Conservation, Energy, & Environment Committee - Regular Meeting

two. Close enough. Um, uh, we have, uh, Bob Dickinson, Claudia Guardiac, David Hagar, uh, Brenda Watson and Jessica White in attendance. And we have, uh, Val Rosetti um, online as well. And we have Mary Peler in the office. So, um, we may be hearing from her at some point as well. Um, so in terms of getting going here, um, any additions to the agenda that from the committee? Okay, not such a bad thing. We have a lot to talk about after last month. um the when we get to kind of announcements, updates um in the other category, please remind me. Um I've written myself a note, but please remind me. Um I do want to talk about this data center that concept that was proposed. I keep getting questions about it. Um a lot of questions about it. So, I think it would be worthwhile to talk, you know, to talk about what we can let the public know in terms of what the status is. I've heard um there's nothing kind of new happening with it. Um and they came in for anformational session, but I'd like to, you know, discuss that a bit. Um and just very briefly at the uh public health safety and environment committee meeting last night um councelor Mahan brought up um the fact that he'd gotten an inquiry from someone in town about leaves, leaving your leaves and kind of the benefits of that and he was interested in learning more. So that might be something we could do something

educational on just in terms of pushing information out. So don't want to leave that um with the leaves starting to fall. Okay. Um, could I Brenda, you have your hand up? Go ahead. Yeah. I have a quick question. Our folks or maybe the town council members are seeking ad advice or recommendations from us regarding the data center.

Um, I will seek to get clarification. I think what happened was um, a resident in town basically forwarded an email from an environmental group. That's what kind of what it looks like. Um talking about you know ordinances or you know what are the policies in town in terms of leaf collection. I think it's more around that. Um council mahan seemed to be more interested in um understanding the value and why it was important to maybe not have such a pristine lawn. So my sense is at least you know in the immediate near term what we should do is um use it as an opportunity to push some messaging out either through town newsletters or the paper. So um it was literally a oh this just came in and the email has been sent my way. I will share it but I all I know is that it's in my inbox and I haven't even had time to really look at it beyond um the description I gave you. Okay.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I will I will distribute it. Um so, but I don't want to leave it, you know, I don't want to forget about it. Um okay, so uh approve approval of September 11th uh meeting minutes. Can I have a motion? Okay. Can I I'll make a motion. This is Brenda. Okay. And can I have a second? Second was Yeah, you both of you moved. Yeah. And yeah,

either way. All right. Um, are there any abstensions or nays? Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? I Okay, very good. Uh, the meeting minutes are approved. Okay, now we move on to a um a nice start to our meeting this month. Um, we're going to spend a few minutes just making introductions. Um, I'm going to we have we we sort of have two two introductions to make. I mean, one real real introduction, Nick. Um, and I want to make sure I get this right. Gabooa.

Okay. um our new environmental planner and I had the pleasure of speaking with Nick briefly last week um with John and Linder just to talk a little bit about the committee and but this is the first time in person so very excited and I also want to uh just mention that Brenda Watson is our newest official member. She was appointed by the council and so we are at full strength for CEC. So yep. So Brenda has attended um you know has attended off and on consistently for a long time. So um excited to have her. But why don't we start um Nick if you wouldn't mind just sort of introducing yourself to everyone and then we'll do a brief round of introductions. Okay.

Sure. Hi everybody. Uh my name is Nick Gabuzda. I'm the new environmental planner for the town. Um, I'll be working very closely with John and Linda in the land use department here at Bloomfield. Um, in terms of my my fuller background, uh, I have a BS in environmental science from Dickinson College. I'm currently pursuing a master's in energy and environmental management at Yukon, doing that remotely right now. Um, in terms of my career expertise, uh, my most recent position was I was a, uh, a regulatory consultant for an environmental consulting firm in Connecticut. Um and before that at that same company I was a biologist. So to sum up my experiences are in things like conducting wetland delineations, invasive species surveys, water quality surveys, that kind of stuff. And then the regulatory end, it's a lot of working with agencies, ensuring federal and state regulatory compliance. Um and then also renewable energy feasibility, the company specialized in hydro power and solar. So that's kind of my backgrounds there. And then here uh in my actual role here, a big part of my role is to work with you all here in CES. Um and then also various other land use projects. Uh I'll be particularly lending my expertise in the environmental realm, but I'll be working on pretty a slew of things in the land use and zoning world here at Bloomfield. How is that? Is that

that's that's great. Okay. Make sure and welcome. And I think if anyone has a question or along the way then uh we can we can entertain that. Perfect. Okay. Um, Brenda, do you mind going next since you're, you know, welcome and you're you're you're official?

Not at all. Thank you so much. Um, so, um, a resident of Bloomfield since 2008 and, um, working in energy assistance related work for about 15 years, which morphed into environmental justice work. Um, as Paula indicated earlier, I've been off and on attending these meetings um because it's where my interest lies and I'm I'm really grateful for um members of this committee to have um approved my appointment. And my my main concerns are reducing energy burden for people living in Bloomfield. um ways in which we can promote clean and renewable energy as a way to um keep the lights on. And I'm excited to be a part of this committee. So, thank you very much. And I just recently received my um I I went to Yale to receive a certificate in clean um energy. um actually I'm kind of twisting my words here, but it's um environmental justice uh projects related to clean energy. Um so it's it's a certificate related to that work and I'm I'm grateful to be able to promote that while I'm a member of the committee.

Thank you. Great. Thank you. Actually, um let's just stay online if folks don't mind. Um, Jessica, you want to go next? I'm sorry. Actually, can I pass? I'm having to just do a work thing right now on my phone. Thank you. We'll try We'll try We'll try to We'll try to come back to you. You're multitasking, Zelene. Oops. We're not hearing you. I'm trying to unmute. You are. You are unmuted. We can hear you. No, you were unmuted. Do it again. Let me try. There you can hear it now. Yes.

Okay. I'm Zelene Sandler. I've been in town since 1994. I've lived here. Um I my special interests are in birds and conservation of land. Um, I was past president of the Hartford Autobon Society and u I'm a master wildlife conservationist uh from DEAP. Um, what else? I guess that's about it. I lead nature walks and uh hikes for the Appalachian Mountain Club. I'm very concerned about the amount of development that's going on in town and I would like to see more of our land preserved for conservation, wildlife, birds, etc. That's it.

Terrific. Thank you. And you're you're also involved in with pollinators as well, butterfly counts, things like that. Oh, yes. And um if any of you are members of ALP um I'll be doing a presentation on bats as p bat bats are an unrecognized pollinator. I'll be doing the presentation at seabberry in November. Great. And elp is the adult learning program um at seab at generally at Seabbury. Yep. Through Yukon extension. Yep. Okay. and and Val, do you mind just introducing yourself since you're you're part of the institution here?

Yeah. Hi, Val Rosetti. Yeah, I'm just u a part an online participant right now. I I I helped revive the committee many years ago and was a chairperson for a while and was very involved in trying to set some uh energy tracking benchmarking standards for the town and the buildings. got very involved in water water issues um and uh yeah general environmental um interest. Thank you. Um Claudia, use the mic, please. Is it on?

Yes.

Okay. Uh, Claudia Guardiac. Um, I've been on the committee officially and unofficially for about three years. Um, I have no expertise, but I have grandchildren and I feel absolutely committed to doing whatever I can do to preserve the planet locally. And um the last thing I did was uh on sun day uh do a tiny public presentation of my electric vehicle to anyone who was interested.

Thank you, David. I'm uh David Hager. I've been on the committee for a number of years. uh enjoyed participating very much in the trees for Bloomfield uh project which I hope can be ongoing. um have an interest uh in in the uh energy use and the emergency uh plan for this the the for the town which seems to be kind of wallowing. Bob.

I'm Bob Dickinson. I guess I've been on the committee a couple years now. I was active in the energy committee in South Windsor prior to moving to Bloomfield 5 years ago. And uh I see a reachable goal of net zero for Bloomfield. you using uh t town town sol town solar on town buildings and on uh homes and and commercial properties I think it's it's attainable within maybe 5 years if we start moving and it's it's cost-effective so there's no reason we shouldn't be able to go forward with that goal. Thank you. And you're um and you are also our multiuse path proponent which is a good thing. Yeah. Which ties into complete streets which you know is something that um I think I mentioned Nick um the first um environmental planner Ashley Stewart that was one of her objectives to get done was to get a complete streets plant uh passed for Bloomfield.

Yeah. a very high percentage of of trips are are are under under a mile. And if we have safe ways to to to walk our bicycle, we'll take cars off the road.

Okay. And I'll wrap up and I'll try to be brief. Um Paula Jones, uh I've been involved with the committee basically since 2007 18. I think I was appointed 2018. Um, I've chaired for several years now. I can't remember quite how long. Um, I'm also involved with the Trees for Bloomfield initiative. Um, we're very happy that we've gotten support from, um, the current town council to, um, get designated as a Tree City USA. We want to maintain that. And to David's point, we want to maintain trees for Bloomfield in some way, shape, or form. Uh, keep that going. Um I sort of ear, you know, my leanings are more towards the conservation environmental side of things and the CEC. Um the energy piece um I'm very grateful um that we have good representation on the committee for people who have a lot more expertise in that than I do in terms of renewable. Um, I also, um, serve as Bloomfield's representative on the lower Farmington River Salmon Brook Wild and Scenic Committee. I'm the vice president of Trap Rock Ridge Land Conservancy and I also serve on the board of Rivers Alliance. Um, as well as I'm a vice chair of Parks and Wreck in um, Bloomfield. So, I mean, it's basically all kind of environmental, recreational, outdoor type activities. Okay, those are my interest. Okay, so thank you um very much all. That was hopefully helpful for Nick. He has a sense of what we're about and uh maybe who to talk to if he wants some information. Okay, great. Um okay. Uh planners report is that do you have any information on that from

John because we can jump over it or what have you got if anything? Well, uh, let's see. I mean, we we went over a lot of things earlier. Oh, sorry. We, uh, went over a lot of things today with a we had a land use round table, uh, which is a new meeting practice that I think we're about to incorporate. I think every week or so, we're going to go over just things on our plate. Um, things about, you know, potential developments came up that data center we all mentioned earlier that came up. All those things are nothing is in like a a full steam ahead mode as I can tell yet, but that kind of stuff. we talked about those things. Um, John didn't give me any other particular uh information to relay over here, but I can tell you that we are going to try and discuss things once a week. So perhaps the next time I come here, I can like have a formal

summary for you. Very good. Thank you. Okay. Do you have a question? Yeah. la last month and in in the minutes there's a comment that the uh community investment fund was established and I really don't understand what that is and and what's happening and I can't remember the amount but it was a lot of money and anybody refresh that it was in John's report last uh yeah

yeah it's for the it's for the town's center development commission or whatever. Um the town applied for a 22 million um comm and CIF is community investment fund that is a it's a state program I think and I I can't I can't speak to where all the funding comes from. I think a lot of it is actually state funding versus federal funding. Um, but that particular program is where the $4 million grant from uh for Rockwell Park came from a few years ago and the CIF funds were also um used to close the gap I think for Proser, you know, the library at one point. So, it's it's a state program that communities um you know, apply to in terms of you know, capital projects and various projects. That's that's a lay person's kind of accounting of it, but that's what it's about. Okay. Um Okay, let's move on to old business. There's a long list here. Um first up is uh solar in Bloomfield. Um what I think we had a a presentation um from Kevin Costello last month um about this potential project on Seabbury property and um we provided some feedback which Lynn captured in the minutes. Um, and that is something that was that I provided to Kevin because he emailed and said, "Do we need him to come back?" And I don't think we necessarily need to do that. I think John needs to direct kind of what's next on that. But since he did send us this report,

um, it offered to send us what the environmental assessment. Um, I wanted to make sure that folks had an opportunity to share any comments that they had after, you know, having a look at it. Zelene,

I read it. Yes, I and I do have comments on it. I have concerns. Um, one one of the concerns is that it does not show uh the maps don't show where it connects to Sam Wheeler Reed Park and what impacts it will have on Sam Wheeler Reed Park. Um, also some of the environmental statements, they're using the um natural diversity database to determine what species may or may not be on that property. I don't think that's a really good reference. Um, I don't know who has contributed to that in Bloomfield. Um, but having worked with it, it's sort of a userdriven uh thing where you input what you've seen. I don't think it's that reliable in terms of using it as a criteria for an environmental study. Uh, I still am not sure about the impacts that this will have on the birds. um and the connectivity to Samuel Wheeler Reed Park and even over to Penwood. So I I'm not convinced about using this property. I would like to see where it actually is going to intersect Sam Wheeler Reed Park and nothing was mentioned about that. uh also that wetlands will be disturbed and I don't think there has been a significant u investigation of what species are currently living in those wetland areas. For example, the uh green snake um is an endangered snake in

Connecticut and that is the perfect habitat for that species. I don't think anyone's looked there for that snake. Um, and of course there's the Baba Lakes in Sam Wheeler Reed Park. I don't know how much they use the woods surrounding the park, but that's another question that I have. So, I have some issues with that environmental report. I don't think it was very comprehensive, and I don't think that they investigated in any depth. They they relied on the natural resource database, which I don't think While some of it may be applicable, I don't think it's detailed enough to know what we're actually dealing with. That's it. Other comments? David?

I I actually found the map very helpful. Um, and as I read the map, uh, the wetlands really are not impacted, uh, by the area where the array would be. Um, I think the the area where the array would be, if I understand correctly, is the mixed um, deciduous forest area, and that would have to be cleared. Um, I don't understand how this property relates to Seabberry. Uh, it's not across the street from Seabberry at all. Um, and um, so it's a section of land um, disjointed from Seabberry. So I don't understand what that relationship is, what Seabberry gets out of this. And as far as I can tell, this this this does not in uh bother the the Sam Reed Park at all. It's completely separate from that.

So if anybody has answers to these questions, it it would it would help me. Bob, you you can talk to Cabberry and then Nick. Oh, am I? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, he he lives at Seabberry, so I just figured he would answer that question and then have at it, please. Go ahead. Go ahead, Bob.

Well, I I I know that there's a section of property across from Seabbury that that was given to the town. That was my that's what I'd heard. And I'm thinking that that's probably this piece of property was kept by Seabberry as possible de developable because it's adjacent to a housing development. As I say, I I'm not I'm not an expert on that, but it's just hearsay. So, Nick, do you have something more definitive?

Well, I had something Yes. related to David's comment about uh the impact on wetlands. So I think I'm reading this map clearly in the analysis here where the green on this map that is deciduous forest but it's a wetland forest. If you if you look closely you can see the little wetland dot dot dot dot dot. So almost the whole parcel according to the biologist here isn't a wetland but within that there are different kinds of wetlands. So it looks like the yellow here is like a a grassland meadow type wetland and then there's the deciduous forest wetland. The areas that aren't wetland are kind of you see these kind of small bluish circles um near the south southern part that's the non-wetland. So and in the analysis here it does say um there will be a conversion of over one quarter of the on-site pustrian mixed deciduous f uh forest to solar array. So it would be a net uh net here net loss of wetland resources um just to consider that.

Okay. Okay. Other other um do other uh members or guests have comments actually. Can you take it down for a second or at least let us does anyone have their hand up?

Okay. Uh yeah. Okay. Mary. Yeah. So, um I just want to say that the one of the most interesting findings of the North Branch Park River wershed management plan update was how important these forests are for cooling areas and especially given the droughts that we've had recently. having forests in areas where there is water availability and allowing those forests to grow and become dense and intact mature forest is not only critical for the birds which I'm so glad Zelene highlighted the issues with the report because I once had a a Yale professor said that a lot of these reports were just um a way to rubber stamp the development and she wasn't impressed with the level of environmental al review that that the biology or the you know I'm not a biologist but the plant and you know bird research that went into the environmental review report. So, um, so keeping forests is one way to keep things cool. And, you know, I know we need solar energy to cut down on an overheating planet, but by cutting down trees that are cooling our neighborhoods, it's you're we're increasingly um throwing out our benefits that we get from regenerative nature.

Okay. Thank you for that, Mary. That's a good comment. Um Mary is the executive director of the Park River Wershed Association. So I just want to mention that. Okay. Um Val, now on on that map that was just being shown online, um could somebody describe where the boundary of the park is in in relation to what we're seeing as a development? Sam Wheeler Sam Wheeler Reed Park. Yeah. John, do you know boundaries are?

Yeah. Like the the question has come up about where Sam Wheeler Reed Park is in relation to um you know the CEK solar.

It's on basically south and east. I mean, it goes out to, you know, it goes south down the school street. Then if you look at that, basically everything to the right of the uh property is in the Sammy Reed Park and then it even goes further east. Um, could you could you use your your pointer to show where where it is because I I don't I'm not oriented to the direction. So where where would the boundary of Samuel Sam Wheeler Wheeler Rate Park be? We have a pointer.

Yeah.

Oops. I'm sorry. Let me back up. down here.

So, is Sam Willer Reed in this image or it's off the image? It's partially on the image. Okay. This part, the wooded lands on the image and then this whole field down here in the lower part. Is that this? Yeah. Back there. Okay. Here on the bottom of the screen, that image, but there's a lot of the park Sam Park read not on this image. That's correct. There's a huge amount of it. Is okay. And I'm looking at photo seven in the report. And is am I looking at the back of and I'm I'm going to draw a blank. What's the farm? What's the What's the farm next to Sam Wheeler Reed Park? One up there.

Farm. Yeah, I'm thinking that's maybe the back. We're looking at the buildings. Yeah, I don't know either. Um, okay. Are all those trees being cut down that we're looking at right now?

Nothing's being cut down right. Yeah, nothing is being cut down right now. No, no, no, no. But it's that's where the proposed array is adjacent to the agricultural field. So all the trees on the left side of the photograph is that is that that's where the array would sit and presumably they would take those trees down. I I was just trying to get a sense of when you're standing in at the picnic bench in front of Samuel Reed Wheeler Park. What will your eyes be seen? Where will the solar array will be? In the far back on the right boundary. Is that where it would be? That's correct.

Okay. If you're if you're coming standing at the entrance to the park where you come in off of School Street, it would be it would be to your north up in the right hand corner, the far end. Okay. So, what tell me what Cabberry is getting out of this. Is this a contribution to the community? What what I I still don't get the relationship at all. it it would contribute towards our goal of of net zero receiver. Yeah. As much electricity as we use.

So yeah. So um what Bob said is it would contribute to the net the goal of net zero. Um it's feeding the grid. That's what it would be doing. Um, I guess I'm just I mean if if I I want to make sure everyone's had an opportunity. I have a couple of comments, but I think a lot a lot of it's been covered. Um, I'm not I don't have the expertise to sort of um have a sense of how good or lacking this environmental assessment is. Um but I will say the one one thing I was very impressed with is the um resource values of this property. I mean there are all kinds of benefits that are enumerated and you know one of the things that was that Kevin mentioned was oh you'll you know a benefit of doing the project is you get rid of some of the invasives. Um well, you know, we have invasives everywhere, but again, the the the the ecological value of this um the emphasis on the fact that you have this intact green space in a fairly intensely developed area, and the fact that you're talking about this net loss of wetlands, which sounds to me like, well, I mean, I know a little bit about different types of wetlands, not a lot, but just through exposure to other things. It seems like there's a lot of value here and you just don't you know you don't want to you don't you don't want to dismiss that value and kind of underemphasize the value. I I felt more uncomfortable with the proposal after reading this report. I I just need to say that flat out. I I think the the the project represents a a real uh in a way

conflict of interest within the committee and within people interested in in environmental and conservation work. There's a major drive for renewable energy. There's a major drive in in Bloomfield to maintain farmland and wooded land and so forth. Right? So there's a there's a major uh the two draw two um two movements within this group and within many groups uh in in in the town I think are butdding up against each other in a way.

Yeah. uh and how this gets resolved um uh I'm not sure but you know the the the need for more solar arrays I think is present. I don't know of other places in Bloomfield where that might be uh uh where that might occur. Uh that's been talked about but nothing has been defined. Um if there were other other areas then protecting this might be a better thing to do but um u I I think both both efforts need to be recognized with this project. Just a little background. This whole piece of property I I believe it was I think how many acres? 20 acres. Um they tried to le lease it to a farmer some years ago and uh or well not lease it to sell it to him and he was supposed they were supposed to make payments over a period of time to gain ownership and uh and at some point they stopped making payments and many years passed and then the property came back to Sabbury.

Um I you know if I can say something Yep. Brenda. Yep. Go ahead.

I'm 110% all for solar projects. Um I'm highly opposed to developing these solar projects on open space on habitat for even as something as small as ants, insects, insect life. Um, there are so many heat islands in in our town that can be utilized as a place to to put or install solar arrays. There's parking lots. There's abandoned assets. There's the tops of buildings. Um, there really is no reason why we need to be cutting down trees or destroying open space to install solar. So I don't think we're going to come to a conclusion. Um but I hope in terms of providing CEC input to to TPZ and we would we will be happy if this project goes forward I think to you know um comment publicly. Um I just want to say to David's point you're absolutely right. You can see the kind of um it's a conundrum. It really is a bit of a conundrum. And I think what we're talking you know what we're talking about here is not dissimilar from department of agriculture and D in terms of solar and renewable and you know the the fight for uh the fight for meeting those goals to and you know Brenda is well aware of this as well the fact you know but at what cost in terms of agricultural land we have lot lost a lot of agricultural and forested land um more recently to some of these solar projects. Okay, hang on.

Yeah, Val has a comment and then David and then we're going to do last licks. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Just my understanding from the consultant was this that this energy is going directly into the grid and and that I'm assuming Seabberry would get some money from leasing the property. I I think it would be a fine I I totally get their their commitment to um generating more um renewable energy. But the question I had um is part of the presentation was the um suggestion that we we adopt uh solar regulations that were modeled on the ones from Volentown and included like a um minimal um amount of acreage of 7 acres and it's like a 250 megawatt facility and I'm just wondering two things whether we have gotten any other solar regulations from sim towns more similar to us to look at. And the second is does the town ability to use their GIS system not u would would that be able to just uh make a layer of the properties in Bloomfield that actually are you know 7 acres or longer. So you know somebody could look at what is available for if those regulations were to be adopted.

It's a good idea. Uh in response to the first question on the um the town staff will be developing uh the final regulations and um actually Nick will be working on those directly and we will be looking at a variety of sources not just the ones from Ledger um and then they'll have to go to public hearing and review by the commission. um the GIS system ought to be able to develop the the um the layover that whether it it can whether in fact it does um we'll have to determine that. Um, one of the other attributes that Nick brings to the to the team is that he is um well-versed in GIS and um we're hoping that we can um right away find a way for him to be able to work with the IT folks um who basically handle the GIS right now to um create additional ways to manipulate the system to gather data such as that. Um I would note that um there are really two variables for the location of this type of a of an array and that's not not first the a site but also it has to have the ability to directly connect to a certain level of the grid and that uh is really the limiting factor in town. So you while we may have a hundred five acre sites scattered around town, we may only have three that can make that kind of connection to the grid. Um the um the um applicant um knows where those locations are and we can certainly get them. But I there there are probably very few sites um within town that would meet both criteria. Um the limiting one really being the um the ability to hook up to the grid

any Okay, Nick and then B. I'm just I just want I think that David has raised the real question and we str I've struggled with that from the beginning. I've it always um um perplexes me somewhat in terms of what we're trying to balance that almost every applicant for a um for a rooftop or or or um polestanding um solar residential development has involved removal of trees. And I've thought to myself, you know, all right, so they're getting they're getting some solar, but we're losing trees. And we probably had more trees over the last couple of years y

um cut down in town as a result of uh insulation of solar facilities for residential properties. So that's a really you know that's the cost that that balance is is one we really have to keep an eye on. Bob Claudia and then we will move on. Oh I'm sorry Nick. Bob Claudia then we'll move on. Go ahead. First. Yep. You first.

Sure. I just wanted to voice um this project reminds me a lot of one I worked on myself as a biologist. I relate a lot of to what a biologist did here. I have worked on projects that did wetland delineations for proposed solar arrays. From my personal experience, um I want to first echo what Brenda said about the ideal being putting solar on developed places like buildings, brownfields, etc. Those can be rare just because there's some places that are pretty rural and some parts of Bloomfield seem to be that way. If we're putting solar, I think in open space, the ideal is to put it in lowquality open space because although the places are places wetlands, some wetlands have lots of biodiversity, are really good for uh animal habitat etc. Others can be monocultures of invasive species like fragmitees, barberry. What I understand from this report is that while there are some areas that are extremely heavily invested in in invaded by invasives, for the most part, it seems like, especially with these photos, pretty decent quality habitat here. So, while I'm not opposed to exploring putting solar in open space, I think you need to choose the right kind of open space to do it on. Um, those are my thoughts and from my experience as well. The worst was saying somebody try and put a solar array on a beautiful wetland when there's a stand of fragmitees right next door. Uh so that's just my two cents on that.

Great. Thank you. Okay. Um Claudia Bob and then we'll move on.

Go ahead. Um my question is do we generally in this town wait for someone to come to us with an idea for a solar installation or do we have our own plan? We have your plan for for that your energy plan that you and sustainable energy plan that you guys that's the plan we have but we do not have anything beyond that. So we would we do not have a location plan per se. So we would wait for a particular applicant to come in and up until now we haven't even had any regulations that would um would regulate um the installation of this type of facility. So basically right now this type of facility is not permitted in town notwithstanding the fact that there's one next to the board of education.

Okay. Bob, did you want to say something?

Open spaces have been mentioned uh and preserving farmland and I I don't I don't think I think the best way to preserve farmland is is is for the town to buy development rights. either buy the property and lease it or buy development rights. And uh I really think think the town needs to take more initiative uh in in that direction so that because uh we we can uh try to limit usage of property. But uh sometimes the choice is going to be solar or uh uh having the the the property developed for residential houses.

Y resident there is are residential houses right on the back of back of this proposal. Correct.

Yes.

Okay. So, I'll I'm going to add my final two cents worth. Um, one of the things that this committee did several years ago, um, when we developed the solar the renewables policy was we at that time talked about the need or it would be a nice thing to develop potentially a list of potential sites suited for this kind of activity. I mean, and that was something we were like, of course, time is short, you know, time is uh precious, so that's not the kind of thing that gets done. But, um, I just wanted to bring that up. CDC kind of kind of pushed for that. Um, so anyway, hopefully this gives some feedback. It's kind of m mixed obviously. We recognize the challenge. Um, and you know, if we think of anything else, I encourage the committee members to feel free to shoot an email in and copy in on it and we'll make sure we get get it to um John and his department so that TPZ gets it. Okay.

And as always, we um greatly appreciate um any input we receive from you and we accept it in the spirit that you send it to us. Having driven through Volunttown recently, I was surprised at how unlike Bloomfield it is. Okay. So, we'll leave we'll leave it at that then. All right. Okay. Moving on to um sustainable CT certification. Just a quick update. Um actually, Nick, would you like to comment that you're going to be working on this? Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Um I can say I've become pretty familiar with the website with uh the metrics for for getting certification. Um and yeah, I I looked over the initial documents you sent me about the uh the word is the equity inventory. Is that the correct word? The equity tool kit. The tool kit. Toolit. Yeah. So I've become pretty familiar with those things and um yeah, I'm interested to hear where you want to go with this. Yeah.

Yep. Um and In short, I think where we want to go with it is we want to get the town reertified. Yeah. I just I just saw um I think an announcement about 35 towns getting kind of certified and it's like next year we want to be on that list. So um there is a lot that we've done and I think again making sure we have we collectively have enough knowledge of the different categories in terms of where we can get points. um you know it's more kind of I think bringing that to the committee so that we can contribute things we've done because we've done a lot that I think counts. So like Sunday I would think that would count you know anyway. Yep.

I was going to say I've reviewed I guess what we did in the past uh and seeing where we could build off what we already have and maybe seeing if we'd include some new things. I don't know. I mean let's let's shoot for the stars so to speak. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go for silver instead of bronze. Oh, here here in some All right, great. Um, so that was that's just that. Um, extreme heat. I don't know that we have anything um to add. We talked about this last month. Uh, Jessica, um, I think Nancy gave us a debrief in terms of kind of next steps which were summarized in the minutes. Anything else to add at this point? No.

No. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. I'm Some of these things I'm leaving I'm leaving under old business as placeholders because we intend to do some additional work and um some of that we need to figure out as we go forward. um the artificial turf ban resolution that we had um done last April I think and then we brought it to we brought it to council. Um that's in a holding pattern. I mean ba basically they are looking at it. Um I think the feedback I've gotten um I asked the chair uh Mr. Cooper and he said, you know, he thought the um council was really um sort of committed to the notion of new no new artificial turf installation, but they're trying to figure out what's going on at the high school and what life is left in that existing field and kind of what's involved. But nothing is imminent. So, I just wanted to leave it on the agenda, but give that update. Yeah.

Just um are you comfortable with where Rockville Park is? Because they're I think they have in their plans it's artificial turf. Okay. And that's moving along. Okay. My Okay. You may know something. I don't know. I just know it in general. I don't know the specifics, but I know the park, you know, they've got the funding and and and I think they've selected a contractor. Okay. Right. So I think that process that pro that project as a project is moving along. I don't know where they are right

relative specifically to the use or non-use of artificial turf. Although it's my understanding that artificial turf was in the original plans.

So what I understand is that yes artificial turf was in the original plan. The price tag of the of the plan in total was in excess of 13 million. the council requested um after CEC brought up some concerns that the uh an estimate using natural turf instead of artificial turf um that that be obtained and that the estimate came back and it would lower the price by 2 million for the entire project. My understanding is that the project is being phased because we got a 4 million CIF grant and this is information I'm taking from the parks and recck committee. Um so my understanding is the phase that's being done um is more like the basketball courts, the pickle ball courts, maybe community garden. It's not those playing fields. That would be a later phase. So that's why, you know, at a minimum we're in kind of a holding pattern even if we continue to um um discuss it. Okay. But um thank you for bringing it up. That's my understanding and uh that

which I'm sure is accurate. Well, the it we get periodic updates on the process um just because of parks and wreck and you know the I know there's a contractor and I yeah I know there was some back and forth on that and it took some time with the state and all of that. Yeah. Yep. Um see I'll stop talking shortly. Highlands region designation resolution. I just wanted to give the committee an update. Um that was another resolution that we sent to council. They passed it in July. Um and the resolution was simply that Bloomfield be added um to the Highlands region. Trap Rock Ridge Land Conservancy um is the organization that brought this notion of being added to the CEC. Um East Grahamby got designated. Um, West Hartford just went through the same process we did and their council passed a resolution as well. Um, the good news is I thought Mr. Coleman or his department was going to have to do some follow-up work with Deep. As it turns out, the um Husatonic Valley Association, that nonprofit, is kind of acting as an aggregator working with deep to collect resolutions from the towns that are interested in being added and kind of facilitating the process. So, they have our resolution and they are working with deep and we don't need to do anything until we hear we need to do something. So, I think things are in good order there and hopefully the next thing we'll know is that we've been added. So, um just that's the update on that. Um and that was a happy surprise to get that. So, um

okay. There she is. Okay. Zelene, did you want to say anything? Are you talking to your cat?

My cat? I was talking to my cat. Okay. Um, just let's see. Going through the rest of this very quickly. Um, Nick, this is something that we need to work on together. Um, the climate emergency energy plan. Um, one of the first actions it called for was for the town and manager to appoint a climate action task force with representation from appropriate departments as well as other appropriate groups or stakeholders. So, um, now that you're on board, um, and I think John would agree with this, it it, you know, it's better time to bring bring that thing up. Okay.

Okay. Good. Um, tree clear cutting letter to Connecticut DOT. I have not done that yet, so we'll leave it on there. Um, recycling program. That's something again we need to um pick it up in terms of what um has been proposed and have another conversation with the town manager on that. So, there's no no change from last month. And the tree ordinance revision, again, I'm leaving that on the agenda because we've talked about doing that. I've gotten a request for from Windsor, from someone in Windsor for us to share what we have because um they're trying to potentially get something in place in Windsor. So, that request just came in. I did say that we were going to be doing some additional the town was going to be doing some additional work on what we already had. Okay.

Is the ordinance something that's needed to continue the tree city designation? Yes, but we have it. You know, we we that as well as just sort of the designation of a tree warden in town is really what we needed. So, we're fine. And you know, anything would we we would be doing would be I think kind of refining what we have. So we should be okay.

Yeah. Um David, we need to tighten up the ordinance. There are some there are some there are some gaps in it that allow things to happen that um in terms of removal of trees with and and it's ambiguous in terms of um replacement of trees removed and we need to balance that. One way of interpreting is if you take down significant or or heritage trees of X caliber and you have to replace them with you know a similar count of trees to add up to that cal caliber. It could be a a very substantial investment that uh um um may may have a very significant impact on any developer that need to balance that with um you know what is the appropriate number and right now that's ambiguous and needs to be cleared up. Um there are a couple other things in the language where we know what the intent was but the ordinance doesn't really carry out the intent. the enforcement of this type of thing is is uh not easy. I think

it is not, but we're we're used to that. There are a lot of things that are in our regulations that are and I don't know if it applies to residential um

there right now there is a minimum, you know, minimum size of square feet or percentage of canopy. I think right now it's 10%age of canopy when it kicks in. But um I would like to at least be a way to better monitor uh removal of of trees um particularly related to solar installations. Um I think there were um we could have done a better better job of working with homeowners and finding and requiring them to inform us be we find out about a solar installation when they come in for a permit for the installation. Often times the trees are removed before that and I want to put in place a method where before they cut down the first tree for a solar installation they at least inform us and there may be you know we may not be able to flat out prohibit it but is a way we can work with it. Is there a way to reorient the solar? Are there trees that really don't need to come down so that we can we can um work hard because as we all know, you know, the trees aren't replaceable and the solar isn't going to be there forever. Um,

yeah. In regard to that, it would seem you would have to have a regulation that would uh have a permit to cut down any tree because if you got a tree, you cut it down two years later, you decide to put in solar or do you cut it down immediately before you're going to put it in solar. So, your regulation to for cutting trees would have to cover all trees all the time. That one may be a difficult one, Bob, in terms of Exactly.

and I'm not sure of the legality of that if it's just cutting trees down uh in terms of an individual's a property owner's right to use their property. Um and that that's a difficult if they're cutting it down for a for a purpose to install or construct, then we can step in. Um and I'm not, you know, I'm not absolutely positive about that. And obviously we'd have to get some legal rulings. But I that would be a tough one.

Of course, if if what say the person person has one or two substantial trees, okay, but they have other room on their property where they could put trees. uh prohibitively expensive to put, you know, mature trees in there of any size, but it would be reasonable to cutting down two substantial trees to put in a half a dozen uh well little more than seedlings in another part of the property that in 20 years would be would equal those that were cut down.

That that's the I mean that's the idea in terms of replacement. Obviously, if you're cutting down a 30 caliber tree, you're not going to be able to replant a 30 caliber tree, but you could you could you could plant six five caliber trees. Uh again, there's a cost involved that you have to, you know, maybe you don't do five, you do three or something. But I think it's also a different approach when you're talking about heritage and specimen trees. I think we can be much more um involved with the removal of heritage and specimen trees than we can just be of trees. Yeah. And I think that that's something we can clearly work on.

Yeah. Yeah. Let's we'll we'll we'll move on. I you know, John and I have both bemoaned the loss of some amazing trees on Doncaster Road um to put up solar panels and I mean it's it makes you cry. It really does. So, all right. Um, okay. New business. I want to give adequate time to just in that regard, I would note there are those that put on solars that didn't take a tree down at all. Up from my from up two houses up from where I live. The guys did it. Put in solar didn't touch a tree.

That's great. Yep. Okay. So, um, solar regulations just in terms of propos proposal. Bob, I'm gonna let you talk about this. You and Claudia sort of came up with something to begin looking at. Say something first or No, you go ahead.

Well, I've been aware that, you know, a a lot of commercial buildings go in and they don't even consider or look at the cost effectiveness of putting in solar. And I think that it might be beneficial if we had a regulation that re required that they evaluate it and uh and put in solar if it is cost-effective, which I I believe right now it it it is even without government subsidies and uh h having uh some uh some regulations to require them to evaluate and and put it in. And basically, if they if they can show it's not cost-effective, they can ask for a waiver. But if they need to go through that procedure and hope hopefully we can get most of our our solar needs on on buildings rather than going into uh into open spaces or farmlands or vacant property. Okay. Um hopefully folks had a time had time to at least you know read through it. Um just sort of reactions, comments, responses. The idea is that um if you don't put solar in, you have to explain yourself which is really reverses the norm. And I think it's a great idea.

Other comments? How did you come by the square footage requirements?

So, somebody builds a uh 2500 square foot house. They're not in this Is that correct? Right. Well, all of this this whole proposal is subject to revision. If if we can we can show a better number, we should change it. I just wondered where these numbers came from.

Well, actually, I I started off with AI and Massach and the regulations in Massachusetts. So, everything on here is from someplace else. I would make them much smaller.

Well, of course, I I don't think too many individual homes are being built today that are under 3,000 ft, tell you the truth. But if we want to make that 2,000 there, I'd certainly be agreeable to it. And the other other question was I don't understand this uh tax abatement that's that's offered. Well, I I in talking to the tax assessor a number of months ago, uh that pretty much solar on homes is is not taxed and but I don't think it's clear as far especially for for commercial uh as to what tax consequences they uh they take on when they put solar in. And I think that often if if they're going to have to pay well for instance that sixacre solar project will will gener as proposed will will generate tax revenue

and and and we could probably have more pro more uh proposals for for for solar both on buildings and uh just a a situation like that uh if if we had abatement. Okay. So, I'm going to jump in and then um we'll let our staff potentially say something. But just one quick comment. I think in general tax abatement policy is the purview of the council

and um I just know from um sitting on the sidelines over the years um it's a difficult thing to kind of codify what things what things should be what things should be viewed as beneficial and worthy of abatement tax fixing. It's is it's called. I understood, you know, Bob and I had an exchange. I understood this to mean like if you're a small business or residential and you install solar, you get some kind of abatement to potentially help mitigate the cost of it for some period of time. And you're just saying forever, which I probably wouldn't agree with, but you know, it's it's an interesting idea, but the council was involved in it. And then the other thing um I'm just going to say I think is the case from having attended and made comments at public hearings of TPZ for larger commercial projects is often times maybe roofs are solar ready but they aren't but solar is not installed because there's sort of a it's dependent on what's the ultimate use is going to be and you don't always know the tenants. Is that a fair statement? Okay, I'm gonna Yeah. Other comments from Yep.

Yeah, I you know, we haven't taken a hard look yet, but uh and Nick can certainly comment. I think there there are certainly some issues that would have to be addressed. I'm not sure how much zoning can can actually control um how a building is is um powered up uh and whether we can require solar versus um you know conventional. Um I I would suspect um that this would be a difficult addition to the building codes because they're they're statewide. We operate under a state building code. So any modification to that would have to be done on a statewide basis that applies across across the town acrosswards. Um, but it's, you know, we can certainly I can certainly we can certainly report back to whether or not um it's plausible to at least include it in the zoning regulations. I think it would be a challenge to put in the in the building code. Um, and we can certainly um confirm with the tax assessor whether or not um these um whether solar arrays are taxable or not, particularly rooftop additions. um how how she treats those.

There may be situations where uh it's it'll it's feasible to put it in if it's not taxed. Other words, you're putting something extra there that does not uh cost the town anything. And uh I'm not I'm not arguing. I'm just I mean I just you don't generate extra taxes. You do get a benefit. You have some locally generated power. Understood, Bob. I just um and and and what how long would be debatable. That's is that's a decision for the assessor to make.

Sure. Yeah. I guess my my first reaction to it I think the the intent is really great. I like the way Claudia kind of simplified it like you know if you whether you do or don't explain yourself. My first thought also was about uh who would be investigating as to whether or not it was feasible if that would be a thing you you place on the responsibility of the developer or if that's somebody from our department here that does that investigation or and then also in addition to that the uh compliant the solar compliance plan uh requirement if there was compliance or not uh how would those standards be set? I know this is all very preliminary, but just, you know, more things to think about that, you know, the more we pursue this, the the more specific we might have to get, you know, just just to keep that in mind. Yeah, I also agree with everything John said about looking into seeing what the state says and all that.

And um Lynn tells me that Mary has her hand up. Sorry, Mary, if it's been up a while. Oh, yeah. Um, well, I I I think you've you've covered a lot of things and I've added notes in the chat. And the one thing

Thank you. bad just I would point to Copeka Plaza as like that's just vast parking lots and um I think the uh solar array at West Farms Mall it looks great and uh I don't know maybe there's some way um to uh you know to learn from what they've done over there with their parking lots but you've got a lot of a lot of heat generating um pavement, you know, in the Copaka Plaza area in the backside.

Yeah, that's yeah, that's an interesting suggestion in terms of whether it would be suitable. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, uh solar canopies are are definitely not cost effective that you're not going to get payback in the life of the panels for if you put in solar canopies. Seabberry has gotten very good return on the on the canopies they put in I don't know 10 15 years ago

but since then the price of steel has doubled and it's it's it's just the payback is just never going to happen you so you've got to really have a strong desire to have a sha a shaded parking area in order to in order to to to put in solar canopies. Okay. Are we are we good in terms of initial round? I I think the the one thing that I would add is um it sounds like Massachusetts um like on a lot of things is kind of ahead of Connecticut on this.

Way ahead. Way way ahead. Right. And so just in terms of uh looking around at our neighbors, you know, what they have Yeah. Yeah, because and Massachusetts. Yeah, that that's all Massachusetts regulations for local are all enabled by state law. Right. Well, that's the point the options to do a lot of things. The the the point is to John's original point about what can be done in terms of building code etc. It's like what does Massachusetts have that Connecticut doesn't is kind of what I'm asking. So, yeah. Yep. Okay. um good discussion I think for kind of an initial at least

so effectively what we're doing is pass this on to so that John can look further to see the practicality legality etc.

Yep. I think so. Great. Thank you. Um okay. Uh it's too bad Nancy is not here today. Nancy Bowden. um because this was on last month and we didn't get to it. And um she had gotten an inquiry about um 1236 Blue Hills Avenue and I don't know if any of you have driven by it, but you can't miss it if you do because it's basically this huge construction yard. Um there was clear cutting. It looks like what a town rightaway part of the town rightaway was clearcut. There was an encroachment in the neighbor's yard. Um I asked John if it was appropriate to bring this to the committee. He said yes. I think there I think it would be helpful to understand what the process is in in a situation like this, what remedies if any there are? I mean, this looks like it's going to look like the moon for a long time, but um is there any information you can share with us um in terms of status and kind of what typically happens?

We send we have a the town has what's called a zoning enforcement officer. Um and then we also have the wetlands agent and together they can um site properties um for being in violation of our regulations. And this um this property has a history of um of um not being in compliance with RI and so initially um they meet on site and they try to talk with the lawyer with the owner. In this case, um we have issued a cease and desist order and we have followed that up with um with taking it to filing it in court so that we can get um uh the orders enforced um by the court um together with the fines that are applied as part of the order uh to um a um stop what they're doing in terms of the encroaching and then b work to um to remedy the situation. Obviously re replacing trees is difficult but where he is um storing vehicles, creating stock piles, conducting operations, uh all of which are not in compliance with both zoning and wetland regulations. Um we're moving now very actively uh to um get that remedi stopped and remedied. But it's a slow process. It is it is an arduous process and um is often times you're not talking weeks and months, you're talking years by the time it winds itself through the legal process if the owner wants to drag it out and many do. We have other properties that we've been working on where it's not necessarily as egregious uh but where there have been

longstanding um violations uh where we have issued numerous cease and desist orders which are still um in litigation. Um, I think one of the things I would, you know, sort of one of your things you'd like to do when you could sometime, but you need a lot of help, is to um really get some much stronger state legislation on the side of um zoning enforcement so that um we could we could take um a stronger action, but more particularly we could that the process could move much quicker. um you know, it's a we're a property rights state and um and so um you're dealing with um property rights,

but we're on it and we were on it hard right now. Okay. Wow. Yep. Any follow-up questions? Okay.

All right. Um shred and ecycling. Oops. I'm sorry. Uh, announcements. Actually, Claudia, you want to say anything more about sun? Just want to thank John for giving me a list of everyone in Bloomfield who had applied for a phototo photovolic permit and whether or not they had followed through to construct something which gave me a list of 3,000 people in town who might be interested in Sunday. And of course, we didn't have the budget for this, but if I had, I would have sent every one of them a postcard, but we didn't really have money,

right? So, I sent out 30 postcards and paid myself and it didn't bring anyone in, but it was an interesting project and and was good good marketing in theory and uh we have to thank you for that. It's it's it's the first time. So, there you go. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. The list will remain good. Yeah.

Excellent. Thank you. Um shred and electron small electronics uh recycling November 8th uh at Bloomfield High School and I always um need volunteers. So hopefully um some folks on the committee can come out and help out. Uh we ask the public to bring um a non-p perishable food item for the food pantry and uh it's always um it's always it's always a good event and people are always appreciative. We are really stressing and I've talked to um exchange emails with Camila and Evette at 3:30 Park to emphasize that we want people to limit themselves to three bankers boxes or the equivalent in bags. Um because last spring we had two homeowners show up with literally their vehicles filled. Um which um doesn't help matters when you have one 40 bin truck. Um that's generally been sufficient. And we actually filled the truck before noon this time because um a couple people were pretty had a lot of material and uh they they um they claimed that they had called and to been told there was no limit which um which I don't think is the case. Um they somebody maybe told them that but um the town is going to make sure that that is communicated. And I'll just say it for the public. It's like if you've got six bankers boxes and you come through and you do three early and then you come back at 11:15 or 11:30 and the truck's not full, you know, I think we can accommodate that. But it's it's when you have one one person literally filled a

bin by themsself and that um when you've got 40 bins um that kind of where you show up late like we did and the truck was gone, right? Even within the which which is which is the first time that's happened in a couple years actually. So yeah, this was electronics.

Okay. So we we do confidential paper shredding and we have take two recycling which has merged with another company now or been acquired and they do the small electronics, batteries, TVs, phones, you know there's Lynn has designed a very nice flyer and um we need to kind of really push that as well because that is no cost to us and um it's great. So yeah, get the word out. Don't dump your you know the Go ahead. The But the overage you were just talking about that that was

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The limit is on the confidential paper shredding. In terms of if you've got a truck full of small electronics that you want to get rid of, bring it. Um because they will take everything. Okay.

They will take everything. So yeah, bring it on for the small electronics. Okay. Um just very quickly, Tree City USA trees for Bloomfield update. Um Dan Carter has asked to attend CC um next month and make a small presentation. He would like us to advertise to the public that we're doing it because he wants to talk about the right-of-way street inventory that he that the department will be working on. Um we got a grant to do that and uh he's very um enthusiastic because we may be in a position to basically get most of the rest of the municipal tree right away. Municipal. Yeah. the roads, local roads done. Um, part of what we're trying to do is make sure the public is aware of what we're doing. We want to make it as participatory as we can in terms of getting input from the public. Um, obviously the focus is on trees that are unsafe, making sure you get those down, but in terms of potential replanting, um, you know, that's the kind of thing we want to talk about. So, he will be on deck. um CEC signed up as part of the grant application to help publicize um and that's an easy pretty easy thing for us to do. So he will be um on deck in November. Okay. um get your get your uh photos in for the for the um photo contest and uh Sharon man led the charge in terms of a trees for free um initiative again and uh you know that was a nice initiative and uh we'll see where we go next year with

that. Okay. Um does anybody have anything else? I want to make sure we have a couple minutes for public comment, too. Anything else? Okay. Is there any public comment that any public comment? Yeah. Okay. So, go ahead, Mary. Yeah.

All of you all know me. I'm Mary Rick Peliter and I've been working on the North Branch Park River Wershed Management Plan update which is an update of the 201 plan and the focus of the 2025 plan was really um on the main stem which is formed south of Cottage Grove Road um with the confluence of Washbrook and Beansbrook. Um but but um a lot of the 210 plan is still relevant and as we go forward I wanted to know if there was a chance uh when if in this year could I come and present to this committee because we're especially concerned about the no-name stream east of Copeka Plaza which has caused flooding in Cronin Park in in Hartford. And I I want to highlight like I think Bloomfield and just listening to this meeting, you know, it's really great that you have this team that's really concerned about in the environment. Um, however, if you look at your city, a lot of the development has happened downstream and and the conservation has happened upstream. And I'm hoping that kind of we begin to become more aware, especially with the conservation of wetlands and around the riparian zones like this no-name stream that's south of Cottage Grove Road and east of like I don't know it's the chicken place on the east side of the street of um of the

Is that does that is that Graanby Street? I think street. Yeah, I actually drive east east of Graanby. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And there's, you know, there's actually a lot of woods in there. And um, you know, I don't know what the plans are, but I keep seeing a lot of um, efforts to develop along Cottage Grove Road. And one of the most precient comments that a citizen made about the plan of conservation and development was that, you know, you know, Bloomfield's roads are beginning to look like like the Berlin Turnpike. And you know, I've been away um in a different city over the past year and one of the things I noticed was that this, you know, Connecticut does tend to like allow all this development along roadways like the Berlin Turnpike or um I'm forgetting the name of you know this the other road where uh city

Silus Dean

Silus Dean right exactly and and what happens is that you know properties are abandoned and then they just move further down the road and further down the road, but other properties are abandoned and and yet in the in the area of the country that I was, there was a developer who would create these walkable clusters. So e, you know, they would be surrounded by a neighborhood that would go to them and they would have a whole array of um services. And I think that West Harford or or um Bloomfield is trying to make that with their town center. But I'd also point out there's an opportunity to do that in other neighborhoods if you were to, you know, measure out these walkable distances and and begin to create these clusters that can protect the stream corridors instead of allowing the damage that happens when you prioritize these road this this kind of like all along a roadway that really forces people into their cars, you know. So um so that that so my big ask is may I come to one of your meetings and have some time to present with a PowerPoint or come just do it virtually although it's nice to be there in person and then all the other is just extra commentary

in December. Uh what's your date of your meeting in December? Hang on one second. I will be away until the like I the 5th uh around maybe the 7th or the 8th I'll be back. I the 11th the 11th is the is our meeting. Okay. I think we can we can we can offer you the 11th. Yeah, that'd be good.

I will. Yep. And I will comment um you and I had an exchange oh you know a while ago. I can't remember how long ago about this no-name brook. Um I actually looked at, you know, the the the um assessor's database. And what's interesting is it looks like there are a number of town-owned parcels over there. It's kind of like a checkerboard pattern where there are some town-owned parcels and then there are, you know, there are some but it's all very much kind of walked in. Are we off of Cottage Grove Road off? Yeah, it's off of cottage uh east of Graanby. South of cottage east of Yeah. Go ahead, Mary. What we call the jungle the jungle. Yeah.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. We actually are um doing an analysis right now of who owns what there. Good. uh to see what um and um Nick is involved with that with another staff member to sort of determine um future use for that area in terms of both ownership and um and development potential. A lot of wetlands in there. Yeah. And um

you know we don't Hartford doesn't need any more copaka plazas on our border, right? We, you know, the city, the north end doesn't need any more. You know, we there's going to be, let me just emphasize, we're going to have to deal on the nor on the main stem with three 8 foot in diameter storm water outfalls in order to manage the storm water runoff that is coursing into Hartford from Bloomfield and I believe Windsor. There are three 8 foot in diameter outfalls. That's how much storm water runoff is coursing through these old pipes and causing basement backups and flooding in the north end and making you know and and and making some of our residential neighborhoods uninhabitable. And I just can't emphasize enough, we do not need another Copaka Plaza to be dumping storm water from these gigantic big box parking stores into the north end into the north end neighborhood. It's unfair. It really is. Not to mention that it's it's starving those small businesses of, you know, hardware stores and local businesses in Hartford's North End. It's it's sucking the business the the retail into these big box stores. Sorry to sound upset, but it is it, you know, it isn't equitable.

We we we get it. I'm just gonna we acknowledge it. We acknowledge that. Mary, um, did you want to say something, Bob?

I I just want to say I just for the record, I actually work for Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. I studied architecture and I worked in architectural firms until 911 and then after 911 I worked for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association um on high performance green schools around the northeast. But I I went to high school where next you know my high school science teacher was uh helped build the Rocky Mountain Institutees um passive solar house and we had to do passive solar um calculations for a dorm built on campus. So I'm not against solar. I'm not against I'm not against urbanity. I love Hartford, but there's a way to do it and make it work without cutting down nature and leaving people in cities without nature. So, I will um comment. Well, I will end with this. your timing is is great because because the town is looking at this um in the area that you're talking about and we will have you on deck in December.

Great. Great. I hope I can figure out a way to make people understand that that nature is as valuable as any steel or it's we all we all wish we could do that. Yeah. Actually, I'm just gonna say I'm gonna say you are preaching to the choir here. You really You are.

Yeah, I Yeah, I'll work on I do think that there needs to be at a state at the state level um pieces incentives for the green plan for properties like that, you know, that that that deserve to be conserved within the context of the urban fabric. So, thank you for listening. Thank you for all your good work. It's really interesting meeting. Yep. And actually, I think John wants to say something. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, thank you. But do just I would just suggest to um to the chairperson and Lynn that we invite um Rob Troier, the town engineer, and Dan Carter, the director of public works to that December presentation.

Great. Did you get that, Mary? Yeah. The town engineer and DPW director. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Perfect. All right. Excellent. Um, anything else? And if not, I will take a motion to adjurnn. Okay. And second by Bob. Okay. Um, everyone's in favor, I assume. So, we are adjourned at 607. Thank you. Good conversation. Thank you.