Berlin is in the process of making decisions on what to do with the Heron Park property, where the former Tyson’s Chicken plant is located. Parts of the property will stay a park.

By Cindy Hoffman, Staff Writer

Council must decide how to use demo grant money by August, mayor warns

(July 20, 2023) As promised, Berlin officials continued to provide opportunities for residents to share their opinions about the potential development of Heron Park during last Tuesday’s Parks Commission meeting and last Wednesday’s Planning Commission session.

Most people who spoke seemed to support the idea of a garden center and small entertainment venue on the property, as well as Rails and Trails to connect the property to the downtown area.

Much of the discussion revolved around protecting the natural assets on the property, the demolition of existing structures and whether the offer from Coastal Ventures was enough to address the $2.3 million the town owes on the property in bought in 2016.

There was also extensive discussion of a skate park on the property.

“The biggest question in this room is: ‘Where is the skate park going to be?’ That property could be the ideal place for a skate park,” Parks Commission member Laura Stearns said.

Resident Ed Hammond agreed that Heron Park is the most logical place for a skate park to go because it would create the least environmental issues.

Parks Commission member Sarah Hooper thought skaters could use the rails and trails pathway to get to the skate park, getting them off the street.

Resident Marie Velong, however, disagreed and advocated selling the entire parcel.

“It is a dangerous place for children. You have bars on both sides, an auto place with a bunch of junk. You put kids back there with no way to monitor them,” Velong said.

But Palmer Gillis of Coastal Ventures Development, the would-be purchaser of roughly 20 acres of the 63-acre tract, encouraged the idea of a skate park on Heron Park. He said the skate park would take up less than one half of an acre.

“Families can go to the garden center and send their kids to the skate park,” Gillis said.

Commission members and residents also raised concerns about the costs and process for demolition of the buildings left standing on the property when previous owner Tyson departed after ceasing its poultry processing operations there. The town has received a $500,000 demolition grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for demolition on the property.

Mayor Zack Tyndall said during the Monday working meeting that a decision on the use of the grant will need to be made by the end of August.

While Sterns said the proposal by Gillis was a lovely design, she expressed concern about losing open space.

“There will be a lot of expenses in regard to tearing it down and building what we need. Will it be worth giving up that open space we can never get back?”

“Demolish what you can of the building. If that is not enough, do the rest when you get the money,” Velong said.

Gillis reminded attendees that if he purchased the property, he would use the $500,000 grant for a partial demo and pay for any additional demolition costs himself. He also suggested that he would keep the water tower on the site and incorporate it into part of the stage for a small entertainment venue. He saw it as an artistic method for reusing the structure.

While there has been much debate on what type of development should be on the property, and questions on whether Gillis could flip the property or go in another direction once he owned it, he reminded residents that the RFP provided guidance on what the town wanted.

“We are bound by the boundaries of the RFP,” Gillis said. “Our plan is the town’s plan. We copied and pasted what the town plans were.”

He said the town has been discussing this project for seven years. He promised that in three to five years, “we will all stand on the corner and say this is the best thing that ever happened in Berlin.”

“This issue has been moving around in circles for a lot of time. There is a general feeling of frustration in town,” Hammond said. “We need a process for citizen engagement. There is no doubt of the earnest desires and efforts of members of the [Heron Park] subcommittee. But they do not have the skill set to negotiate on this proposal. We can do a lot better than what is in this proposal, economically and by incorporating public uses.”

He suggested recruiting skilled people in the town who would be willing to volunteer their time to have a more favorable outcome.

“What we can’t do is give up because everyone has been frustrated by the process.”

 The possibility of a referendum was also discussed during the parks meeting.

“My recommendation is not to go in that direction,” said Town Administrator Mary Bohlen.

She said that a referendum question would have to be very carefully thought out.

“The question itself has to be carefully worded so people can understand it so it gets you the answers you are looking for.”

She added that there could not be a laundry list of options for development on the property.