Fairfield BOF for buying Villa Ave. property to control flooding

FAIRFIELD — The town is closer to purchasing a property it wants to use to help control flooding, after the Board of Finance approved a bid waiver Monday night.

The site is 3.8 acres and located on the northern side of the road, about 500 feet west of Brooklawn Avenue. The town has a purchase agreement for the property for $400,000, while the tax assessor appraised the property at $418,000 last year. There are no plans to develop the site, officials have said.

The purchase will be paid for using some of the $2.3 million the town received from the American Rescue Plan Act and designated for the Rooster River detention area, said Lori Charlton, the finance board chair.

Town officials have said 150 Villa Ave. is one of the potential sites consulting firm Milone and Macbroom identified for stormwater detention within the river’s watershed. They said minor drainage improvements on the site might help alleviate local flooding in the Algonquin Road neighborhood, as well as provide access to the Villa Avenue bridge culvert for any needed maintenance.

Last year, the town put together a flood mitigation strategy that included steps like this to improve infrastructure in the area, which has a history of flooding.

Bill Hurley, the town engineer, said the site is not a prime one for stormwater detention, but buying the site would allow for drainage improvements, improved water quality and will reduce local flooding conditions.

“It will give the area a little more of a free flow outlet,” he said. “Right now, there’s two pipes that come and they’re congested.”

Hurley said most of the property cannot be changed without impacting wetlands. He said the town has a concept plan for the parcel, but will not have the consultant build those plans out until the purchase is finalized. He also said the town has been in talks with the Aspetuck Land Trust, which desires to make very limited recreational changes there, like a walking trail.

“Everything else would be related to the stormwater or environmental,” he said.

Charlton said the Representative Town Meeting approved the contractual agreement between the town and property owner at its Sept. 19 meeting.

She noted the finance board would typically approve purchases like this, but because it already approved overall flood mitigation spending, consenting to the bid waiver would essentially function as the body signifying it supported the purchase.

Town Attorney Jim Baldwin said the ordinance requiring the board’s consent to waive bids is an old one. He said the property owner came to the town with the idea, and there is not a real possibility of there even being bids.

“That’s why it’s a conundrum of sorts, and why, in my opinion it should not even be applicable,” he said, later adding the town was airing on the side of caution.

Charlton said the town waives bids routinely and for various reasons, like when there is only one supplier of whatever it is buying. She said the purpose of this bid waiver is to make sure the price is fair and the “transaction is made at arm’s length.”

The next step is to close the sale and transfer the property, though the timeline is still being worked out, officials said.