The Newtown Board of Selectmen formally designated the High Meadows at Fairfield Hills as Open Space a couple of years ago. First Selectman Pat Llodra says that action was prompted by the U.S. Army decision to build a reserve training center at the High Meadows. The facility was eventually built in Danbury on the Lee Farm property.
Llodra said they moved to preserve and protect that parcel of land for passive recreation before the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission looked at it as a possible location for a memorial honoring the lives of the 20 children and six educators killed on 12/14.
Whatever design is proposed, it will have to go before the Selectmen as a specific item to be voted on.
The Conservation Commission signed off, in principle, last month on the location being used as the site of a memorial. They want to make sure however, that appropriate sensitivity to the ecological value of the land be taken into consideration during design and development of a memorial.
The selection of the High Meadows has prompted some concern from residents who say that approval should not have been given yet because a design has not been chosen. Resident Ann Astarita was quoted in the Newtown Bee as saying that there's a state statute requiring municipalities to provide comparable replacement land if designated open space is developed.
