Advanced Fusion Systems—

Industrial Redevelopment Project Gains Wetlands Permit

By Andrew Gorosko

A technology firm has cleared the second of three regulatory hurdles facing its proposal for a large-scale industrial redevelopment project at an Edmond Road site.

Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) members on July 14 unanimously approved a wetlands protection permit for Advanced Fusion Systems, LLC’s, (AFS) industrial project proposed for a 24-acre site at 11 Edmond Road, near Interstate 84.

Under the proposal, a large vacant industrial building would be expanded and put back into use by AFS as a manufacturing plant and a research/development facility. The building formerly was occupied by Pitney-Bowes, Inc.

The site development plan for the industrial project was scheduled for a Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) public hearing on the night of July 15, after this edition of The Newtown Bee went to press.

On April 7, AFS received several zoning variances for the project from the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA).

The Economic Development Commission (EDC), which is an advisory panel, has endorsed the AFS project. The EDC says the AFS project would generate much local property tax revenue, would create more than 200 jobs, and would attract other firms to locate in Newtown.

At the July 14 IWC public hearing on the AFS proposal, engineer Steve Sullivan of CCA, LLC, of Brookfield, representing the applicant, told IWC that AFS had no more information to present to the panel.

On June 23, the applicant described numerous changes that it had made to its initial plans that had been presented on June 9. Those modifications addressed a variety of environmental concerns which IWC members had expressed about the protection of wetlands and watercourses at the site.

After IWC members closed the July 14 public hearing, Mr Sullivan asked that the IWC expedite its decision because AFS is anxious to get its project underway.

IWC Chairman Anne Peters thanked the applicant for the large amount of detail that it provided to the IWC in the design changes that were made after IWC members had lodged environmental protection concerns about the initial wetlands protection proposal.

In their motion to grant the project a wetlands protection permit, IWC members required that the applicant provide the IWC with quarterly progress reports on the project until the work covered by the wetlands permit is completed.

Also, the IWC is requiring that erosion and sediment controls be installed before construction starts and be maintained during construction.

The town must be formally notified one week before the wetlands protection work starts and notified again when that work is completed. The approved plans must be kept on the site. The town must inspect and approve the location of markers on the site that delineate the extent of physical disturbances there before the construction work commences.

The approved plans may not be changed unless the town approves such changes.

Also, the applicant must hire an environmental management consultant to ensure that the erosion and sedimentation control plans for the project are correctly implemented.

To aid it in reviewing the redevelopment application, the IWC enlisted the consulting firm known as Steven Danzer, PhD & Associates, LLC, to independently analyze the environmental protection aspects of the project. 

AFS proposes adding 30,800 square feet of enclosed space to an existing vacant 211,282-square-foot industrial building. The firm also wants to build a 20,000-square-foot pad for a future electric substation. It also wants to expand parking areas on the site from 196 spaces to 296 spaces.

The building that stands on the site was constructed in the early 1970s, before local wetlands protection regulations were in effect.

In an expanded industrial plant, AFS would manufacture high-speed electrical switching devices for very high electrical voltages. It also would make environmental cleanup equipment, sterilization gear, and x-ray laser microlithography equipment.