By David Fortier
The builders behind a proposed open space housing development off Perkins Street abutting city property containing a dog park, a portion of a reputedly historically significant colonial road and rare geological formations have withdrawn their inlands/wetlands application.
“It’s shame on us,” said Tim Bobroske, of P & B Properties, in a phone interview the morning after Monday’s Inland/Wetlands commission meeting, about the improper location of a sign announcing the public hearing.
The large yellow sign announcing the public hearing was to have been posted within five feet of the street line. It was more than eight feet away. As a result, the applicants were left with one of three choices: withdraw the application, request a 28-day extension that if granted would push the public hearing to the next commission meeting on Oct. 7 or submit information by a licensed surveyor that the sign was installed properly.
“The city of Bristol is crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s,” Bobroske said. “They are doing their job.”
He said the decision to withdraw the application, which was only made the previous day, would allow P & B Properties an opportunity to work with the city to develop a better proposal, within the time allotted for applications.
The previous week Public Works responded to a recent on-site inspection with 30 points that needed to be clarified before a final vote on the application. (The letter can be found here.)
Bobroske said that the process involves a lot of give and take, which is part of the due diligence, and that the application was closing in on 65 days allotted prior to a public hearing.
“We don’t want to give the impression we’re going to shove anything down anybody’s throat,” he said.
Opponents of the project, members of Friends of the Hoppers-Birge Pond Preserve and those who frequently use the dog park abutting the property where Bristol Village is being proposed were realistic about the withdrawal of the application and even encouraged by the development.
There responses ranged from understanding that this is only a hitch in the process to hoping that the state would intercede to criticism of the project as not only ill-conceived but poorly planned.
“I am disappointed that there wasn’t a public hearing tonight,” said Michelle Rudy, a leader of the Friends of the Hoppers-Birge Pond Preserve. “But we will be back.”
The withdrawal will not only give the builders time to work on a new application, but it will also provide the Friends an opportunity to develop their strategy. For one, the group has hired a lawyer and an environmental scientist.
Michael Simmons, treasurer of the Friends, said, “I had a feeling it was coming because of the procedural issue with the sign.”
Both Rudy and Simmons alerted members of their group of the possibility that the wetlands application would be withdrawn so that the number of those who appeared was much fewer than might have attended if the public hearing would have gone forward.
“I didn’t want people to come and waste their time,” Simmons said.
He added that, the day before, the environmental scientist hired by the Friends was on the property taking water samples.
He also said that the group will be seeking intervener status with the commission.
“That’s where basically you are on equal footing with the builder and the town so if there’s a meeting with the builder and the town for whatever reason the intervener can be there to make sure everything is on the up and up.”
Neighbors brought their own perspective to the withdrawal.
Gary Lukasiewicz, who has lived for 25 years in the same house along the border of the P & B Property, said he would like to see the state purchase the property for a park.
“We should get funding from the federal government and buy the whole thing back at whatever he paid,” Lukasiewicz said. “I am not against a guy making a profit.”
The kettles and the claim that George Washington traveled on an old colonial road that is a path that cuts through the property make it unique and worth saving, he said. The claim about Washington is anecdotal, since there are no historic documents verifying Washington’s route.
Michael Panet has only lived on Perkins Street for the past year and a half after relocating from New York as part of a job promotion. He said he was seeking something similar to where he lived in New York–something rural, woodsy, peaceful and tranquil–and hit on it with his new home.
“Then I found this happened shortly after I was there, and this destroyed my whole vision of why I brought my whole family here.,” he said.
Local environmental activist Erik Madsen in a phone interview after Monday’s meeting took a more critical tone.
“For people such as myself, that are opposed to this project, I think this is a great thing,” he said. “It shows that this applicant doesn’t have their stuff together.”
In addition, he said the economics of the proposal do not make sense for the community.
“If you just try to look at this from the point of view of economics, the value of what’s gained doesn’t seem to come close to the cost of the damage that this would do, in so many ways,” he said. “It’s hard in some ways to even put a price on some of the damage.”
The builders might see things differently, he said, especially where mining sand and gravel comes in. In the next phases of the project, before any building and after the wetlands are dealt with, a great deal of earth will have to be excavated.
This will entail, possibly, years of trucks hauling the mined materials out of the area, he said.
“There are plenty of other places that are probably more suited to mining good quality sand,” Madsen said, “where you don’t have to do it in the middle of one of the State of Connecticut’s most populous communities, next to a park, next to an existing neighborhood, next to a wetland and in a forest,”
From the builder’s perspective, the end goal of the project, Bobroske said, would be a first for Bristol–a carbon neutral open space development.
“We think our plan is good,” he said. “We’re putting our money where our mouth is.”
Bobroske took in stride the letter from Public Works after the on-site inspection raised a number of issues regarding the specifics of a proposed bridge that would cross the stream at the entrance of the property. “If you really read [the comments],” Bobroske said, “what they’re saying is, they just want an explanation of why we designed [the bridge] the way we did.”
“We are not talking the Farmington River,” Bobroske said, “but it is a stream, it is wetlands and it’s under the regulations of the city of Bristol. So, you have to address it.”
At Monday night’s meeting, Rogozinski read aloud the letter from P & B Properties attorney Timothy Furey, of Furey, Donovan, Cooney & Dyer P.C., withdrawing the application.
“Pursuant to your memo regarding the deficiencies of posted public hearing notice on the above captioned application my client has chosen to withdraw the above captioned application with the intention of refiling in the near future. In this way, they would have full statutory time frame in which to work to review the project with city of Bristol staff to make appropriate modifications.”
Following the unanimous vote to accept the withdrawal of the application, Rogozinski encouraged the people interested in the project to follow the future activity on the website, where all hearings are posted in advance.
Related stories
All TBE readers, supporters and donors
The Bristol Edition will be limiting the number of stories non-members and free readers may access each week. This decision is based on our financial projections and, most certainly, to remind people that TBE is serious about providing accurate, timely and thorough reporting for Bristol. To do this we have devised a financial support structure that makes unlimited access extremely affordable, beginning with a $6 monthly donation.
- Non-members will be able to access four (4) articles per week.
- Free readers and people who have subscribed by email will be able to access four (4) articles per week.
- Donors and financial supporters will have unlimited access as long as they log in.
Note: Donors may have to contact TBE if they find they are being limited, since we will need to set up a membership account for you. Email editor@bristoledition.org for instructions. Sorry for any inconvenience. People with financial difficulties may write editor@bristoledition.org to be considered for free access.