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Milford wetlands agency approves Bethany Farms nursery rebuild at 945 North Street
Summary
The Milford Inland Wetlands Agency voted unanimously July 16 to approve a permit for Bethany Farms and Nursery to reconstruct a garden center at 945 North Street, with conditions for stormwater controls, invasive‑species management and multi‑year mitigation monitoring.
The Milford Inland Wetlands Agency on July 16 approved a permit for Bethany Farms and Nursery to reconstruct a garden center at 945 North Street, subject to conditions requiring construction‑period erosion controls, stormwater compliance and a multi‑year mitigation monitoring bond.
The agency found the project will not alter the physical characteristics of adjacent wetlands or watercourses when built and monitored as required. The proposal covers redevelopment of the former Frank’s nursery site near Flax Mill Brook in the Weppewod River watershed and includes new parking, a reconstructed building, entrance drives and stormwater quality basins.
The permit matters because the work sits within the agency’s 100‑foot upland review area and the site borders wetland resources. Agency staff and the city engineer reviewed revised planting and stormwater plans before the vote; applicants made several plan changes requested by staff and the engineer, including a meadow seed mix where an old parking area had been removed and an invasive species control plan along the wetland edge.
Mary Rose Palumbo, the City of Milford inland wetland agent, summarized the application and the plan revisions during the meeting. “It’s a proposal by Bethany Farms and Nursery to reconstruct a garden center on the old Frank’s nursery site at 945 North Street,” Palumbo said, describing the project’s limits and the proposed stormwater quality basins.
The applicant’s agent, Ronald Wazmer, said the city engineer’s review identified standard points that the team had addressed or would address before construction. Wazmer summarized the engineer’s recommendations, adding that “maintenance of these ponds may require additional permits,” and noting coordination would be needed for septic abandonment and for any public‑works repairs.
Landscape architect Matt Popp of Environmental Land Solutions confirmed the team added the requested invasive‑species control notes and that the former paved area closest to the wetlands will be seeded and managed as a meadow. “We just added those two changes to the plan,” Popp said.
The agency’s approval includes multiple conditions spelled out in the motion read into the record: submission of a construction plan prior to taking out a permit; installation and maintenance of erosion‑and‑sedimentation controls per the Connecticut DEEP 2024 guidelines; deed notice that permits are required from the Milford Inland Wetlands Agency before work in regulated areas; compliance with city‑engineer stormwater requirements; posting of a construction bond and a mitigation monitoring bond; as‑built drawings showing finished contours and locations of site structures; and a mitigation monitoring program of at least three years performed by a professional wetland scientist with reports to the agency at planting and twice yearly thereafter.
The agency’s motion sets the permit issuance date as July 16, 2025 and specifies an expiration date of July 16, 2030 unless otherwise provided by statute. The roll call vote was unanimous in favor.
What’s next: the applicant must submit the final construction plans, bond calculations and as‑builts called for in the approval before receiving a building or site permit. The agency will inspect required erosion controls and will expect mitigation monitoring reports after planting and during the monitoring period.
