13 acres of city owned land off Old Ridgebury Road in Danbury has been approved for sale to Peter Buck. An all cash, $32 million proposal was considered by the City Council on Wednesday. Currently, the land is being used by youth soccer players. Officials say the small building for warehouse storage of cars would be a low intensive use for the property. Buck has proposed building an 18,000 to 20,000 square foot building, not visible from the street, with incidental parking. It would not be open to the public.
Most of the revenue from the sale would be put into the General Fund. $750,000 would be set aside for recreational uses.
Councilman Ben Chianese asked if there would still be recreational opportunities on the land. The plan calls for leaving open space free of development, but privacy is desired. Buck's representative told the Council at an earlier meeting that the family would not want hikers and others walking through the property.
Councilman Paul Rotello says he would have liked to see Danbury hold on to the property for recreational use or in case future municipal use is needed. He was one of three Councilmen to oppose the sale. Councilmen Duane Perkins and Irv Fox also voted in the negative.
Mayor Mark Boughton says this is an opportunity to put a piece of property back on the tax rolls, help grow the grand list and mitigate any need for property tax increases. He noted that other offers were heavy on contingencies and heavy on development.
There were no contingencies placed on the sale. Boughton says the proposed use is less intensive so it doesn't require state approvals, just local approvals.
The land was a donation from the WCI Group, who went into bankruptcy and their assets sold to Toll Brothers. There have been several proposals in the past. A proposal to build a minor league baseball park on the land went to referendum, but was rejected. In 2012 there were two tries to have a mixed-use development built on the site. The most recent was a proposal from the nearby Matrix Corporate Center. They provided an approximately $35,000 non-refundable deposit, but decided to opt out of the sale.
