Update on Landmark Development
A letter from Kris Lambert, dated 9/29/20
Dear Friends of Oswegatchie Hills Nature Preserve,
I want to bring you up to date on what we are doing to continue protecting the Oswegatchie Hills property owned by Landmark Development and on how you can help us save this land from the development Landmark would like to undertake.
You may recall an article appearing in The Day a month ago that reported on Landmark’s newest effort to obtain approval for its proposed development. Landmark submitted an application to the East Lyme Zoning Commission asking that the current Affordable Housing District regulations be revised. As a result of this request, the Zoning Commission is holding a virtual public hearing on the proposed changes this Thursday, Oct. 1, at 7:30 pm. The hearing is open to the public to observe and to comment. You can find the meeting agenda with the Zoom link, Meeting ID & Passcode at https://eltownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Zoning-October-1-2020-Agenda-.pdf
The current AHD zoning regulations were written by Landmark’s own lawyers in 2013. The revision it is proposing now is nothing more than in an attempt to create a situation in which the Zoning Commission could not deny a future application. As proposed, the revision would not give the Commission an opportunity to request and review environmental information from the developer. The Friends strongly oppose this scheme, as does Save the River-Save the Hills, our fellow intervenors, and Save the Sound, which represents us in the ongoing legal battle and has filed to be an intervenor, as well.
We have submitted this letter to the hearing record, and Board members will participate in the Zoom hearing. We encourage you to do so also. Written comments may be submitted to jlindo@eltownhall.com. Comments may be submitted until the closing of the public hearing on Thursday evening, but we recommend that, if you plan to comment, you do so earlier rather than later.
Zoning regulations are designed to be applied fairly to ALL proposed building projects in East Lyme. For five years, the town has effectively used the existing AHD regulations to grant approval of several affordable housing projects by other developers.
Landmark now proposes to “cherry-pick” certain sections of the AHD regulations and then add the language to watered-down portions of a Master Plan approval process. If adopted, the changes proposed by Landmark would allow the developer to obtain approval to build in Oswegatchie Hills before providing the meaningful environmental information required by judges, who have already ruled that Landmark should provide this information to the Zoning Commission. We cannot emphasize enough how important it is for the Commission to have this information in order to make a decision so that Oswegatchie Hills as well as the Niantic River are not negatively impacted by development.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Kris Lambert,
President
I want to bring you up to date on what we are doing to continue protecting the Oswegatchie Hills property owned by Landmark Development and on how you can help us save this land from the development Landmark would like to undertake.
You may recall an article appearing in The Day a month ago that reported on Landmark’s newest effort to obtain approval for its proposed development. Landmark submitted an application to the East Lyme Zoning Commission asking that the current Affordable Housing District regulations be revised. As a result of this request, the Zoning Commission is holding a virtual public hearing on the proposed changes this Thursday, Oct. 1, at 7:30 pm. The hearing is open to the public to observe and to comment. You can find the meeting agenda with the Zoom link, Meeting ID & Passcode at https://eltownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Zoning-October-1-2020-Agenda-.pdf
The current AHD zoning regulations were written by Landmark’s own lawyers in 2013. The revision it is proposing now is nothing more than in an attempt to create a situation in which the Zoning Commission could not deny a future application. As proposed, the revision would not give the Commission an opportunity to request and review environmental information from the developer. The Friends strongly oppose this scheme, as does Save the River-Save the Hills, our fellow intervenors, and Save the Sound, which represents us in the ongoing legal battle and has filed to be an intervenor, as well.
We have submitted this letter to the hearing record, and Board members will participate in the Zoom hearing. We encourage you to do so also. Written comments may be submitted to jlindo@eltownhall.com. Comments may be submitted until the closing of the public hearing on Thursday evening, but we recommend that, if you plan to comment, you do so earlier rather than later.
Zoning regulations are designed to be applied fairly to ALL proposed building projects in East Lyme. For five years, the town has effectively used the existing AHD regulations to grant approval of several affordable housing projects by other developers.
Landmark now proposes to “cherry-pick” certain sections of the AHD regulations and then add the language to watered-down portions of a Master Plan approval process. If adopted, the changes proposed by Landmark would allow the developer to obtain approval to build in Oswegatchie Hills before providing the meaningful environmental information required by judges, who have already ruled that Landmark should provide this information to the Zoning Commission. We cannot emphasize enough how important it is for the Commission to have this information in order to make a decision so that Oswegatchie Hills as well as the Niantic River are not negatively impacted by development.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Kris Lambert,
President