Conservation Commission To Weigh In On Proposal To Develop Aquarion Land

Members of the volunteer municipal body tasked with advising the town on the management and protection of New Canaan’s natural resources said Thursday night that they plan to weigh in on a divisive proposal from the water company to develop a large wooded parcel that straddles the Noroton River watershed.

The Conservation Commission’s role is “to gather facts and present our learned opinion to the Town Council about things like this,” the group’s chairman, Cam Hutchins, said during a special meeting, held in a Town Hall board room.

“This is something we want to weigh in on, and we are not supposed to be biased, though our bias going in is that open space a good thing.”

Aquarion’s approximately 19-acre property occupies a wildlife- and wetlands-heavy parcel bordered by the points of three dead-ending roads—Indian Waters Drive, Welles Lane and Thurton Drive. Officials with the water company say they have entered an agreement with one neighbor who wants to purchase 8.3 acres contiguous to his or her property, and will pursue a 2-lot subdivision of the roughly 10 remaining acres, with frontage on Indian Waters Drive.

Any land sale undertaken by Aquarion requires approval from the state agency that oversees utilities in Connecticut, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority. Officials with Aquarion have said they expect no response before August.

Meanwhile, several residents of Indian Waters Drive have raised concerns about the development of a sizeable parcel that’s always served as open space, providing habitat for wildlife, and have called for a plan to guarantee its preservation as-is.

The property has belonged to successive water companies for at least 109 years, tax records show, and was acquired by Aquarion in 2002 as part of the utility’s purchase of Connecticut American.

Aquarion officials have said they’re getting soil testing and appraisals done and plan to file this spring with Inland Wetlands and Planning & Zoning. The land in question here is known as “class three” at Aquarion, company officials have said—a watershed designation that means it’s still sellable.

It isn’t clear just what New Canaan could or would do if the Conservation Commission and Town Council conclude that the parcel should remain undeveloped.

“I don’t think the town buying open space is always the answer,” he said.

The commissioners agreed to conduct a site visit with local experts afree the Town Council’s April 20 meeting—at which the Conservation Commission is expected to give a sort of State of the Union report, Hutchins said—with an eye on delivering its opinion with respect to the Aquarion property aa soon as possible. Those joining the group could include the director of Inland Wetlands and other experts.

At the meeting, the commissioners agreed that the work ahead of them includes determining exactly where wetlands are on the Aquarion land, how development of the property would affect wells or habitat downstream, and what potential impacts it could have on public water.

“If it’s in the watershed then there is a strong argument for why all of New Canaan and the watershed should be trying to keep the ecosystem services, water filtration and all that stuff going—and I haven’t heard of a massive shortage of housing around here,” commissioner Heather Lauver said.

A guest at the meeting, Selectman Beth Jones, noted that Aquarion gets a tax break while the land is open space and undeveloped, but if the water company decides to sell it, that would change. Hutchins said he worried that the maneuver could set a dangerous precedent by which landowners could secure increasingly lower tax rates on open space and then opt to develop it, securing approvals and turning a profit at a cost to the environment.

“We are going to need to construct a logical argument, but I think we need to see it first to see how close to wetlands and what kinds of ecosystem services it’s providing,” Lauver said.

An entire section of a document that helps guide development in New Canaan addresses the need to preserve and enhance open space (see page 18 of the Plan of Conservation & Development, here).

“New Canaan should continue to preserve open space when opportunities present themselves, especially when adjacent to existing open space lands,” part of the POCD reads. “To help support open space preservation, New Canaan should consider pursuing open space grants (such as from the State of Connecticut) and partnering with other organizations (such as The Nature Conservancy).”