Inland Wetlands Watercourse Agency

The West Haven Inland Wetlands Agency held a Public Hearing and a Regular Meeting on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 in the Harriet North Room, 2nd Floor, City Hall, and 355 Main Street, West Haven, CT at 6:30 P.M. PRESENT: Commissioners Kane, Beecher, Gilbane, Carr. Absent was Commissioner Perrone. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Commissioner Beecher made a motion to approve the meeting minutes of April 16, 2019, seconded by Commissioner Gilbane and passed. Acceptance: 99 Greta Street: A request to build a 36.25' x 26' addition and a 12'x 24' deck onto an existing house located in the FEMA and Wetland regulated area. the applicant will conduct all construction activities with proper erosion control measures including silt fences. All alterations will comply with FEMA Regulation. Owner Prete 6 LLC. File #016-19 IW Leon Prete, West Haven, stated this application is to add a three car garage on the existing property. Construction will hopefully begin sometime in the fall. A site walk will be scheduled. This property is in a food plain area and all FEMA regulations will be followed. Commissioner Carr made a motion to accept application File #016-19IW, seconded by Commissioner Beecher and passed. New: 22 Big Spruce Lane: The applicant seeks approval to put a pool and deck in the upper inland review area. A cartridge filter will be used for the pool and the City Engineer helped the applicant with the location of the pool on her property. Owner Dolores Defrancesco File # 015-19 IW Owner stated this application is to extend the existing deck. The City Engineer requested that the deck be made smaller due to the flood plain area. Three calls were made to speak in favor and three calls were made to speak in opposition to this application. Commissioner made a motion to approve File #015-19IW, seconded by Commissioner Beecher. Motion passed 3-1 Abstained (Carr) 690 Forest Road: The applicants request to replace existing failing timber retaining walls with modular concrete block retaining walls. In order to protect the regulated inland wetlands that are near the retaining wall , erosion control measures will be installed and maintained during the construction phase in order to minimize any off-site sedimentation. Owner/Applicant: Oronoque Forest Condominium Assoc., Inc File # 017-19 IW Donald Smith, Jr., engineer, is representing the applicant. These condominiums were approved in 1970 by the City of West Haven. As you enter the property near the guard shack, there are a number of timber retaining walls that are about 30 years old and are starting to fail. The proposal consists of a single concrete retaining wall about 2 ft. behind the existing curb. It will be about 5 to 10 ft. high and the bank will be regraded with a 2:1 slope going up the bank. The runoff will go into the detention pond. There will be about 800 yds of fill brought in. Three calls were made to speak in favor and three calls were made to speak in opposition to this application. Max Hyer, 685 Forest Rd., located directly across from this property, wants to make sure that the runoff stays the same especially during heavy rains. In the last year or so the flows have increased and come towards the driveway. Jerry McCarthy, property Manager for this property, stated the retention pond was built when the property was developed. A regular program is in place for maintaining the ponds. Cathy Conniff reached out to New Haven for their information, mailings have been received and discussed comments regarding the fire hydrant made by the Fire Dept. and flow of trucks during construction. Commissioner Beecher made a motion to approve with the following conditions1. the commission has the right to inspect the property for 15 years and silt fence will be placed around the pond area. File #017-19 IW, seconded by Commissioner Carr and passed. 55 Industry Drive: An application for crushing stone, sand, topsoil, processing stone and millings. No earth removal will be necessary for this activity. Storage bins to be constructed of precast blocks to store loose material. No watercourses or wetlands will be disturbed on the property. Owner/ Applicant: 55 Industry Drive, File # 013-19 IW Attorney Vincent Falcone, West Haven, CT., is representing the applicant tonight. This application is for a recycling facility. There are other facilities nearby that are already storing and recycling materials. He described the pile of material in the photo which came from the West Haven High School. The material will be resold if this application is approved. The applicant became the owner of this property in 2017 and regulations have been changed to allow this type of facility in this area. There will be no excavating. Materials will be brought in from other sites, be processed and screened and by products stored and sold. Commissioner Kane pointed out that on the Colonna property DEEP suggested jersey barriers. He suggests the same for this property. Commissioner Carr is concerned about the siltation getting into the river. ZEO Conniff stated mailings have been received, Town of Orange has been notified and read comments into the record from the Fire Dept. Commissioner Beecher made a motion to approve File #013-19 IW with the following conditions Continuous Jersey concrete barriers blocking areas as discussed, and the commission has the right to inspect the property for 15 years. seconded by Commissioner Gilbane and passed. 350 Frontage Road: A proposed 3,250 sq.ft. ignitable material storage addition, to consolidate combustible materials into an adequate fire protected space. The newly constructed space will infringe upon the wetlands buffer zone. The applicant gave several feasible and prudent alternatives to their design. This will contain all existing fire hazards in a single area rather than dispersed throughout their facility. Owner/ Applicant: MacDermid Alpha Electronics Solutions: File # 014-19 IW Placed on agenda in error. Already approved at the April meeting. Staff Reports: Release of the bond issued from Eagle leasing Co. – placed on agenda in error. Already approved in April Training will be held during a future meeting. ADJOURNMENT: 7:45 P.M. Commissioner Beecher made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Commissioner Gilbane and passed.