Groton Open Space Association

GOSA Briefs Council On Merritt Policy Issues

GROTON — The Groton Open Space Association made several presentations to the Town Council July 21, 2009, to explain its rules of use for The Merritt Family Forest, against a background of controversy over the rules, which don’t allow horses, dogs or bikes.

GOSA President Pro Tem Joan Smith examined the issue of whether GOSA or the Town of Groton controls the 75-acre property on Fort Hill. Treasurer Genevieve Cerf detailed GOSA concerns about the safety of horseback riding on Forest terrain. GOSA director Sidney Van Zandt and her husband, Sandy, reviewed GOSA’s environmental contributions to the town.

The Merritt Family Forest rules have aroused strenuous objections from an abutting family and sniping from the Office of Planning and Development Services, as well as some complaints from dog owners. Planning Manager Matthew Davis of the OPDS wrote in a memo dated June 9 that the state should require GOSA to conform to the town’s trails master plan, which shows multi-use (horses, bikes and dogs) trails running through the Merritt property.

Mr. Davis made a recent trip to Hartford during which by his account he questioned the official scoring of GOSA’s grant request and criticized the administration and procedures of the grant program. He said the DEP should be required to coordinate closely with local planners. At present, the DEP gives only slight weight in scoring to approval, or lack of it, by municipal planners.

Horse advocates have argued that because a state grant covered 65% of the $1 million purchase price of the Merritt property, the public should have a greater say in use of the property. Ms. Smith noted that many properties in Groton that were funded with tax dollars have rules on horses. For example, Bluff Point State Park “seasonally prohibits both horseback riding and dogs on the beach.”

Ms. Smith reminded the council that the land is privately owned by GOSA. She said that “the Town [has]…no maintenance responsibilities for this property. Although the town has developed a master trail plan showing proposed multi-use trails on The Merritt Family Forest, that plan does not create any legal interest for the town in the property, nor does it create a right of way easement for the town.” The land is fully open to hikers and joggers and must remain so under terms of an easement granted by GOSA to the state.

Ms. Smith noted that GOSA currently is inventorying plant and animal life on the property, creating an appropriate trail plan with connection to adjoining open space, and determining how to restore overgrown areas to the best possible condition. She left open the possibility of future adjustments to the rules of use, adding, “We take our stewardship very seriously and shall endeavor to protect this land for future generations as well as for the citizens of today.”

Ms. Cerf presented research showing the frequency and seriousness of horseback riding injuries, often affecting the spine. She recalled “the tragic riding accident of the actor Christopher Reeve — he played ‘Superman’ — a strong and experienced rider who was left paralyzed, battling for his life, which he finally lost after 9 years, as a result of his injuries.”

She said that critics don’t recognize that GOSA is “not a state or a municipality or a federal agency with lots of resources.” She noted that the town’s liability insurance costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Unlike GOSA, the town has attorneys on retainer to cope with damage suits and a Department of Public Works to keep trails clear and safe.

“Personally, I would feel devastated if something happened to a child on this property we are responsible for, and whose topology does not lend itself to anything but hiking and jogging,” she said.

Mrs. Van Zandt and her husband reviewed the many contributions of GOSA and its members to the preservation and protection of Haley Farm and Bluff Point against threats of development and exploitation–more than 1,000 acres. They noted that the town itself last invested in open space with funds raised by a 1988 bond issue.

Mr. Van Zandt said of open space: “Once it is gone, it is gone, gone, gone.”

Councilor Bruce Flax asked GOSA why it mentioned horseback riding in its 2002 grant request when it never had any intention of allowing riding. Jim Furlong, a GOSA director, replied that when the grant application was written in 2002, GOSA had seen a real possibility for horseback riding. This thinking preceded examination of the land, for which GOSA did not have a purchase contract in 2002. When, six years later, GOSA got ownership of the land with attendant responsibilities and risks, it saw that riding was not a safe or environmentally sound activity on the property. Mr. Furlong said the reference to horseback riding in the application did not represent any deception. Instead, he said, “we changed our minds, based on what we consider sound safety and environmental reasons.”

In other citizen’s petitions, Mariellen French of Mystic said of Mr. Davis’s trip to Hartford, “I don’t understand why a Town employee would take what is a disagreement between abutting landowners to the CT DEP.”

She said, “How the town handles this situation sets a precedent for every piece of private property in Groton. Will it turn out like the eminent domain mess in the Fort Trumbull section of New London?”

Wendy MacFarland, of Mystic, presented the council with copies of literature issued by Beech Brook Farm, which occupies abutting land. The literature promotes the farm’s equine rescue service and advertises riding lessons, rentals/lease and parties. The stable is run by Deborah Finco-Kent, wife of Brian Kent, a landscape designer who wrote the town’s trails plan. The Kents have conducted a tenacious public relations and lobbying campaign to force GOSA to allow horses on the property.

Planning Manager Davis told a meeting of the Planning Commission July 14, 2009, that he got involved in the dispute because of complaints by: Mr. Kent (the trail designer and abutter); the Connecticut Horse Council (a riders group drawn in by Ms. Kent); and Peter Roper, a Planning Commission member who has objected in Planning Commission meetings to the rule against dogs on the property.