On March 26th at the Middlebury Conservation Commission meeting, Attorney Fitzpatrick introduced a new engineering firm who submitted a wetlands permit modification for the Southford Park Distribution Facility. We will keep this short, but here are the key details we learned:
1. There is a new “client” involved in the project, Kansas based Flint Development. Attorney Fitzpatrick explained this was “one” of the interested parties in the project. We will link their portfolio of projects in the comments, but many of them are massive distribution facilities. We suggest looking closely at the link and trying to picture their developments in the heart of our tiny town.
2. SLR seems to be no longer involved in the engineering side of the project, replaced by engineering firm VHB.
3. The MSTA so far has been unsuccessful at looking at or getting copies of the modified plans for the site, but it appears there have been changes to the parking layout and the building sizes. The explanation from VHB last evening was these changes fit the client’s “needs”, but there was no further clarification of why. This is all public information, and should have been available for inspection in the Land Use office. The MSTA was told to submit a FOIA request for copies of the documents by Chairman Bowler: this reply wrongly sidesteps the public access requirement that all land use applications require, and unnecessarily restricts public access to public documents.
4. The Commission voted to hold a Public Hearing on the permit modification, which will take place at next month’s Conservation Commission Meeting, April 30th, at 6:30 pm.
