Contributed by the City of Ansonia
A conceptual drawing showing a sports complex on Olson Drive in Ansonia.
ANSONIA — The Ansonia Housing Authority has agreed to transfer the Olson Drive property to city government for $510,000 the Mayor David Cassetti administration announced in a press release Oct. 3.
But the biggest hurdle remains the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the agency that holds sway over the future of the land.
Meanwhile, The Primrose Companies, a Bridgeport-based developer, hopes to reach a deal with the Cassetti administration to acquire the 8 acres of land in order to build a 49,000 square-foot, “all sports” training building; a 39,000 square-foot indoor soccer facility, and; a FIFA regulation sized soccer field.
Cassetti’s administration hopes to reach a deal with The Primrose Companies to offset any city spending to take over the land.
“The City will ultimately cover the purchase price in connection with the redevelopment of the property,” Ansonia Economic Development Director Sheila O’Malley said in a prepared statement. “The goal is to avoid any cost to Ansonia’s taxpayers.”
“It should be stressed that the transfer of the property is ultimately contingent on approval by HUD,” John Marini, Ansonia’s corporation counsel, said in a prepared statement. “However, residents should know that the redevelopment of Olson Drive is now within reach.”
As it stands, HUD holds a deed restriction that prevents anything other than housing from being built on the site. The property was previously home to the 165-unit, federally-subsidized Riverside Apartments which opened in 1963. By the mid-2000s the buildings were in terrible shape. The apartments were demolished in phases, along with a community center, in 2009 and 2014.
As part of a deal to tear down the old apartment complex, the city and the housing authority agreed to build a certain number of subsidized units on the land to replace what was lost.
But the Cassetti administration says the replacement apartments are now being created within existing housing scattered throughout the city instead of exclusively on Olson Drive.
Now the city needs HUD to lift the deed restriction. To do so, they’re preparing an application to send to a division of the HUD bureaucracy in Chicago.
The city was still working on the application as of last week.
“The redevelopment of Olson Drive is critical to the revitalization of downtown Ansonia,” Mayor David Cassetti said. “With this approval, the City and Housing Authority can now move forward with a completed application for reuse of the property.”
The Valley Indy reached out to Cassetti’s mayoral challenger, Phil Tripp, Oct. 3 for comment but did not hear back.
However, at an Ansonia Board of Aldermen meeting last week, Leslie Navarrete, a Democrat running to represent the Third Ward, pointed out that many families in the city struggle to make ends meet. The majority of kids in the school district qualify for free or reduced meals at lunch.
Many families don’t dine in the new restaurants downtown because they can’t afford it, she said.
She urged the board to keep the demographics in mind when deciding Olson Drive’s future.
“I give you these statistics because the developer (The Primrose Companies) has asked for a 20-year tax break and have already made it clear that Ansonia residents will not be able to use that facility, that complex, for free,” Navarrete said. “I have no objections to a developer coming to our city and build . . . they need to profit, but what does that profit mean to Ansonia?”
She said the Aldermen should put Ansonia’s kids first.
“I’m sick and tired that we don’t put our children, our people first,” Navarrete said.
Her comments prompted a response at the meeting from Marini, the city’s lawyer. He said that although the deal is far from done, the city’s tax assessor has said a development such as the one being thought about could generate some $500,000 in new annual taxes. That money, should a deal come to fruition, could benefit the city in many ways.
“It’s very important we get that property on the tax rolls,” Marini said, because right now the property is “doing nothing” in terms of tax revenue.
O’Malley responded by saying “at no time during discussions with the proposed developer did he ever say that the residents or the children of the residents of the City of Ansonia will not be allowed to use it free of charge. He never said that.”
However, the developer did say that in a written response to a Valley Indy question published last month.
“Well, he’s never said that to us,” O’Malley said.
Marini said the city has not approved a deal. He said Navarrete’s concerns are valid and need to be taken into consideration.
“We want to negotiate something that works well for us, and again, this is kind of cart before horse because our priority here, right now, is making that Olson Drive is able, can be developed,” Marini said.
(Note: readers on social media point out the drawing doesn’t show much parking: It’s a conceptual drawing. If HUD lifts deed restriction, if Cassetti admin works out deal, if deal is approved by Aldermen, then site plan application goes to Ansonia P&Z where parking and related land-use issues are presented and reviewed.)
