Town of Old Lyme Open Space Committee Meeting
Christ the King Church
Minutes: May 11, 2007
Attachment: (a) letter from David Gumbart to Diana Atwood Johnson dated March 30, 2007.
Chairman Diana Atwood Johnson opened the meeting at 08:40 with OSC members Peter Cable, Ted Crosby, David Griswold, George James, Connie Kastelowitz and Ted Kiritsis in attendance. Also present to discuss maintenance work on Town open space property was Michael Kiernan, Chairman, OLCT.
On motion by George, second by Ted Crosby, the minutes for April 13, 2007 were approved by vote.
Diana announced that the 09:00 planned presentation by David Kozak, Senior Coastal Planner for the Office of Long Island Sound Programs, on the Black Hall River study would be rescheduled for the next OSC meeting.
Stewardship
a) Champlain North
Diana entered into the record a letter from David Gumbart, The Nature Conservancy Assistant Director of Land Management, formally approving the Forest Stewardship Plan for the Champlain Farm property prepared by State DEP Service Forester Sherwood Raymond.
b) Champlain Sourth
Diana reported that she and George planned to meet with the Boy Scouts at the Middle School on May 14 to structure a Boy Scout project to be under the direction of an Eagle Scout candidate, and under the guidance of the Boy Scout advisor, Mike Guntey, to provide proper access with appropriate signage through the OLCT property adjacent to Champlain South.
c) Work parties
Mike Kiernan indicated that OLCT, in the interest of simplicity and efficiency in conducting OLCT trail maintenance activities on Town and OLCT open space land, was seeking a letter from the Town permitting stewardship work to done on Town open space property by OLCT work teams. Discussion followed in which issues of possible Town liability and concerns over OSC potentially being unaware of OLCT plans and activities with regard to Town open space were discussed. It was concluded that liability would not be an issue as both OLCT and the Town of Old Lyme have appropriate insurance coverage. The concern about the prospect of OSC being unaware of OLCT plans for work on Town open space land remained, however, and Diana indicated that OSC will draft a policy to cover work parties from all organizations (e.g., OLCT, HS Green Team, individuals) who
wish to conduct stewardship work on Town open space property.
Subdivisions
a) Montanaro property
There was nothing to report on the Montanaro plans as the plans had not yet been presented to the Zoning Commission in the process of seeking a zoning amendment.
b) Four Ponds
Diana reported that she understood that the Four Ponds development would be approved by the Inland Wetlands Commission only after extensive modifications to the plan had been incorporated. Further, the Four Ponds project developers had cancelled their scheduled appearance at the Planning Commission meeting of May 10. Finally, Diana noted that there had been no further developments on OSC questions regarding the open space easement document.
c) Lord’s Woods
Diana indicated that there had been no response from either Tony Hendriks or the Lord’s Woods developer’s lawyer regarding deficiencies in the open space encroachment remediation. She also observed that cost estimates for obtaining the services of a qualified arborist and forest ranger to implement the indicated remediation would be about $500 each; she noted that these costs would be covered by the developer as one condition in lifting the cease and desist order currently in effect.
Tantummaheag Road Landing
Ted Kiritsis reported that the plan for the Town to enter into an agreement with Diana to accept her offer to exchange her property of 12.3 acres at 19-2 Mile Creek Road for the driveway and landing at Tantummaheag with an easement in perpetuity to allow pedestrian access to the landing has been endorsed by OLCT and by the Planning Commission. This is in addition to the endorsement of the plan approved last month by OSC. Ted noted that a near-term action item in going forward is specification of the value of the access road, which the Town Assessor will be able to provide.
New Business
Diana reported that a survey had been conducted on property owned by Howard Tooker in preparations for plans for a cluster housing development. There was discussion of OSC wishes and possible recommendations regarding open space easements for the planned development.
At 09:55 the meeting was adjourned to meet Steven Ames at Evergreen Trail at the entrance to his 50 acre property, which he has indicated he is interested in selling to the Town as open space. Steve led the committee on one hour tour of his property.
Following the tour, at 11:10 on a motion by Ted Crosby second by Ted Kiritsis it was voted to adjourn the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Peter Cable
| 
