KENT, Conn.—Novel legal questions stumped members of the Inland Wetlands Commission Monday night.
Specifically, IWC members questioned whether objections to a proposed 80-unit housing development are valid when no application is yet before the commission. Secondly, they pondered whether a Lake Waramaug agency can review applications filed with land use agencies in the towns that surround the lake.
The housing development, proposed for the large meadow adjacent to Town Hall, is facing some headwinds as critics prepare to thwart Kent Housing Development Associates’ effort to build town houses and apartments on about seven acres of a 12.5-acre tract. Twenty percent of the 80 units—some 16 dwellings—would be dedicated to affordable housing.
The developers, led by managing member Jim Millstein, have already received approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission for a Planned Development District on the site. This approval limits building to the concept proposed by the Associates.
The Associates must go back before the PZC with specifics for their plan before they can put shovels in the ground. If they can satisfy the zoning regulations, approval will be granted.
Before that can happen, however, the IWC must consider any impact on wetlands, including a manmade channel that runs through the center of the lot. If the IWC does not approve the plan, it would effectively scuttle the project. This has caused opponents of the project to urgently communicate their feelings to the IWC.
Chairman Lynn Werner posed the question of whether the commission can consider opinions registered before an application is even in front of it. She noted that a public hearing on a project will be called if the commission members decide the plan is “significant,” a strong likelihood. The public can also trigger a hearing if 25 residents call for one.
Land Use Administrator Tai Kern said that vocal critic Bonnie Bevans is in regular touch with her office and is reportedly circulating a petition. “If we get 25 people on a petition before we get an application, does that count?” Werner asked.
Kern explained that when the signatures are collected the petition goes to the town clerk for verification. “Then you would schedule a hearing,” she said. “That’s why you can’t approve an application in the same month you receive it. You have to give people a chance to react.”
She said there is no urgency for residents to put their names on a petition. “You have no idea what the plan is, only from the zoning standpoint,” she explained. “You don’t know the engineering. There is no danger of them not being able to comment.”
But member Ken Deitz said he wants confirmation from legal counsel that any communications received prior to application are not valid. “This is the second meeting in a row that we have received communications,” he said. “You hear the rumblings out there. There’s going to be more things coming out of left field.”
Turning their attention to Lake Waramaug, Werner said that she and Kern have been invited to a July 22 meeting with the selectmen of the three towns—Kent, Warren and Washington—that surround the lake.
The members of the IWC were confused about the invitation, assuming that it involved a request that a lake organization be allowed to review land use applications before they are presented to the town’s land use agencies.
Werner said she did not believe that would be statutorily possible. But following the meeting First Selectman Eric Epstein said the purpose of the meeting is to ensure that the three towns’ regulations are consistent.
“Each town’s regulations are just a little different,” said Epstein. “We just want to make sure we are all on the same page.”
Epstein said that one of the several Lake Waramaug authorities has been worried about controlling docks on the lake.
Kern noted that there are only three privately owned Kent properties that border the lake and that it is unlikely that its land use organizations will be make decisions that significantly impact the body of water.
