Simsbury commission continues McLean redevelopment hearing after residents, experts raise water-quality and habitat concerns

The Simsbury Inland Wetlands Commission on a continued public hearing took public and expert testimony on McLean Affiliates’ application (CC‑25‑02) to add roughly 52 residential units at its Meadow/Meadow Village campus at 75 Great Pond Road, and voted to grant intervenor status to a group of residents pending town‑attorney review and to continue the hearing to April 1 for further submissions and responses.

The proposed project covers McLean’s campus area and, as presented by the applicant team, would build 50–52 new units clustered on the site, add a road system and two wetland crossings. TJ Donahue, counsel for the applicant, and an SLR Consulting team described design revisions they say reduce impacts: moving several buildings out of the town’s 100‑foot upland review area, compressing building footprints, reducing clearing and lawn extent, and enlarging the proposed culverts. Tom Daley, a professional engineer with SLR, said the revised layout removes all buildings from the upland review area and reduces clearing by about 2.4 acres; Mike Doherty, SLR landscape architect, said proposed planting and “layered” meadow and woodland buffers would shrink lawn area by a bit more than an acre and increase native plantings.

The applicant and its consultants also described technical mitigation. Matthew Sanford, professional wetland scientist for SLR, said the two wetland crossings were placed to minimize grading and that the proposed culverts are…