nonprofit organization for developing senior housing.

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"Nothing can be done there because it is stuck. This has to be changed before we can consider any other kind of housing," said Southbury First Selectman Jeffrey Manville .

He said he plans to travel to the state Capitol to testify for the legislation before the Government Oversight Committee .

The revised language proposed in House Bill 7281 would permit the town to sell, lease, sublease or transfer the 45-acre plot to a third party for housing purposes, including affordable or high-end housing. But the town would still have turn over the proceeds from a sale or lease to the state government.

The Board of Selectmen voted 5-1 on Jan. 2 to ask the legislature to rewrite the 2013 act to make those revisions. State Rep. Jason Buchbaum , R- Southbury , and state Sen. Eric C. Berthel , R- Watertown , introduced a bill to make the requested changes on Jan. 22 . The Government Oversight Committee voted Tuesday to draft the proposal as a committee bill and the hearing was scheduled two days later.

The nonprofit Pierce Hollow Village Inc. had proposed to build an affordable housing complex of 180 one-bed room apartments for seniors on the 45 acres that was known as " Personnel Village " because cottages for housing for Southbury Training School workers were located there.

But a lack of state and federal funding for subsidized senior housing derailed that plan. The Pierce Hollow Village board in 2023 recommended modifying the plan to allow the development of affordable housing for families of all ages. The Southbury Planning Commission voted in early 2024 to recommend the Board of Selectmen support revising the 2013 law to allow multigenerational affordable housing.

The Board of Selectmen's vote in January to propose more open-ended language reflected the continuing division of opinion in Southbury on how the 45 acres should be developed for housing.

Selectman Tim O'Neil cast the lone dissenting vote Jan. 2 because he supported the Pierce Hollow board's recommendation to substitute multigenerational affordable housing for senior-only housing. Selectman Justin Bette , a fellow Democrat, raised concerns about opening up the 45 acres to potential for-profit development, but he voted for the resolution with the Republican majority.

Manville said the current statutory restrictions requiring the land be leased or subleased to a nonprofit organization for senior housing purposes will continue to stifle development opportunities unless they are changed.

"We may have had other opportunities that would have presented themselves had it not been so restricted," he said.

As currently drafted, the legislation would permit the construction of any type of housing on the parcel by not-for-profit or for-profit developers. But legislators could amend the legislation to limit the type of housing that could be built there and the category of developer permitted to build there. Any bill that might be approved would require the signature of Gov. Ned Lamont to take effect.

State voters in 2018 voted 84.5% to 14.5% to amend the state Constitution to require public hearings and a two-thirds majority vote for the General Assembly to enact legislation transferring state property.

The amendment was approved seven years after a controversial land swap where the the state agreed to trade 87 acres of woodland for 17 acres of prime riverfront land in Haddam to developers who were proposing to spend $60 million to build a hotel, stores and a train station there. The approval was rescinded by a legislative act in 2013.

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