Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has released a $3 million state grant to help clean up a former industrial site in the town of Fairfield.
It would allow a private developer to build a transit-oriented, mixed-use property that would include 240 housing units.
The cleanup of the long vacant 4.9-acre former Bullard Machine Tool Company site next to Metro-North’s Fairfield Metro station, is part of his push for more housing in Connecticut.
“Over the last four years or so we’ve put maybe $90 million into brownfields. We’ve reclaimed about a thousand acres across the state. And I think it created about $2 billion in investment opportunities, a lot of that related to housing and retail,” Lamont said. “And that’s how we are bringing our towns like Fairfield alive. Making it a place where the whole community can afford to stay where they want to be."
The cleanup will bring an unproductive site back onto local tax rolls, said Fairfield First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick.
“$1.5 million in additional property taxes for the town of Fairfield. Which means a lot," Kupchick said. "It helps us pay for a whole host of things that our taxpayers don’t have to be burdened with.”
When completed, 20% of the 240 housing units would be affordable and 80% would be area median income, the private developer said.
