Groton Open Space Association

GOSA Urges Town Council To Protect Threatened Watrous Property

GROTON –The Groton Open Space Association urged the Town Council at its meeting Feb. 18, 2003, to protect the Watrous Property from a planned new development.

GOSA board member Joan Smith reminded the Council that the Groton Conservation Commission has put the property at the top of its list of tracts that ought to be saved as open space. In a letter dated Dec. 11, 2001, the chairman of the Commission, Brae Rafferty, cited the property for wildlife habitat, wetlands, trails and flood control function.

The letter recommended that the town “apply for state open space funds to purchase the property.”

Ms. Smith noted that the property is now threatened: on Feb. 12, an application was submitted to the town’s Inland Wetlands Agency proposing a 161-unit senior housing project, called Four Winds at Mystic, for the property. She said the development, which more than doubles the size of one that had been turned down by the Agency in the year 2000, would contaminate the property’s valuable wetlands and increase nitrogen loading of Eccleston Brook and, downstream, of Palmer Cove.

She said, “The Rhododendron and Mountain Laurel trails here rival the beauty of any trail in Pachaug State Forest. The outstanding vernal pools and White Cedar swamps are true gems: we are fortunate to have such a resource here in Groton, particularly in the highly developed corridor south of I-95.”

She said that preserving the land as open space on balance would save taxpayers money in services and would help attract the kind of high-quality economic development that the town wants.

Ms. Smith concluded, “It is in Groton’s best interest for the Town Council to act in a timely manner to protect this valuable resource for the enjoyment of generations to come.”