Conservation Commission

City of Torrington CONSERVATION COMMISSION Meeting Minutes June 25, 2024 Special Meeting 1. Call to Order: Meeting called to order at 7:01 pm Members present in person in Room 215 of Torrington City Hall unless otherwise noted. Roll Call & Announcements: Members Present in Person: Dan McGuinness (Vice-Chair – Acting as Chair), Karen Svetz, and George Craig (6:40pm), Members Present Via Teams: Christine Altman (Regular Chair) Members Absent: Jeremy Spitz, Michael Kanab, and Erin Stelma (Secretary) Staff: Nate Nardi-Cyrus – Assistant City Planner Members from the Public: Ken Hrica and Debra Wolraich 2. Minutes: a. May 28, 2024 Regular Meeting MOTION to approve the minutes was made by Ms. Svetz, seconded by Ms. Altman. All commissioners voted aye. 3. New Business: No new business was on the agenda. 4. Old Business a. Torrington Fair Plaza Easement Discussion Mr. Hrica, P.E., and Mr. Nardi-Cyrus again provided background on the request from the Torrington Fair (Walmart) Plaza owner, to clear trees and restore a lower growing native plant community on a conservation easement held by the City of Torrington. This decision had been deferred to allow the Commission Chair, Ms. Altman, to weigh in. The Commission agreed that prior to a decision, a site visit should be scheduled to review the site as a group. The site visit will begin at the East Main Street McDonald’s at 9am on 7/10/24. b. Red Mountain Trail Grant  Mr. Nardi-Cyrus asked the Commission to move this agenda item up in the agenda to accommodate Ms. Wolraich’s time constraints. Ms. Wolraich is representing the Torrington Trails Network at this meeting. She indicated the group is concerned about losing DEEP funding on this project due to the significant delay in the timeline. Mr. Nardi-Cyrus explained the issues with the consulting engineer and that he has been keeping DEEP in the loop, including explaining to the program Coordinator some potential issues with amount of awarded funding. DEEP seems flexible and willing to work with the City to come up with a solution that achieves the stated goals of the project. To help move the plan development along, Ms. Svetz recommended Ms. Wolraich reach out to Paul Kundzins, City Engineer, to bring attention to their concern about the delay. c. HVA Crossing Assessment – Schedule Visits The group agreed to schedule the first inspection for July 18th @ 5pm at Paugnut State Forest agricultural fields on Saw Mill Hill Road. 2-3 site will be assessed. Mr. Nardi-Cyrus will again share the map of those sites and data collection forms via e-mail. d. Staff updates: i. Food Forest Planning – Mr. Nardi-Cyrus asked for updates on the plants under Commissioner care. Everyone indicated they were being watered and were in good health. The group discussed the draft neighborhood letter and Mr. McGuinness’ offered that his son-in-law could translate it for us. Mr. Nardi-Cyrus will update the English-language draft and then send along to Dan for translation. Once this is done, the Commission is OK with Nate sending these to folks in the neighborhood. ii. Urban Forest Management Plan – The City was not awarded the grant. Mr. Nardi-Cyrus had a follow-up call with the Urban Forestry Coordinator, who explained our issue was not doing prior equity related outreach. There will be another round in the winter so Ms. Altman said she would get her contact from Café Sol to help start outreach with the Hispanic community. iii. Open Space Inventory – Next site visit will be the Open Space in the Greenbriar subdivision. The group agreed to defer this site visit until August or September, given how unpleasant a summer site visit would be at this location. Mr. Nardi-Cyrus reported to the group he did a desktop aerial analysis of City-held conservation easements and found one residential lawn expansion to be the most egregious. The Commission agreed he should send a notice and require she provide the Commission with a restoration plan for approval. 5. Adjournment: A motion to adjourn was made by Ms. Svetz, seconded by Ms. Svetz. All commissioners voted aye. Meeting adjourned at 8:12 pm. Nate Nardi-Cyrus Nate Nardi-Cyrus, Assistant City Planner Staff to Conservation Commission