Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Commission - Regular Meeting

streaming. Yep. Good. All right. We'll call the meeting to order. Today is May 18th, 2026. Call the Inland Wetlands and Water Course Commission for Bloomfield to order. Time is 7:03. We have here myself, Stephen, Glenn, Paul, and Adam. So, we have 245 Um, we got the for affirmative. Okay. So, who do we have first? 141 Whittenberry Avenue.

Yep. The uh public hearing needs to be opened. So, that should probably be the first vote. Yep. Uh, somebody want to make a motion to open the public hearing. I'll make the motion we open the hearing uh for uh wetlands permit application unique ID 1227 141 Wintonberry Avenue. applicant is CEK Solar and property owner is Church Home of Hartford and it's for construction of a solar array. Okay. And seconded by

All seconded Glenn. Glenn. All right. Uh to the applicant. We only have five members here tonight. Our regulations are you need four in the affirmative to pass. So if it comes to a vote and the vote is three to two in favor, it does not pass. So you have the option to table this to next meeting or move forward. What's your pleasure?

Sorry about that. Just trying to get my camera here carried out. Would you mind giving us a minute or two to discuss that amongst ourselves? Would that be okay? Yep.

Okay, great. Give us just just a minute or two. Thank you. We'll be right back. Hello members of the commission. Just a quick question. Do we need to close the public hearing?

Do we need to close it um tonight or can that be extended until the uh June meeting? Are we up against the deadline? Uh Peter's looking it up. Peter, if you're talking, you might be muted.

Thank you. The uh the commission uh must close the public hearing at the May meeting unless the applicant agrees to a further extension. So the applicant being CEX solar can can um agree to another continuation or extension I guess is the right right term.

Can I can I ask a admin question as well? If the public hearing is closed does the commission have to vote today or can the vote be postponed or decision be postponed? We just can't accept any more new information from the applicant. And uh nothing from the public. There is another small issue which needs to be clarified which I'll throw that into the mix now is that one of our commission members um has a connection with Seabberry and a question came up is this is Seabber's property are they profiting from this project

is is Cab profiting from the project yes are they I'm sorry just so just so I understand is Is is Cabberry the land owner? Is is the land owner profiting from the project? Yes. Yes, the land owner is profiting from the project. Okay. All right.

All right, Glenn. What do you think? Well, I I'm I'm um just want to make sure that I as a member of Seabberry um that uh if that fact um should re if I should recuse myself from making a decision about this project. Um, I think it's I think it's probably up to I I guess I feel like uh it would not be proper for me to vote on it. Um, but I don't know what what the rules are.

Do you live there? No. No. What are you on the board? I'm a No, I'm a a Seabberry at home member. Okay. So you can there are about a couple hundred people who are Seabberry at home members. Uh so if something were to happen to us, we get to go go into Seabberry to um you know be taken care of. Um and as an at home member they send in people to help us if we need help in u doing various things.

Um so it's a it's a pretty popular uh program at Seabbury. There's several hundred people that belong to that. I don't know. I I think you're better off accusing yourself. Okay. And is there any other thoughts on that?

Well, then we we we don't have enough quum, right? We don't have a quorum for them. Peter, would you agree with that? Uh, yes, I would. Okay. I think uh the um hopefully the property owner or the applicant rather, not the property owner, will agree to an extension and hopefully we'll have more than five members next time. Right.

Um if you don't mind, Peter, if if we don't get quorum at the next meeting, but the public hearing has to close, how is that handled? then the public hearing would h would have to be closed. But it's not it's a it's a uh it's it's not an automatic close. The commission has to take a vote to close the public hearing.

So at next month when they're likely to be more than five members um and uh with uh Mr. Mr. Brilliant not being able to to vote. We need hopefully get six. So the minimum quorum to open a meeting is five. The the approval with five or six or seven members is that you have to have four vote in the positive.

Okay. I don't think this ever came up that we we went to uh a maximum timeline. I don't remember it. And I and I thought if we get there, we we have to deny it and then they have to reapply the next month. Well, perhaps. But the I think for now we if the applicant is agreeable I think the smart thing to do is to request a further extension exactly

of the public hearing. Uh the regulations say that the commission um has 35 days to close the public hearing and then the applicant can um can approve or can uh authorize or uh consent to more extensions but not more than 65 days um for a total extension. I believe we're at the first extension of the public hearing tonight. So, right now the public hearing's been open for, you know, since last month. That's the 35 days the commission uh you know has has the authority to uh you know to extend public hearings I think once. Yeah, the public hearing was open in the March meeting, continued to the April to this uh last month's meeting, sorry. Uh and they continue the public hearing to the May 18th. So we're without the applicant's consent, we are up against the timeline.

So is the applicant consent to 35 another extension to the May meeting? Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. Yes. Yes. Uh yes. Yes. Sorry if you couldn't hear me. Do you do you know the date offhand of the next meeting? Uh the 15th of June, I believe. Is that right, Kher? Yes. Yes. 15th of June. Yep. 15th of June. June 15th. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, is there a motion to table this meeting uh the public hearing until June meeting? I move we continue to June 15th.

Made by Steve. Steve made the motion. I second. Made second by. All in favor. I oppose. Abstain is unanimous. Thank you. Sorry guys. Uh see you next month. Yep. Thank you. See everybody next month. All right. All right. What do we have next? Wetlands application. This is a new public hearing. This was never This is Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hearing that was continued from last time.

All right. So, there's a motion to take it off the table. Stephen seconded by I'll second Paul. Yeah. All in favor? I you and me, Stephen. All right. It's unanimous. Okay. All right. Who's here for the applicant? Uh, we got to promote everybody I think that's on the on the attendees list.

Will Martin and Robert. Yeah. I'm not sure who Robert Dixon is, but he's Yeah. Nope.

All right. Before we get started, conflict of interest form option E. Is are you selling the property? You're not selling the property. his town property. So why why is there an option E? That's what we put down there. I thought that meant that we were part of the part of the application.

Okay. That's the you you divided it into three forms. Okay. We have three consultants where the Benes is the prime consultant and we have architect who's a subconultant and a soil scientist who's also a subconultant. So we had each one each entity fill out a form. Um Martin Brogie is a sole proprietor but Benish and Silver Petrochelli have uh multiple officers. So we've also submitted a list of officers for those two companies. That's the way you're supposed to do it. So none of them are optiones. That's correct.

Okay. All right. So let's move forward unless anybody has a problem. This one's here for the applicant. Want to speak first? Sure. Um All right. Can I share my screen? Let me see. You have to introduce yourself for the record, Will.

Yep, I will. Um, let me see. For the record, uh, Will Walter, professional engineer with Benes. And with me tonight, I have Martin Brogie, who is our subconsultant, soil scientist. Can everybody see my screen? Yes. Yeah.

Okay. Excellent. Wonder if I can uh get rid of that. There we go. All right. So, the overall project tonight is this parcel up top, which is the parcel with the pick the pickle ball courts and then the larger parcel down here. That's the Bill Leaf Fields. But the first application has to do with the wetlands map amendment. Uh the only parcel that has wetlands on it is this northern parcel up here. And the wetlands are located uh the GIS wetlands are located back here. Let me bring that sheet over. So north is still up. Um Whoops. And you can see here is Rockwell A running across the page right here. Here's the northern parcel right in the middle. You can see the pickle ball courts. The town GIS has the wetlands um as I'm showing them right here in yellow. All right. And this this whole area there's a small parking lot, pickle ball courts, and the rest is grass. So the town GIS had the wetlands kind of meandering just behind the the woods back here. Up top up here is a Eversource easement. Um we sent our soil scientist Martin Broie to the site and he delineated the wetlands um that they actually extend out into the grass and I'm showing that in magenta. So over in this area, they're kind of similar, but over in this area, they expand into the property a little bit more. And so the purpose of this um

the purpose of this first application is to revise the um the town wetlands map. Um Peter, at this time, would you like Martin to speak to talk about what he saw out in the field or would you like him to wait until we get to the um the next application? No, he should uh he should make a presentation now and explain um for the lay people who may be watching what is necessary to do a delineation. Okay, great. Uh I'm going to stop sharing. I can always bring that back if we have to. And Martin, I'll pass it over to you.

Okay. Good evening. My name is Martin Broie. I'm the principal soil scientist with Martin Broie Incorporated based in Madison, Connecticut. Um on October 16th, 2025, um I went out to uh the property north of Rockwell Avenue. It's a 3.3 acre piece of property uh with a wooded forested area uh on the western end, pickle ball courts in the middle, and then sort of a a parking lot and then grass lawn. Uh in the eastern portion of the property, there is a utility rideway that uh borders the site to the north going east and west. Um there are some wetlands on the opposite side of that right away. And the wetlands that I identified on the site uh were essentially skirting um a a small narrow forested uh area between the rightway and the grass lawn area on the eastern portion of the site. Um and it actually came out into the grass area um a little bit where we found some uh poorly drained soils, a thicker a horizon and fairly shallow to ground water and then it wrapped back up into the southern portion of the um uh the forested strip south of the rightway. Uh I put out flags WF1 in the western end uh entering the site from the rightway property boundary and exiting at WF number 17 in the far eastern portion of the site. Um walking the site with uh Peter Castaldi and a surveyor with Vanesh a few weeks ago. Um, we did take a close look at uh uh that area that comes out into the lawn and I demonstrated to Peter what the decision matrices were for identifying that as as as a wetland area. Um, and then we added uh it looked like I I curtailed the line at the property boundary a little too quickly.

So, we added a one more flag. I think it was 16A between 16 and 17 just to bring that line out a little bit further toward the east. Um and that was basically the process. Uh wetland vegetation inside the uh uh the wetland area included um um red maples uh spice bush, alder buckthornne, elderberry uh and royal fern in the in the understory. Any other presentation?

Yes. Will, can I ask you to put that last exhibit back up and even zoom in a little if you could

um or lose or lose the thumbnail. There we go. That's a little easier. So, um, when I first went out there to look at the wetland flags, um, some time ago, um, uh, I think in late March, um, or early April, no, it would have been it would have been March. Um there were wetland flags uh in the left hand side of the pink highlighted area, but there were none left in the field um uh on the right hand side. So uh um we did as Mr. Broie said, we had a field meeting. Um the missing stakes were uh reset by um by Banesh and we talked about and and identified wetland flag 16A which is on this plan um the far right it is right there. Um and you can see that it's quite a bit different in this part as compared to the other to the other part. Um easterly part is way different. So, uh, it there's there's, um, uh, I wouldn't say it was a well-maintained lawn. There's a a maintained lawn area out there, and it was difficult for me to see where the transition was between the uplands and the wetlands. So, that's one of the reasons I asked Mr. Broie to come out and look and and uh the differences were subtle, but I think in the end I'm in agreement with Mr. Bro's uh delineation. Um I asked uh for a uh uh revised um wetlands map amendment plan. It was submitted in April on April 13th and

should have been included in your um package. uh the uh um you know the quality of these wetlands is is not great I wouldn't say. Um and there's a lot going on inside the ride ofway to the north. Um that uh you know shows up on our wetlands map. The blue here are water courses and the green are the official map wetlands outside of the property. So, um my recommendation for the commission is to approve the application uh to amend the official map of wetlands um based on the soil scientist delineation and that the official map be um resolved with the uh wetlands flag line or soil scientist flag line I should say um where it intersects with the north and east property lines. So that would be um you know wetland flag 16A and probably wetland flag two on the other end. Uh I have a few standard um uh recommended conditions. Um uh a separate wetlands map amendment plan uh if one is needed after this uh three sets of paper prints. Um final plans also uh I'm sorry and one set of myars for filing on the land records. Um and uh the official map shall be modified to include the delineated wetland areas on the property. Um I would like to amend that last one. That's number four. To call

out the numbers WF2 and WF16A. Moving on to questions from the public. Uh, Mr. Robert Dixon, do you have a Are you with the public or do you want to just watch? Hello. You got to turn your mic on.

Yes. I'm just I'm just observing uh concerned with the first item. Oh, the um the solar panels. Okay. All right. That'll be next month, right?

Okay. Thank you. All right. So, there's no other public here. Uh any comments or any questions from the commission hearing? None. Um, any comments from none from the public. Any comments from the commission members? And does the applicant agree to all staff's uh recommendations?

We do. Any final comments? Nope. Okay. Is there a motion to close the public hearing? Moved by Glenn, seconded by. Seconded. Who said that? Adam. Adam. Yep. Thank you. All right. Um, all in favor say I. I. Opposed? Abstain. Um, it's unanimous. Uh public hearing is closed. Uh what's your pleasure on voting on it? A motion to approve.

I'll make a motion made by Paul. Yep. Um yeah, go ahead. You can go through the whole story.

Okay. Uh motion to approve the wetlands boundary application for property at 46 Rockwell Avenue, unique ID 7759. Applicant and owner is Town of Bloomfield. And uh we have an amendment to item four in the recommendations to include uh the newly delineated flags WF2 and WF16A in addition to the standard conditions that uh Mr. Castali set forth. Okay. Is there a second?

I'll second. All right. Um, I I have a question. I know it's improper, but do they pay a fee to the build to the planning department? Does it come out of the town and go into the planning department or they don't even collect a fee? You're muted, Peter.

We do not collect a fee for town applications. Okay. You're getting jipped because that their money should go into your budget. Yeah, they agree. Okay. I'm sorry. Who Who seconded the motion to approve? I saw Glenn and Stephen kind of concurrently. Yeah, I think it was concurrent. You can take one. That's what I Steve is. All right. All in favor? I opposed abstain. It's unanimous. Okay.

So, let's move on to opening public hearing for 46 and 49 Rockwell Avenue. Is there a motion? Is there a motion? motion to to open wetlands permit application. Oh, yeah. Great. Okay. So, made by Glenn, seconded by

Oh, second. Oh. Oh, Rebecca, was that a finger up to say something? Okay. Waiting for my pencil. Sorry. Okay. I thought you were signaling. Um, all in favor?

I stayain. It's unanimous. Okay, it's opened. Who's going to speak on behalf of this applicant? Uh I'm going to speak again for the record. Will Walter, professional engineer with Alfred Benish Company. And with me I've got Martin Broie who's our soil scientist subconsultant. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen again. Okay. Um if everybody can just confirm that they can see my screen. Yeah.

Yes. Okay. Excellent. So, uh this project consists of uh a new a new park uh Rockwell Park for the town of Bloomfields town project. It involves two parcels. One is the parcel up here in the north north of Rockwell A that currently consists of uh pickle ball courts in the parking lot and then there's some wetlands over here that we just spoke about that now instead of kind of hugging the the tree line it kind of comes out like this. Uh additionally there's some water courses back here that extend and I'll show in a little bit extends a significant amount of this parcel into the regulated area. The other other part of this project is this parcel right here which is other also known as Bill Lee Fields. There's a couple of basketball courts and three fields. There are no wetlands on this property. However, on the other side of Wall Street, there is a water course in a wetlands as shown on the town GIS. With that, I'm going to bring over our proposed plan. that baseball diamond.

Yeah, down here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My kids played little league on that. Yeah. Well, no, the the baseball the existing baseball diamond um is is all in this area. The the grass baseball diamond is going away, but we're I'll get into it. We're providing a new synthetic turf multi-purpose field with a softball in We're getting off track. That's not a wetlands issue. Yeah. I And I actually I live in Windsor. I actually I coached my son when he played little league on this field when we when we played the Bloomfield kids. So, yeah.

Uh that's neither here nor there, though. Anyways, the uh so it's the two parcels. The parcel on the north, let me zoom in a little bit. The parcel on the north uh consists of renovating these pickle ball courts. Um we're removing the existing parking lot and providing a new parking lot with two entrances. And then we have four new basketball courts with bleachers over on the western part of it. Um, on the southern side, we are removing those grass fields and we've got a new multi-purpose. Everything in green here is synthetic turf. It's a new multi-purpose field where we've got uh a regulation softball, a regulation baseball, a this is a football field, and a multi-purpose field. Um, so just trying to, you know, place all of these together. The beautiful thing is with grass fields, you really only want to play on those things one season out of the year and then you really need to let them rest. But with the synthetic turf, you can you can beat on those things and the kids can play on them all year round, you know, except for when there's snow obviously. So anyways, on the south side, we've got this large synthetic turf multi-use field. We've got a plaza, an overlook area up here with a gazebo and a concession stand with some restrooms. We've got playgrounds. Playground over here. There's actually Here's the gazebo right here. We have over here a community garden that's basically going to consist of uh raised planters, a number of raised planters uh for the community to enjoy um gardening. We've got then a large parking area um that this is broken up into phases. Phase one is actually everything on the

north and then this part right here and um when funding should come available the rest of this is going to be phase two. Um so the connection goes all the way down from Rockwell Park to Rockwell Street, Rockwell AB to Wall Street down here. Um and also this is we're going to have a connection from the East Coast Greenway. um a new connection starting up here in the north and coming down wrapping around the project like this all the way around and ending down here. And the East Coast Greenway is a 205 mile trail that goes from Greenwich all the way into Rhode Island. And so it just happens to pass through this site. And so the renovations of that are not being funded by uh this project, but we are working closely with the consultant for that greenway and um it's been designed to be accommodated through here.

As far as Well, can I interrupt you for a second? Can we stick to uh wetlands issues?

Sure. Yep. Uh let me go through the storm. So basically on the north um you can see the wetland is out here and the blue line is the aggregate farthest area from the 200 ft separation from the from the waterway and 100 foot from the wetlands. And as you can see most of the development up in the north is going to be within that regulated area approximately 2.7 acres. down in the south. Uh again, there's no wetlands or water courses on the site, but this blue line is the aggregate of the 200 foot from the water course, 100 foot from the wetlands, and there's approximately 7 acres of the development that's going to be disturbed in the south. As far as the storm water, everything on the site flows u from the northern area, it flows down to Rockwell A. There's drainage in Rockwell A, and then it kind of cuts through the site like this, comes down and goes off site right there. This is actually an unusual circumstance where typically when we do in fact I think every single time I've ever done a design where there's wetlands it always flows towards the wetlands. In this case the wetlands is actually on the at a little bit of a higher elevation than all of this. So nothing that is being disturbed here is draining back towards the wetlands. Everything is draining down this way towards Rockwell Park. As far as drainage, what we're doing is we're we can't do any kind of infiltration or above ground detention simply because the the groundwater is high. Obviously, we're ne right next to wetland, so the groundwater is high. So, we're just basically uh gravity flowing everything into an underground detention system that's going to be under here. And then it's after it's um it's going to be treated through an isolator row and then uh discharged through a outlet control structure. It's going to be regulated and get into the um the the pipe network out here in Rockwell. We've been working closely with the town engineer. We're reducing the peak flows

going into Rockwell and we're treating it for water quality, which is what he is looking for. In the south side, everything drains down to the south. A portion of the site flows under the road through pipes into this existing wetland area and another portion of the site flows off into the same network out in the road out here that Rockwell A drains to. So again, working with the town engineer, we've got a large above ground detention basin over here. Uh the water comes in, we're pre-treating it. Uh we've done test pits so we know where the ground water, seasonal high ground water, we're 2 ft above that. uh we have two outlet control structures. One on the left side, one on the right side. So a portion of the detention is going to be uh after it's treated and it's regulated and detained, it's going to go back into the the network that it currently goes to and a part of it is going to uh go back into the pipes that are going underneath the road. We wanted to make sure that we did want to decrease the peak flow going to this wetland, but we didn't want to dry it up by removing significant portions. So, we've only slightly reduced the peak, which is really what you want to do in a case like this. Uh, so again, working with the town engineer and the disturbance on this side in the upland review area, the regulated area is a little bit less. It's8 acres approximately down here. Um, so, um, that's our presentation. You've already heard from Martin, but if you'd like to hear from him, uh again, we can certainly have him answer any questions or um I can certainly answer any questions that you may have.

Um let's hear from staff first.

All right, I'm going to unmute before I start talking. Uh we have um uh I think a fairly um well-designed project here. I'm sorry, I'm trying to get back to the front of my my comments. Um and uh uh the uh proposal as as just described now um does not have any direct wetland impacts. Um the impacts are to the upland review area. Uh the the um you know regulated activities include the excavation and construction uh filling construction and and paving of the uh parking lots plural. And um you know these are um regulated activities for the most part that are in already existing um open land. Um except for the westerly most tennis courts. Um which are uh uh are those tennis or pickle ball? Those are tennis. The blue

those are basketball in the blue.

I'm sorry. Okay. Basketball courts. The one on the left side will require uh some existing forest vegetation to come down. Um but the other parts are, you know, in the existing parking lot or in the um baseball diamond uh existing baseball diamond that's there. And so uh you know, the regulated activities are are fairly uh fairly small. there's um uh you know storm drainage con uh conditions that will not will not affect I'm sorry storm drainage improvements that will not increase the the peak flow. Um so uh I'm recommending the commission um uh approve the application with um a bunch of a bunch of uh recommended conditions. um most of which are uh most of which are um pretty much uh boilerplate stuff. Um one uh I'm not going to go there's 20 of them here. I'm not going to go through every single one, but the uh the ones that I want to hit on include um the upland review area impacts are estimated to be about 2.7 acres total um on the north parcel and 0 acres on the south parcel. Um so that's what 3.5 acres uh alto together. Um there are activities in the vegetative buffer zone and that figures out to be um about um 2/3 of an acre 066. Um in condition 11, I'm recommending

mitigation for impacts to the vegetated buffer zone be provided with um planting of new trees and shrubs in addition to the plantings shown on the landscape plan. We really didn't look at the landscape plan, but there there is one um that's the only one that's somewhat um different than the than the uh you know boilerplate stuff as I call it. Um but the uh like I said before, I think it's a well-designed project. I think it will be a good project for the town and um I'm recommending the commission approve the application with my uh recommended conditions of approval.

Thank you, Peter. For the record, Kevin Wilcox has joined the meeting.

Okay. All right. So, any questions from the public? I don't believe so. Any questions from the commission? Uh, one one question, Mr. Chair. Um, I believe uh, Mr. Walter, you mentioned uh, it's kind of a two-phase project with the uh, the Southerntherly site kind of uh, dependent on some future funding. I am curious and this may be more of a question for you Peter. Um does does the timeline the horizon does that affect any of our approval does do we do we run a foul of any of our approval timelines? I I you know it's the standard um concurrent with the town plan and zoning or 10 years after approval. Well, that uh that um uh is yes, it's it's that's the standard that we go by now. So,

um after that 10 years is up or after the planning and zoning commission approval expires, the applicant can request an additional I think an additional five years. Okay. So, there's there's plenty of time for phases one and two to be built. Okay. Um, one thing I didn't mention that maybe I should have, um, I believe and, um, will correct me if I'm if I'm not right, but the phase 2 parking on the south side, would the storm water basin be part of that phase one?

Yeah, that's correct. That's correct, Peter. Yeah, I should have mentioned that. This is this has been designed for the entirety of both phases and the entire thing will be built okay in phase one. Okay. But only the northern part of that parking lot with all of the other amenities is in phase one. That that's correct. This and then also the uh the greenway trail too. Oh yes. Okay. Trail will be in phase one,

right? The greenway trail will be in phase one. Any other questions from the commission members?

Yeah, I had a question, Alan. Um or will um the u the storm water management area and you mentioned something about treatment. How how how are you treating that storm water? So we have our our outlet control our we have an outlet control structure and the um the bottom orifice is sitting at some depth above the bottom. I don't know off the top of my head it's probably a foot or 18 in. Uh we have to meet our water quality volume per the per the DP manual. And that's one way that you do it is um is you put your lowflow orifice above the bottom of that pond. So you get your volume in there in there and it infiltrates.

Okay. So you're not actually treating the water with anything. No, I mean that it's considered water quality treatment just by infiltration, but no, we're not like adding adding treatment or adding any chemicals or anything like that if that's your question. Yeah. Yeah, that is. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome.

Any other questions? Yeah, that that brings to mind one other question for me and it I'm listening to all of this. I think it's been accounted for, but I am assuming when phase 2 happens that the artificial surface on those fields will have a runoff rate that is higher than conventional field. Um, and that's been factored into the the has that been factored into the the kind of the drainage plans that you're you're talking about right now?

Yeah, it actually has a it actually has a lesser rate because with these synthetic turf field Yeah. Because these synthetic turf fields, you have uh 8 to 10 inches of crushed stone sitting beneath it. So you essentially have a humongous storm water reservoir um where it all gathers and and has time to infiltrate. And we have um you know has the collector pipes, the flat panels beneath it spaced every 20 or 30 feet on center. Uh there's a couple different ways to model this, but in the end it actually uh it actually is a little bit less than uh than natural grass. Great. Thank you for that.

You're welcome. Any other questions? Len, do you have a question? No, I I forgot to lower my hand. Okay.

I have a question on um uh was brought up for uh approval item number 11 with the additional shrubs. Uh how would we account for just um you know what would be acceptable or replacement? Is that um up should we just leave that to staff? Um it just seemed like kind of stated, but I didn't know how we were going to account for it or measure it. That is a good a very good point. I think it should be in condition 11 should say in coordination with staff.

That works. And what we're looking at for here is this would only be in the northerly part okay of the project we could slide up there. So there's there's some room for additional trees and shrubs north of the parking lot north of the basketball courts. So that's that's what I'm you know thinking of in there.

All right. And Peter, just just so you know, my plan is um because you know, should we get approval here, we're going to turn around in the next, you know, whatever week or two or three, whatever it is, we're going to make our application to planning zoning and we will incorporate and we already have actually we're going to incorporate all your comments into that application and I can get I can get you a copy of that whole set with our formal responses to your uh your conditions. Yeah, that would be fine. Uh that's typically how we do it because wetlands comes first. So, you know, you there there's always some minor changes to the conditions of approval which obviously you can't respond to the same night they're made. So, yeah. Um there's uh I know that the town um parks and wreck wants to try to get phase one I think going this year. now would be the time. So, uh

you know that that's fine. Um you don't have to send me a separate set of plans. Um but a uh you know a written list of uh here's how we address your your comments would be good. You got it. Anything else? Any comments from the public? Any comments from the commission? Um I forgot. Does the applicant accept all the conditions by staff?

We do. Um any last word from the applicant? No, thank you. All right. Is there a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. Seconded by Stephen. All right. All in favor I'm sorry. Glenn. Thank you. Uh all in favor say I. I. Opposed. abstain. Kevin, you voted, right?

Did you did? Okay, good. All right, so unanimous. All right, so the public hearing is closed. Now we need a motion to approve. Oh, I'll I'll continue my my lucky streak here. Um

uh uh a motion to approve the wetlands permit application for Rockwell Park Improvements at 46 and 91 Rockwell Avenue. Unique ID numbers 7759 and 1059. Uh applicant and property owner or the town of Bloomfield. Wetlands file is 75-2026-07 and we um have uh a slight amendment to condition 11 with the uh the addition at the end of uh that condition. Uh uh after landscaping plans, we insert uh the phrase in coordination with staff. That's the landscaping um uh the plantings for new trees and shrubs. We discussed the uh addition of approval with staff.

That's the only change to the conditions as written. All right. Seconded by Second, Stephen. Stephen, pardon. All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. It's unanimous. Hold on. Hold on. I abstained. I didn't I didn't hear any of the testimony. How can I vote? Okay. All right. So, five members. to one, right?

Adam, you Kevin, you abstained. Adam, how did you vote? I in favor. Okay, Paul, I Len I self I Stephen I Okay, that's for FOI, right? Rebecca, did you get that far in the book? So, the vote was five in favor, zero against, and one abstain. Okay. Wow, you guys are ripping right through the agenda tonight. Thank you everybody. Thanks. Thank you.

Let's move on to new business.

Yeah. Um, on Friday, last Friday, I received a applica uh I'm sorry, I received a request for a jurisdictional ruling. Um, and I'm going to bring that up right now. Um, soon as I can remember where I put it. So this is uh um a request from uh from um a professor at uh Central Connecticut State University and they want to do some testing and some uh um possibly some uh plantings of trees. uh in a water course that runs through the Maplewood West um uh open space. Uh and that is uh that open space is um on the west side of Maple Avenue and north side of Burnwood. Um okay, now let me see if I can find this. Oh, I know where it is.

We just approved the house. No. Okay. As soon as I can get it open, I will share it. Okay. Should we just cut to the chase and say we would like to hear a proposal? I'm going to give you a proposal, but it's taken me a little while to get it up here so that I can All right.

So that I can uh share it with you. Okay. I'm almost there. H sorry I seem to have lost my connection to the to the meeting. Can you guys still hear me?

Yeah. Yes. Yes. And see you.

Okay. Here we go. All right. So, uh share the screen. see if I can do this. Okay. So, um here is the uh uh here is the proposal. Um and it's a it's a request. Uh our regulations allow for request for a jurisdictional ruling. Um it's not an application. and it's just a request uh and it's covered under sections 4.4 and 4.5. Um the proposal would permit uh uh this professor and their and uh the research students to uh carry out stream assessment and water quality study. Um they're going to take water samples and look at the at the uh vegetation and if there's any fish in there. Um and you can see down below here um uh waters collected measurements of instream water conditions, temperature etc. Uh rapid biomat assessment if there are any and I there will be micro invertebrates and hourly recordings of instream and air temperature. So, um the second part and a separate request for a jurisdictional ruling um is a uh approximately 175 meter stretch of the tributary that Tumblebrook uh to Tumblebrook that currently lacks any tree canopy. And the request is to plant

trees and shrubs in this repairarian buffer um for uh for water course improvement. Um the uh uh the Farmington River Wershed Association and Park River wershed um is is going to you know they're going to help with purchase of trees apparently. Um and the uh uh the um all of these uh all of these activities even even the digging of holes to plant new trees um would be considered a uh a um uh maintenance or or an improvement to the to the water course. And I think both fall within the uh both fall within the uh um uh parameters of a jurisdictional rule. So um there's more here. Uh we can we can discuss it. But what I want to what I want to show you is the plan. It's not good. I'm sorry I didn't scan these in color. Um, but the uh Maple Avenue is over here on the right, Burnwood Drive on the left, and Malard Drive is on the north. This is the water course in question and it that's a real terrible picture. And it runs through uh

Yeah, it comes out road. No, it comes out at Maple Avenue. So this water course, there's a 16-inch pipe under Malard Drive. This is the water course. It meanders through this wooded area and pops out at and runs under Maple Avenue at another 60inch pipe right in this general area. Um, this is a very bad picture. I thought I had a better one. What's down at the end of uh

Yeah, hang on. I'm going to try to get a better picture. Peter, who who owns this land?

Town of Bloomfield. This is Town of Bloomfield open space and it has um you know it's been it was part of the original uh subdivision in this area. Okay, back here. here. Maybe not. Looks like they still have that tennis court there, maybe.

Oh, it's it's there. I just don't see it. Okay. Uh, sorry. I'm not doing a very good job at uh sharing Okay.

Well, I'm I'm sorry. I'm not Here's the Peter. According to the GIS mapping, it comes down through and goes over under Maple, but it also branches off and goes back under Burr Road to a wetlands area on a corner Burr Road and Maple. Yeah. Uh that's the view I'm trying to share and I'm not having much luck. They say GIS mapping. Yeah. Yeah. I I that I understand that and can't get it to come up. Oh, yes, I can. Can I share mine?

Yeah. Okay, that's it. Good. I just wasn't pushing the right buttons. So on this GISbased map, the dark green are is woods. Um and the blue are water courses. So the main water course comes south of Malard Drive, wiggles through and then goes under Maple Avenue right here. These this um is a tributary that runs north from from Burr Road, right?

And there's a second tributary that runs in from uh you know from the west side east side of Burnwood. So uh this will be a lot a lot easier to see now. So the the um we turn on the 2023 aerial photos and you can see that this is this is just an open channel with no trees until you get down here and then there's some trees on one side and as you get further over this way there's trees all the way you know through this. So the the study area is from here to to uh Maple and there's, you know, some um uh some old infrastructure out there like the 60-in pipe, the pipe that drains in off of burnwood comes down to here. Uh there and this is a basketball court and there are um play grounds over here. Uh this rectangle used to be um tennis courts, but they've been removed and that's and putting them back isn't part of the part of the project. So the the um uh

So where do they want to do this? The whole site or just in the water course? Just in the water? just on the water course. Let me go back to that other Oh, David Leupa joined us, too. Okay. Okay. Where's our first item?

Just talking really slow. I'm going back to their their report. And I apologize for not printing it in color uh or not scanning it in color. So this is the part of the stream that is in the study area this loop and they are planning to take um you know uh planning to take uh water quality samples and and other um uh and other information. And the uh let's see I think uh oh this is ah this I thought I could turn this off. I can't do it. So this is the piece of the project where where they're looking to do some

plantings. These are actually monitoring points. So, they're going to do quite a bit of monitoring

and I think again I think their their proposed monitoring is a jurisdictional ruling item and I think also the planting of trees and shrubs in this case would be so the um the commission uh okay here's here's some more stuff. Uh the goal is to update the Maplewood open space uh space uh to become more ecologically resilient, beneficial to wildlife environmental interaction and taking into account the wetland habitat. So uh they're going enhance the repairarian buffer along the 175 meter segment by planting trees and shrubs. um reduce the frequency of mowing. Um and uh they're going to uh create a nature path. Uh restore some bridges in uh that were previously located uh across the water course but have uh you know have fallen into disrepair and were removed. So they're going to restore or rebuild them. um

uh pavilion where the tennis court is located and um uh some changes to the uh to the parking. And that's that's the long the long-term uh plan. Yeah, this is more than just a study. Excuse me. This is more than just a study, isn't it? The the second part is is the planting of these trees and shrubs. But yes, I think some of this other is maybe outside of it. Um I don't I don't know. May I I But you're talking about paths and bridges.

Yeah. And and also parking in a pavilion. Is that all in the Oakland review area? It would be. Yeah. So, do we need to make a motion to have a a permit come in front of us? Yes. I would recommend to the commission that the uh the study part be subject to the to the jurisdictional ruling. But apparently not apparently I didn't read it all the way through or I would have um

I think the whole thing should come as an application and if he's using it as a teaching stool teaching tool for the students it would be a a good teaching good exercise for them to come before the wetlands commission. So the the name is it Michelle or Mi? Is it a man or a woman? Not that it matters. Michelle I don't go there. Okay. Do Do you know if there's a mapped uh FEMA flood plane in the area or do they even did they review that?

I think it is in a flood zone. I mean, I used to live in that neighborhood to the side when the the the subdivision was made because it was a wetlands area and it was flooded gets flooded. I was just thinking of the Yeah. the additional restrictions if it's a mapped flood plane for any structural improvements. Yeah. I don't know what they've done to it over the years, but Yeah. I mean it should come. Yeah. There there is flood plane in there. Okay. Yeah. And then they they really need to put an application in for that.

Yeah. Yeah. The whole thing needs an application. All right. I think in the interest Yeah. of not creating extra work for them either. it it doesn't seem worth making this, you know, one part uh, you know, a a ruling and the other having to come before us. So, I would say bring it all together and do it at once. Okay. I don't think the commission needs to take a vote on that, but if you feel comfortable doing it, that's fine. The the consensus of the commission is that this is not jurisdictional and that an application for wetlands permit is needed. Correct?

Yes. Okay. Uh other thing towards new application. Peter, have you heard from Mr. Galvin Gavin at all? I'm sorry. Have you g what's his name? Gavin on the West Hartford Bloomfield line. I have not. Okay. Because he's trying to pave that access road. Yep. Yeah. We had I think we've had this discussion several times. It's it's Oh, what's his number over there? I think it's 83. Yeah. Um his his property is in Bloomfield. His access to the property is in West Hartford,

right? through a easement um that was granted with the um with the subdivision uh the West Harford subdivision some time ago. So the application I mean the discussion have been going around and around and it's my it's my um my uh um feeling that because this commission cannot regulate what's happening in West Hartford. The majority of the work is paving of that rightway in and it's in West Hartford. the the driveway ends um just north of the of the uh of the right ofway and some improvements would have to be done there if he was to pave it. So th those improvements those regulated activities in Bloomfield would be subject to a Bloomfield wetlands permit. What I'm hearing from the neighbors on the West Tarford side is that he wants to pave the right of way creating the runoff into Bloomfield.

Yeah. The the the access drive and the right of way is access drive do drain towards Bloomfield. Okay. Presently, we need to see that or is that something that well to the All right. If he's paving the driveway, some of that work is going to be in the town of Bloomfield. So that that's what this commission can regulate. You can't regulate whether the town of West Hartford allows them to pave it or not. Right. Right. But the end product is the water is going to be flowing into the Bloomfield wetlands area. again. Yes, as it presently does

or actually drains into wetlands that extend on both sides of the line. All right. Okay. So, uh can we go on to new applications? No, no other questions. I'm good.

Okay. Um we received uh just today um a application um for reubdivision on Crystal Lane and I think we've talked about this before as well. The pre presently there's four lots and some of them are restricted by what they have for um uh utility easements and and there's flood plane here too. And the the application is to re uh uh reconfigure the four lots. Well, there's four lots now. They want to reconfigure those four lots and there'll be four lots at the other end when they're done. So,

this is a different owner, correct? Yes. And

you read my mind, Alan. And uh you know this is uh um uh they submitted an application for the a reubdivision which is the right you know uh method for uh you know reapproving uh a uh you know a revised subdivision. I'm not sure. Typically, resubdivisions means you're you're making a new lot or at least one new lot. This is all the same. Four lots, four lots. Um and there's uh um there will certainly be work in the upland review area and and all of the lots have some flood plane on them. So they will also be coming in for you know uh site plan approval, wetlands approval for the regulated activities etc. Um and I thought it would be appropriate for the reubdivision to be an a wetlands agent permit as it's really just changing lines on a map. they will be coming back for a for like I said for wetlands and for flood plane permits. So this is just a modification of the lines and in no case are the new lines going to be um uh or the new lots are not going to be unbuildable. Let me see if I have something to share with you on this one. Does that cover wetlands commission approving subision?

Yeah. Uh the uh uh wetlands regulations say that wetlands commission has to approve subdivisions of lots on uh uh or in wetlands or water courses. um mostly to determine if they're if they're uh creating non-conforming lots. Right. Right. This has already been created, so you're just adjusting them.

That's correct. I'm not I mean I will I I'm not sure that it even needs that, but that's the application that came in and we will have to you don't get into um runoff or um bonds or anything like that, right? When you just you're just going to redesign the the lots. Recon? Yeah, I would say reconfigure. Okay. Did we talk about this before? Yes. Does it sound familiar? It does because there are four or five lots. Very narrow. Yeah.

Okay. So, the these are uh are we seeing are we all seeing the same we seeing my my shared screen? Yes. Yep.

Okay. So in black are the are the lot lines existing lot lines. So what this easterly most lot goes from here to here here to here there's one two three four and this lot on the on the west side has got this is the flood elevation this dark gray line very little developable land right here. So, what they're asking to do is to make lot four bigger and make lots three, two, and one smaller. That's what's indicated by the red um the red lines and those new lot numbers. So, new lot,

how can they how could they develop two and one? There's less space than there was in the far left. Yeah, they're going to be working in the the edges of the flood zone. Mo most of the uh uh most of the let me get a little bigger here. Most of the um well, all of the development is going to have to be for number one's going to have to be here. There's no there's no way they're developing back there.

For new lot number two, it's going to be here. New lot number three, it's going to be here. Um the other thing that was restricting them over here was a lot of elevation change. You know, there's I see 10 or more feet of elevation change across here. Uh, you know, it's a uh I don't know. I guess they figure they can make, you know, it'll make it work better this way. Here's a sanitary sewer easement that runs through this lot and across the front of these lots. Looks like they're trying to make the lots bigger so that then when they sell them they can say, "Hey, you're getting a big lot."

Well, actually, they're reducing the the size of of old lot one and two, but they're taking up that co the end piece and putting it into another lot. Right. Yeah. So, uh, if I was making this map, I would have put Zlines through the property lines that aren't going to be there anymore. That would be this one, this one, and this one. So, we we've gotten to a point where we have no land that's developable anymore. We had to go with this stuff that is precarious, difficult to deal with. Yes.

I I guess we've used up all of our farmland. Now we have to go to the things that hillside. Not quite not quite all the farmland yet, but uh and this is this Crystal Lane subdivision was approved in the 1980s. So, you know, if this was coming in for subdivision approval now, we may have some real concerns about the about the uh you know, the uh area of developable land. Well, and there's no guarantee there's no guarantee, Kevin, that we'll approve, you know. Well, I I understand that.

And I also like to point out that the 1980s, wasn't that the era of cocaine, recreational drugs?

Rumor has it that that was true. Anyway, I wasn't on I wasn't on the commission then. So So, uh I guess the question for you guys is um wetland agent approval for modifying the lines. I have no I have no problem with it. Okay. If you run into a problem, come back. Oh, yes. This tend This tends to be a problem area. Yeah. Um, so find out if he's related to the to the v the seller. I can find out, but it's not going to make any difference.

See if they have a good lead on hay bales. Yeah. Okay. All right. That's going to be a tough property to build on, but that's another All right. Okay. So, uh, can we move on to to item six?

Yep. Um n I've received an application for a wetlands agent permit at 94 Graanby Street. Um they're going to do some modifications to an existing gas station which will include some regulated activities in the upland reviewer area. Um, those of you who may be familiar with this particular location, it was um, and I believe still is a uh, um, fueling facility for natural gas powered vehicles. Um, just north of here or just north of this lot was uh a taxi company, Yellow Cab, that used natural gas powered vehicles. Um, the present owners want to get rid of the natural gas and put in uh gasoline and and uh diesel with some new um uh pumps out front. the diesel pumps will be on the side. Um they're not changing the the um uh pavement to any any extent, but uh they do want to put a sidewalk all the way around the existing building and and it will be a convenience store type application or type development. So, that one is uh is under review and I I'll probably be approving that application uh later this week. Um

question. Yeah. Was that property ever a functioning um regular gas station or was it just the natural gas? And um I think Yo cab taxi when they had it they had gas pumps there. Yeah. The the part the parcel where the taxi cabs was has been separated from the parcel for the gas station now. So the gas station building was built the original gas station building was built in the 50s and there were probably gas gasoline tanks you know out front where they usually put them. Yeah.

Uh but I believe those tanks are out of the ground and they're going to put new ones generally in the same place. So if they're not out of the ground, they'll find them soon. But from my understanding of the discussions with the application there, the old tanks were removed many years ago. Okay.

Okay. Um, under enforcement actions, I received some new information concerning the uh, notice of violation at 69 um, Charter Avenue. Commission may recall that at the last meeting they uh um uh the applicant had started working on the on the uh uh you know required uh cleanup. All the m all the old material or the fill material has been removed. Um we asked them to flag the wetlands. Wetlands have been flagged. Um and uh the only item missing from the um uh list of things to do is to get us a a survey of the property, topographic survey of the property and to submit a wetlands permit application. Um he uh the the owner there said he's work he he's working on the survey um but it isn't complete and um I think it would be appropriate to uh schedule him for another appearance at the at the June meeting to give us a further update.

Okay. Okay. Um status of ongoing projects. Uh we we definitely have ongoing projects. Um there's uh uh a new self storage facility that's moving along at 59 Douglas Street. Um the uh new um commercial retail development at 625 Cottage Grove Road is underway. They've done their clearing. They're getting ready to do um earthwork. Uh the Ryfield Village um uh PLR uh um is uh is for all intents and purposes complete. So, that one, you know, that one's done. I understand it's almost fully occupied. Um the uh uh there's construction underway for the Edith Court um PLR on Watkins Road. Um they're moving along pretty quick, too. They've built a a new um storm water basin out by the um Simsbury Road and and uh they've been working on uh a couple or three um model homes. Uh and I'm guessing that they're going to start with their um water, sewer, and storm infrastructure soon if they haven't started already. Um the uh Seabberry addition that was approved I think in early 24 I'm sorry early 2025 is moving along and they're going to be looking for uh u final

inspections come uh the end of June I believe they're they're zipping right along on that project as is the uh Blue Hills Avenue senior housing Um there's uh there's a uh I think there are six or seven multif family buildings over there and I think and a clubhouse and I think they're working on four of those buildings right now. So um there's there's a lot of there's a lot of stuff happening. These are the ones that I just could remember offhand. I'm sure there's other ones that are um you know uh also uh under construction, but um those are the big ones. And if anybody has any questions about a particular project or any of these, I'll be happy to try to answer.

Okay. Hey Peter, where do you want to talk about Vernon pools? You want to talk about it? We're going to do it other other business after the minutes.

Okay. So, um before the commission, uh takes a vote on the uh on the minutes or reviews the minutes, I wanted to let you know that um we had a uh a meeting some time ago with our new town clerk concerning uh how we do minutes. And uh Rebecca was right on the ball with this. I'm I'm still having a little trouble understanding how this works. Um the minutes that Rebecca submits to the town clerk within seven days of this of the meeting are the minutes the those are the minutes for that meeting that get filed on the land records. So if there are changes to those minutes, it has to be those changes have to be reflected in the the minutes of the following meeting or the meeting after that. what you know when the when there's a vote on the when there's a vote on the minutes and as we do we go through and make changes you know u whatever the changes are those changes have to be listed in the minutes when the when the um when the minutes of the meeting when the minutes were approved so we're on the agenda tonight is the um April 20th last right last month's minutes. And if there are changes to these minutes, those will show up in the June minutes with an addendum at the bottom. And if you look, is there one for this one, Rebecca?

So, what I did is the way that the town clerk would like it is to have it say, "The April 20th minutes are approved with the following changes." And then I bullet the changes. Um I did model that for the April 20th minutes. Um if that's something that is in front of everyone, you could take a look at it. Yeah, it's on page five of the minutes.

So it says um moved by should be Secretary Wilcox and seconded by Vice Chairman um Shipman to approve. Oh, wait a minute. You might not have been the secretary then. Uh until after I was voted in.

Yeah. So then it says revise the first sentence of the third paragraph to read Terry Plains road. I think it was Terry Plain road and provide second paragraph on page two for to read for the wildlife habitat they they provide. These are ve very minimal. Um I'm my problem is I'm concerned that there might be a lot of changes and that may you know do we have a whole page of revisions or do we just republish the whole thing? I think they want a list of revisions. So, at the bottom of the page and at at the top, um there are heads up warnings. Uh at the top of the minutes now, it says minutes not yet approved, approval and any edits to be made in the succeeding minutes.

Um is that the is that the verbiage from the from the town clerk? That's the verbiage that the other recording secretaries are using. Um, and I believe it probably it didn't originate from me. Um, so I'm assuming likely the town clerk. Okay. I I don't know if if does it make more sense to say minutes not yet finalized as they are being approved. That's something I would have to ask her. I did include your disclaimer on the last page like request.

Right. So at the bottom of page five, it said the these minutes may be amended by the commission. See sub subsequent meetings minutes for revisions.

I'm concerned that I thought we the way it came out was that we we didn't approve these with Rebecca will submit them and say that not yet approved and then the next meeting we approve them with changes. That's the way I thought it was going to be. My problem is if somebody wants to bring a lawsuit to the town, they go in, they go town clerk, they read the minutes, they go, "Oh, somebody said da da da da da." And then they file a lawsuit, not reading the next month or two months down the road, right? That's why we put in the those two disclaimers. So, yeah. So, there's got to be a disclaimer. They

if someone comes in wants to pull the minutes, they should make sure they have the the minutes as when they were finally approved with any corrections. Right. Right. It could down the road. Shouldn't they be It would seem that there should be two files. One would be the draft minutes that would be replaced once they're No, that's how it was done. D you're You're right.

But so so what I was thinking is that they're they're posted as draft minutes until they're approved at the next meeting and then the they're updated as final or whatever approved minutes. You were advised by the town clerk to not even use draft anymore. That the minutes are just the minutes and that any changes will have to be found in the next minutes, I guess. Yeah, I think I think um was it Stephen? Somebody said that there's the potential for legal liability in the interim until they're finalized. Um I agree with that, but I'm not Well, and that's and that's what we were doing.

Yeah, that's what we were doing, but the town clerk says the foyer says no, you can't do Did the town attorney weigh in on it? I I don't know. town attorney was there, went, wasn't he? Yeah, he was in attendance and the guidance that she received was from another attorney at her previous municipality is my understanding. Let let me inter let me add something to this conversation, please. Okay, go ahead. Thank you. I mean, I was going to raise my hand like you taught me to, but I I figured it was too late by this time. Yeah. Well, you can't

uh think of this as if we were a newspaper. You publish your newspaper. You believe that you are correct in what you publish. Somebody points out a mistake and you have a correction, you know, retraction, whatever in the next edition or what in whatever edition happens to be the closest one to the time you're pointed out your mistake. So, yeah. Can there be a lawsuit? of course, but it's not like it's going to get finalized before we have our next

sometimes like if we don't have a meet, we don't have a quorum and there's no meeting for a month and then there's a snowstorm or something and then now it's three months down the road and then the minutes get approved. You know, Eeyore, not everything is a cloud. Rain on. Yeah, I know. And I realize that those are specific possible things that can happen, but

Rebecca, when you submit them the minutes, do you give them physically to the clerk? Well, um I am trying to get them to Peter first so he can review them, make his edits, and then he sends them back to me and then I send them to the When you give them to the clerk, can you say to her, "Is this okay?" Because the commission has some issues with it. Uh I'm happy to um I'm happy to have her look at another uh board that I've already done and see if she sees any issues.

Um and I'm happy to report back at the next meeting. I was at the FOI meeting that they were talking about, but I I don't know why they're doing it this way. I agree with you. It should be marked draft and then the next meeting finalized. So So the clerk when you send in those first minutes that Peter has looked at, the clerk thinks that those have been approved. No. Uh no, no. Those are the the those minutes don't get approved until the next meeting. This is more like a record a record of the meeting minutes.

Freedom of information issue. Freedom of information and freedom of information commission says when you have a meeting you have seven days to get in the the minutes right or wrong they got to be in the land records. Dumb. And and should you know so then you have to correct them the next time. Right. But should the first one have it have the word draft on it? That's Oh, they said no. That's that's what they don't want. Has anybody ever sat on a jury? Yes.

Okay. So the wonderful thing about a lawsuit is they can bring a lawsuit against us for all we care because if it goes to court by the time it goes to court we would have made corrections to our minutes and the defense by you know any defense that the town brings to bear will reflect the changes to our minutes negating whatever the initial lawsuit might I don't really see this as a as an issue. I think that we should just do whatever the town says. I I don't see the risk. What What's zoning doing about this? Is are they

same thing? You do the minutes for zoning. Yep. Okay. All right. But maybe just bring it up to the clerk and say we're, you know, we're concerned. Absolutely. I'll have her take a look at the uh April 20th minute since that was the first since our change and see what she says. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. The old motto goes uh commission proposes, town disposes. Yeah. Careful. Careful, Paul.

Do we have any revision on that on that note? I I reviewed the the latest uh minutes and I didn't see any corrections. So that's same. Are you guys saying that because you don't want to have to revote on them, right? No, I you know, I was relieved to hear you say that, Glenn, because I I looked at them and I said, "Somebody's going to find something because I'm not." But uh I had no issues. No, I didn't either, Kevin. It was a It was a choice of getting an extra hour of sleep or reading the minutes. I'm sorry I chose sleep.

Okay. I don't think the two are are separable. All right. So, is there a motion to approve the minutes as Yes, I make a motion to approve the minutes. I second Glenn the two proof readers par excellence. All right. All in favor? I I I posted abstain. It's unanimous. Seven. Seven. Yes. Votes. Yeah. Other business. Not really sure. David was muted and so was Adam, but I think No, I I unmuted say said I and remuted. He nodded. Oh, I'm so sorry. I missed that. I'm quick.

Quick. Uh, so other business. Very good. Almost there. Um, item 10, other business. Um, talked about Vernon pools.

Yeah, that's that's one of them. We're I'm I'm going to preface it by saying that um uh we had a meeting David Lupa and Glenn Brelin and I um to talk about vernal pools and to talk about um the uh uh some other uh items in particular riperian vegetation. So, um we had a good meeting and um there was some question about um how to properly identify or define what um what a uh uh you know what the vernal pool habitat area is and perhaps a way to um uh give the commission some leeway um in approving more than 10% % impact to a vernal pool uh habitat area. Um I really didn't have a have a draft ready for this meeting and this is only for discussion. So, um we're working on them and I'm going to include a formal um uh item, not other business perhaps or maybe put it in there, but I'll have it as a as an item and I'm I'm going to uh pull the commission tonight to see if um we want to look at just the regs for vernal pools uh or andor repairarian vegetation. or if we want to look at a um a more wholesale revision to the wetlands um wetlands regulations. Um

that's a much bigger job.

Yeah, that's a much bigger job. Right. So, I'm thinking um we can have the vernal pool and riparian vegetation on for um discussion and um uh you know uh recommendations. Uh we can't adopt new regulations without a public hearing. So, we're not quite there yet. Um, but the other thing that came across my my desk was a um uh a timber or tree harvest uh um registration form. I believe it was from the DEP which gives a very good breakdown, you know, for timber harvests. Um, Bloomfield hasn't had a timber harvest in maybe 20 years where it's where it's a controlled removal of of lumber, you know, of healthy trees uh for um you know, for uh um managing the forest as opposed to a clear cutting which doesn't leave any vegetation. So, um I'd like to include that one as the third item. uh for uh for discussion. Um yeah, that'd be good. Okay, I think I have All right, I'm going to try to share this. See how that works.

So, I'm thinking of just putting this in the in the regulations. Oh, it's four pages. It's actually a a harvest notification. So, and again, this is it is, you know, section B says forest practitioner. That means it's a it's a project to do forest management. It's not forest practitioner doesn't usually get involved in a project um where part of the project is to clear all the trees. This is a management kind of thing. So, you know, we can include that.

Why don't you put it in our next package so we can take a good look at it? Yeah, I will. Absolutely. Along with some draft language concerning vernal pool and uh repairarian vegetation.

Yes, that's that was my plan. But I wanted to bring it up tonight just to, you know, just to show you what's what's coming down the line. I want to interject one thing on burning pools and it's a concern of mine and I don't know how you can fix it or if you can but somebody buys a piece of land submits plans to build there's some wetlands on there no problem taken care of gets approved then the neighbor submits a plan and Vernon pools discovered and is within within 500 ft of the first guy. How do you protect that first guy buying a piece of land? He can't trespass on the neighbor looking for Vernon pools. Is there any way to to protect the buyer of the first piece? Um I'm not sure of the legal aspects of it, but I believe um like a surveyor, a soil scientist can, you know, observe the neighboring property without damaging it to see if there is a vernal pool. Um our wetlands map identifies some vernal pools, not all of them. Right.

And so if the applicant on the first parcel comes in, there's no wetlands on the let's say there are wetlands and his soil scientist did not identify a vernal pool within 500 ft. Then that's that's that um professional's opinion. the next guy comes in for for number two uh parcel two and a vernal pool is established then that would apply to that application. What about the first guy? Now it's within 500 ft of his house, right? But he already has a permit,

right? And he and and vernal pools were not identified on the property or or nearby for that application. We do ask all applicants, particularly if there's a map amendment involved, to look for vernal pools on their property. Yeah. But also within within the neighborhood. The regulations say you have to identify a vernal pool if it's within 500 ft of the property.

Well, if it's on a map, they can that's fair, but they can't trespass on their neighbor and start, you know, looking for Vernon pools. You can't you can't you can't trespass but you can do physical observations. So if if something is visible without trespassing you can identify as a potential vernal pool. Um it's it's you know I mean there there's a lot of instances where it may I tell you to stay off my property. What are you doing looking at my property? Well you could look but

don't look at my property. Well, there's also going to be a lot of instances where you have obstructions and there might be something there that somebody can't see. But you I mean in the same way that you know we say if there's a pond that's a a mapped pond and we're you know we've got our 200 ft upland review area from a a water course or water body. Um that could easily be on a different property. Um so if it's if it's a known entity then you deal with it. If it's an unknown, you can't. Um, and if it if it becomes known later and put on the map and then somebody in the future wants to do something, then they have to deal with it because it's now documented.

Okay. So, I don't understand. I don't understand Ellen's concern. So if if property number one doesn't realize there is a vernal pool, what can anybody do against them once a vernal pool has been established if they've already done the work with a permit?

Well, does the regulation already Well, what if they didn't what if they just got a permit? What if they bought a piece of land, they're planning to build a building, a house, and then the second parcel discovers a Vernon pool, and somebody says, "Hey, he got his permit. How come he doesn't have a Vernon pool issue?" If he gets his permit before it's discovered, then he goes with the permit he has. Mhm. If he makes a modification to the permit, he has to or he has to reapply. Then he has new conditions. May maybe he would have never bought the piece of property to begin with.

Yeah. Well, you know, you know, those those are ifs and buts that we can't necessarily protect everybody from, right? Well, because this regulation extends over the boundary lines. That's that's my issue with that's the problem, right? You know, yes, but based on that, nobody will ever get a permit. It's just rest. I don't know.

I don't know. I think you should take some sleeping pills so you can get over this tonight and get some sleep. Is that a problem? Can we uh can we look at this in the same way as we do our upland review areas because we don't we don't require wetland flagging off the site generally, right? Sometimes they overlap, but our official map shows wetlands, shows water courses, including some vernal pools. And those upland review areas do extend, you know, from one property to another. The vernal pool one happens to be 500 feet, so it really covers some land.

Yeah, it could be three neighbors over. I mean, if the Vernon pool's on a map, then I have no issue. Then somebody didn't do their due diligence.

But if you take a piece of land that you know, like uh that guy on what was it? Proer the house at the time. If somebody had bought that piece of land and didn't know there was a Vernon pool there, there's actually a Vernon pool on the piece next to it, too. No, I'm sorry. They're not. But he has the Vernon pool. But the pieces around them don't know that. Now they do. It It's not confined to boundaries. That's my problem. Yeah, I got a lot of problems, but that's one of them.

You know, we we can we can fix a lot of our problems by voting you out of the top spot here. Yeah. Don't worry, we're not going to do that just yet. Yeah, we'll we'll we'll discuss it uh and try to come up with something that might be just Yeah. Think about it. I don't know if there's anything you can do about it. And that that's because of the state, right? Um make it 750 ft. We cut it back to 500.

Yes. There's also a uh um uh critical habitat zone right around the vernal pool. I forget if it's 200 or 100 feet. I think it's 100 feet. It It's 100. Yeah. That we're going to try to, you know, uh that's part of the state, I guess, uh definitions, too. and we're going to look into how to how to incorporate that. So there there might be some some different, you know, some different language coming up.

Uh but we'll definitely take your concerns into into uh consideration. Uh one more note on the repairarian vegetation. Um there's a there's a a state law or not a state law, there's a bill, it's not a law yet um that uh in the state legislature to establish um protective zone around uh water courses and streams and ponds. Um, and right now I understand that they're looking at uh extra protection for the repairarian vegetation within 10 ft of a water course, which isn't much.

If you've got a little line stream, you're only going to protect, you know, 20 feet, 10 on each side. But that's that's what the act is. We'll talk or give everybody more information about that if there's news. And also I have some uh um uh graphics uh handout kind of graphics um that are reference to in our regulations. Um but um I've got the the backup documents and it having the graphics really, you know, really helps understand what what we're talking about on on the vernal pool habitat area.

Yeah. Okay. All right. Anything else on that? So other comments? Nothing. Nobody crickets. Nobody in attendance. All right, Peter. Anything else? You good? I'm good. Thank you. A motion to adjurnn. Sure, why not? Made by Kevin, seconded by Paul. Sure. All in favor say I.

I. opposed staying is unanimous. Thank you. Thank you for u making the effort guys coming in late. So, can I ask Peter and David a technical