Newtown Technology Park Proposal Under IWC Review

By Andrew Gorosko

Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) members will be touring the site of the proposed Newtown Technology Park off Commerce Road to gauge the impact of the town’s proposal to develop the property with six buildings containing industrial condominium units in an environmentally sensitive area.

IWC members opened a public hearing on July 14 on the town’s development proposal for the 42-acre property. A 1,550-foot access road leading to the site would intersect with the west side of Commerce Road, across Commerce Road from the Charter Communications property. The town’s development site extends down a slope toward the municipal sewage treatment plant.

Plans for the industrial development project have been in the formative stages for the past several years.

The Economic Development Commission (EDC) has been the town agency pursuing the project. Conservation Commission members, however, have urged restraint in the site’s development, noting its proximity to the environmentally sensitive Deep Brook, a trout stream that is a tributary of the Pootatuck River. A section of Deep Brook is a state-designated a wild trout management area.

During the past several years, the EDC has formulated a variety of development designs for the site, the latest of which is less physically intensive than earlier proposed versions.

The site is in the town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD). The land is in a M-5 (Industrial) zone. The site is partially wooded, with a portion of the land being farmed. Project planning started in 2004.

Through the application to the IWC, the EDC is seeking a wetlands/watercourses environmental protection permit. The project also would require Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) approvals.

At the July 14 IWC public hearing, engineer Bill Carboni of Spath-Bjorklund Associates, Inc, of Monroe, representing the EDC, described in detail the many design features of the project keyed to environmental protection.

The project seeks to balance the interests of economic development and environmental protection, Mr Carboni said.

About 37 acres of the 42-acre site were given by the state to the town for local economic development, Mr Carboni said. The town purchased the other five acres of the site nearest to Commerce Road about 15 years ago.

The six proposed buildings would enclose approximately 100,000 square feet of space, Mr Carboni said. The structures would be clustered on the site. The development design is intended to minimize the amount of impervious area that would be created, he said.

Efforts would be made to avoid damaging the environmental quality of Deep Brook, he said. Some sections of the road in the industrial complex would not have curbing, he said. Four water-quality basins would be built on the site to control stormwater runoff, he said.

The site has been designed with both the water quality and the water quantity of nearby Deep Brook in mind, he said.

The project is designed to place the industrial development on an about 20-acre upper section of the site, with the remaining 22-acre lower section of the property nearer to the brook remaining undeveloped. The site would have conservation easements to limit its development. New wetlands would be created on certain sections of the property.

Mr Carboni said he has sent the plans for the project to the Conservation Commission for its review.

Michael Klein of Environmental Planning Services, representing the EDC, described to IWC members the many steps that would be taken for environmental protection.

IWC Chairman Anne Peters said IWC members will be touring the site to familiarize themselves with the property proposed for development. “I think we’re all anxious to get out and see the site,” she said.

“I’m really intrigued to see the engineered swale and the sheet runoff design…I look forward to reviewing these plans in more detail,” Ms Peters said.

The IWC public hearing is slated to resume on July 28.