Groton Open Space Association

IWA Hears From Developer, GOSA On Groton Highpoint

GROTON–The Inland Wetlands Agency listened Jan. 11, 2006, to developers’ plans to build a 34-lot, 63-acre housing subdivision on a former Hazelnut Hill sheep farm and also heard GOSA and others cite numerous environmental concerns about the project.

The hearing was continued to the next IWA meeting Jan. 25. In other business, GOSA urged the IWA to require developers to pay fees of any independent experts it may require to evaluate subdivision applications. And in a separate matter, the IWA decided to hold a public hearing on the proposed Kolnaski school on the King property on Poquonnock Road.

Groton Highpoint is a project of Otto Paparazzo, of Prospect, CT, who has designed many developments widely praised for environmental sensitivity. The plan for Hazelnut Hill, which Mr. Paparazzo characterizes as an “anti-subdivision,” would feature narrower streets, meandering sidewalks on only one side of the street, minimization of lawn areas and a “mews” concept that would terminate some driveways on a side street between them and the main road.

GOSA has expressed support for these features but has reservations about other aspects of the project, which would be built in steep and rocky terrain that is crossed by Fort Hill Brook. The tract contains three wetlands; waterfalls, including one that is at least 10 feet high; and biologically and aesthetically valuable forest and meadow habitat that is home to Dogwoods, Witch-hazel, Blue-winged Warblers, the Eastern Ribbon Snake and many other forms of plant and animal life.

Joan Smith, a GOSA director, presented the IWA with a notice that GOSA is becoming an official party to the hearings by obtaining status as an intervenor under Section 22a-19 of the Connecticut General Statutes. The notice cites concerns with: a large drainage basin that would be located close to the main waterfall, minimal wetland and stream setbacks on some lots, building on steep slopes, driveways that would run perpendicular to the slope, filling of wetlands for an emergency access road, and potential erosion.

GOSA submitted to the IWA a letter on wildlife on the former sheep farm from Margarett L. Jones, executive director of the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center. Ms. Jones urged that surveys of wildlife, including amphibians, be undertaken starting in early spring and extending into May and June. Noting that fall and winter aren’t good times to survey wildlife, she said knowing for sure what species are present and where they live would allow the developer to “plan and implement a more sensitive project.” She said she expects a survey would show “a great diversity of wildlife, particularly birds, associated with this large parcel of undeveloped land.”

Residents of the area voiced worries about the impact of blasting on their wells and a citizen living in a house below the planned development said he might have to buy flood insurance because of ecological changes wrought by Groton Highpoint. The area around Fort Hill Brook has been known to flood.

Clinton Brown, with DiCesare-Bentley Engineers, said he would commission an outside study of the development’s proposed erosion and sedimentation controls, but under questioning said this would not be ready in time for the IWA phase of the town’s review.

In other developments, Edith Fairgrieve, a GOSA director, urged the IWA to exercise its authority under state law to require developers to pay outside experts’ fees when the agency needs independent reviews of projects. Ms. Fairgrieve noted that the town has promised for at least a year to come up with a practical program for doing this but has failed as yet to produce a plan. Deb Jones, of the Planning Department, said she would be able to make a presentation on this topic either at the next meeting Jan. 25 or the following meeting Feb. 8.

Ms. Fairgrieve was seconded by Sidney F. Van Zandt, another GOSA director. She said, “At stake is our water supply both fresh, from runoff, and salt, from runoff from polluted streams. The potential cost to the town and our resources could be terrific if many more fiascos such as Montville Commons are repeated.” In the recent Montville Commons case, a mud-retaining wall gave way, polluting all the downhill wells on a street adjacent to the Commons, under construction.

In the matter of the Kolnaski school, the IWA decided to call a public hearing on its possible wetland impact, even though technical wetlands regulations did not appear strictly to require it, because of the public importance of the project.