MONROE, CT — Inland Wetlands commissioners agreed to direct staff members to draft a letter of approval with conditions for the controversial wetlands mitigation plan for property in the Pepper Street Business Park last week.
Property owners of 64 Cambridge and 4 Independence drives are trying to address wetlands violations by the previous owner, who had an unpermitted rock crushing operation that had damaged wetlands and left a massive hole.
The original application was denied on Jan. 26. The current application was submitted after informal meetings with the commission and land use staff and the hearing was closed in late June.
During the meeting on July 28, Lois Spence, the commission’s vice chairman and secretary, contended that the application was incomplete. She was the lone dissenter in the vote to draft an approval.
“Just for the record, I’m still unhappy with it,” Spence said. “I still think we can do a whole lot better.”
Among the reasons Spence opposed drafting an approval was that construction of a swale was not included in the plan. Chairman Keith Romano had argued that the details could be required as a condition of approval.
Romano, treasurer Jim Stewart and commissioners Clark Gingras and B.J. Hall voted in favor of drafting a letter of approval to be voted on at a future meeting.
Among the proposed conditions of approval are:
- Agreement to have a lot line reconfiguration ensuring all of the mitigation is performed on one parcel, as well as a date it must be done by.
- The hiring of a third party for inspection and monitoring of the well and pump performance, with inspection criteria developed by the third party.
- A swale must be constructed to the satisfaction of the town engineer with a future application presented to the commission for approval.
- The town’s approval would require approval of the developer’s application for a permit before the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
- The Inland Wetlands Commission must be allowed access to all of the fill information.
- A dust mitigation plan is required if it is not already in the plan. “If we find some conditions are already in the application, we’ll take it out of the draft,” Romano said.
- Material on the top of the liner needs to be natural material.
This site’s current condition is a direct result of Greedy Developers and a the “suspicious” lack of Town oversight from the previous Vavrek administration. The current ownership simply want to continue what they, and the previous owners, have done from the start: Blast and sell the rock, import Construction Debris for a fee to be used as “fill” for an alleged “future” development.
The owners of this site have absolutely no intention of building anything to benefit the community on this site. The “new owners” appear to be tied financially to the “old owners.” New LLC’s just keep acquiring the site and around it goes.
It is simply a ruse to make money while the environment is being polluted. The holes get larger, deeper and closer to the water table with each passing year. The end result is almost certainly going to result in the contamination of our drinking water along with a huge lawsuit much like the one seen in Fairfield. Objectors to this application have the best interests of the environment and the future of the Town of Monroe. Please voice your concern to this disastrous project before it is too late.
Thank you!