KENT, Conn.—Discussion grew testy during Thursday night’s meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission despite Acting Chairman Sarah Chase’s request for “civility and a great deal of respect.”
The commission received information from both intervenor Bonnie Bevans and developer Jim Millstein about a proposed 80-unit housing development Millstein wants to construct on a 12-acre tract next to Town Hall. Chase warned those attending the meeting that a site plan approval was all that was under consideration, but most of Bevans’ evidence focused on the condition of the town’s sewer plant.
Chase had to admonish both sides, directing them to confine their presentations to zoning issues, but Millstein and Bevans dripped sarcasm toward each other as they drifted into issues such as taxes, costs the community might experience as a result of the development, and the marketability of the housing Millstein wants to build.
“No one will pay $500,000 for a one-bedroom apartment with no garage,” Bevans, a realtor, claimed.
“It’s a challenge for you, Bonnie,” Millstein shot back.
“I love you,” she responded sarcastically.
Acting Chairman Chase cut short the argument. “We are planning and zoning,” she said. “We don’t do taxes and we don’t do sewer.”
Millstein’s plan calls for 14 buildings offering a combination of apartments and town houses with one to three bedrooms. Sixteen of the units will be affordable housing.
Bevans depended on the testimony of civil engineer Steven Trinkaus from Southbury, who she recently recruited, and Connecticut Clean Water Coalition Chairman Joe Quaranta, who has previously offered testimony. They both contended that deficiencies at the town’s sewer plant made approval of additional development in the town’s center unwise.
The core argument promoted by Bevans is that the applicant, Kent Housing Development Associates, of which Millstein is the managing member, must obtain “will serve” letters to discharge effluent from his proposed development to the sewer plant.
Millstein’s team has a letter from the local Water Pollution Control Authority (Sewer Commission) saying it can accommodate the additional effluent both from his development and that of the proposed 15-unit Kent Affordable Housing project at Kent Commons.
The plant, which is rated to receive 142,000 gallons a day, is reported to process between 61,000 gallons and 68,000 gallons a day when its largest user, Kent School, is in session. In October, of the 1.9 million gallons processed, 785,000 were from the school, according to plant operator Lyle Sommers.
It is estimated the 80 new housing units would add 26,000 gallons a day.
“Mr. Millstein has not made an application to DEEP (the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection),” Bevans asserted. Millstein responded that will serve letters will be forthcoming soon for both water and sewer.
Trinkaus asserted that without the letters, the Planning and Zoning Commission cannot approve the application.
“It’s not permissible to condition your approval subject to the actions of another agency,” Trinkaus said, referring to earlier statements by PZC members that a conditional approval might be given for the site plan.
“If it is approved and DEEP says you can’t add the units and the developer has no place to send the effluent, it would probably not be a good outcome for the town,” he said.
He insinuated that the town would face a lawsuit from the developer. Millstein countered by publicly pledging that if the PZC approves the project and the sewer system is later found to be inadequate he would not sue the town.
Trinkaus’ assertion was further countered by Zoning Enforcement Officer Tai Kern, who said she consulted land use attorney Michael Zizka. Zizka said there is no legal impediment to the PZC approving applications conditional on the approval of another agency.
Bevans further argued that the sewer plant sits within a 100-year flood plain over an uncontained stratified drift aquifer. Such an aquifer is covered by highly permeable gravel that is not sealed from surface contamination by denser soils.
Public municipal records do not explicitly state whether the treatment plant, located at 125 Schaghticoke Road, lies within the 100-year floodplain, but the plant is near the Housatonic River in a flood-prone corridor.
“You usually do not want a sewage treatment plant in a 100-year flood zone,” said Trinkaus. Such plants would require tertiary treatment, the highest level of processing sewage, he reported.
Remedies could include bringing in fill to boost the plant’s elevation or building a wall around it. A more extreme solution would be construction of a new treatment plant in a different location.
Ground water has been recorded seven inches below the plant’s sand beds, according to Bevans’ witnesses. Quaranta said current standards require a buffer of three feet.
Kent applied for a renewal of its permit in 2009 and has yet to receive one. Bevans asserts that not one new unit can be added to the system until a new permit is granted. It is unclear whether the application was misplaced or if the chronic shortage of manpower at DEEP has created the delay. The former permit was extended, and the system is operating legally, reportedly at 95 percent efficiency.
The Sewer Commission is currently working with DEEP to expedite its permit renewal, a process that could take four to six months.
Bevans says the sewer plant, which was built in 1967, is antiquated and will not be allowed to function in the future as it has in the past. “We have to look at the sewer plant. I did not mean to uncover the fact that our sewer plant cannot accept any hook up of any kind without addressing the current condition of sewer plant,” she said. “So, for you folks to sit there and keep having these meetings and hearings and, ‘Oh yeah, we’re just going to vote yes’—no, we have to look at the sewer plant. …”
“There are a lot of wheels in motion,” she continued. “It’s under review by DEEP and I believe there will be an environmental load study. The plant will not function as it is. We just can’t approve the application without a ‘will serve’ letter.”
Millstein argued that the issues raised pertaining to the sewer system exist regardless of whether the 80 units are built or not. As a member of the Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy, he is “totally sympathetic” to concerns about pollution of the aquifer, “But the issue before the PZC is whether this conforms to the town’s regulations ,” he argued.
PZC member Shelby Green asked Trinkaus if he had reviewed Kent Housing Development Associates’ application. He said he had looked at the site plan and some of the information from DEEP. When asked if he had seen the Sewer Commission’s letter saying it has the capacity to serve the development, he countered that if DEEP does not allow spreading treated sludge onto the neighboring farmland, it would not have the ability to treat the additional effluent.
Turning her attention elsewhere, Bevans asserted that the project will cost the municipality money because Maple Street Extension will have to be widened to accommodate additional traffic exiting and entering the development and that new culverts would have to be installed under the railroad tracks.
Millstein responded that the tax revenue generated by the village complex he envisions will more than offset any municipal expenses to widen Maple Street Ext. And, if the town is required to build a new sewage plant, he argued that adding users to the system would help defray the cost to users.
“There’s no question that the tax revenue generated by these units will far exceed whatever the DOT requires,” he said. “The cost will be a small percentage of what these units will generate annually. And it seems to be financially obvious you would want these 80 units contributing to the cost of any sewer upgrade.”
“These 12 acres have contributed about $12,000 a year in taxes,” he continued. “If we build a $30 million to $40 million project on this land it will significantly increase the available resources to the town. Eighty units should add 150 or more people to the economic life of this town, people who will support the commercial properties in Kent. … This town needs incremental growth in its economic life and populations to support that economic life.”
He noted that the town designated the property as incentive housing zone to encourage development nine years ago. “In April, you approved a Planned Development District, and this site plan conforms to that district. If, for whatever reason, you decide not to approve it, it would be a disserve to the Town and the PZC boards before you,” he said.
Millstein noted that there is still an application before the Inland Wetlands Commission, which must act on it before it can come to the PZC. “Wetlands has retained an environmental expert to look at our storm water plan,” he said. “We just received the report and will respond to its recommendations.”
If the application is denied he will “do something else with the land,” for which he paid $1 million even before engaging his team of professionals to develop the site plan. “Using this land for housing will have been defeated by Bonnie,” he said baldly. “I hope she doesn’t succeed.”
“If [the developers] had good hearts, they would make it into something else,” said Bevans. She suggested that Millstein reduce the plan to 20 units and create a municipal building for the town.
The application was tabled until the December Planning and Zoning meeting.
