Wetlands Panel Continues Environmental Review Of Church Project

By Andrew Gorosko

Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) members are continuing their review of Grace Christian Fellowship’s wetlands application for a proposed new 29,503-square-foot church on a 13.7-acre site off Hawleyville Road (Route 25). The IWC conducted its fourth and final public hearing on the application on July 12.

The church’s proposal for wetlands protection does not include the use of “pervious pavers,” said Conservation Official Rob Sibley.

IWC members had suggested that the church use the specialized paving stones in some parking areas as a way to allow stormwater to drain directly down into the soil, thus reducing the project’s environmental impact. Pervious pavers are an alternative to asphalt pavement, which is an impervious surface that creates stormwater runoff.

Although pervious paving stones contain voids to allow water to flow down through them, they are rigid enough to allow vehicles to park atop them.

At a past public hearing, an engineer representing the church had said that the use of pervious pavers would prove impractical due to wintertime conditions.

Instead of using pervious pavers, the church is proposing that some parking spaces have gravel surfaces, Mr Sibley said. The site would have 198 parking spaces overall, some of which would have gravel surfaces, which allow water to drain through.

Mr Sibley said it is unclear whether the IWC would approve the church’s wetlands application. The panel may act on the application as soon as July 26, provided that the church submits all requested information on the project, he said.

The church group has revised its driveway design plans, depicting a 60-foot-long two-lane bridge, which would carry a section of its driveway above a wetland lying between Hawleyville Road and the new church, Mr Sibley said. An earlier version of the bridge was several feet shorter. The site contains 2.4 acres of wetlands.

The site has a street address of 4 Covered Bridge Road. IWC members, initially sought to have the church provide access to its site from Covered Bridge Road, which connects to Hawleyville Road.

But the church has opted to provide site access from a separate new driveway that would enter the property on the west side of Hawleyville Road, near the Exit 9 off-ramp of eastbound Interstate 84.

In response to past IWC requests to reduce the development’s environmental impact on the site, the church made some design changes.

Instead of constructing an above-ground stormwater retention basin on the site, which would have required the removal of some trees, the church now proposes installing underground stormwater retention structures, which would be located beneath its parking lot.

That system would include six buried lengths of five-foot-diameter pipe that would temporarily hold stormwater that accumulates on the site during rainstorms. Those design changes would leave more undisturbed land adjacent to wetlands on the site.

After receiving a wetlands permit, the church would need various land use approvals from the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z).

The congregation now occupies an existing 13,500-square-foot church about one mile away at 174 Mt Pleasant Road (Route 6). The group wants to build a new larger church to meet the needs of its expanding congregation. Grace Christian Fellowship began operations in Newtown in 1984. The group is an interdenominational church affiliated with the RHEMA Ministerial Association International.