KENT, Conn.—The proposed renovation of the Kent School dining hall and student center will come before the Inland Wetlands Commission in January for potential action.
During the commission’s December meeting, Zoning Enforcement Officer Tai Kern praised the school’s preparation of the application, saying the plan was comprehensive and noting that all work will occur in areas that have previously been disturbed.
The planned location is also within a flood plain, she said, “but those associated approvals will be reviewed by Planning and Zoning.”
The majority of the planned upgrade to the facility will take place in the interior of the building.
IWC Chairman Lynn Werner agreed, saying, “There is a lot of information here,” and urged her commissioners to study it before the January meeting.
The professional team representing Kent School reviewed the plan for the IWC members, describing three areas for proposed activity, including expansion of a terrace, an exterior dining area, and construction of a stairwell that will require reconfiguration of the loading dock. The three areas combined will create between 700 and 750 square feet more of impervious surfaces.
Commission members discussed the proximity of Macedonia Brook and the Housatonic River and asked that exact distances from the work areas to these two watercourses be included on the application.
Reconfiguration of the terrace will include removing an asphalt walkway and bringing that section into the paved terrace. Plantings along the edge of that walk, currently pear trees, will be removed and replaced with native deciduous plants.
Water quality treatment has been included in the plan to accommodate the new impervious surface runoff, but the water would ultimately be channeled through an existing pipe that runs into Macedonia Brook. A maintenance schedule for the treatment system is included in the plans.
Renovations to the dining pavilion were reviewed and include a new pavilion enclosure that will require minor grading. The construction of a new staircase tower requires a reconstruction of the loading area to move the access door and a slight increase in the square footage.
The erosion control plan was reviewed. It is not anticipated that there will be much need to stockpile materials and any demolition debris will be trucked off site.
In other business, the commission continued an application by Joy Simbulan-Khuu for construction of a single-family dwelling at 71 Gorham Road until the January meeting at the request of the applicant.
Howard Khuu represented the applicant.
Members reported on their site visit and noted that the proposed septic will now be in the regulated area. Photos showing the staked location of a previously approved septic system location indicated that it would be with three feet of the foundation of the relocated garage instead of 25 feet from a structure. The plan submitted with the new garage location superimposed does not show the proper distance for the septic system to the wetlands.
Khuu said that an application had been submitted to the Torrington Area Health District and that TAHD was waiting for the IWC’s action. Werner advised him that TAHD has a separate set of regulations and could act without IWC approval. He was told it would be more expeditious to get health district approval before the IWC takes action so he would not have to reapply if TAHD does not approve his plan.
Because the plan has evolved, and an existing barn has been moved, commissioners were confused about which site plan pertained. Kern noted that the south deck on the barn is now encroaching on the setback as the result of the move and she believed an “as built” document might provide the commissioners with better information.
She was “curious” to know if there might be another, “more prudent and feasible” alternative to the placement of the garage to prevent encroachment into a regulated area.
She reminded the commissioners that the clock was ticking on the time they had to make a decision. If they could not approve or disapprove the application by Wednesday, Dec. 31, they had to either deny it without prejudice or ask the applicant for the right to extend it by 65 days. Khuu chose the latter option and promised to return with one plan that included all the required information.
