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Back in May I wrote about the efforts of a developer from New York to build a densely packed development of 127 residential units, mostly row houses and apartment buildings, on the site of the old Griswold airport and directly adjacent to sensitive tidal wetlands. I maintained at the time, and still do, that while the development itself was an example of traditional, compact neighborhood development, it had no business near such an environmentally sensitive area.
Well, according to the Hartford Courant, the Attorney General Blumenthal is now looking into the pact that opened up the land to development in the first place.
From the article by Kim Martineau,
In trading away a valuable easement at the edge of Hammonasset Beach State Park - the most visited park in the state - the state Department of Environmental Protection disregarded a policy meant to protect the public trust, a state watchdog agency contends.
The easement deal, made seven years ago, opened the former Griswold Airport to more extensive development and is being investigated by the state attorney general. It appears to have been approved without appraisals or public notification, despite strong public interest in saving the airport, which borders a state wildlife preserve, from development...The former DEP commissioner, Arthur Rocque Jr.,[head of DEP under John Rowland] had approved the easement exchange without public notification, appraisals or justifying its compatibility with park purposes, the council found. Rocque, it turns out, had ignored a policy crafted by the DEP and the Council on Environmental Quality in 1990..."The state was basically doing a favor for the developer and being very reckless with the public trust," said Keith Ainsworth, a New Haven environmental lawyer who has asked the state to void the deal.
Like a bad case of athlete's foot, the Rowland legacy of corruption continues to live on!
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