Town Meeting April 24, 2021 Meadowood Ascqitistion

Town Meeting Acquisition of Meadowood Property April 24, 2021

I am opposed to the appropriation of $2,515,850 for the purchase and improvement of Meadowood’s 288 acres.

The Taxpayers are asked to support a $2.6 million project for land that has been vacant for years and produces $200,000 a year in revenue. The Plan of Development does not support this and the Board of Finance voted not to forward the Meadowood acquisition to vote.

This additional infrastructure costs and overhead expenses have not been presented. The development of 296 homes on the land that reflects 88 deed restrictive homes for affordable housing would be eliminated.

Using extraneous historical events and environmental issues as a ploy to appeal to the taxpayers to promote the Open Space narrative is unacceptable.

The Meadowood land, when built, is an economic driver adding hundreds of people to support the business community.

There is a vacant field of 45 acres on the Barndoor Hills Triangle that was acquired from the Meadowood negotiations that can be used for recreation.

With all the Town demands, the Meadowood property should not be a priority.

The land has been vacant over many years with no interest in the development of the property.

Why should the town take a taxed property off the roles and increase the debt for the taxpayers when many of the taxpayers both residents and businesses, have been financially strapped as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic?

The $2.2 million dollars in cost to the taxpayers will have additional costs year after year.

Why should the Town share the costs with the Land Trust?

If the Land Trust considers this property viable for their acquisition, they should raise the full amount for the sale.

On Wednesday April 21,2021 The Hartford Courant had a Headline, Town Attorney orders redo of Bloomfield budget vote.

“According to Needham’s ruling the contingency fund cannot include earmarked items, based on case law.”

Does this ruling affect the Meadowood acquisition?

As the Town adds more infrastructure to the Meadowood land, the overhead costs that are not mentioned will add additional costs year after year and remove other Capital expenditures in the future.

This will require more employees and machinery to maintain the land and trails, another overhead cost that has not been discussed.

The Board of Finance was correct when they denied forwarding the Meadowood acquisition to a Referendum vote on the merits and scope of the acquisition when other projects have priority when reviewing the totality of the expenditures and revenues of the budgets.

The Meadow Acquisition should get a resounding NO vote on the May 4 budget vote.