Nells Rock Animal Shelter - CtPost

The Connecticut Post has an article regarding our CC meeting on Wed night where the Animal Control Facility Building Committee attended our meeting in reponse to the letter we sent them.

I encourage readers to go to the Ct Post article as they are the content creator of the article and have methods for readers to comment on their aritlces within their website. I cut/paste with my comments under right of fair-use for public education as Chairman of the Conservation Commission.

Shelton animal shelter site selection continues to drag on
By Kate RamunniSTAFF WRITER
Updated: 08/07/2009 12:05:53 AM EDT

SHELTON -- Both the Conservation Commission and the Animal Shelter Building Committee Wednesday agreed that the suggestion to put the new shelter on open space on Nells Rock Road is one they're not advocating.

The commission met with members of the committee Wednesday night during the commission's regular monthly meeting to discuss the best location for the shelter.

For three years the committee has been working on plans for the new shelter but still lacks a commitment from the city as to where it will go.

Initially, Mayor Mark A. Lauretti, who requested the creation of the committee in 2006, instructed members to focus on a spot on Riverdale Avenue near where the current shelter is located and next to the building known as the "Pink Elephant." The committee then conducted two phases of environmental testing on the industrial-zoned property, both of which came back as clean, committee chairman Tony Minopoli said.
+++ The Building Committee was directed by the Mayor to focus on the Riverdale Ave location. They conducted Phase 1 environmental tests and they were good. They then conducted the more detailed Phase 2 environmental tests and they were good. They have interviewed several building companies and designs for the construction that could take place there. All of this was over 2-3 years of work by the Building Committee +++

But Lauretti shifted gears and decided to use that site to park the city's school buses, which had previously been housed at a leased site on River Road. The mayor then suggested the site on Nells Rock Road at Shelton Avenue by the Shelton Greenway.
+++ Shelton's school bus services is contracted to a private firm. To reduce their cost and save the City money, the Mayor agreed to provide the contractor a location of City property to park the vehicles (previously they leased private property). The location the Mayor selected was near the sewer treatment plant. The drivers park their cars in the morning across the road from the busses in the parcel where the Building Committee seeks to locate the shelter. Consequently, the Mayor has now said for them to look elsewhere, and given direction to look at the forested property purchased from the water utility where the Recreation Path and trails are located as part of the Shelton Lakes Greenway of Open Space properties. +++

It's also the site of the proposed new dog park, which a subcommittee of the Parks and Recreation Department is charged with creating. That, too, is a bad idea, members of the Conservation Commission said, and putting both the dog park and the animal shelter there is even worse.
+++ The dog park is viewed as an ancillary passive recreation use by the CC, however they are not unanimously in support of the dog park concept at that location +++

"We didn't ask for, seek or request" the Nells Rock Road site, Minopoli said. "We were directed to go look at the property."

Lauretti couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.

Plans call for a new, 5,200-square-foot steel building to replace the aging, 1,200-square-foot facility that has been used for decades. The building is designed to look like a barn in keeping with the city's farming history, Minopoli said, and will include separate "adoption rooms" and space for cats.

Of all the city-owned open space, the Nells Rock Road spot is near the fewest residences, except for a site by the former landfill on River Road, Conservation Commission Chairman Tom Harbinson said. Even so, there were neighbors who came out Wednesday to voice opposition to the suggestion.
+++ Being removed from residences may not be a criteria for site selection, as Officer Taylor has noted that all dogs are brought in at night from their outdoor run areas. Noise would emenate from the shelter only during daytime when the dogs are outside. That said, it is obviously not a residential type use and most of the City Open Space is in an R1 zone (residential) and may need a rezoning application to accomodate the use as a shelter +++

"That is a pristine, quiet area," said Falmouth Drive resident Marilyn Gannon, who also is the city's Americans with Disabilities Act director. "There is a lot of wildlife there," she said, noting the bobcat that winters on her back deck. "If you put the animal shelter there, when the wildlife go by the dogs will start barking and no one will get any peace."

"The mere suggestion is so far from any kind of logical discussion," Nells Rock Road resident Jeff Forte said. "It is too close to a residential area, there will be noise issues and there are far better uses for the site."

Where the shelter is now -- downtown on Riverdale Avenue -- is ideal because there are no homes nearby, Minopoli said. "We are requesting that they give us a piece of land," he said, referring to the mayor and the Board of Aldermen, which has final say in the site selection. "We are ready to go and have been at this for three years."
+++ It would seem that the Riverdale site is adequate in size and location, has been tested as environmentally suitable, and is desired by the building committee. It was also where they were directed by the Mayor to focus upon, which they have done now for 2+yrs. It does seem more appropriate a location than tearing into a forested area of land purchased from the water utility that currently affords passive recreation enjoyment of the Open Space property via trails and the Recreation Path, all within the Shelton Lakes Greenway - a corridor of natural landscaped property which the City has made substantial investment in as a community's direction toward appreciation and enjoyment of Open Space. +++