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11/14/2022 11:16 AMAt a public hearing on Nov. 9, the Clinton Town Council received feedback from the public concerning the future of the former Pierson School property. A request for proposal (RFP) seeking developer input for the property is expected to be sent out soon.
The Town has been working to find a new use for the vacant Abraham Pierson School property at 75 East Main Street for over three years. While there have been no decisions on the property’s future and there is still a way to go before one is ultimately made, the Town Council held a public hearing to gather the community’s thoughts on the future of the property.
Town Council chairman Chris Aniskovich told the 30 or so residents in attendance that the Council has had multiple discussions about the property over the last several months and will continue to have public hearings in the future. Aniskovich said that following the hearing on the Nov. 9, the town will send out an RFP asking developers to submit ideas on what could happen with the property. Town Manager Karl Kilduff said the RFP results will likely come in in 2023. A second public hearing will be held once the council receives the RFP results Aniskovich said.
The Public Hearing
Aniskovich started off the public hearing by informing the attendees that the consensus of the council was to explore using Pierson for senior or affordable housing. Aniskovich said that the RFP would be helpful to get a sense of what developers would be interested in building on the property. Aniskovich assured the crowd that the town could require that the façade of the building and gazebo be retained for town use as a condition of any future plans, a concern that more than one member of the public had expressed in the past.
The public was largely receptive to the idea of housing, though several speakers mentioned a desire to not limit any potential housing to senior housing.
“Senior housing is a need, but we also need to think of new younger households,” said Alan Kravitz.
Other speakers encouraged the council to think of any possible future needs and not just be looking at the short term. “I think we should be looking 20 years out at things that might be a need then,” said Bob Werner.
One suggestion that had been mentioned in the past but Aniskovich said would not happen is the idea of moving the library to the building. Not only does the library not want to move, but Aniskovich said that cost estimates for the move were prohibitively expensive.
Following the public hearing, Aniskovich told the Harbor News he felt the night went well.
“I think this was exactly what we wanted. We’ll continue to do these to keep the public involved and make sure that they continue to get accurate information directly from the source,” said Aniskovich.
The Pierson School, which sits right in the heart of town, has been empty for more than three years after having been used as a school for 80 years. In 2018, the town’s Board of Education voted to close the school at the end of the 2019 school year. A facility-needs study conducted by the school system found that closing the school was a prudent move in the face of declining enrollment and rising operational costs.
At an earlier workshop in the summer the council was informed that there are essentially three options for the building: selling the building, keeping the building, or a hybrid model where the town would lease some building space to potential tenants and retain some space for town use. While retaining a portion or all of the building could allow the town to address community needs, there is a catch. Should the town opt to retain control of the building as opposed to selling it there will be a substantial financial impact.
Per estimations given at the time, renovation of the property would cost between $11 million -$17 million. Those proposed renovations would greatly affect the town’s debt budget. Per Kilduff’s estimate, an $11 million renovation would increase the tax rate by 3.6 percent while the $17 million renovation would increase it by 5.6 percent.
“That is a direct hit to us as taxpayers,” Town Council member Chris Passante said during the public hearing in reference to the possibility of the town retaining the building.
Compounding the search for a new use for the property is the question of the deed of the building. When the Morgan Fund Trustees sold the property to the town in 1953, a deed on the property from the sale stated that the premises must always be used for the educational interests of the residents.
Since 2019, the town has been pursuing ongoing legal action, officially called a cy pres, which would lift the deed restriction. The town found out about the deed restriction after the board of education decided to close the school in 2018, but then-first selectman Christine Goupil estimated the cy pres action wouldn’t take longer than 18 months. Almost four years to the day since the decision to close the school was made, the cy pres action is still going on. In March of 2022, the Town Council unanimously agreed to a resolution that would pay the Morgan trust $75,670 to help remove the deed restriction.
The Connecticut Attorney General ’s Office needs to approve the payment, but Kilduff said that if the future use of the property is a public use the cy pres action may not be needed as that would satisfy the deed restriction. However, if the future use of the property is a private use (i.e., one that generates money) the cy pres action will be taken. Kilduff said earlier in 2022, since both the town and the trust are in agreement on the exchange it’s hopeful the state won’t object to the arrangement but there is no timetable for an end to the process at this time.