By Rit Carter
A portion of the border between Bristol and Plainville is delineated by Camp Street, which runs north and south between the two towns.
There is a slight stretch of land just off the roadway that most drivers overlook as they speed along to their destinations.
Located across the street from the Plainville Campgrounds is the Gloria Dei Church. Following a merger between Bethesda Lutheran Church on Academy Street in Forestville and the Lebanon Lutheran Church on Stearns Street, Gloria Dei Church was born with groundbreaking ceremonies in May 1963.
The church building, though, is not the issue.
It is the innocuous 5.8 acres of forested land behind the church, which they own and that no one notices while taking the checkered flag on Camp Street. But soon, that may change.
Recently, the Gloria Dei Church decided to sell the forest. Although a buyer has not been identified officially, Franklin Park Realty LLC of Plainville had a Concept Development Plan done on their behalf, which is on file with the city.
According to the plan, they will bulldoze the forest to construct 28 townhouses and 24 apartments.
Enter Erik Madsen.
Madsen, a lifelong Bristol resident and a Gloria Dei church member, is upset about the sale of the acreage. As a result, he is running a grassroots campaign against the sale called, Save the Gloria Dei Church Forest.
“I am hoping that the forest in its entirety can be saved, and I am going all in on the best result,” he told the TBE while taking us on a tour of the woods.
This is not his first rodeo.
He was involved in the open space preservation Saving Pigeon Hill in the Shrub Road area.
“I was a lubricant and facilitator to move that along and make it happen. I was not the biggest player as there were others involved,” Madsen said.
Madsen disagrees with the church’s actions and wants to preserve the small forest. He is surprised by this change in direction because the church has benefited from the wooded property.
“Twenty years ago, maybe longer, the church valued this campus and being outside. They created a space on the edge of the woods. People come out here to relax and meditate,” he said.
“It seems there was a view on the part of the church that the woods are vital and important. If this is lost, this is the closest you can get on the church property to 52 apartments.”
He has a petition to stop the development, so he spends his evenings and weekends canvassing the surrounding neighborhoods obtaining signatures, and letting residents know about the sale and the plans.
The forest is home to various trees, including Red Oak, Shagbark, Hickory, and Tulip. Meanwhile, foxes, bears, and other transient wildlife navigate through the neighborhoods to the woods, which offer them temporary refuge from the encroachment of rapid development.
Neighborhood kids also explore the forest’s terrain and find adventure amongst the rocks, leaf beds, trees, and the remnants of a farmer’s wall from Bristol’s pastural past.
Madsen is urging residents to attend the meeting he organized for tonight at Max’s Pizza on Stafford Avenue at 6 p.m. to fight the development.
“I feel like we’re at a cusp in Bristol where there are so few undeveloped parcels that have natural value left that they’re selling more quickly, and more pressure is on them to be developed more intensively,” Madsen said.
“This is almost like a crucible or experiment just to see whether an isolated parcel of woods is worth anything to people and whether it should be saved. We will find out.”
Those that cannot attend can contact Erik Madsen at savegloriadeichurchforest@gmail.com.
The TBE reached out to the Gloria Dei Church, and they did not respond to our inquiry.
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