Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) members are continuing their review of the environmental aspects of The River Walk At Sandy Hook Village, a 74-unit housing complex proposed for the west side of Washington Avenue in Sandy Hook Center, near the Pootatuck River.

IWC members held the second installment of a public hearing on the application on May 13. The applicant is seeking a wetlands/watercourses protection permit from the IWC.

Much of the discussion that night concerned the environmental protection comments made about the construction proposal by the Candlewood Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited, which is a private nonprofit environmental protection group. The Pootatuck River is a trout stream.

Alan Shepard, a civil engineer who represents River Walk applicant Michael Burton, responded to the formal comments made by Joseph Hovious of Trout Unlimited.

In a detailed May 12 letter to the IWC, Trout Unlimited, stated, in part, that a current environmental buffer zone alongside the Pootatuck River should be left in place to provide for suitable buffering between the proposed housing complex and the river.

Also, Trout Unlimited suggested some changes in the project’s plans concerning the use of rain gardens as an environmental protection feature.

Other comments involved drainage features of the project and certain site maintenance work required for environmental protection.

Mr Shepard addressed the various issues raised by Trout Unlimited.

Mr Hovious later said that the applicant has been responsive to Trout Unlimited’s environmental concerns. The applicant is expected to formalize those responses in the form of a letter.

Steve Maguire, town land use enforcement officer, told IWC members that the applicant had submitted some mapped plans on the control of erosion and sedimentation for the construction project to the Land Use Agency on the afternoon of May 13.

IWC Chairman Mary Curran then said that the panel should not take action on the application that night, before the public and the IWC had sufficient time to study those erosion/sedimentation plans.

Also, the IWC is awaiting plans from the applicant concerning plantings at the site, as well as site maintenance. Mr Maguire asked that such plans be submitted soon enough to provide the IWC with sufficient time to study them before its next scheduled meeting on May 27.

Ms Curran said the IWC would hold a third public hearing on the application on May 27.

The River Walk project would contain six buildings situated on an 11.8-acre site at #10 through #22 Washington Avenue, a site which lies generally east of the meandering Pootatuck River.

Mr Burton has designed the project under the terms of the Incentive Housing-10 (IH-10) zoning regulations, a set of land use rules created earlier this year by the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z), which require an affordable housing component.

Besides IWC approval, the project requires P&Z approval. It also requires endorsement by the Aquifer Protection Agency due to the site’s location in the Aquifer Protection District. The proposal also is under review by the Water & Sewer Authority (WSA) because Mr Burton has requested municipal sanitary sewer service for the complex.

In January 2009, Mr Burton gained P&Z approval to construct The River Walk, a proposed 24-unit multifamily complex on 10.2 acres at 12 through 20-A Washington Avenue. But that complex was never constructed due to the economic downturn.

The WSA was scheduled to resume a public hearing on the applicant’s request for municipal sanitary sewer service on the night of May 14.