Milford hearing on 44‑unit proposal at 843 North Street continued after water‑quality and flooding concerns

The Milford Inland Wetlands Agency on Dec. 18 continued a public hearing on a proposed 44‑unit affordable housing development at 843 North Street after neighbors and a peer‑review engineer raised concerns about stormwater treatment, possible downstream wetland impacts and local flooding. The commission set the next session for Jan. 15, 2025 and asked the applicant to respond to the city engineer's memo and to demonstrate compliance with state stormwater guidelines.

The application, filed by 843 North LLC, proposes a 44‑unit development in 16 duplexes and triplexes and entails grading and stormwater improvements within the agency's regulated 150‑foot upland review area adjacent to a likely off‑site wetland. Attorney Thomas Lynch told the commission the plans were revised after the city engineer's initial review and that pre‑ and post‑construction runoff modeling shows a reduction in peak runoff for a 100‑year, 24‑hour storm.

"Our postconstruction runoff at the peak for the 100‑year event is 2.9 cubic feet per second," said project engineer Ronald Wazmer, who also described infiltration galleries, hydrodynamic separators and vertical separation to bedrock used in the design. Wazmer said measured infiltration tests yielded about 4–4.5 inches per hour and the design conservatively used 2 inches per hour.

Neighbors and a peer‑review engineer, Steven Trinkaus, challenged whether that equipment and the subsurface galleries provide adequate water‑quality treatment. "Online separators don't do a very good job of cleaning the water," Trinkaus said, citing field monitoring studies and arguing the proposed system falls well short of the pollutant‑reduction targets cited in the 2024 Connecticut stormwater manual. He added the fractured or decomposed ledge observed in test pits can limit treatment because water can bypass the media and move rapidly into shallow bedrock and groundwater.

Residents also raised local concerns about more frequent or worse flooding at the Kozlowski Drive/North Street intersection, potential impacts to private well water, and the effect of removing mature trees near the northeast corner of the site. "There is an immense amount of water in that Kozlowski/North Street intersection during heavy rains," said local resident Jim Mondi.

Applicant representatives responded that additional soil testing and plan revisions were completed after the city engineer's review, and that the design includes pretreatment devices (catch basins with sumps and hydrodynamic separators) and distributed infiltration galleries placed at least 80 feet from the mapped off‑site wetland. Attorney Lynch noted the city engineer has reviewed the revised plans and provided comments; he also said one driveway will be removed to reduce impervious area following the engineer's input.

The commission directed the applicant to return with focused follow‑up on the city engineer's wetland‑specific items (the chair identified items 17–34 in the city memo), an assessment of whether the proposed stormwater treatment meets the 2024 DEEP/manual guidance for pollutant removal, responses to neighbors' flooding and well‑water concerns, and a clarifying opinion about whether removal of canopy near the mapped off‑site wetland could cause adverse impacts. The agency also asked for clear documentation of proposed turtle and natural‑diversity protection measures that were described during the presentation.

The public hearing was continued by unanimous roll‑call vote to Jan. 15, 2025. The commission also approved two sets of minutes from earlier meetings, heard a brief staff report on ongoing work, and adjourned the meeting.

The agency's next steps are procedural: the applicant must submit the requested clarifications and any supplemental testing or modeling for the city engineer and the commission to review before the continued hearing.