Wetlands Panel Slates Public Hearing

For Industrial Proposal

By Andrew Gorosko

The Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) has scheduled a public hearing on the wetlands protection aspects of a technology firm’s proposal to expand a vacant industrial building on Edmond Road to put it back into use as a manufacturing plant and research/development facility.

IWC members on May 12 agreed to conduct that public hearing at 7:30 pm on June 9 at the Municipal Center at 3 Primrose Street.

Advanced Fusion Systems, LLC, (AFS) has submitted a wetlands permit application to the IWC in seeking  environmental approval for its project on a 24-acre site at 11 Edmond Road. 

Sharon Salling, the IWC vice chairman who served as the agency’s chairman in the absence of Anne Peters at the May 12 session, said that due to the scope of the AFS proposal for the site, the application warrants a public hearing. IWC members concurred.

Until May 12, it was unclear whether the panel would hold a public hearing on the application.

AFS proposes adding 30,800 square feet of enclosed space to an existing vacant 211,282-square-foot building. The firm also wants to build a 20,000-square-foot pad for a future electric substation. It also wants to expand the parking on the site from 196 spaces to 302 spaces.

According to its application, AFS wants IWC approval to alter 5,563 square feet of wetlands. Overall, 4.3 acres on the site would be altered.

The AFS proposal would also require Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) approval.

In an expanded industrial plant, AFS would manufacture high speed electrical switching devices for very high electrical voltages, environmental cleanup equipment, sterilization gear, and X-ray laser microlithography equipment.

The building formerly was occupied by Pitney-Bowes, Inc.