The article covers areas I've already discussed (search this blog for FERC as a query item). The article does mention a separate subject matter (zoning) which involves an active court case, and I have stated that I will not be discussing legal items until they are resolved via the court process.
I encourage readers to go to the CtPost article as they are the content creator of the article and have methods for readers to comment on their articles within their website. I cut/paste with my comments under right of fair-use for public education as Chairman of the Conservation Commission.
http://www.connpost.com/ci_11942638Fence removal gives access to Derby Dam
By Kate RamunniSTAFF WRITER
SHELTON -- The fence the owners of the Shelton Canal Company put up to keep residents out of the company's property has been taken down after a federal agency ordered it removed.
The public is once again able to fish at the Derby Dam, which has been closed off since late last summer when McCallum Enterprises put up the chain link fence.
Zoning Administrator Rick Schultz said the cease and desist order the Planning and Zoning Commission issued to take down the fence has been lifted, but it wasn't that order that prompted McCallum to act -- it was the order of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which also ordered the fence taken down. "They took the fence down so I lifted the cease and desist order because they complied with FERC," Schultz said.
McCallum managing partner Joseph Szarmach long maintained that his company was not bound by the conditions the commission set forth in its 1986 approval of the dam but only answerable to FERC.
That angered Commissioner Leon J. Sylvester, who was chairman of the zoning commission at the time and was instrumental in assuring that a portion of the riverfront site would remain accessible to residents. Sylvester was vocal in urging the commission to take the steps to keep the site open to the public, which led to its issuing the cease and desist order.
McCallum appealed the order to the Zoning Board of Appeals, which was set to act on the appeal Tuesday night. Then FERC issued its ruling denying McCallum a rehearing on its already denied request to relocate the public access, after which the fence was removed.
ZBA did not address the appeal at its meeting Tuesday because McCallum withdrew that appeal, ZBA chairman Gerald Glover said. "It's been withdrawn," he said before Tuesday's meeting.
Szarmach has not responded to requests for comment. McCallum had applied to FERC to modify the public access area at the canal. In its request, the company said the existing space set aside for public recreation presented a liability threat to the company, but FERC said there wasn't evidence to support that claim and denied the request to relocate the public area.
Szarmach has been critical of city officials and the Planning and Zoning Commission, which recently voted to rezone his property from R-4 to R-1, squashing the company's plans to fill in the unused canal and sell it for development. Under the new zoning designation, the land is much less valuable than it would have been under the multi-family zone. Szarmach had plans to build as many as 43 townhouses on the spot.
A sign on the outside gate of the property still advertises it as being for sale. Szarmach has said he is selling it to raise the funds to pay for a state Department of Environmental Protection-mandated fish ladder he must install at the dam at an estimated cost of $2 million.
Szarmach also had hoped the city would buy the land for open space, but Mayor Mark A. Lauretti has indicated the city is not interested.
No comments:
Post a Comment