Compromise Reached on Lee Farm Army Reserve Center

The U.S. Army Reserve will build a facility on former Lee Farm property in Danbury, but it will be half the size of the original proposal.

The compromise was reached between the Reserves, members of Danbury’s City Council, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal.

“This is a compromise that weights the needs of the Army with the goals of the community,” Murphy said. “It was not easy to pull everyone together on this.”

The original plan called for a truck storage and maintenance area that would have held roughly 500 military vehicles. That led to fears these trucks would fill local roads. Another part of the original plan called for construction in a meadow north of Wooster Heights Road.

Among those objecting was Paul Rotello, sixth ward city council member.

"...too large, too disruptive, too potentially dangerous and wholly inappropriate for what is now an undeveloped natural oasis in an otherwise urbanized downtown core," Rotello wrote to the U.S. Army Reserve on Sept. 10, 2010.

Rotello said he was pleased with the final outcome. (What he actually said was the Reserves moved the project out of the Sixth Ward into the Fifth.)

“Am I perfectly satisfied? Probably not. But the Army has reduced the scope of its original plan and has listened to our overall comments,” said Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton. “They have worked with us to reduce the overall impact on the neighborhood.”

The land is part of the original farmland owned by Danbury hat manufacturers. It was once hundreds of acres larger, but broken up and developed. Large fields and undeveloped areas remain, and they were under consideration for this U.S. Army Reserve facility.

“This compromise will leave the upper parcel of Lee Farm in pristine condition, reduce noise and traffic, while allowing the construction of a much needed new Army Reserve center in Danbury,” said City Council member Tom Saadi.

The negotiation process started more than a year ago, and although no one wanted to move the reserve out of town, no one wanted it built as originally designed.

“This is a great example of everyone working together to meet the needs of our soldiers through collaboration with the local residents and their elected officials,” said Joseph Calcara, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Housing, and Partnerships.