WINDSOR — A study committee established to assess the best future use for the former prison property in Windsor says the state of Vermont should consider demolishing some derelict buildings there and determine once and for all if it wants to keep or get rid of the 108-acre site.
The property off County Road has gone largely unused since the former Southeast State Correctional Facility closed in 2017 and the state has been spending about $250,000 a year to maintain the site. The location is served by water, town sewer and broadband, which make it potentially attractive for future development.
“A strategic plan needs to be developed for the site that includes the costs and benefits of state or private ownership of the site. A plan that would include a large state corrections or social services facility at the site would not be supported by the Town of Windsor,” the 8-page report, which was released to the Legislature on Dec. 15, says.
The ongoing cost to mothball the site, which has been used only sporadically for SWAT team training and storage by two state agencies, “is not fiscally sustainable,” the report says.
The report also makes clear that while private developers have looked at the site, the continued presence of razor wire around the perimeter of the property decreases its marketability. Moreover, cumbersome state regulations preclude any competitive bid process for future use unless the Legislature has granted permission to sell the property.
“There isn’t a clear state or commercial use,” Windsor Town Manager Tom Marsh, who served on the seven-member study committee, said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “It’s a cumbersome process to change ownership and it’s costing a lot to do nothing, so change it.”
He also said razing obsolete buildings at the site would also be an improvement.
The chairman of the study committee, Tom Kennedy, the longtime executive director of the Mount Ascutney Regional Commission, said clearing the site would help and he favors undertaking a master plan and seeing if there could be a mix of private-sector housing, commercial use and some public facilities.
“Wearing my planner’s hat, I would turn this into a mixed-use site,” Kennedy said. “You could put facilities in there that would take advantage of the sewer and water.”
He noted that some area hospitals — notably the Dartmouth-Hitchcock system, which includes the nearby Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center — have been interested in creating more workforce housing.
Marsh said “it’s very clear the town does not want corrections” or a big social services facility at the site. While a mixed-use concept seems “most practical,” he noted that traffic to the property, which would require that cars travel through downtown and past Windsor’s schools, might also be a concern.
Windsor first hosted a prison starting in 1809 on State Street. That facility closed in 1975 and is now senior housing. The prison farm off County Road comprised about 900 acres, and more than 800 acres was converted to the Windsor Grasslands Wildlife Management Area.
The Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services oversees the remaining 108-acre prison site, and while the Scott administration early this year proposed selling the property, lawmakers were wary and created the study committee.
State Rep. Alice Emmons, the Springfield Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions, said she and fellow committee members will be looking at the report more in-depth next month once the Legislature is back in session.
“We know there are investments that need to be made there … before we move forward,” Emmons said. While well-aware of Windsor’s opposition to siting another corrections or social-services facility there, Emmons said lawmakers are trying to “balance” such concerns along with the difficulty of assembling such a parcel under state control.
“If the state owns property, they don’t give it up without really vetting all the options,” Emmons said.
Kennedy, the regional planner, said he is hopeful progress can be made in redeveloping the property.
“I think we can work this out,” he said.
John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com or 603-727-3217.