Eno Farms: Interpretations of the Eno Deed

When the town of Simsbury first sought to develop affordable housing on land gifted to the town by Amos Eno, the goal was to follow the intent of the deed.  Complicated financing arrangements led to loose interpretations of the deed and would eventually create hardships for the low-income residents it was designed to serve.

A 1997 letter sent by former Assistant Attorney General Janet Spaulding-Ruddell to the town criticized town officials for approving an amended ground lease that essentially gave control of the project to the Corporation for Independent Living, a move that was not in line with the Eno deed.

“The losses of direct oversight and control are not only problems in light of the fiduciary nature of the town’s role but also because they violate the deed restrictions prohibiting the town from contracting out the care of the poor to others,” Spaulding-Ruddell wrote.

The ground lease was amended by the town on December 19, 1991 to define the income limits as “very low and lower income” as opposed to “low and moderate income,” as the lease originally read.

This amendment was not enough, according to Spaulding-Ruddell, to ensure that low-income residents would be properly protected.

Broad Interpretations

After CIL was selected to oversee the project, the company began to add several layers of organization to manage all aspects of the management and development of the project. The development of the project was delegated to CIL Development, Inc., and the financing for the project was delegated to the Eno Farms Limited Partnership. The management of the project was then delegated to CIL Property Management.

After one year of managing the property, CIL Property Management assigned its contract to another company, Barkan Management, Inc.

“None of these subsidiaries or assignees reports to or is subject to the town in executing the details of its work,” Spaulding-Ruddell wrote.

Once the development was completed in 1993, CIL decided to take the affordable housing development into a unique direction.

“At a point in time there was a goal to try to set up a cooperative,” Simsbury Administrative Director Tom Cooke said. “That did not work out. I understand that there was a fair amount of litigation surrounding all of that.”

On December 28, 1993 CIL created the Eno Farms Limited Equity Cooperative Association intended to create a co-op that included all residents of the development.

The co-op then took over management of the development and governed the affairs of the tenants. This action further removed the town from any oversight into the development.

Spaulding-Ruddell wrote that the use of a co-op in this case was a misleading use of the structure and its true meaning was not made clear to tenants.

“What does become clear is that the legal documents create a kind of hybrid community which does not fit any of the definitions under the common interest ownership act,” the letter said.

CIL used the co-op structure to attract initial tenants by advertising an “equity ownership interest” in the unit they would occupy. Tenants were also asked to sign a “Sweat Equity Agreement” which required them to perform unspecified work on the units in order to build equity.

“Taken as a whole the representations about home ownership, the building of equity in an Eno Farms unit and the terms of the sweat equity agreement are deceptive,” Spaulding-Ruddell wrote.

Much of the language used in the lease information provided to residents used language that is ordinarily reserved for condominiums and true cooperative housing developments.

“That whole condominium law piece was superimposed on these rentals and they made people believe that they had something,” former attorney Huguet Pameijer said.

None of the tenants would ever see any return on the equity they were supposedly building in the rental units.

Pameijer would later represent several Eno Farms tenants in lawsuits against CIL that were eventually settled outside of court.

A Clean Slate

Today a subcommittee that includes Selectmen Lisa Heavner and Sean Askham will meet with residents to discuss the issues facing the Eno Farms development in hopes of reaching a resolution.

“It’s very difficult to talk about what is wrong here because so many things are wrong,” Pameijer said.

Pameijer feels that the town has an opportunity to correct the situation by adhering to the Eno deed and fully supporting low-income residents.

Cooke said the town feels that Eno Farms has more successfully realized the intent of the deed since CIL has left the picture.

“Under CHFA things have been more successfully managed,” Cooke said. “There are really almost no changes moving forward.”

Cooke said the town hopes to clear up any miscommunication about amending the ground lease during the subcommittee meeting on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.

Cooke said there is no deadline for proposed amendments to the lease, but the town needs to have any changes made prior to the sale of the development.

“Right now the best thing we can do is to make sure we know what our residents’ concerns are and make sure we address those,” Cooke said.