BOA - Tom's annual report for the CC
thomas harbinson
Conservation Commission Annual Report/Presentation
Tom Harbinson, Conservation Commission Chairman, stated, this is an annual report. We first did it last year in January or February and it's due to the duties the Open Space Committee formally had in terms of reporting the status of the Open Space Trust Account – an account that receives fees in lieu of open space dedications in subdivision applications. We thought we'd expand that report to tell you about the efforts that have been accomplished over the past year. This will be the first full year of activity we'll be able to report to you on.
Our open space activities – Open Space Plan – we are currently updating that with mapping which I have available here. For the benefit of the public, all of our maps and our Open Space Plan draft is available online, as well as this report.
Visit http://sheltonopenspace.googlepages.com
The mapping – we are making use of the City's GPS systems in-house. Previous Open Space Plans were outsourced for a fee to outside agencies, professional services, and as volunteers we've diligently just plugged on through it and used the City resources of mapping and computers to do all the new mapping.
In terms of regulations, the Open Space Ordinance, it's the first full year that we've had that in place and received the funding for that. I have a report that as of December 31, 2007 the Open Space Trust Account balance was $365,658.50, confirmed by the Finance Department. That account has received fees in lieu of over the year. There are a few fees in lieu of that in auditing the account we discovered have not been remitted by a few developers, and that's being bird-dog tracked down to have them properly remit that. It's a small amount but it's a principle that has to be followed through on.
The payments that were expended from the account were primarily for the purchase of the UI property on Buddington Road. The map's a little bit small, but I think you're all familiar with that parcel – a long strip, this piece right here, it's at the end of our Shelton Lakes Greenway, and as you can see the linkage of all the parcels that have been accumulated through the years since 1965 beginning with the piece on Nell's Rock, that is continued down and will eventually connect toward the Far Mill River Greenway.
I should mention that our Open Space Plan in the past has been primarily a tool for acquisition of parcels, and one thing that we will be considering with the new draft is that the areas that we have termed as greenways where open space parcels have been accumulated, that they also are areas that require special examination for future use, whether it be recreation use or if there are parcels that are oversize lots where teardowns and development can occur, ala what happened at Aspen Ridge along Mill Street – oversized lots that primarily you wouldn't think of acquiring as open space a parcel that has development on it, but the change of that character of those two homes and the excess acreage into condos has dramatically changed the character of the scenic road Mill Street. So that is something we're considering of how you conceptually think of our greenway plan. There's an overlay for extra examination, not just property acquisition.
In terms of protecting lands, we did acquire as I mentioned, the UI property in fee simple. There were a few properties that were dedicated as process of the subdivision applications and we also, our major achievement this past year was the purchase of development rights on the Jones Family Farms Homestead acreage. That was the end and fruition of a long process with a referendum for the funding, a grant from the USDA Farm and Forest Protection Program, and a lot of effort on that finally came to fruition by the end of last year. That acreage is now forever protected from ever being developed, and continue in its agricultural use.
Trails activities – we've had numerous trails volunteers that have been out there doing maintenance of the trails, creation of the trails and actively promoting the recreational use of the trails to the public in general. A successful event last year was a Me and My Guy Hike which was the Girl Scouts with their fathers, doing a hike primarily the Bridge to Bridge Hike – the bridge by Route 108 near the Police Department called Pine Lake, all the way from the Bridge in Huntington Center, primarily following the recreation path location. That was a great success, and a lot of the fathers didn't even know that such an extensive trail system existed. It gave an opportunity to promote it to the public.
Again, we did our Shelton Trails Day to coordinate with Connecticut Trails Day, which was National Trails Day, which is the first Saturday in September. We had a good turnout for that.
Also, you may have read a lot in the paper about wildlife observations on our City space, and I can report to you that there is no bobcat in the City open space. However, there are coyotes, and we have actively created a Google map where we pinpoint every report that we get of animal sightings, and you can see primarily the area in town where those occur and the dates that they've occurred. That's all available online for the people to be informed.
Our Conservation Agent Theresa Gallagher has made extensive use of computer technology as I've mentioned, what we're doing here, using a calendar online so that the public is informed of what our office hours are, City website, putting our Open Space maps on a Google website, all of our e-mails being communicated and publicly accessible in real time. I think we're pushing the envelope in that environment.
The Recreation Path is a very important component of the next phase of trails activities. It's going to go from the Bridge to Bridge as I mentioned. A major achievement last year was the installation of the Timber Bridge on top of the Silent Waters Dam. This is what it looked like previously, with a gap in between and then the bridge put in place. The bridge came to us from out west, didn't cost the taxpayers of Shelton a dime in terms of getting the bridge or getting the abutments or putting the railings on the bridge. All of that was through grants that the Conservation Commission and Trail volunteers worked on and were awarded. Quite often when people see that bridge and it opened up to them, gee I didn't realize there was a trail there, and they go up and see all of this trail work and a bridge – they don't realize that it didn't cost the City taxpayer a dime.
There's a lot of work that's been done with trail maintenance throughout the trailed network. I want to show you a couple of photos of what the Land Trust has accomplished on their parcel on Lane Street. This is on Lane Street where the Recreation Path will follow on their property, and they have brought it up to a standard where it will be the crushed stone, they put the filter fabric down, and it really was a quick project. You can see it through the meadow there, some equipment that was put into place, a little Bobcat and an excavator. This is the meadow by Lane Street. That's available to the public to enjoy, it's a private entity – the Land Trust – but they quite often do their activities and coordination with the Conservation Commission. This is near an area where there is a beaver. This pretty much shows you what the recreation path will look like – about a five foot wide crushed stone walkway, just kind of meandering through the woods from Huntington Center to the Shelton High School area campus.
That's pretty much the report of our activities for the past year, and we look forward to working with you as we have in the past to accomplish these successes for the City of Shelton and all its residents.
Alderman Anglace stated, something that you didn't mention, the City has benefitted from the fact that the Conservation Commission has been asked a number of times to look at various properties we were considering, to look at various issues that have come up as far as the Board of Aldermen, you always come back to us with good advice which we follow, most of the time.
Mr. Harbinson stated, we don't always agree with every person on the Board, but as you allude to the acquisition of property, it's a complicated issue just as developers, whether they are a local developer or a nationally funded Toll Brothers type developer – they are trying to make relationships with property owners for the development of their land. That is their business. Likewise, we try to establish relationships and understandings with property owners as to what the City's goals are with open space and the preservation of their property and perhaps its current character. We've been very grateful – I forgot to mention one location – it was a small piece of property, but Mr. Basil Dikovsky dedicated a small portion of open space to the City for no fee, and it easily accomplishes the rec path location for grade and handicap accessibility. Establishing those relationships is very important for us to succeed in accomplishing preservation of open space in the future.
Alderman Anglace stated, on behalf of the Board I want to thank you and the entire Conservation Commission for their efforts throughout the year. This year, last year, and many years before. Your group has come a long way, and the City has come a long way as a result of your group.
Mr. Harbinson replied, it's a joint effort. Thank you.
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Thomas Harbinson
T: 203.736.9249 x11
F: 203.732.5780
