During the month of October residents will be invited to get answers to their questions about the proposal to develop a portion of the former Country Club of Woodbridge.
I have asked Insite Design and their new partner, Wernert Construction, to visit all the Town’s major boards and commissions during October and early November to do a Q & A presentation and give our board and commission members and the public several opportunities to ask their questions.
They will be at the Police Commission and Economic Development Commission meetings on Oct. 10, Board of Finance and Conservation Commission on Oct. 17, Fire Commission and Commission on Use of Publicly Owned Property on Oct. 21, Recreation on Oct. 28, and Human Services on Nov. 4.
I strongly encourage residents to try to attend one or more of these meetings to become better informed about this proposal. Please see the online Town calendar or the online agenda center for details and any schedule changes.
I believe strongly that this is an important and worthy project for the Town. Every year it costs the town almost half a million dollars to repay the money we borrowed to buy the former Country Club property.
In these tight financial times that’s money that could be used elsewhere. In the past, both the golf course and the swimming pool lost money. It’s time to move on. We can sell a portion for development for 55+ housing, use that money to pay off the debt, saving $500k every year, keeping almost 100 acres as open space for everyone to enjoy and generate $1.5M in additional property taxes upon full completion of the project.
That’s real money that could be used to reduce our mill rate and bring relief to taxpayers.
The proposal is for the Town to sell approximately 60 of the 155 acres for $5.4 million for construction by Insite/Wernert of no more than 120 units of free-standing active adult (55+) housing. Additionally, Insite/Wernert will remove the old clubhouse, renovate the Town pool, build a new pool house for Town use and renovate the cart paths for walking trails. The Town will retain approximately 95+/- acres for Town use.
I will ask the Board of Selectmen to schedule a Special Town Meeting for late October or early November and I anticipate a Referendum will be scheduled shortly thereafter.
As I have stated many times, I believe this important matter should be decided by the townspeople at a referendum so everyone will have the opportunity to vote. Let’s let the voters decide!
