West Hartford’s Town Plan & Zoning Commission (TPZ), in its capacity as the town’s Inlands Wetlands and Watercourses Agency, held a public hearing on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, to consider the wetlands application for 1800 Asylum Avenue.

By Ronni Newton

Members of West Hartford’s Town Plan & Zoning Commission (TPZ), in its capacity as the town’s Inlands Wetlands and Watercourses Agency (IWWA), held a public hearing on July 17 on the wetlands application for 1800 Asylum Avenue – the western portion of the former UConn West Hartford campus – that included a presentation from the Weha Development Group LLC team and the opportunity for commissioners to ask questions. No vote was taken and TPZ/IWWA will continue consideration of the application at their next regular meeting on Aug. 5.

Even before the hearing – which lasted more than four hours – really began, TPZ Chair Kevin Ahern stated that it would not be closed that day due to some information that was submitted that day that required further review. He also reiterated a reminder that the hearing was intended just to be about the wetlands application, and not the time to ask questions or have a discussion about other potential issues such as the traffic impact of the proposed development of Heritage Park. “There may be things that members of the public may want to speak to … but if those things don’t have any relevant impact on the wetlands,” Ahern said, he would ask that the question be redirected. Although there were a handful of people in the audience in Council chambers at Town Hall, only one member of the public had signed up to speak, and that person left before the public comment portion of the hearing, which came after the development team finished their presentation. There was ultimately no public comment on the application.

Attorney Robin Pearson, of Alter & Pearson, LLC, which is part of the development group, provided an overview of the site and the areas of the property to which the wetlands application would apply – including directly impacted wetlands as well as the upland review areas which are within 150 feet of the wetlands. The roughly 33.5 acre site is comprised of 8.9 acres of wetlands and 17.78 acres of upland review area.

The 1800 Asylum site’s existing wetlands include the lawns area on the western portion of the property, a small wetland created when one of the former UConn campus buildings was demolished which is basically a hole in the ground that puddles when it rains, Pearson said, the two manmade ponds, the area that borders the Eastern Branch of Trout Brook, and several other lawn areas. All are already classified by the town as “disturbed wetlands,” Pearson said.

The only disturbances to these wetlands planned by the developer include to the newly-formed hole near the demolished building, work on replacement of the bridge between the two ponds, improvement to outfall pipes in one of the ponds and on the existing lawn area on the eastern part of the property, and impact created by development of a wetland trail and the extension of the Trout Brook Trail through the site. A total of 4,965 square feet of wetlands will be temporarily impacted during the construction phase, and 2,582 square feet of the roughly 33.5 acres will be permanently impacted, Pearson said.

“We are proposing to hold most of all of our development primarily in an area that has been disturbed already by the campus,” she said. Other changes will primarily be to improve the functionality of the wetlands and to create the trails. While there will be the addition of impervious surface, the PCBs will be remediated and other improvements to the water quality will outweigh the impacts, she said.

Matt Bruton, a civil engineer and principal with BL Companies, which is also part of the development team, provided a historical overview of the site, beginning in the 1930s, when the site as well as most of the surrounding area was farmland or open space, through the nearby residential development in the 1950s, through the beginning of the UConn campus construction in 1970.

The mixed use development proposal for the roughly 33.5-acre site, Bruton said, will include two entrances – a main entrance on Trout Brook Drive and a secondary entrance on Asylum Avenue, aligned with Fox Meadow. “We’re largely staying within the development footprint of UConn’s campus,” he said, showing an overlay of the existing buildings and the proposed project. While some of the buffer areas are larger and others are smaller, he said stormwater management measures will improve the quality of the water, maintain existing patterns, and will not add to the floodplain capacity in accordance with “no rise certification.” And that is excluding improvements planned by the town to the culverts on the site, he added.

Regarding the trees on the site, Bruton said that all trees in the actual wetlands will remain. Outside of the wetlands, there are currently 331 trees on the site, and 188 of those will be demolished – including 117 in the upland review area. Some are already dead, while some of the others are in poor condition, he said. The proposal calls for the addition of 916 new trees – in the wetland and upland review areas as well as elsewhere in the landscaping plan for the site. The net effect will be a total of 728 more trees than exist on the property now, Bruton said.

TPZ had already approved a wetlands application made by Ideanomics for demolition of the campus buildings five years ago. Plans for remediation of the PCBs, some of which already gone through the stormwater systems that were built for the UConn campus and have impacted the drainage swales, have been submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Bruton said, and they are awaiting approval of those plans.

The estimated cost of demolishing the remaining campus buildings and remediation is roughly $10 million, he said.

Town Planner Todd Dumais said that once the remedial action plan is approved, there will be a separate application to TPZ/IWWA for that work.

Chris Bridle of Stantec shared some details of the landscape design for the project, which he said is a holistic approach that weaves together the 1700 Asylum and 1800 Asylum properties, and creates an “expansive, naturalistic, park-like experience” when entering the 1800 Asylum parcel from Trout Brook Drive. There will be seating along the central plaza, shaded sidewalks, grasses and native perennials, and along the Main Street corridor there will be “picturesque public spaces” for outdoor dining with a view of the pond.

Hundreds of pages of documents accompany the wetlands application, with highly-technical exhibits related to erosion, drainage swales, water flow, and other topics. Much of the detailed discussion in the submitted documents – including questions and comments – have taken place between SLR International Corporation, the wetland expert and soil scientist contracted by the Town of West Hartford as an advisor for this project, and the developer’s experts.

Dean Gustafson a biologist and soil scientist with All Points Technology, is the wetlands expert representing the development team, and Wednesday night he took the members of TPZ/IWWA through a detailed explanation of the existing conditions on the site, projected impact to wetlands during construction and on a permanent basis, and plans to create, enhance, and maintain buffers. “Taken together these more team compensate for the limited areas of direct wetland impact,” he said, providing “an enhanced wildlife habitat and quality water function.” The ratio of created wetland to impacted wetland (2,582 square feet) is 4.5:1, Gustafson said, and when including the plans for additional wetland creation of 11,520 square feet, plus restoration, and enhancement of wetlands, the ratio is 146:1.

There will also be a conservation easement in place as well as a stewardship plan for maintenance of the landscaping.

Since the development plans for the site began taking shape, there has been a major decrease in the proposed impact on wetlands of roughly 83%. “My professional opinion as a wetlands scientist,” Gustafson said, is that this project “will not result in an adverse impact to these wetlands.”

In addition to improving the quality of stormwater runoff, Pearson noted that the development plans also call for adding sidewalks along Lawler Road and Asylum Avenue and providing public walking trails through the wetlands – some of which will be a boardwalk. She said she believes that the applicant has “made a strong case for the approval of this application.”

The development team, town staff, and TPZ/IWWA agreed that remaining questions and comments will be addressed before the hearing is continued on Aug. 5, and the intent will be for the hearing to be closed and a vote taken on that date. The hearing is currently scheduled for 7 p.m. in Room 314 at Town Hall, but that time may change.

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