Groton Open Space Association

Groton Planning Commission To Consider Great Brook Project Dec. 4

GROTON–The Planning Commission has rescheduled to Dec. 4, 2003, the start of its hearing on the proposed 104-lot Great Brook subdivision off Route 184. The hearing originally was to begin Nov. 13.

The rescheduling was announced at the Nov. 13 Planning Commission meeting without public comment. However, the delay is believed connected to doubts as to the feasibility of the subdivision’s sewering plan. These doubts were stirred up by a meeting last week between Groton town officials and a representative of the State Department of Environmental Protection.

The talks raised the possibility that if the Town were to permit the development–the site of which is in a sewer-avoidance area of the Groton Sewer Facilities Plan–then the development could imperil some anticipated state financial aid. The possibly endangered aid would be that earmarked for upgrading the Groton waste water treatment plant on Gary Court.

The Great Brook project would be situated in the watershed of Great Brook, which feeds into the City of Groton drinking water reservoir system.

Similar concerns about possible loss of state funding were raised Nov. 13 at the Planning Commission’s hearing on the proposed 22-lot Woods Walk subdivision on Pleasant Valley Road North. After discussion, the commission continued the Woods Walk hearing, also to Dec. 4.