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Town Council: Still Time for Input on Old East Haven High School

Members of the Town Council, who will be the final decision-makers on what to do with the old high school building, are reminding everyone there is still time to hear and exchange ideas on the best future use of the property.

The Blue Ribbon Commission tasked with proposing a use for the long-underused building voted unanimously, after weeks of meetings and public hearings, to send the mayor a letter recommending that East Haven sell the building at 200 Tyler Street to a private developer.

The letter to Mayor Joseph Maturo, Jr., outlines several recommendations, number one of which is to sell it to a private developer and make the land again a “tax-generating property for the town.”

Maturo will use the letter to help make his recommendation to the Town Council on what to do with the building that has been mothballed for nearly two decades. The council is then expected to schedule its own public hearings on what to do with the old school site.

Town Council Chairman Fred Parlato, at the most recent council meeting, reported that there was at least one member of the council at every Blue Ribbon Commission meeting.

He said fewer than 50 people, in total, spoke at the two Blue Ribbon Commission public hearings on the future use of the building. Most members of the public who spoke opposed use of the building as senior housing.

Parlato joked, “Unfortunately nobody showed up with a check, so it’s going to be a very long process.”

Council members said the upcoming town budget takes precedence, time-wise, and work on the old high school project will take a back seat until the budget process is completed.

Among its other recommendations to the mayor, the Blue Ribbon Commission recommended that the town:

—incur no cost (or nominal costs) in the sale and redevelopment of the building (rehabilitation costs should be borne, as much as possible, by the developer;

— ensure that any development plan with a housing component, insofar as numbers and types dwellings, be consistent with the character of the neighborhood and the town’s overall plan of development; and

— limit the project to the 4.8 acre site and restrict the expansion of the project beyond the footprint of the existing building so as to protect neighboring residents.