A dozen neighbors of the 18.9-acres of Noroton River watershed woodlands owned by Aquarion Water Company adjacent to Frogtown Road, Welles Lane, West Road and Indian Waters Drive, and other members of the public sounded off in an attempt to preserve open space Wednesday, June 1, during a doubleheader of public hearings at Town Hall conducted by Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA).
Throughout the meeting, speakers suggested they would like the New Canaan Land Trust to attain the land so that it will remain open space.
Aquarion’s application to PURA calls for about 10 acres to become a subdivision into two residential building lots. The water utility already has an agreement to sell about eight of the acres to a neighbor possibly to be used as a buffer between his Frogtown Road property and the remaining, now-Aquarion land.
President Emeritus of the New Canaan Land Trust Chris Schipper told the PURA commissioners — who hold the power to deny Aquarion’s application to sell the land — that New Canaan fights hard for open space because “there is so little to fight for.”
“New Canaan has less than 12% dedicated open space,” said Schipper. “As this Aquarion sale highlights, that number ‘12’ is not correct because it includes almost 4% of water company lands.
The 8% remaining dedicated open public space that is not owned by the water company, which Schipper refers to compares to a guideline of 21% open space in the state that Gov. John Rowland set back in 2000.
Susan Bergen of Indian Waters Drive, whose property is next to the Aquarion land, said, “It’s the center of a wildlife corridor; it cements the western part of town to the center part of town; it connects three town parks, a bird sanctuary, other water company land owned by Aquarion, 40-acre woodland owned by a private school.”
Bergen also pointed out that the Noroton Water Company set this land aside in 1907. “Succeeding water companies have continued to preserve the land for 109 years, until now,” said Bergen, “This is our home, it’s beautiful, and we would like to pass it on.”
“The Noroton River flows directly into Long Island Sound. Every summer, for several years now, the sound has suffered from hypoxia, lack of oxygen that develops large dead zones, where fish and aquatic life can not survive,” said Bergen, “The cause is excess nitrogen and phosphorus pollution that comes from septic and fertilizer runoff. So logging all of these trees, hundreds of them, to put in houses, new septic fields, wells, driveways adjacent to this watershed doesn’t make any sense.”
Bergen’s husband Peter said that more development would result in less area for the absorption of rainwater. Bergen said there will be 44 million gallons per year of additional water. “In Connecticut, we get about 50 inches of rain in one year. The maximum rainfall in one day in Connecticut has been 7.5 inches. If a similar storm happens again we’re looking at 15.5 million gallons of water all pouring up that river in a very narrow spot in one day.”
Geologist and resident Skip Hobbs took to the podium and said that less than 3,000 feet south of the Aquarion land in question, “Aquarion operated a high-capacity water well that was connected to a regional water supply pipeline system.” He said further, “As evidenced by the presence of former sand and gravel pits observed on the subject property, I believe the 18.737 acres was originally acquired as an aquifer recharge area for the downstream well.”
“As a geologist, I take a long-term view,” Hobbs said at the hearing. “This is particularly important to assure that future generations of New Canaan and Darien residents have an adequate supply of clean potable water. “I can assure you that global warming is real; Connecticut has already been impacted by climate change; and that its impact on Connecticut will be very much worse by the end of this century. Long periods of drought are a real possibility.”
“I believe it is incumbent upon PURA to safeguard all known aquifers as future sources of subsurface water supply when surface reservoirs reach a critically low capacity,” said Hobbs, “The fact that Aquarion no longer has a corporate purpose or need for the property does not change its status as a protected aquifer recharge area.”
Dave Hunt of Buther Lane said he is very unhappy with the thought that Aquarion would sell this land for a price other than the appraised value that they have negotiated to a ‘very low level’ to avoid paying a ‘fair’ tax to the Town of New Canaan. “I realize that if they got a lot of money, that might have some positive impact on my water rates, I’m more than happy to not see that impact,” Hunt said.
Aquarion submitted to PURA more than 100-page real estate appraisal of the property with numerous attachments, as land to be sold for home development with an appraised value between $4 million and $4.4 million, according to Hobbs.
The 18 acres currently has a total assessed value of $167,720, an exceptionally low amount for so much land in New Canaan. At the 2015 mill rate of $15.98, the assessed value means Aquarion pays about $2,680 in taxes annually for the 18 acres.
According to Town Tax Assessor Sebastian Caldarella, this low assessment is because Aquarion received an exemption from the State of Connecticut because the land is forested and vacant, and the state encourages preservation of open space.
All 12 speakers spoke in favor of preserving the 18.9-acre land.
Many of the speakers mentioned walking the property themselves to understand first-hand what the land is like. To that, a lawyer for Aquarion Water Company commented, “Please keep in mind this [Aquarion land] is private property.”
PURA will make its final decision on June 29.
Susan Bergen of Indian Waters Drive making her case in favor of preserving open space. — Rich Durazzo, Jr. photo
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