A Duty to Preserve, Protect, Maintain and Minimize

What exactly does the Conservation Commission do? Why is its decision on the proposed redevelopment of the Timex property so critical for the future of Middlebury? Let’s look at the language of Middlebury’s Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Regulations: “The preservation and protection of the wetlands and watercourses from random, unnecessary, undesirable, and unregulated uses, disturbance or destruction is in the public interest and is essential to the health, welfare and safety of the citizens of the state. It is, therefore, the purpose of these regulations to protect the citizens of the state by making provisions for the protection, preservation, maintenance and use of the inland wetlands and watercourses by minimizing their disturbance and pollution; maintaining and improving water quality in accordance with the highest standards set by federal, state or local authority;…”

The Conservation Commission is the first and only line of defense between the protection of our natural resources and the wanton destruction of said resources for monetary gain. The obligation is first to the protection of our natural resources, with development for economic gain taking a secondary importance. Thus far, it seems that the Middlebury Conservation Commission has forgotten its priorities: it failed to find a significant impact to wetlands for the proposed project, and it has failed to rigorously protect Middlebury residents from unnecessary and undesirable pollution.

Let's be brutally honest: at the November 29, 2022 Conservation Commission meeting, only 4 members of the Commission were present: Chairman Paul Bowler, George Tzepos, Peggy Gibbons and Curt Bosco. According to the minutes of that meeting, “The members of the Commission agreed that a Public Hearing was not required.” There was also no finding of significant impact to wetlands by the proposed project.

Middlebury’s Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Regulations define “Significant Impact activity” as “any activity, including, but not limited to the following activities which may have a major effect or significant impact.” There are 7 different criteria, including “any activity involving disposition or removal of material which will or may have a major affect or significant impact on the regulated area or another part of the inland wetland or watercourse system.” The regulations are here: https://www.middlebury-ct.org/sites/g/files/vyhlif6871/f/uploads/tom_inland_wetlands_watercourses_regulations.pdf

The proposed project on the Timex site will completely fill in .35 acres of wetlands and disturb 7 acres of the upland review area (defined as the 100 ft boundary around a defined wetland area). The complete destruction of wetlands is the very definition of adverse impact, and yet the Conservation Commission failed, from the very first meeting, to identify such an impact. The Middlebury Small Town Alliance has had to hire a Soil Scientist and a Civil Engineer who specializes in water quality and drainage to point out the obvious: the applicant's proposal fails to meet state regulations for storm water management and pollution control, and it fails to prioritize the protection of wetlands as a necessary condition of redevelopment.

Here’s the key findings from our Environmental Review:

• The proposed filling of wetland resources is a significant activity as per the definition within the Middlebury Inland Wetlands regulations
• The application materials lack discussion of feasible and prudent alternatives 
• The application materials are unclear regarding what methods were used to delineate the wetland boundaries, with confusing labels
• The application materials do no fully evaluate impacts to offsite wetlands/waterbodies, which are expected to be substantial and adverse
• The application materials lack discussion and data regarding impacts to the forested wetlands west of the site
• The wetland creation plan lacks quantitative calculations to demonstrate that a created wetland will not result in the dewatering of downstream wetlands or that existing hydrology will support such a created wetland
• It is recommended that less risky mitigation strategies or development configurations be explored and employed before resorting to wetland creation

The applicant has tried to argue that there is a difference between “federal” and “state” wetlands, and that the “state” wetlands were created only because of how Timex developed the site. The applicant also tried to argue that the “state" wetlands are isolated, and not connected to the “federal’ wetlands, which somehow justifies their elimination because they’re not important. All of this is mumbo-jumbo designed to confuse the lay-person into accepting the idea that it is OK to fill in wetlands because a real estate developer wants to shove a project someplace it doesn’t belong. Even the peer review, which was ordered by the town, agrees with our findings: the applicant didn’t fully delineate the actual wetlands on site, and the storm water management plans don’t comply with state regulations.

It is the Conservation Commission’s first and primary duty to preserve, protect, and minimize the destruction of wetlands during the course of proposed development. That doesn’t mean letting the applicant’s “experts” misuse science for the applicant’s benefit, it means holding the applicant to the “highest standards set by federal, state or local authority.” Under that criteria, the Commission should only vote to deny this application: any other decision is a failure to to protect the citizens of Middlebury from unnecessary and undesirable pollution.

The February 28th Conservation Commission meeting is 7:30pm at Shepardson Center. Plan to attend the meeting in person. Please wear red to show your opposition to this project.

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As Tuesday’s Conservation Commission Meeting Approaches

As Tuesday’s Conservation Commission meeting approaches (2/28 @7:30pm at Shepardson Community Center and on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81463100713?pwd=dzRIU3NCdDF×STdiSGOOdEc2RkpsZz09), the MSTA has the following update:

• The Peer Reviewer hired by the town has completed his report.

• The experts hired by the MSTA have reviewed this report and are prepared to reply at Tuesday’s meeting.

• We anticipate the Conservation Commission making a decision on Tuesday night, so it is critical that people are at the meeting or watching on Zoom. If the Commission approves this project, they’ll have to do it with everyone watching.

• If you want to submit your objection to the Conservation Commission, please send an email addressed to the Conservation Commission, ℅ of the MSTA at middlebury.small.town.alliance@gmail.com. The Wetlands Officer only works on Wednesday mornings, so we’ll hand in letters in person on Tuesday night to ensure they are included in the record. We’ll take printed out or handwritten letters as well as long as you can get them to one of us by Tuesday afternoon at 4pm. Send us a heads up via email or FB, and we’ll make arrangements to connect with you.

• No full biological assessment of the Timex property has been made (meaning no one went looking for endangered plants or animals). The application was initially submitted in November, so everything would have been hibernating at that point anyway. However, the MSTA made arrangements for a herpetologist to evaluate potential habitats (ribbon snake in particular), and we were denied access to the property to complete this evaluation. The real price of the denial is once again born by Middlebury residents: the town missed a golden opportunity to gather yet another layer of information critical to making an informed decision on the impact of approving this project. If the town is going to approve the complete destruction of wetlands, it should have at least evaluated what plants and animals live there first. The Natural Diversity Data Base (NDDB) identifies threatened species very near to the Timex property, and the applicant argued the NDDB didn’t show anything of concern on the property. While this is technically true, the NDDB is a look backwards at what has been found in the past. If no one ever evaluated the Timex property for endangered plants or animals, the NDDB would be incomplete because no one ever looked, not because there isn’t anything important on site. If the town accepts the applicant’s argument that there is nothing to look for, the town is turning a blind eye to willful habitat destruction and further endangering the plants and animals it has a duty to protect. This is simply unacceptable from the MSTA’s point of view, and it demonstrates a complete failure to govern properly.

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The True Cost of Convenience: The Impacts of Never-Ending Warehouse Development

Link: https://www.pennfuture.org/Blog-Item-The-True-Cost-of-Convenience-The-Impacts-of-Never-Ending-Warehouse-Development

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Conservation Commission Meeting (2/28) & Expert Access

Save the Date

• Mark your calendars for the Conservation Committee Meeting on February 28 at 7:30 PM @ Shephardson.
• More information to follow as we get closer, but for now plan to be there early and wear red to show your opposition to the project.

Breaking News…

• The experts (soil scientist and herpetologist) hired by the MSTA to review the applicant’s site plan before the Conservation Commission have been DENIED access to the Timex site.
• It is fundamentally unfair that the applicant gets access to the site, but the intervener doesn’t. What are they trying to hide?
• Furthermore, the members of the Conservation Commission are walking the site individually, and not holding a public meeting.
• The town could have given access to MSTA experts, but it chose not to. The lack of transparency surrounding this project continues to astonish, and it further proves the applicant does not have Middlebury’s best interests at heart.

Fundraising

Thank you to everyone who continues to support our efforts to oppose a distribution facility on the Timex property off Christian Rd in Middlebury. This application will be on the Feb 28th Conservation Commission agenda, and we are diligently preparing to participate in that meeting (our legal and expert witness team is hard at work).

We set an interim fundraising goal of $15,000 for February to cover the fees associated with preparing for this meeting, and to date, we’re received about $2200 in Gofundme and private donations.

Our February fundraising goal is to raise $15,000 for the following expenses:

- $4000 Civil Engineer

- $3500 Soil Scientist

- $7500 Lawyer (the lawyer will cost more than this for the month of February, but we have some funds allocated to this purpose already to bridge the gap)

The work we do for the Feb 28th meeting is essential to stopping this project, and we can’t afford to miss any opportunities to do our best work. Please consider donating and please share with your friends and neighbors.

Link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/middlebury-small-town-alliance

Status, Next Steps, Helping, and Fundraising

The Middlebury Small Town Alliance (MSTA) has provided the following update on the redevelopment of the Timex property at 555 Christian Rd and the adjoining property at 764 Southford Rd:

While it is true that the proposed text amendments application to add distribution facilities as a permitted use in the LI-200 zone was withdrawn from the Planning and Zoning Commission on Feb 1st, the project is still very much alive at the Conservation Commission. The photo below was taken from the applicant’s wetland report submitted to the Conservation Commission by SLR. You can see the proposed building sitting on top of dotted red lines - those are the wetlands and 100’ upland review area the applicant proposes to fill in as part of the project. The report is available here: https://www.middlebury-ct.org/sites/g/files/vyhlif6871/f/news/conservation_commission_wetland_delineation_report_and_impact_assessment.pdf. The applicant’s team is trying to argue those wetlands are insignificant and not worth saving, and the MSTA strongly disagrees.

The MSTA has hired a lawyer, a civil engineer and a soil scientist to review the site plan application for compliance with state regulations on storm water management and pollution control. This work is critical because the proposed use is deemed a “high pollutant load site” by the CT DEP, and there are specific steps that should be taken to manage the storm water run-off so that there are no thermal or pollutant effects passed off the property without proper treatment. Our civil engineer had 8 pages of things he found wrong with the applicant’s storm water management design, so already, the MSTA’s work is proving to be a crucial save for our town.

At the Conservation Commission meeting on January 31st, the Commission asked for a peer review of the project. The town hired its own soil scientist (at applicant’s expense) to review the application, and we expect the outcome of that review in the next week. The MSTA will then have its soil scientist review the original report plus the town’s peer review, and present our findings at the Feb. 28th Conservation Commission Meeting. We’re hoping to convince the Commission to issue a finding of “significant impact” on the wetlands the applicants wants to destroy to build the project. Ultimately, we’re hoping the Commission will deny the application for failing to comply with state regulations and for unnecessarily destroying wetlands.

As we prepare for the February 28th Conservation Commission meeting at 7:30pm at Shepardson Center, we could use your help in a number of areas:

1. Plan to attend the meeting in person. Please wear red to show your opposition to this project. Specifically, the applicant shouldn’t be filling in wetlands just to shove the biggest building it can on this site. There will be no public hearing, but a strong resident attendance sends a message to the Commission.

2. Talk to your friends in town, and get the word out! If you want to be more involved, please email middlebury.small.town.alliance@gmail.com and let us know what you’d be willing to help with. We’re looking for people to call their friends, forward emails/flyers, and encourage others to donate to the cause.

3. Make a donation to the MSTA to cover legal/expert witness fees. We’ve set an interim fundraising goal of $15,000 in February to be able to afford the fees due at the end of the month. You can support us online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/middlebury-small-town-alliance or send a check to Middlebury Small Town Alliance, PO Box 1073, Middlebury, CT 06762. Frankly put, Middlebury residents are either paying some to defeat this project now, or we’re all paying A LOT FOREVER if this project is approved, and the nature of our town changes for the worse. We won’t be able to undo the noise, traffic, air pollution, or additional projects of this size and nature once the approvals are granted.

Thank you for your support thus far, our town deserves nothing less!

Jennifer Mahr

President, MSTA

GAME ON!

Yesterday, the Town notified us that George Logan of REMA Ecological Services has been retained to conduct the peer review for Southford Park (this is the name for the project proposed for 555 Christian Rd/764 Southford Rd). Logan walked the site yesterday and should have his report finished in the next week or so. Today, the MSTA hired its own soil scientist, who will be able to review both the original wetlands report prepared by SLR for the applicant and Logan’s peer review.

The Town also confirmed that this application will be on the February 28, 2023 Conservation Commission regular meeting agenda. That meeting is at 7:30pm at the Shepardson Center.
So how can you help between now and February 28th?

• Stand by for signs! We expect our next shipment any moment now, and will post distribution details as soon as we can.

• Help with fundraising! The next few weeks will be costly from a legal/expert witness fee perspective. The soil scientist is estimated to cost about $3500, the lawyer is $450/hr, and our civil engineer is estimated to be another $3800 for a second round of review and testimony at the Conservation Commission meeting. We need to raise an additional $15,000 by the end of February. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far, please help us by reaching out to friends and neighbors and encouraging them to pitch in. Every little bit counts - thank you! You can donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/middlebury-small-town-alliance or send a check to Middlebury Small Town Alliance, PO Box 1073, Middlebury, CT 06762

• Save the date! Conservation Commission meeting on February 28th at 7:30pm. Wear red to show your opposition to the project. No word yet on whether this meeting will be on Zoom, but we will ask.

• Spread the word! Please talk to your friends and neighbors and encourage them to get informed on what’s happening in our town. This is critical work, especially for people who aren’t well connected to social media.

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Republican-American: Plan for Timex site pulled in Middlebury

 Plan for Timex site pulled in Middlebury | Republican-American (rep-am.com)

Dear Friends and Neighbors

First and foremost, we’d like to say thank you to everyone who has supported the Middlebury Small Town Alliance over the last few weeks. Your incredible support - encouraging FB comments, writing letters and emails, donating generously, proudly planting yard signs, wearing red - has made us so proud of our awesome town! We’re also very thankful for all of the expertise that has come to us exactly when we needed it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

With yesterday’s text amendments application withdrawal at Planning & Zoning, what’s next?

Let’s call it a pause. The site plan application is still before the Conservation Commission. The applicant asked for an extension to respond to the concerns raised by our expert witnesses, and the Conservation Commission also mandated a peer review of the application (which means another review conducted by a third party hired by the Conservation Commission and paid for by the applicant). The Alliance will be hiring our own soil scientist to conduct a review of the applicant’s wetlands report. It is unknown at this point whether the applicant will be back for the March Conservation Commission meeting, or not until April. 

We anticipate the applicant will refile with Planning & Zoning at some point, but we don’t know when or what kind of application it will be. We’ve raised over $22,000 in Gofundme and private donations, and we’ve been able to meet our financial obligations thus far for the lawyer, expert witness, and the coveted yard signs. Thank you to all the generous donors who got us to this point - we really appreciate you. However, we’re still shy of our $50,000 fundraising goal, and we anticipate needing every penny as we prepare for the upcoming Conservation Commission meetings and whatever new application comes into P&Z. Please consider supporting us financially - every donation counts, no matter how large or small. You can give online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/middlebury-small-town-alliance or make a check out to Middlebury Small Town Alliance and mail it to us at P.O. Box 1073, Middlebury, CT 06762. 

In the meantime, we’ve ordered another 100 yard signs, our civil engineer is standing by to review any revised plans submitted to the Conservation Commission, and we love seeing your comments on FB. Speaking of that, a very spirited thread on the Middlebury FB Group mentioned trash cleanup on our streets and the fact that Earth Day is just around the corner (Saturday, April 22nd). The Alliance offers to coordinate such an effort, and will be reaching out to town officials to see what we can pull together. We know that PHS students need volunteer hours, so we’d be glad to be the supervising authority to verify this volunteer work.

Finally, and most importantly, we believe our town has reached a critical decision point: what does our future look like? What kind of a town do we want to be? The Alliance is not anti-development, and it is completely reasonable to expect that business owners will want to come to the LI-200 zone and invest in our town. We’ve clearly articulated what we DON’T want in the LI-200 zone, and it is just as important to consider what we DO want. If the LI-200 zone needs an overhaul, then let’s get busy and get it done. This should be an open and collaborative process that pulls in expertise from all our town committees, our elected leaders, and the many talented citizens who live in our town. We should be working in partnership with developers and business owners to bring the right project to the right location, with the appropriate balance struck between protecting our natural environment (and our children in their schools), preserving the quality of life for the surrounding residential zones, and allowing business to flourish. The Middlebury Small Town Alliance is committed to this balance, and we ask for your continued support.

Stay tuned - we’ll be in touch when the applicant hits the play button.

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Feb 2nd Middlebury P&Z Public Hearing is Cancelled

The Middlebury Small Town Alliance just received word that the text amendment application has been withdrawn from the Planning & Zoning Commission.

Tomorrow night’s public hearing is canceled.

They had procedural issues that were identified, and we believe they will re-file. To our knowledge, the Conservation Committee application remains the same following last night's meeting.

Stay tuned.

-Middlebury Small Town Alliance

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