Groton Open Space Association

GOSA President’s Annual Report Stresses Clean Water

GROTON — Following is the text of GOSA President Priscilla Pratt’s report to GOSA’s annual meeting in Noank on the evening of Oct. 12, 2006.

Good evening. It’s great to see you all here. I’ll go right into my report because I know you want to hear about our many activities, but you are also eager to get to our special guest program tonight. Let me begin first with a few thoughts on our philosophy, and a quote from a famous poem,

Water, water, every where,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, every where,

Nor any drop to drink.

Are these simply words of lament from the Ancient Mariner as he started his penance for killing the gentle albatross in Samuel Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, or are they a warning to us of things to come IF we are not good stewards of our environment?

Water, water, every where…how we take this for granted. Clean water to drink, clean water in our coves for shellfish and birds, clean water in our brooks and rivers and ponds, clean water in our Long Island Sound for swimming, boating, and fishing.

But are these waters safe? GOSA’s answer to this is a resounding NO. We have placed our emphasis, our abilities, and our financial donations to work to help save our natural resources and open space, of which clean water is a key component.

You all know of our stewardship of Haley Farm, and of the mowing program for which we have engaged the Crowley family for a prodigious amount of work annually for over 20 years. Thanks to us and the Crowleys Haley Farm is one of the few public locations left in the area with open fields for wildlife and people. Volunteers at our annual Clean-up Day keep the park clear of refuse. Volunteers Ben Adams and his father, Whitney, heroically attacked bittersweet vines and poison ivy. Haley Farm features an extensive coastal marsh on Palmer’s Cove, and is part of the Eccleston Brook and Fort Hill Brook watersheds. Two ponds, freshwater wetlands, and productive vernal pools are protected and unpolluted.

While we would like to see more open space acquisition in Groton, we do our best to help what developments do occur to be as environmentally sensitive as possible. This entails legally intervening in several proposed development projects, hiring experts to represent us at land use commission hearings, and going to court if necessary.

Two of our most recent projects involved protection of Fort Hill watershed and Mumford Cove.

Currently, we have joined neighbors and Friends of Fort Hill in opposition to Mystic Woods, a proposed 241-lot unit Active Adult Community slated for the top of Fort Hill, with entrances on Route 1 and Flanders Road. GOSA hired a team of experts, wetlands scientist Penelope Sharp, engineer Steve Trinkaus, and Attorney Peter Cooper, former chief counsel for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, to study the plans and present their findings to the Inland Wetlands Agency. The risks to the water resources, eleven wetlands, Fort Hill Brook, a Tier One vernal pool, have been brilliantly presented to the Agency by our team. Altogether GOSA and concerned members of the public have filed fourteen intervention letters with the Agency.

Activist Wendy MacFarland rallied concerned citizens to successfully lobby the Town Council and the Wetlands Agency to vote to request a State DEP Environmental Review Team to study the environmental and archaelogical resources of the site, at no cost to the town.. This will be the first ERT requested by the town in recent memory, a service we hope the town will use more frequently in the future.

The second development we were involved with that would impact the Fort Hill Brook and Mumford Cove is called High Point in Groton and is located on Hazlenut Hill Road. Developer Otto Paparazzo approached GOSA and asked our help in developing a more environmentally sensitive subdivision than the ordinary cookie-cutter development we are all too familiar with Although GOSA recognized that this property, with its natural beauty and spectacular waterfall, would make a fine addition as publicly owned open space to the greenbelt extending south to Haley Farm and Bluff Point, we recognized also that, unfortunately, the town has at present no active open space acquisition plan. The property was for sale and Mr. Paparazzo had an option to buy. We knew that he had done a forest preserve development in Farmington, and really wanted to do something environmentally acceptable with this property. We agreed to offer our suggestions to him.

We enlisted the services of Sigrun Gadwa, an environmental and wetlands consultant and a registered soil scientist. Several meetings were held with GOSA members, Ms. Gadwa, and Mr. Paparazzo and his consultants and engineers. The result was an innovative plan employing the Forest Preserve concept There will be several conservation easements, protected tree lines, reduced road width and fewer driveways. A Homeowner’s Association will enforce protection of natural resources, including a scenic meadow, notable trees, and rocky outcroppings. Native plants will be saved and replanted to mitigate disruption by construction. The developer will restore a post-agricultural field to increase habitat for amphibians. The project has been approved, with some further stipulations, by the Planning Commission.

GOSA has been trying to protect the superb water resources of the Watrous property off Fishtown Road since 2000, first as the Peppervine project, and more recently as the 141-unit Four Winds at Mystic Residential Life Care Community project. Two of the most productive vernal pools in Connecticut are located on the Watrous property. The special and rare environmental significance of this property has been recognized by the DEP who have indicated an interest in acquiring it. However, the developer has indicated that it is not for sale. GOSA has lost all three of our court appeals of Groton land use commission permits. At present, the Inland Wetland Agency is appealing Judge Purtill’s decision to overturn the Agency restrictions of the Four Winds permit. The outcome of this case is unclear, but construction could be tragically imminent.

Still on the subject of water resource protection, let me mention briefly GOSA’s tremendous service to the citizens of Groton and the region when it intervened in 2005 to negotiate an agreement with the developers of Great Brook subdivision off Route 184 to protect the drinking water supply of the Groton reservoir system The proposed development lies immediately uphill from Great Brook the main tributary stream entering the reservoir. While GOSA prefers that no development on the site occur, no state, city, or town entity offered to purchase the property. In the alternative, GOSA included representatives from the water company in the negotiations; and set conditions for a strict, environmentally sensitive project Restrictions addressed runoff and pollutants, conservation easements, monitoring, testing, reporting and funding to correct problems. I believe the property is again on the market, and it may not be too late for purchase for open space.

I know you all want to know where we are with the Merritt Family Forest. Although GOSA has a contract to buy this 75 acre tract along Route 1 from near the top of Fort Hill to Eccleston Brook and Fishtown Road, the project has been held up in court owing to an appeal by a developer, Ravenswood, against the Merritts claiming a pre-existing contract. Although the Merritts and GOSA won in a Superior Court jury trial, the developer is carrying his case further on in the legal system. GOSA was awarded a $650,000 grant by the DEP to help purchase the property, and we have placed a $90,000 deposit. Our fund-raising efforts to raise the balance of the million dollar purchase price are on hold until the legal issues are resolved.

In addition to these large land use projects, GOSA is active on other fronts.

· We’re monitoring the investigation by the Shellfish Commission concerning potential hazardous chemical runoff from the King property into Baker’s Cove.

· GOSA will monitor future plans for a Marine Science Magnet School for potential risk to Baker’s Cove.

· We supported Councilor Elissa Wright’s initiative to ensure that the town honor and respect its commitment to the public to preserve and protect the six parcels of land purchased with the 1988 open space, conservation, and recreation referendum bond ordinance.

· We encouraged and supported adopting of new regulations by the Inland Wetlands Agency to hire independent experts at a developer’s expense.

· We support the proposal to enable all land use commissions to hire independent experts at a developer’s expense and we support an upgrade of land-use fees.

· GOSA actively opposed the town’s new Active Senior Housing Zoning Amendment and argued for a buildable land definition to limit the potential for extraordinarily high density. Had this been adopted by the Planning Commission, we would not be faced with the magnitude of a Mystic Woods development plan.

· GOSA attended the South East Council of Government’s public meeting on the environment last June.

· GOSA was represented on the Groton Committee for the Strategic Economic Development Plan by GOSA director Genevieve Cerf who presented many open space proposals which, unfortunately, were not adopted.

· GOSA members supported Avalonia Land Trust in protesting lack of abutter notification for the Stonewall Vineyard Subdivision hearing before the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission regulations have now been changed to require such notification in the future.

We have accomplished much, but much remains to be done. We encourage anyone who is interested, to join GOSA, attend our Board meetings, volunteer on our projects and initiate new ones. Many have cleared invasive species from paths and stonewalls at Haley Farm. Many have spoken up at public hearings and town meetings. A college student designed our website and her father, a retired newspaper editor, continues its upkeep. A computer whiz helps with our records and lists. An artist designed some of our posters; a professional photographer has donated his time and skills. We have enjoyed pro bono expertise in such fields as legal services, scientific studies. Many generous individuals have made substantial donations to our Haley Farm Maintenance Fund, our Land Acquisition Fund, and our General Fund.

Continuing to work together, we can ensure that in the future, we can say,

Water, water, everywhere,

And plenty of clean drops to drink.