Groton Open Space Association

U.S. Army Engineers Eye Four Winds, Mystic Weigh, Great Brook (With Update)

GROTON–The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is planning to study the Watrous property, where Massachusetts developer Ron Bonvie wants to build a 161-unit “Residential Life Care Community” called Four Winds on 105 acres, the Mystic River Press reported in its Sept. 25, 2003 edition.

Stephen DiLorenzo, a Concord, MA-based senior project manager for the Corps, said:

“I saw a report by [soil scientist] Rich Snarski and there’s supposed to be one of the best vernal pools he’s ever seen on the site.”

Two days after walking the Watrous property Sept. 29, Mr. DiLorenzo said the developers will be required to make a formal submittal to the Corps for a so-called 404 permit and will need to obtain an individual water quality certification from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. He said the new requirements follow discussions with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the DEP.

Mr. Bonvie has won approvals from the Groton Zoning Board and the Inland Wetlands Agency for a 147-unit development, primarily for people 55 and over. However, he has appealed the Wetlands Agency decision over restrictions on the project that, among other things, cut the number of units from the originally proposed 161. The Groton Open Space Association has appealed both the Inland Wetlands Agency and Zoning Board decisions on environmental grounds.

The Corps of Engineers was informed of the building plans by GOSA and by a Bel-Aire neighbor of the Watrous property who is not formally associated with GOSA.

The MRP article, by Nicole Souza, reported that typically projects that involve disturbing less than 5,000 square feet of wetlands are not reportable to the Corps of Engineers. However, the weekly newspaper quoted Mr. DiLorenzo as saying it didn’t appear that the developer would come in under the limit because the amount planned and approved would total 4,877 square feet. Another factor influencing his decision to take closer look is a “wetlands complex unique to Connecticut,” the MRP quoted him as saying.

Mr. DiLorenzo scheduled a site walk for Sept. 29. He also said he has notified developers of a planned new subdivision, Mystic Weigh, to the south of Four Winds, that their project falls within Army Corps jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act. Fears have been expressed by environmentalists that roads eventually could connect Mystic Weigh with Four Winds and that Four Winds could be extended to 75 recently rezoned (industrial to residential) acres to the north. In addition, Mr. Bonvie has an option on a total of 160 acres of Watrous property. Plans for the 55 acres not touched by the current Four Winds project haven’t been revealed.

A second MRP story reported that GOSA members have alerted the Corps of Engineers to a sewer pipeline that would cross tributaries to the areas’s drinking water supply. The pipeline would be constructed along Gold Star Highway for the proposed Great Brook subdivision, a 104-lot development on a 125-acre parcel west of Gales Ferry Road and North of Daboll Road.

The MRP article said, “Sewer line crossings planned at Great Brook and Hempstead Brook are a source of controversy because both serve as tributaries to the Poquonnock Reservoir…”