To the Editor,

Last week, by a 4:3 vote, the Inland Wetlands Commission approved the application to build 117 cluster homes, a project that will impact multiple wetlands on and around Castle Hill. Thank you to the three commissioners who had the courage to follow the science and the regulations and voted NO. At least two of those three commissioners are armed with the qualifications and knowledge necessary to make such consequential decisions (one is an actual engineer, and another has taken the annual free 8-hour online class for Inland Wetlands Commissioners that UConn offers).

In an unusually long and over compensatory explanation of why he was approving the application, commissioner Craig Ferris misrepresented what the engineer that the neighbors hired said in his testimony regarding erosion that will occur on the neighboring Nettleton Preserve by increased storm water runoff from this project. Later, when another commissioner was politely trying to explain how the regulations require that the entire parcel needs to be mapped with delineations for wetlands and steep slopes, which was not done in this case, and therefore the application was incomplete, commissioner Ferris kept interrupting him, loudly and inappropriately. These overly dramatic confrontational attacks on other commissioners were completely disrespectful and out of line, and the chairwoman did nothing to stop or admonish him. During his weird tirade, commissioner Ferris stated that following the regulations would create “an undue burden” on the applicant. (Mr Ferris … you just voted to allow this guy to build and sell almost $100,000,000 worth of homes ... undue burden? Really?) He also stated that if this application were denied, the applicant would come back with a worse proposal to build 60-80 homes, including several by Taunton Lake. (One more question for Mr Ferris. How do you, or anyone know how many homes the regulations would allow, without having the entire property mapped and delineated for wetlands and steep slopes as required by those same regulations?)

I have the utmost appreciation and respect for anyone who serves on boards and commissions. But with almost half the commissioners not ever asking any meaningful questions about something so consequential, and after the attention that commissioner Ferris drew to himself by his over-the-top behavior and illogical and seemingly uninformed reasoning, it really begs the following question:

Why aren’t Newtown’s Inland Wetlands Commissioners required, at minimum, to take the free 8-hour Inland Wetlands Commissioner course offered online by UConn, before they can make such consequential decisions?

Dave Ackert

Sandy Hook