Active-adult housing plan draws opposition

By CLAIRE BESSETTE             Published on 11/7/2008

Norwich - A public hearing on the controversial 185-unit active-adult community housing project on Scotland, Hansen and White Plains roads continued late into the night Thursday, as residents voiced strong opposition to the dense development in the rural area of towns.

Norwichtown Development LLC, a local business group, proposed the project on the 60-acre former Wilcox farm and sawmill at the junction of the roads. The project is the first proposed under the city's new zoning regulations that allow denser development of age-restricted housing on more than 10 acres in any residential zone.

The regulations allow up to eight units per acre, but project attorney David Sherwood said at the start of the session that the project would build only three units per acre. The land is located in a minimum 2-acre zone for housing.

City attorney Karl-Erik Sternlof started the Inland Wetlands, Watercourses and Conservation Commission hearing by reminding the 100 people in the audience that the hearing would deal with only wetlands issues.

Technical testimony by project engineers and soil scientists consumed the first two hours of the hearing before Vice Chairman Richard Morell opened up the floor for public questions and comments on the project.

No one came forward to speak in favor of the application.

Three residents spoke against the project before the hearing returned to technical data and wetlands analysis, this time by experts hired by opponents, for another 90 minutes.

Resident Jon Oldfield of Lawler Lane complained the proposed sewer pipe through the Byron Brook road crossing was bound to fail and would cause the “Exxon Valdez” of sewage spills.

Resident Carolyn Horton of Hansen Road, said her wetlands-related comment was simply that the project could be built elsewhere, not disturbing the wetlands in this area.

Attorney Eric Knapp, representing resident Barbara Doherty, filed a motion for intervener status in the hearing, and the motion was accepted. Knapp argued that the application was not complete, and the commission could not act on it. Since the commission was facing a deadline and had to close the hearing Thursday night, Knapp said the commission could not approve it. The commission could not consider any new information after the hearing closed, meaning the missing data could not be added, Knapp argued.

Soil scientist George Logan, also representing Doherty and the Browning family, another neighbor, said he did not receive final revised plans until one day before the hearing, and did not have time to submit a proper response. Logan said the denseness of the development brought up erosion, runoff and direct long-term impacts the project would have on the wetlands in the future.

The commission was not expected to act on the application Thursday.

The project could be in jeopardy regardless of future action by the wetlands commission. The City Council hopes to reverse an approval granted in July by a state legislative committee that allowed sewers to be extended to the property. The Continuing Legislative Committee on State Planning and Development on July 10 changed the designation of the property from rural to neighborhood conservation. The City Council has asked the state to change it back to rural.

If the legislative committee reverses its decision, Norwich Public Utilities would not be allowed to extend sewers to the rural area. City officials are expected to submit a letter today to the state Office of Policy and Management requesting a public hearing on the city's application to redesignate the property as rural