Groton Open Space Association

KKC Back In Two Months; Some Conservationists Disappointed

GROTON — Kendig Keast Collaborative, a Midwest-based municipal planning consultant hired by Groton to update the town’s land-use regulations, is expected to publish some preliminary observations in a couple of months after a short recent fact-gathering trip May 6-May 9, 2008.

The visit, which began on the evening of May 6 and was to end at noon May 9, disappointed many conservationists, who had hoped to hear KKC plans for saving open space and for density limitations linked to a buildable land definition. Instead, KKC told them that saving open space through acquisition is “up to the taxpayers” and outside KKC’s current assignment. KKC said that density limits can ultimately work against the environment. Conservationists did hear a lot about ways of conserving open space within subdivisions through clustered development.

The regulation-update process had a public kickoff May 7 with a dinner-time meeting at the Town Hall Annex at which KKC colleagues presented an outline of their program and solicited public feedback. Lane Kendig, president, and Mac Birch, principal and manager for the Groton project, said KKC planned to have proposals ready for approval within a year. The town’s Office of Planning and Development Services, host of the affair, made water and cookies available to those attending.

KKC’s main office is in Chicago, while Mr. Kendig works out of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. The town has said that the consultants will concentrate on updating the zoning and subdivision regulations but also will evaluate inland wetlands regulations, prepare a design manual and help develop new stormwater ordinances.

More than 30 persons attended the May 7 meeting, which began at 6 p.m. In addition, KKC held separate meetings with “stakeholders” in the updating process–including realtors, conservationists, large property owners and those interested in commercial development. Attendance at the stakeholders’ meetings was by invitation only, and a GOSA director, Joan Smith, who attended one meeting without being asked, was told by the Office of Planning and Development not to attend any further meetings without an invitation.

Mr. Birch said the rewrite would be “more than a code-drafting exercise” in that it would help to reflect in land use regulations the goals of the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development and the Strategic Economic Development Plan.

Asked about one goal of the POCD–preserving more open space in the town of Groton– Mr. Kendig said, “That is up to the taxpayers.” Michael J. Murphy, head of the town’s Office of Planning and Development Services, sitting in the audience, nodded in agreement. Mr. Murphy later told the meeting that green belts, brought up at the meeting by Noank resident Zell Steever, were outside the scope of KKC’s assignment.

Mr. Kendig said not many towns have the financial means to acquire large amounts of open space. A member of the audience told him that Groton qualifies for 65% reimbursement of the cost of acquiring property under the state’s Open Space and Watershed Acquisition program but that the town had not tried to take advantage of this. Mr. Kendig replied that he had “no problem with that. Both of these [land protection through sensitive development and through land acquisition] are viable techniques.” He added that his firm has helped create plans for communities to protect open space through acquisition, but he made clear this was not part of the current Groton program with KKC.

Among Mr. Kendig’s other points:

–It is a “myth” that density and commercial development are inherently bad for community character and the environment while residential development on big lots is good. Properly designed dense developments can look more “rural” than residential development on large lots, he said. Commercial development can enhance community character and promote downtown business through sign control, design standards and architectural review. He said that downtown Groton contains some of the same bad “autourban” characteristics that are found on “60% of Route 1 from Maine to Florida.”

–Clustering allows developers to use land efficiently and thus promotes environmental protection. “Developers are willing to protect the land if they don’t have to pay for everything” by losing lots, he said.

–Proper density should be achieved through a “site capacity calculation” that sets a “protection level” for various tracts of land. He did not explain these concepts in any detail May 7 or compare and contrast them with buildable land definitions and density limits based on eliminating or discounting unbuildable land from density calculations. He said that site capacity regulations will require preservation of open space and allow no “wiggle” about it. After the May 8 meeting, he told a questioner that he wants to eliminate land-use board discretion through tightly worded regulation.

–“If Wal-Mart [currently seeking to build a super center in the watershed of Groton’s drinking water reservoir] wants to be here, they’ll cave, but you’ll have to stick it out.” It was unclear whether he was referring to the Groton situation or to a dispute involving Wal-Mart in Sturgeon Bay, WI, or to both.

–While implying that dealing with global warming consequences is not part of KKC’s assignment in Groton, he personally foresees a rise of 2 meters in water levels by the year 2100, with further rises after that. This will force “triage” on coastal communities, which will have to decide what to save at great cost and what to let go.

The Groton Open Space Association turned in to KKC a memo calling for: more open space protection; a buildable land definition with density limits that could be modified for high-density nodes; careful examination of proposals for floating zones; separation of the planning and development functions of Groton town government to allow for independent thinking about planning; and better protection of the town’s drinking water supply.