Wetlands hearing on massive Amazon project in Killingly grinds on
Sara Bedigian
Killingly — The Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission
again continued its public hearing on a nearly 1.3 million-square-foot Amazon
warehouse distribution center to Nov. 2.
Several residents, who have opposed the Westcott Road
project since it was first submitted several months ago, continued to do so
during Monday night's three-hour hearing. The group has now hired engineer
Steven Trinkaus as their expert witness in an effort to gain intervenor status.
The commission is expected to grant the status on Nov. 2.
If intervention status is granted, intervenors become a
party in the proceeding and have a seat at the table when the commission meets
with the applicant as opposed to just being part of public comment.
Trinkaus raised numerous issues with the project's
engineering in regard to stormwater management, sewage disposal and wetland
impacts.
Trinkaus claims that the proposed stormwater system will not
meet the pollutant load reductions set by the state’s Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection, which "will adversely affect the water quality
in these systems over time.”
He also claims that no viable feasible and prudent
alternatives have been provided for the development that would reduce the
impact on wetlands on the site.
Before Trinkaus spoke Monday night, Evan Seeman, an attorney
who represents Ryan Companies, the developer, tried to discredit Trinkaus
arguments, claiming they are not factual.
Seeman told the commission that Trinkaus
has been found to be not a credible witness by the Connecticut Superior
Court’s land use litigation docket on four occasions over the last two years.
He read some of the court documents, which state that
Trinkaus’ conclusions were factually inaccurate or based on outdated
information and selectively omitted evidence.
“There are many other inconsistencies in his report and
problems that we will point out in our written response but we wanted to get
across to the commission now this is who you are going to be hearing from,”
Seeman said.
Trinkaus said he spent most of his career supporting
development, but over the last five years he changed paths.
“I don’t consider this opposition work because you will
never hear me say I oppose something, I will simply point out technical aspects
which comply or don’t comply with applicable regulations and standards to
minimize or eliminate environmental impacts,” Trinkaus said.
Norwich residents are opposing a proposed 1.1
million-square-foot Amazon distribution center and are also using Trinkaus as
their expert witness. The developer of the Norwich Amazon facility is Bluewater
Property Group.
Michelle Murphy, leader of the Keep Killingly Rural
Coalition that hired Trinkaus, said he is an established engineer who does
things the old-fashioned way, without technology like artificial intelligence.
She compared his "old timer" ways to the way Killingly functions.
Seeman has opposed the public’s intervenor status petitions.
Ryan Companies' representatives
reiterated their recent improvements to the facility Monday such as
reducing the building size by 58,000 square feet in addition to an
87,000-square-foot reduction in an earlier revision — and a reduction of 230
parking spaces.
The new application states the building will be 1.288
million square feet with 290 acres of the 555-acre site designated for
permanent conservation. Three percent of the site's wetlands would be impacted
by the project.
The revisions come in Ryan’s second application after
commission members voted
3-2 to deny the initial permit without prejudice on July 6, meaning the
developer could change and resubmit the plan, which it did on July 15.
Seeman said the developer just received comments from Tighe
and Bond, an engineering firm hired by the town, to review the plans. The
commission also did not have time to review them.
Tighe and Bond engineer Joseph Cannis said most of his 30
comments request additional clarifying information, and that “there wasn’t
anything in there that we saw as truly egregious.”
The outstanding issues relate to “site grading, stormwater
design documentation, drainage system performance, and operations and
maintenance,” according to the analysis.
Adam Winstanley, founder of Winstanley Enterprises,
explained Monday he has contracts to buy the 25 properties that make up the
site and is working closely with Ryan Companies and Amazon on the project.
Winstanley said he chose Amazon as the client for the
warehouse over two other Fortune 500 companies because he knew from previous
experience the company is flexible.
“They are a company that is willing to compromise to get
this plan developed and to move forward,” he said.
The commission
is also fighting an appeal from its initial denial. Ryan filed an appeal in
Putnam Superior Court on July 22 alleging the commission was “biased and
illegally predetermined an intent to deny the application.”
The case, which has since been transferred to Hartford
Superior Court, has scheduled a remote status conference at 11 a.m. on Oct. 13,
according to the court docket.
The Planning and Zoning Commission is also
slated to hold its third night of public hearing on the new application at
its Oct. 19 meeting at 7 p.m.
Rocks slow down East Lyme bridge replacement
Gianni Salisbury
East Lyme — The town is moving forward with the Colony Road
bridge replacement project after a two-month delay due to rocks found in the
work zone.
In
July, the towns said Public Works Department employees discovered an
unexpected amount of rock where the west abutment was supposed to be built.
Construction on the $6 million replacement project between
16 and 22 Colony Road, over Latimer Brook, was then paused as the town decided
what to do. Construction began in April and was expected to be complete by Nov.
30. The project is fully funded with state and federal grants.
On Monday, the Public Works Department posted on Facebook
that the town decided to redesign the project and work with and around the
rocks rather than drill through the rock which they said would have placed a
"serious noise burden" on the surrounding neighborhood.
The department said that construction will resume this month
but is unsure when it will be complete. Right now, the new bridge is expected
to reopen sometime next summer.
"While this has delayed the project, we feel this was
the best course of action," the department wrote on Facebook.
The bridge is being replaced because its culverts, a
drainage system that allows water to flow underneath the bridge, were in poor
condition and needed to be replaced. The plan is to replace the culverts,
portions of which were built in the late 1960s and early 1980s, with abutments
and concrete box beams for the water to flow through.
The culverts have now been removed, but the abutments
couldn't be built due to the rock.
The length of the new bridge will be 87 feet compared to the
current 37 feet.
Residents can still use Egret Road to access the
neighborhood beyond 22 Colony Road. About 322 vehicles per day travel across
the bridge.
According to the town, garbage and recycling collection for
Colony Road will continue on Fridays, but pickup times may vary. The town asks
that residents put their carts out by 7 a.m. and wait until the following
business day before reporting a missed pickup. Project updates will be posted
on the town's website and Facebook page throughout construction.
The Colony Road bridge is the first of three bridge
replacement projects the town hopes to complete over the next several years.
The town also has plans to replace the Egret Road bridge over Latimer Brook and
the Fairhaven Road bridge over the Pattagansett River.
Anyone with questions related to the project can reach out
to Alex Klose, the deputy Public Works director and acting engineer at
aklose@eltownhall.com or (860) 691-4112.
With redevelopment, city leaders hope for a more connected Union Station
Union Station’s massive arched windows and soaring waiting
room have greeted generations of travelers arriving in New Haven. Now, more
than a century after the current building opened, a transformation is underway.
The initiative Union Station Partnership is pursuing
renovations to the building alongside a broader plan of development for the
surrounding area. As part of the $24.8 million state-funded refurbishment,
Union Station will get renovated restrooms and retail spaces, a new central
atrium and exterior repairs.
City officials see the transit hub as an anchor for New
Haven’s growth, while preservation advocates are asking to save some crucial
elements of the station. Shared between both visions is Union Station’s role as
a gateway to the city.
“It’s the front door to New Haven, but it’s also, for New
Haven, the front door to the world,” Christopher Wigren, the deputy director of
local nonprofit Preservation Connecticut, said in a video interview.
Union Station’s current building opened in 1920 after the
previous train hall burned in 1918. Architect Cass Gilbert designed the
building for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, which wanted its
New Haven station to embody the importance of rail travel in the region.
Wigren described the waiting room as “dignified, elegant,
but not overwhelming.”
The station has not always served as New Haven’s front door.
It closed in the early 1970s as railroads struggled against growing car and air
travel. Passengers continued using the platforms while the main building
remained closed. The station was added to the National Register of Historic
Places in 1975. It reopened after a major renovation in 1985.
That rehabilitation also added new architectural elements to
the station. Elizabeth Holt, the interim director of historic preservation at
the New Haven Preservation Trust, pointed to the iconic metal passenger
tunnels, whose futuristic design contrasts with Gilbert’s Beaux-Arts.
These tunnels are at risk of replacement, a proposal that
has drawn opposition from some who want to retain their distinctive design.
“I personally think that the juxtaposition of the design of
the tunnels to the original building is what makes it unique,” Holt said in a
video interview.
Aïcha Woods, a former executive director of New Haven’s City Plan Department, said 20th-century urban renewal fundamentally changed the station’s relationship with the rest of New Haven. The construction of Route 34 cleared and divided areas between Union Station and Downtown, leaving the station surrounded by transportation infrastructure rather than the dense neighborhood that had once connected it to the city.
“That redevelopment also kind of stranded the train
station,” Woods said in a phone interview.
More recent planning efforts have tried to mend that
separation. The Hill-to-Downtown plan, developed around 2013
The city’s housing authority also plans to build as many as
2,500 new housing units across from the station, Mayor Justin Elicker said in a
press conference last week. New Haven recently failed to win a $26 million
federal grant to support construction near the station but plans to go ahead
with its first phase. Elicker has frequently touted transit-oriented
development in the city.
“We see Union Station as a real anchor to both our economic
future and the quality of life here in the city,” Michael Piscitelli, the
city’s economic development administrator, said in a video interview.
Development around the station could allow more people to
live near the rail while strengthening New Haven’s position as a regional
employment center, Piscitelli added. For him, that means thinking beyond simply
adding more places for commuters to park.
“We’ll never be highly competitive economically if we are
overly dependent on cars or the highway system,” Piscitelli said.
That debate predates the current redevelopment. In 2015, the
New Haven Urban Design League argued that weak local transit made it difficult
for people arriving at Union Station to travel the “last 1/2 mile” to other
parts of New Haven. The group argued that limited transit connections increased
demand for parking around the station, according to notes from its president,
Anstress Farwell.
The latest redevelopment efforts also raise questions about
the station’s interior.
Piscitelli said commercial activity should still be focused
on commuters.
“First and foremost, we have to serve the passenger and the
traveling public,” Piscitelli said.
Preservation advocates agree on that priority, but some question whether the proposed interior redesign accomplishes it. Farwell wrote in an email that she thought businesses could set up shop on the balconies or lower level but argued that “having retail/hospitality complicate the necessary functions of the waiting hall defaults on its purpose.”
Farwell pointed to Grand Central Terminal as an example of a
historic station where commercial activity exists without taking over the
central waiting space.
Wigren made a similar argument.
“What Union Station is about is transportation,” Wigren
said. “It’s a place for coming and going, and that, I think, needs to be the
focus of it.”
But Woods said the future of Union Station will depend just
as much on what happens around the building. More housing and activity near the
station could help better connect an area shaped for decades by highways and
parking with the rest of New Haven.
“Just having a kind of 24-hour presence and vibe and
activity around the station would be amazing,” Woods said.
New Haven, the city’s Parking Authority and the Connecticut
Department of Transportation are collaborating on the redevelopment.