To the Editor:

The Conservation Commission (CC) is right to request more time and information to comment on a request by the Hubbard Animal Sanctuary to allow construction trucks to cross a pedestrian bridge over Deep Brook. The last time the issue of the sanctuary and the land it now sits on were a topic of discussion for the CC was in 2014, and both time and transparency were in short supply.

Not many Newtowners are aware of the background of this environmentally sensitive piece of land on Old Farm Road. The State of Connecticut promised it to the town as open space approximately 12 years ago, and the State Legislature passed enabling legislation around 2006 to formalize that commitment. All that was needed was a transfer of the deed to the town for it to become permanently protected land.

Then the Sandy Hook tragedy happened and, in the rush by town officials to provide solace to families of the victims, they offered this 4.5 million dollar property to the Hubbards to build a sanctuary to memorialize their daughter. Thirty-four acres of land that would have been protected forever as open space to be enjoyed by all townspeople and to provide important protection and buffer to a Class I Cold Water trout stream was now solely owned by one family. (It’s not just about protecting trout; cold water trout are a bellwether of good environmental stewardship). The CC was deliberately kept in the dark until the process was too far along to stop it and, when commissioners did protest as was proper and even required in their role to protect open space, they were slammed by the same officials who had conspired quietly to give away this property. (As a side note, that led to a mass exodus of conservation commissioners and several years of rebuilding to regain institutional memory and experience.)

During that 2014 debacle, the CC was told that the crumbling bridge over Deep Brook would not be used by the sanctuary for construction purposes, a commitment that strained credulity even then. While this parcel is no longer open space, the CC still has a responsibility to protect both the band of open space along Deep Brook below the Sanctuary and the waterway itself. Let the Commission do its job. Don’t rush this decision. This should not be about the Sanctuary being “landlocked” or satisfying their investors’ need to see where buildings go. Protecting an important Newtown natural resource like Deep Brook should be the only priority.

Karlyn Sturmer

Newtown Conservation Commissioner from 2013-2018

22 Old Green Road, Sandy Hook         September 19, 2018