Proposed Sale of Fairhaven’s Oxford School Advances to Final Hurdle

Dozens of Fairhaven residents expressed their concerns one final time before casting a vote in regards to the sale of the historic Oxford School building to a development company. 

Representatives of Stratford Capital Group answered questions about their proposal to purchase the land and develop it into affordable housing units for tenants aged 62 years and up.

A strong concern was that of the size of the proposed project. Stratford plans to develop 63 housing units within the original building and a new addition. A total of 109 parking spaces will also added, 75 of which will be for tenants and 34 will be for the public.

Residents believe this density of traffic in the area will cause more congestion along the roadways in the northern part of town.

Ted Silva said he's still undecided on how to vote, but admits the town is running out of options.

"My issue is we don't have many options and that's been the issue since we've started trying to get rid of Oxford School," Silva said.  "It's a big project for that particular square footage but it is an option that, if everything passes and they get all their permits, we can probably rely on will be there for the next hundred years."

Silva is a Town Meeting member and plans to visit a recently finished project by Stratford in Yarmouth before Thursday's Special Town Meeting.

The meeting will take place at 7 PM at Hastings Middle School.

The proposal was not voted on during May's Annual Town Meeting because, as Selectman Robert Espindola explained, residents wanted more time to study the information available.

"We held back from the May Town Meeting because we wanted to give them what they wanted before they would feel comfortable voting and now it will be decision time," Espindola said.

The town's website has dedicated a special section to all documents and information pertaining to the Oxford School proposal.