Inland Wetlands Commission - Regular Meeting

6:02 so minutes late. This is the regular April meeting of the Old Lyme Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission. We're in the Memorial Town Hall, 52 Lyme Street. And start with new business. Um application 5-14, Talcott Farm Road. Uh it's the Association Pond DEP referral. Um I believe these are just notifications. So there's no Um no action but I don't have any comments. Um and that'll be the same same again at the Duck River Tidal Marsh. It's a DEP referral for for phragmites removal. Um so unless anybody has any discussion or have any comments. No. Move on. I have a Duck River question cuz I you know I'm sort of familiar with it. The in the application and I have to look at my notes but feel like I can't remember but um it said there was no activity down river and on the other side of McCurtie there are homes with docks. I mean I don't you know I'm sure that it was vetted before but I was just wondering about that cuz I'm new and learning. I don't

it said there was you know no but there are homes with docks down there. Just I don't know what they a comment or an observation. I'm not sure what they use as like a Yeah, okay.

Just yeah just a distance or what they use for a threshold for activity but All right. I'm sure it's gone through I mean it's been approved by Yes. Probably similar to what we did um, on Ferry Road in town. We had someone come in, cut the phragmites, and then they treated very specifically. And this is a smaller lot, so and apparently they had a permit They did. Yes. So, this is the same cuz it didn't work that well. Sometimes it takes three or four treatments to But it's it's working well for us on Ferry Road. It really knocked it back and native vegetation's coming in. So, in the long That would be a positive. Oh, yeah. It looks like I mean it was fascinating to watch. Thanks. Is the treatment every year for the three years of the permit? It depends. [clears throat] Usually the consultant will decide. Um, in our instance, in the town property, we cut it in the fall in the spring and the fall. And then, I think they treat in the fall on the cut stems cuz it gets into the, you know, phragmites is tough to kill. And the second year, um, they cut it and didn't have to treat the whole site. It was more spot treating where the frag was still growing and then this year we don't think, even though we have a permit, um, other than maybe selective cutting, we're not going to do any treating, so it's it's really worked for us. And how long have you been doing it for? Um, only for three years. We had a grant that helped us get the money to be able [snorts] to do it. This is a continuation of a previous application? This one This one is. This one has been done. The Duck River one? Yeah.

Yeah. So, they they've done it, but, you know, it's it should be working, but All right. Anybody else have anything else? Okay. Uh, moving on. So, uh, application 26-3, uh, five, Four Mile River Road, South Holmes LLC. Uh, it's for porch addition to an existing single family residence. Anybody here from that application? You want to, if you want you can come up and kind of explain what the, uh, planning is.

Yeah, I'll be right there. Yes, so the, uh, family they want to put a, uh, 40-some porch in the back of the house and, uh, they have a deck, so they basically want to bump it out to where the deck is, you know, and, um, and to keep it, you know, low impact, we just do it two piers. That's it. No disturbance, no grading, no drainage, nothing.

could you state your name for me? Jose Salseda. Thanks. And, um, and there is like a buffer there because, uh, you know, like cuz they have like a fence and stuff like that. Okay. Yeah. Uh, so we'll we're going to set a site walk for May 7th at 6:30. Okay, yeah.

so if you can I'll put it in my calendar. So if you can maybe just put where the mark out where the piers are going to go. Yes. And, uh, if it's not obvious where the the it's not obvious where the wetlands are, if you can, uh, maybe flag where the either the 100-ft review area or You know, I have I have I have I have I I've been trying to talk to the surveyors cuz we have a survey and it has some flaggings, right, in the survey. But I haven't been able to locate a scientist report that it says that actually that's the delineation of the wetlands, but so I'll I'll try to figure that out, but I'll I'll I'll work with the homeowners, you know. I don't know if you guys have anything on record about any scientist report. Uh, the most Probably the delineation.

Unless there's been something done on the unless it's been done before, I don't Okay. I don't We'd have to look into that. Okay. You said it's marked on the plans. It's marked on the survey and I tried to contact the surveyor, but hasn't got back to me with any scientist report. So, I'm like wondering how do you determine because in the notes about who No, nothing in the note who did it. It just has the surveyor notes and like Made an approximation. So, this you know, the delineation has to be done by a scientist like a surveyor. It doesn't have to. But, what was the date again? Uh the 7th. The 7th, okay. Yeah, at 6:30. Uh and you know, the last last one, so we'll do our best to get there for 6:30, but might be a couple minutes late. Yeah, that's right. That's 6:30-ish. That's good. [clears throat]

That's all right. I'll try to be there. If not, like you said, I'll mark everything or the homeowners will be there, so [clears throat] Okay. You know. Sounds good. Sounds good. So, any questions or any additional [clears throat] questions at all, Matthew? All right. Thank you.

Not yet. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh so, moving on, application 26-5, 54 Cellar Lane. Uh Jeffrey and Linda Reikers. Uh this is to construct a two-car garage and other additions. How's it going? Uh I am Raymond Malanowski, the applicant and the good land designer. I'm representing Jeffrey and Linda today. So, as you had mentioned, they're proposing a two-bay garage and a proposed seating area. Bless you. Bless you. Thank you. As well as enclosing the existing carports and what it what is currently a deck serving the first floor of the house. Uh the garage is 7 and 1/2 ft from flagged wetlands. However, it is in the only space that is conforming to the zoning regulations. Uh on top of that, they're also proposing a 60-in canopy that will connect from the house to the garage. Uh some slight grading around where that proposed garage would go, as well as introduction of uh excess gravel to expand the existing driveway. Uh the the purpose of some of the grading and the location of the extension of the gravel driveway is generally to avoid the existing septic septic system in this location. Uh the site overall is rather tight. It's about It was 12,000 sq ft. Uh it was recently expanded in a lot line modification to uh convey, I believe it's just about 26,000 sq ft from the from the neighbor Christine A. Kitchens.

And so that's the general flow of project. Any questions? Do you expect any actual disturbance in the wetlands? Are you going to have 100% of the disturbance on the property?

No. Uh so what we're proposing right now is silt fence to go along the flagged wetlands. So keeping everything out that we can. Uh the 7 and 1/2 ft should be more than enough. What we've been able to do is grade the the existing land, which does happen to be rather steep, away from those flagged wetlands. Uh we're also proposing erosion control blankets. So we don't expect any disturbance from erosion or sedimentation. Uh we also don't expect any encroachment into the wetlands, either. A couple of the trees in the area will have to go. Um but I there's nothing that we can really do about it given the tight zoning requirements on the lot. And none of those trees were in the physical or touching the wetlands. So They're uh they're outside of the wetland area. Uh so the wetland area is this green line right here. A 100-ft uh, foot review area is this green line right here. Uh, so there's a couple trees, kind of difficult to see cuz they're they're uh, a color gray. I can probably change those colors for you. Um, and they're outside of the inland wetland area. Uh, they're pretty close. I'd say they're about 10 ft away. Okay. Uh, so you are set for 6:00 on the 7th for a site walk? Okay. Um, Got it. Sounds good. All right, thank you. Thank you. All right, so moving on to 26-6. Uh, this is 6-1 and 8-1 Meeting House Lane. Uh, Matt Kraus, uh, construct two new single-family residences. So if you want to come up and introduce yourself and Good evening. Um, We have a contract If you want to put it in, just say your name. If you want to

say your name for the record.

Oh, uh, Matt Kraus and I want to uh, forward here. Um, we have [clears throat] a contract to purchase lots two and three, which were 6-1 and 8-1 of a existing three-lot subdivision. The subdivision was approved in 1987. And then a wetlands approval for a wetlands permit to cross the wetlands. There's There's two lots and a small stream brook runs through it. So in 1980 in 2021, there was an approval for uh, a crossing to get to the second lot. That approval expires in July. So we are asking to have that extended so that we can do it. And then we have a minor modification of the of the driveway that we approved. And um, when did you have a bigger map? a larger map. So there's one to pass out there. I can help. So What about something smaller than that one? Yeah. We use Is that the updated one or Yes, this Um These have uh this map. So um I'm good. Uh what you can do with this is Uh this one doesn't actually have the uh proposed driveway. So when we Sign Great, thank you. When we signed the contract, the first thing we did was we had the property surveyed. Uh so we reclaimed all the stakes that were done in in 2021. And then we hired a soil scientist to remark the wetlands, so we knew where the wetlands were. Um And then we had uh an arborist come and review the trees. We're trying to save as many trees as possible and when we

had our engineer um create a slightly different plan. The original plan that was approved crosses a wetland. We're not changing that, but it has the driveway going across to an impossibly steep grade. And they [snorts] never really determined where it would go. We'd like the driveway to turn um in the wetland review area because it's relatively flat here and then come up. As part of this process, we've hired a a landscape architect to put together a um wetland mitigation plan with plants and everything. So we're hoping to get that approved. I think if you come out see we can show you where we we've taken care of there. There are actually two lots. Uh the other part of it is there's a beautiful black oak tree that's uh here. We want to just adjust the house so we don't have to cut that down. Okay. If we can help it. All right. Is anything helpful? I think if you're there, you'll see. Okay. All right. So, we have you at 5:30 on the 7th. Uh makes sense. Yes. Okay. Do you want the these or We submitted all these already. They're in the file. I think we should be okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Uh so, the last one, 26-7, 35

Shore Drive, Mark Gutman. Uh porch addition to an existing single single-family residence. I'm Mark Gutman. You too. So, I want to build a porch off the back of the house. Small porch, 2 ft off the ground. 8 by 18 ft. Do you have a plan? I don't have a plan yet, no. But uh I have a builder. Um and this is along Rogers Lake? Yeah, so it'd be it'd be an open Yeah, Rogers Lake, yeah. It'd be an open porch with an awning. I mean, you need to give us a little sketch where it is. A sketch? I know, it's Yeah, something what you're going to build. You need to probably develop something for the building department. A copy of that would be fine. But but but this is only flood zone. So, we don't need somebody to have to sign off on

Okay, so just ask my builder to put it together. No problem. And you know you can probably just bring that to the if you want you can probably bring that to the site walk or give it to Julie ahead of time. Um I realize that it's probably The site walk is on the 7th, so if you can get it before that, great. If not, that's fine, too. So just a sketch of what it would look like on the house and then And then to satisfy the the FEMA regulations I'm not super familiar with. [clears throat]

Okay. Okay. Okay. All right, I'll relay that. And then just do I need to be there for the site visit because I'm working at that time that you mentioned? Uh someone else can be there. If you if somebody else if maybe it's the builder wants to be there and just explain he can explain how to be anchored down, that would make sense. And if he could maybe just mark the corners of the where the deck where the porch is going to go. I'm assuming it won't be a way mark. If we can get out there and see where it's theoretically going to be so we know what the site looks like and then maybe some of the gaps can be filled in after the fact, but as long as you can see the orientation and positioning of it, then they fill the gaps later. And then if that can get done within the next week or two, we can Okay, great. And what time is that one? Uh you are at 6:15. All right, thank you. Thank you. See you then. You too. You too. Uh we have no old business. And then how are we making out on that? 308-1 and not 308-1 mile creek. You know, I think we need to do the reports here. Still still in the foreclosure. We're going to sell it once we get the bank approval on it. I know it's shitty to lose the brewery stuff on the frame, but don't try to do it that way. You're still not going to give you any costs. It's not going to put you in a judgment, so here we are. At this point, we'll all I'll let you know when we get closer to trial, honestly. Okay. And 16 and 2. Um they're finally everything is officially now being determined. So, at this point, I'll bring the project to your full well because there's no more money. Um Uh what it also means obviously is that they're making no real efforts to maintain the site, so I was out there taking pictures. I sent the bank which will cost them the full of financing.

Um it the erosion there is still pretty bad and obviously they're not going to do anything or the erosion control structures. Um So, yeah, at this point, I'm not really sure what to say other than we're going to have to wait and see what happens once you know, again, once this thing finally goes into foreclosure and then obviously it's all over. Um is there any kind of lien that needs to be put on it for the Jacobson bill or Well, yeah, the the challenge is if we were to do that, we'd need to again get some litigation on that. I talked to um Cassell about that and it hasn't happened yet, but I wasn't expecting to get turned down quickly at this point. I mean, it doesn't I guess that kind of falls outside of us, but yeah. No, look, we've obviously had challenges with this site for years now. Um we unless we kill the whole project with the foreclosure action, we're going to be boxed out, but um we probably need to at least slash some of the spendings on that just to make sure we have a clean slate. And and go from there. Okay? And that's for the work that's been done to date, Eric. But in the event that place sits for a couple years, and there's some type of stabilization that needs to occur, is that would the town have to step in at that point, I assume, or is it just Well, we never got a bond. They kept asking for a bond. Yeah, we were right. So, at this point, um if we were to step in, it would be entirely on our own initiative to step in whatever I can where we would get that money back. But again, that's why I might put some of those standings on the site just so that anybody who's coming in knows that we're putting a real claim against this one out [clears throat] there. So, cuz the bank totally blew it. The bank was like, "We had no idea he was stealing." Well, they wouldn't stop telling us anyway. I was like, "Well, I know I spent about 90 minutes putting together a really detailed with receipts everything that's going on there. Um and obviously the bank had no idea." So, um you know, here we are. But I will I I I

will talk to uh take this up with the bank and some sort of communication on the way immediately so we can at least get on the right track with We have money owed us for work that's been done on the site. Okay. Uh does anybody have any other any anything you want to bring up? No.

Okay. Uh we'll move on to reading and approval of minutes um the March 24th meeting. Does anybody have Anybody had a chance to read those minutes? Any comments? No comments. So, you approve the minutes? Good. Motion to approve. Okay. Uh do I have a second? Uh all those all those in favor? Aye. Unless anybody has anything else, we can adjourn. It is 6:23, and the next meeting is May 26th at 6:00. Nice. Motion to adjourn. Second.