Groton Open Space Association

GOSA Presents Case Against Four Winds Development

GROTON–The Groton Open Space Association said the proposed Four Winds at Mystic Residential Life Care Community is a zoning misfit with potentially serious impacts on the rare, valuable and delicate ecosystem where developers want to build it.

Joan Smith, a member of the GOSA board of directors, told the Inland Wetlands Agency at a hearing May 14, 2003, that Four Winds “does not meet the requirements for a Residential Life Care Community.” Groton zoning regulations allow such communities to be located in zones designated for single-family residences even though they entail greater densities. The property where Four Winds would be located is zoned for half-acre housing.

Ms. Smith said Four Winds falls short of Residential Life Care Community criteria calling for affordability, health care facilities and options to allow–in the words of the zoning regulations–”primarily older citizens to remain in their own neighborhoods through all stages of aging.” Ms. Smith holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing and has 25 years’ experience in the field.

The GOSA director also said:

–Most buildings in the proposed development would be built within 50 to 100 feet of wetland edges.

–The plan fails to take account of the presence on the property of an Atlantic White Cedar Swamp, one of Connecticut’s 13 imperiled ecosystems.

–The development would disturb and endanger such amphibian species as marbled and spotted salamanders and wood frogs. She cited an expert finding by Richard Snarski in 2000 that a sampled vernal pool on the property “is a unique and important wetland resource and warrants special protection.”

She said Four Winds is likely to “significantly reduce the productivity and wildlife support function of a unique wetland resource, perhaps the most productive group of vernal pools in the state of Connecticut. The applicant has not provided a full range of less intrusive plans. The best alternative is no development and protection as open space,” as urged by Groton’s Conservation Commission.