Tech Park Rejected By Wetlands Agency

By Andrew Gorosko

Following lengthy review, Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) members this week rejected the town Economic Development Commission’s (EDC) proposal for the creation of Newtown Technology Park off Commerce Road.

The project would involve the construction of six buildings containing an aggregate of about 100,000 square feet of industrial condominium space in an environmentally sensitive area. The town would sell the municipally-owned land and the rights to develop it to a development firm.

The six IWC members, who unanimously voted to reject the proposal on September 8, decided that the industrial development project was deficient in several regards.

IWC members agreed that the EDC had not provided enough information to the IWC on the environmental effects that the proposed construction and the eventual activities at the industrial site would have on nearby wetlands and watercourses.

Also, IWC members agreed that information in a May 10, 2010 “stormwater management report” is inconsistent with some updated mapping on the project.

Also, the IWC decided the site map for the project is inconsistent with the site’s description listed in the IWC application.

IWC members had conducted three public hearings this summer on the EDC’s industrial development proposal.

The project was proposed for a 41.8-acre town-owned site, where 23.2 acres on the western side of the property would be developed, and 18.6 acres on the eastern side would be undeveloped.

About 37 acres of the 41.8-acre site were given by the state to the town for local economic development. The town purchased the other five acres of the site nearest to Commerce Road about 15 years ago.

A 1,550-foot access road leading to the site would intersect with the western side of Commerce Road, across Commerce Road from the Charter Communications property. The town 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.

Conservation Commission members 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 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 was 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.

 In a comment made before the IWC’s rejection of the project, IWC member Mary Curran noted that Conservation Commission members have expressed concerns about the project’s environmental effects on Deep Brook.

IWC Chairman Anne Peters said that the development proposal had some “wonderful features” designed for environmental protection, but lacked information concerning the development’s effects on nearby wetlands and watercourses lying off-site.

Such defects in the proposal could be remedied and another application could be submitted to the IWC, she said.

Ms Peters said she would want to know about the EDC’s future intended uses for the 18.6 acres on the eastern side of the site. EDC members had provided no specific information on the envisioned future use of that area, although IWC members had repeatedly asked for such information.

Also, Ms Peters said that the 23.2 acres on the western side of the site would have been “very densely developed” under the IWC’s now-defunct proposal.

IWC members then unanimously voted to reject the technology park application.

Response

Robert Rau, who formerly served as EDC chairman, attended the IWC meeting. Mr Rau has shepherded the project through the town’s land use review process. Mr Rau recently resigned as an EDC member, but continues to follow the status of the development project while serving as a volunteer advisor to the EDC.

Asked for comment on the proposal’s rejection, Mr Rau said that the future uses of the eastern section of the site are specifically not addressed in the EDC application, and thus are not the subject matter of the application.

That land would be the subject matter for some other future EDC application, he said.

Mr Rau said that he plans to study the wording of the IWC’s rejection of the technology park application.

Mr Rau said he expects that the EDC would return to the IWC with another application for the technology park project. He said he does not expect the EDC to stop its drive for the site’s development.

Through its application to the IWC, the EDC had sought a wetlands/watercourses environmental protection permit. The project also would require wetlands review by the US Army Corps of Engineers, as well as some review by the town Planning and Zoning Commission.