Groton Open Space Association

Mystic Woods Representatives Present Case To IWA

GROTON — Representatives of the would-be developer of the proposed 105-acre, 241-unit Mystic Woods Active Senior Housing project on Fort Hill laid out their plans in a lengthy session before the Inland Wetlands Agency July 26, 2006.

Attorney Harry Heller and environmental specialist George Logan, of Rema Ecological Services LLC, spent several hours describing the proposed development before an initially large crowd at the Town Hall Annex that dwindled as the detail accumulated and the time grew late.

Deborah Jones of the Office of Planning and Development services told the agency that soil scientist Richard Snarski of New England Environmental Services in Marlborough, CT, had been chosen as the agency’s specialist to study the hydrology of the project, which will be situated on a slope that leads down to Fort Hill Brook. The brook flows into Long Island Sound.

Mr. Snarski is the first specialist to be hired by the IWA under a new regulation that permits the agency to bill developers for costs of outside expert advice on complex projects.

GOSA President Priscilla Pratt, who addressed the meeting after Mr. Heller and Mr. Logan concluded their presentations, complained that documentation on the project had been coming in irregularly, with two key documents becoming available only on July 26, too late to be studied ahead of the meeting. One resident of a house near the project expressed fear that it would harm the quality of his well water, and a second voiced concern for wildlife in the area.

GOSA’s environmental consultant, Penelope Sharp, took notes during the meeting, ahead of her planned presentation at the next meeting Aug. 23. The development is planned for a tract that contains 11 identified wetlands.

In its June 27, 2006, notice of intervention in the IWA hearings under Section 22a-19 of the Connecticut General Statutes, GOSA said the highly intense use of land proposed for the project most likely would have a negative effect the flood zone around Fort Hill Brook and would likely lead to sedimentation, erosion, and contamination of wetlands and watercourses.

Though the 2005 amendment to the zoning regulations that permitted Active Senior Housing was sold to the town’s Zoning Commission partly as a measure to conserve open space, the representatives of Hawthorne Development Partners LLC did not attempt to make a case at the IWA hearing that Mystic Woods would accomplish that end.

The IWA hearing is the first major hurdle for the project. Besides approval of the IWA, the project will need authorization from the zoning and planning commissions.