Washington Housing Plan Is Building a High Profile

<a href=www.zwire.com>LitchfieldCountyTimes.com By: David Lombino 06/06/2003 Although the development plan, as designed by local landscape architect Dirk Sabin, details extensive efforts to protect the fragile area, including the donation of more than 60 percent of the property to a land trust through a conservation easement, some critics assert that the project is too ambitious, will threaten an important ecosystem and sets a dangerous precedent. An ad hoc town commission designated the area as critical habitat because state-designated species of special concern live near the site and there is a diversity of amphibians. In addition, the property contains the headwaters of Sprain Brook, along with clusters of vernal pools and a closed-canopy forest. The designation is not meant to prevent development, but to draw attention to environmentally sensitive areas and to encourage good plans that will not have a negative impact on the area. On May 28, the Inland Wetlands Commission voted to continue the public hearing on the application for a fourth session, set for Wednesday. Board member Mark Picton cast the only vote against continuing the hearing. All board members were contacted for telephone interviews, but only Mr. Picton and Candace Korzenko were available, and Ms. Korzenko explained that commission members could not discuss the issue outside of the public hearing. The applicants are Roxbury builder Ed Cady, who is known for the en vogue building method of importing materials from antique barns from other regions and using them to create houses in Litchfield County, and Roxbury resident Maria Eugenia Maury. She is the wife of Diego Arria, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations under UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and a former governor of Caracas, Venezuela. Mr. Cady constructed a home for the Arrias' 66-acre Roxbury property that they purchased for $1.6 million in March 2001, to go alongside a restored Federal-style farmhouse. The sale of the Washington estate where the development is proposed, from George Murphy to Ms. Maury and Mr. Cady is contingent on approval of the application by the town's land-use commissions. The 73-acre tract, which borders property owned by Mayflower Inn owners Robert and Adriana Mnuchin, makes up part of the headwaters of Sprain Brook, which meanders down Nettleton Hollow Road toward Woodbury, where it feeds the Weekeepeemee River, which eventually meets the Pomperaug River, both highly touted trout streams. In a telephone interview, Mr. Sabin explained that the plan proposes to take three existing parcels and combine them into two, accessible from one driveway. It then aims to place more than 60 percent of the property, or about 43 acres containing the vernal pools and central wetlands, into a conservation easement that would be held by the town, the Steep Rock Association or another entity. The two housing lots will be developed, and two ponds will be constructed from wetlands and upland areas, for protection from fire, to add esthetic value and to create habitat diversification. The larger, 0.8-acre pond would disturb around half an acre of existing wetlands, and the smaller, 0.4-acre pond would disturb between a quarter and a third of an acre of existing wetlands. The conservation easement would connect to an existing easement that belongs to Steep Rock, directly to the south. Susan Payne of the Steep Rock Association said that the organization had a preliminary discussion with Mr. Sabin, but no formal application had been submitted, no review had been undertaken and no decision made. Mr. Sabin, who has served on the Inland Wetlands Commission, the Conservation Commission and was chairman of the ad hoc committee that created the town's natural resource inventory report, has contended that the plan is preferable to another potential application to put six houses on the property, with up to four wetlands crossings. He has submitted documentation asserting that the town's soil-based zoning regulations permit up to six lots, with more wetlands crossings and less land in easement on the property than is proposed. At the most recent public hearing, he said the commission should not compare this application to an alternative of no development. "I suppose no development is an option, but I don't see anyone lining up to donate this to the town," he said at last week's hearing. "You need to consider potential development scenarios in a spot like this." Janet Hill, Washington's longtime zoning enforcement officer and former wetlands enforcement officer, said in a telephone interview she could not think of a project of this scale proposed for as sensitive an area during her tenure. Mike Ajello, Washington's wetlands enforcement officer, has visited the site and said he could not predict the direction of the commission's vote. "From my point of view there are some wetlands we don't need to spend a lot of time protecting. And there are pristine wetlands that have never been impacted or touched ... and much of the Maury/Cady site are of the latter description," he said in a telephone interview. "Protection is relative. We can never do too much, but we have to do what's reasonable. From my experience, a little bit of protection is almost worthless in the sensitive areas. A lot is necessary. How much is too much? Everything you do will have some impact." "The most difficult thing a commissioner faces is weighing those two things-how much can be accomplished before we impact the wetlands, and [balancing] that against a homeowner's personal rights to do what they want to do with their property," he said, explaining the philosophical dilemma. "Mr. Sabin has done an excellent job representing it and doing as much as he can possibly do to secure something for the town. Is it enough? What's enough? Then it's a judgment call." Curtis Read, a water specialist who serves on the Bridgewater Inland Wetlands Commission and the Pomperaug River Coalition, and is chairman of the Northwest Conservation District, spoke against the project at an April 23 public hearing. He argued the plan would permanently change the habitat by causing the water to get warmer, damaging breeding ground for salamanders, fish, frogs and mosquitoes. "In my presentation, I likened it to the SUV of development in that, unfortunately, they are proposing activity in upland wetlands that is critical habitat for known endangered species, and they are proposing to change that with ponds, grading, swimming pools and tennis courts," he said in a telephone interview. "I would think, when there is this kind of sensitive area, they would at least pull back out of the wetlands areas and maintain as much environmental integrity as possible. ... But the sense is, it's Washington, Connecticut and you need to pile on the amenities to make the house attractive." Mr. Read said he hopes the commission will consider other less harmful alternatives and weigh the long-term effects of accepting the plan. "The impact is fairly major. It's indicative of the building pressure in the county that we are going to sites like this to build McMansions," he explained. Betsy Corrigan, a Conservation Commission member and a neighbor of the proposed development, argues that the project is too big and has too many unknowns. Even though she claims she will not be able to see the development, and its acceptance may actually make her property value rise, she is asking the commission to deny the application without prejudice and ask the applicants to reapply with a scaled-down plan. She believes the commission is fearful of litigation. "If this thing passes as is, it will set a bad precedent and clear the way for other people to do the same. It will have historical repercussions for the region in similarly sensitive areas," said Ms. Corrigan in a telephone interview. "I really thought that Washington had a big conservation ethic-a big proposal like this comes around and no one turns out for it." Mr. Sabin admits that the project is getting "a hard look" by the wetlands commission and its consultants, but he argues that it is not because it's a "huge project," or really complex, but because there are natural resources present. "Obviously I'm asking for some regulated activity. I've made no bones about it from the beginning that there are going to be impacts ... but we are very cognizant of the wetlands and watercourses ... " he explained at the hearing last week, arguing for the commission to close the hearing that night and make a swift decision. The commission sought the advice of Michael Klemens, a herpetologist and a consultant whose fee was paid by the applicants. Mr. Klemens made a site visit, submitted a written report and attended the April 23 and May 14 meetings. Mr. Klemens noted the importance and fragility of the property's vernal pools, and he advised commission members to make sure the planned ponds do not compromise Sprain Brook with an inflow of nutrients or through thermal alterations. He also worried that a proposed driveway came too close to a vernal pool. In response to Mr. Klemens' suggestions, Mr. Sabin said he has altered the original plan, moved and reduced the size the ponds, lessened the wetlands impact and added an additional natural wetland filtration area. At last week's meeting, commission member Marguerite Purnell questioned whether an owner would actually comply with regulations and keep extensive protective measures, or just mow and fertilize green lawns right up the banks of ponds. Mr. Sabin answered that owners would be aware of complex management plans, and deed restrictions could force future owners to comply. Commission members also wondered whether there was any way to ensure that the owners would only build two houses, and not subdivide down the road. Mr. Arria said later in a telephone interview that Ms. Maury and Mr. Cady could ensure that only two houses are built with a deed restriction. In May, 2001 Roxbury's Inland Wetlands Commission issued notices of violations to the Arrias for cutting trees within a 200-foot buffer along the Shepaug River without a permit. Banks were denuded and trees were placed across the river so workers could reach an island in the river to mow and selectively cut trees and shrubs. An estimated 100 tress were cut down. Mr. Arria hired an environmental firm, ESM Associates of Danbury, which submitted a environmental review and impact assessment report to the Roxbury's wetlands commission. Commission chairman Russ Dirienzo said at the time that the commission probably would have granted the necessary permit had the applicant originally filed one. Mr. Dirienzo was so pleased with how the Arrias mitigated the problem, he later singled them out as models for how to deal with wetland violations. In a telephone interview from Manhattan, Mr. Arria emphasized that the Carmel Hill Road project in Washington belonged to his wife and Mr. Cady. But since his wife was unavailable, Mr. Arria pointed out that she and Mr. Cady had opted to build only two homes instead of six, and hired Mr. Sabin because of his reputation in the area as a highly respected landscape architect. He noted that more than 60 percent of the Washington property was to be preserved, and said that he and his wife were undecided about whether to sell their property in Roxbury and move into one of the houses in Washington, if the project is approved. The wetlands commission is to discuss the project again Wednesday at 6 p.m.