Groton Open Space Association

Editorial Opinion: Groton Planners Grab For Open Space Control

Note to readers: Unlike other content that appears in the News Section of the GOSA website, the following item, written July 16, 2009, is not primarily straight reporting but is opinion based on the facts as we understand them.

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Town of Groton planners for years have ignored POCD recommendations for acquisition of more open space.

They’re now attempting to take control of paths in The Merritt Family Forest, a 75-acre tract that the Groton Open Space Association bought in 2008 with partial finance from a state grant, after a seven-year struggle to save the land.

The planners’ actions pose a crucial question for land trusts around the state: will private conservation groups be allowed to manage their lands for the benefit of Nature and present and future generations, or will they be subject to interference by development-minded local planners and by special interests?

As part of the grab for control, the Groton planning manager recently visited the DEP in Hartford and threatened to challenge the state Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grant program on a fundamental level.

The background:

GOSA is developing a system of low-impact paths through The Merritt Family Forest while continuing to inventory the land’s plants and wildlife. Several hundred species have been catalogued to date.

To promote safety, to protect the land and wildlife, and to prevent conflicts among users, GOSA is not allowing horses, dogs or bicycles on the property. The land is fully open to hikers and joggers.

Matthew Davis, manager of Planning Services for the town, wants GOSA to cut multi-use trails that would be open to horses, dogs and bikes. He argues that the DEP should require GOSA to comply with a “trails master plan” that the Planning Commission has endorsed. The plan carries no right of eminent domain. In any case, a town map that shows multi-use trails (horses, bikes and dogs) through the Merritt property did not exist when GOSA contracted to buy the land, in April 2003. At the time GOSA wrote its grant request in 2002, it considered possible use by horseback riders, but decided in 2008 that this activity would not be safe or environmentally responsible. The DEP has said repeatedly that GOSA is in compliance with the conservation easement it granted the state.

The trails master plan was drawn up by Brian Kent, a local landscape architect and town consultant who lives on a property that abuts The Merritt Family Forest. His wife, Deborah Finco-Kent, has opened a stable on the abutting property called Beech Brook Farm. It features equestrian rescue, lessons, horse rentals/lease, and parties. (Ms. Kent reports that earlier consideration by the Kents of boarding has been dropped.)

The Kents have waged an intense PR campaign to open The Merritt Family Forest to horses, bikes and dogs — bringing in the Connecticut Horse Council, leafleting neighbors, and writing local officials, state legislators and the DEP. The leaflets don’t mention the Kents’ personal stake in this issue.

The Kents’ lobbying has been seized upon eagerly by the town’s planners. During Mr. Davis’s recent visit to the DEP in Hartford, he complained that the state awarded GOSA’s grant without adequately consulting town planners. He is seeking a recommendation by the Planning Commission that the issue of consultation be aired at policy-making levels of the DEP. He appeared to argue at a July 14 Planning Commission meeting that the commission should recommend that local planning authorities be given veto power over planned state open space grants. At present, local planning approval or the lack of it is given only small weight in the state’s scoring of grant applications.

It is clear to GOSA that if Groton town planners had been given a choice, the land that is The Merritt Family Forest would be covered now by a densely packed subdivision. There would be nothing left to argue about.

Conclusion:

The actions of Mr. Davis and the Groton Office of Planning and Development Services represent a threat not only to GOSA but to land trusts across the state and to the DEP’s open space grant program. The Groton planners’ grab for control of open space at the local and state levels must be turned back decisively.