Vigilant residents recently alerted town officials to unusual landscaping activity on neighbors’ properties, in what turned out to be two violations of local regulations designed to protect fragile natural resources in New Canaan.
Expert consultants are scheduled to come before the Inland Wetlands Commission on Monday to present mitigation plans for violations at 277 Old Stamford Road and 589 Oenoke Ridge Road, according to the agenda for the group’s regular meeting, to be held in the Town Hall Meeting Room.
On Old Stamford Road, on a 1.24-acre property purchased last summer, the new homeowner hired a landscaping crew to remove all vegetation from an approximately quarter-acre parcel that happened to be wetlands, as well as part of a conservation easement carved out during a subdivision many years ago.
Officials found that on the Oenoke Ridge Road property, a 2.62-acre parcel that was sold less than four months ago, the new homeowner had hired a contractor to fill in a pond, in clear violation of New Canaan’s Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Regulations (where a pond is defined as a “watercourse” whether it’s natural or manmade).
Asked about the violations, Inland Wetlands Director Kathy Holland urged homeowners and professionals who deal in landscaping and related fields to come to her department at Town Hall with any questions concerning planned projects around their properties.
“We have lots of land records and lots of great information,” Holland said. “We can point you in the right direction before you get to the slippery slope of, ‘Now I have violation, I have to go through all this hassle of correcting it.’ And sometimes it’s a year before a property is restored.”
It’s far less time-consuming and far less costly to consult with town officials first, she said.
In these two most recent cases, though no fines have been assessed, officials ordered verbal stop-work orders and the homeowners will need to pay triple application fees to the town—itself a type of fine.
Holland said it is often concerned neighbors who alert the town to unusual activity.
“In the end, the properties here are so valuable, everything becomes a record and if you have a violation at least it shows it got corrected and you are 100 percent whole,” she said.
“When people ‘get caught’ or a violation is discovered, there is one of me but I have 6,000 agents out there and people do call the town to check on whatever is going on,” she said, referring to the rough number of property owners in New Canaan.
In the Old Stamford Road situation, the property owner for aesthetic purposes hired a crew to clear an area that, though it had become overgrown with weeds, was still a protected wetlands area. A neighbor concerned about the work there because the wetlands acts as storm water storage area notified the town. The mitigation plan includes planting meadow grass in wetlands and a setback area around them, and plans include installation of a generator and propane tank and construction of an elevated patio at the home, according to the agenda for Monday.
On Oenoke Ridge, a contractor had gone a very long way toward filling in the pond when a neighbor inquired whether the homeowner there had a permit for that work. The property owner now has hired an engineer, landscape designer and soil scientist and will appear before the Inland Wetlands Commission with a plan to replace the pond with approved soil, install plantings and seed mix in the wetland and upland areas.
why doesn’t he have to put the pond back? — Has anyone seen what they did on ferris hill rd — the cabin that was just sold —
they must have cut down 50 beautiful trees — I know it’s theirs they can do what they want with it (maybe we should change that)
But what is with these people — I saw one new person come to town and decide to cut all the trees in his front ward —
I get it — it’s yours — but if he wanted a treeless front yard why not buy one and not destroy what 4 hurricanes could not do
over the last 25 yrs
in the last 5 yrs I see this going on when the property
changes hand — maybe these are those people who come here just for the schools — They seem not to care about Nature
agreed, if they don’t have to put the pond back, then they still got away with the destruction, it’s not really a punishment or protecting the wetlands. I think the snipe at people who come here for the schools was a bit unnecessary and a strange accusation. We came here for a good school and love our property, our trees, our wetlands…you lose credibility when you make a silly statement like that.
Lisa —Silly — you are correct — also 100% correct about the pond —
— the snipe was at the notion that the only reason they come to town was for the schools — good schools ( don’t have to be the best) are part of the picture but not the deal breaker — just think how many of Gods creatures may have depended on that pond — There always going to be change — but we have to keep what makes this town so great — it not a fine lawn — but what I see out my window every day — wildlife — from hummers to deer and everything in between — bring more joy to my heart then grass