Several members of GCA’s board and steering committee attended the CT LCV summit on Tuesday, January 24th. The LCV is a “non-partisan, statewide, nonprofit organization dedicated to giving our environment a voice at the Capitol.” Twenty-one briefing papers were the topics of panel discussions ranging from the 30 x 30 goal (30% of CT’s forest and farm acreage protected by 2030), environmental justice, decarbonization, offshore wind, polystyrene and composting, to black bears, rodenticides and neonicotinoids. We urge you to read as many of the excellent and informative papers as you can.
CT to expand & improve rail and transit options; public support needed!
Connecticut’s public and lawmakers have taken a first, exciting step toward realizing a vision for improved and expanded Shore Line East (SLE) train and bus transit service in Eastern Connecticut. The plan will allow residents and visitors alike cleaner, greener, more comfortable and less congested ways to travel affordably to destinations within and beyond the state such as Norwich, Groton and the Borough of Stonington, and Westerly, RI, with links to NYC, Boston and beyond.
Update: On December 16, 2022, an article by Kimberly Drelich came out in The Day titled Residents, officials voice support for commuter rail expansion. Of the ~fifty people who attended the meeting held at the Naval Sub Base on December 15, 2022, about 25% were GCA members. If fact, the idea to expand SLE rail service is the brainchild of Zell Steever, a member of GCA’s Board of Directors. Click HERE for GCA’s 12/8/2022 Alert and HERE for more info from CT DOT.
$1 sale of Mystic Education Center/Oral School
Leave a Message for Governor Lamont! Click HERE for GCA Alert information. The Day article, Mystic Oral School Advocates protest sale of property, provides thorough coverage.
Our 2022 Year-in-Review Newsletter
Click on the newsletter below.
School Development Proposals Endanger Forests
The woods located behind the old Colonel Ledyard Elementary School, as well as the animals and plants that rely on them, were delivered an early defeat on February 2, 2021, when the Groton Town Council voted 6-3 in favor of the sale of the property to Bellsite Development, LLC, despite environmental and quality of life concerns raised by the property’s neighbors. The company is looking to develop the property by converting the school building into apartments, followed later by paving and constructing new buildings on the backside of the property. (Click here to read more in The Day.)
Col. Ledyard School site concept
The proposed development of the site endangers the last remaining wild habitat in the City, but perhaps more alarmingly the property also sits on a steep slope above the headwaters of the Birch Plain Creek. The loss of root systems and permeable surfaces combined with increased human activity and run-off threatens to impact the entire creek’s watershed. GCA is working with City residents to limit the scope of the property’s development and preserve this important habitat and green space in the City of Groton.
The Pleasant Valley Elementary School property is also up for sale, endangering another forested area on the west side of town which needs more, not less green space. Click here to read more.
Update on the Mystic Education Center Redevelopment Plan
Respler Homes redevelopment concept presented Nov. 7, 2019
June 26, 2021 UPDATE
The State of Connecticut has decided not to renew the lease of Respler Homes on 48 acres of the Mystic Oral School property. Nevertheless, developer Jeff Respler remains committed to fulfilling the requirements for the sale, but noted that the new zoning limitations would require “a totally different vision.”
Groton’s Planning and Zoning Commission decided at a special meeting on June 14 that zoning changes to the former Mystic Education Center property would not include a floating zone and would instead be limited to small or moderate density development consistent with the neighborhood and the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development. The decision essentially puts a halt to a controversial proposal to build a sprawling 931-unit complex on the site at 240 Oral School Road using a floating zone. Read more about the P&Z Commission decision.
Background Story
After years of GCA watchdogging to save the 66+ acres of DEEP forest land from development (more than half the Oral School property), the Mystic Education Center redevelopment plan was finally announced by Groton’s Economic and Community Development Manager, Paige Bronk, on Nov. 7th, 2019. The chosen developer, Respler Homes, said, "We want to keep this as green as possible." But by January 2021, Respler’s project looked a lot less green. Read Jim Furlong’s (GCA board member) Op-ed article in The Day published March 14, 2021.
The revised project covers 48 acres of “surplus” state land and at least 16 acres of nearby land acquired privately by Respler Homes. The developer’s original forecast for the size of his project was about 750 units, but he ended 2020 with a target of 931.
This sharp expansion caused one P&Z member at a meeting last month to quip that the panel might assemble one day and find the number had risen to 1,100.
The Respler project has aroused questions about its size and density. “Behemoth” and “Co-op City” were two terms heard at the meeting. Now named “Mystic River Bluffs,” it poses several challenges to the P&Z, which merged the then-separate Planning and Zoning commissions in 2019. The merger took place over objections of conservationists, who worried that zoning could get short shrift from overburdened commissioners. At present, there are five full commission members, of whom only one was a Zoning holdover.
The project is also complex and based on concepts unknown or at least unusual for Groton. It involves a “floating zone,” giving developers more leeway than conventional zoning allows. Commission members are wondering what limits if any will apply to Respler Homes’ ultimate size and whether adequate alternatives have been considered for redevelopment. Financing for the project will be provided partly by Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which involves public funds. Floating zones are controversial because it means citizens can no longer rely on the predictability of the zoning map and their use tends to favor private development over the public interest.
Suggestions for alternative uses of the scenic land include a public park. A number of residents have called for refurbishing an existing theater in the land’s central Pratt building for musical and theatrical purposes.
The prospect of an influx of 2,000 more residents has raised alarm about traffic, noise, light pollution, blasting damage, and sudden urbanization of a semi-rural area that once was home to a state school for the deaf. No firm answers exist about further expansion.
Read our Jan. 21 letter to the Planning & Zoning Commission in response to Respler’s development update presented to the Town on January 20, 2021.
Planning and Zoning Commission: October 22, 2019
P&Z Schedules Meeting On Rainfall Standards Commissioners discussed the use of 25-year rainfall standards for dealing with runoff from the new middle school adjacent to the Fitch High School. Sue Sutherland, chairperson of the Zoning Commission before it merged into Planning & Zoning, raised the question of whether that benchmark is appropriate in light of climate change. She noted that Fort Hill Brook, which will accept stormwater flows, is a swiftly moving stream that has flooded in the past. Ms. Sutherland, formerly Zoning Commission Chair, is now an alternate member of the new commission.
The 25-year benchmark will remain in place for the middle school because it is the town standard. However, Assistant Director of Planning, Deb Jones, told the commission that she would schedule a meeting to discuss the issue. She noted that increasing the standard to 100 years would involve much more extensive cutting of trees. No date was set immediately.
Protecting Groton's Trees and Forests
Groton New London Airport, right, Bluff Point left. Photo by Brian Best.
Back in 2015-16, the Connecticut Airport Authority (CAA) recommended that Bluff Point's tallest trees be removed to accommodate airplanes landing at Groton-New London Airport. In response, local and state environmental advocacy groups (including a few of us pre-GCA advocates) proposed that a far more thorough environmental impact study be concluded to lessen the project's impact on the environment given CAA plans to remove 40 acres of trees in various locations at the park. Click here for the full back story in the Day.
The final Environmental Assessment was posted on the CAA study website in early March 2018. The final EA allows the project to proceed to the stage where specific plans and required permits can be considered. GCA is in contact with the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the owner of Bluff Point, and is urging them to minimize environmental damage by putting in place protective measures during the permitting process.
GCA continues to keep an eye on this project. There has been no action on the CAA tree-cutting plan for years now.