Groton Open Space Association

Mystic Woods Termed Too Big and Harmful For Fort Hill

GROTON — The proposed Mystic Woods Active Senior Housing project would clash both with existing neighborhoods and with the land atop Fort Hill, and it would create serious traffic problems there, opponents told the Zoning Commission Oct. 15, 2007, during continuation of a hearing that began Sept. 19.

Hawthorne Development Partners LLC, of Woburn, Massachusetts, is seeking a “special permit” from the commission in order to build a 200+ unit complex of nearly 70 buildings on 105 acres of what are now sloping woods and wetlands. The RU20-zoned Fort Hill neighborhood now consists predominantly of single-family residences on lots of one half acre or more.

In the special permit process, the Zoning Commission is empowered to ensure that a project would fit in with the orderly development of a neighborhood and would do no traffic or environmental harm. Opponents — both from GOSA and the neighborhood — contended Oct. 15 that the project is far too big and out of character to be harmonious and that it would cause major traffic problems as well as environmental harm.

Mr. Heller said that Hawthorne had drawn up a revised plan to take account of conditions imposed by the Inland Wetlands Agency in its Sept. 12, 2007, approval of the application. The revised plan envisions 204 units, down from 211 proposed earlier, he said. (GOSA has appealed the IWA approval to the New London Superior Court.)

The Active Senior Housing project is the first to be applied for since the Zoning Commission passed — by a split vote — an amendment to the Zoning Regulations Feb. 2, 2005 allowing ASH. Commission Chairman Stephen Hudecek based his “no” vote on the belief that the amendment as written would allow overly dense development.

In a letter read to the commission by GOSA member Robert Schneider, New Haven Attorney Peter Cooper said, “It is vital for the future appropriate and orderly development of the Groton community that the precedent your Commission sets is the right one.”

He said the application involves 69 “townhouse-style residential buildings of a repetitive and similar nature crammed into a very small location.” He said the project does not meet regulatory requirements for diversity, balance and choice. Mr. Cooper said the uniformity of the housing and “the abruptness with which it concentrates itself in close proximity to the existing low-intensity housing…shows that the application’s design is flawed, inharmonious, and fails to meet the purpose and intent of the special permit regulations…”

After further noting traffic and environmental problems, Mr. Cooper urged that the application be denied or withdrawn.

GOSA engineering consultant Steven D. Trinkaus of Southbury said the development foresees “no effective buffer” from the surrounding neighborhood. He said grading associated with construction would remove almost all natural vegetation between the ASH units and the property line. He said, “The large buildings, approximately 70 feet by 100 feet in length and a minimum of 35 feet in height, will be a visual intrusion to the existing residential uses…”

He said that the storm water treatment systems proposed for the development have shown promise but “the long-term effectiveness of these systems has not been verified at this time.”

Summing up, he deplored the planned removal of all trees in the housing area, as well as “significant cuts and fills to remake the topography of the site to fit the layout of the proposed buildings instead of making the development conform to current land forms.”

Lloyd J. Hutchins of Stonecrest Road, near the site of the project, pointed out numerous traffic problems that the project would entail, despite the assurances of the applicant’s traffic consultant that Mystic Woods would have no significant traffic impact. Mr. Hutchins said:

–A 48-lot project called Mystic Estates has been proposed for the south side of Route 1. One entrance of Mystic Estates would be close to the proposed entrance to Mystic Woods off Flanders Road. (Mystic Estates is subject of continuing litigation between GOSA and Ravenswood Construction LLC, a developer.) He said Mystic Estates should be factored into the traffic study.

–With Mystic Woods “doing the town a big financial favor by extending the sanitary sewer line over to Flanders Road, did the consultant consider a full buildout of Flanders Road and the impact of this on potential traffic…?”

–Mystic Woods could become a shortcut from Flanders to Route 1 for drivers seeking to avoid the traffic light atop Fort Hill, a concern also expressed by Patricia Olivier, a Hemlock Road resident.

–Entry onto Route 1 from Lemont Road already is difficult and would be aggravated by “400+ cars from Mystic Woods.”

–Drivers will be tempted to defy planned rules by turning left from the Route 1 exit of Mystic Woods and by entering Mystic Woods from Route 1.

Michael Jasenek, of Hemlock Road, a direct abutter, said the project means “we’ll be looking at concrete boxes. Lights will glow from what is now forest.” Anna Sullivan, of Flanders Road, said the intersection of Flanders Road and Route 1 now is the scene of many accidents and that “traffic barely flows through Route 1 at present.” She also expressed concern about light pollution in the currently forested area.

James O’Donnell, PhD, of Groton, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Connecticut, said the proposed storm water treatment system is “experimental” and has had only three years of testing at the University of New Hampshire, where it was developed. “It’s clear they (UNH) like it. That doesn’t mean it’s good.” He noted that plans call for the UNH storm water center to monitor the system in the post-construction period, and he asked whether this was “the fox guarding the henhouse.” Robert Roseen, PhD, director of the UNH Stormwater Center, said three years constitutes a lengthy test.

Lorraine Santangelo, a GOSA director, presented a précis of GOSA’s verified notice of intervention in the Zoning proceedings under Section 22a-19(a) of the Connecticut General Statutes. GOSA contends, among other things, that the wetlands impacts of the project is — in the language of the statute — “reasonably likely to have the effect of unreasonably polluting, impairing or destroying the public trust in the air, water, or other natural resources of Connecticut.”

Jim Furlong, a GOSA director, submitted to the commission a series of spreadsheets that show the average acreage of houses in the neighborhood of the project is 0.81 acre. He argued that the high-density Mystic Woods community would not fit harmoniously in with this neighborhood. He said that if the 105-acre parcel, half of which is unbuildable, were used for single family housing, a developer could build at most a little more than 100 units, assuming he could meet environmental and traffic objections. He suggested that this would be a good criterion to use in evaluating the size of a cluster development like Mystic Woods. He said that when Mr. Heller told the commission the developer was entitled under the regulations to build as many as 304 units, Mr. Heller was dealing with a figure that was “bizarre and unreal.”

The hearing was continued to Nov. 7, by which time the town’s traffic consultant — Camp Dresser and McKee of Cambridge, Massachusetts — is expected to be ready to present its report.