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Willington agency approves truck‑wash and storage complex with 25 conditions
Summary
The Willington Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency approved a proposed 10,000 sq ft truck‑wash and a 3,000 sq ft storage building on a 12.3‑acre JT Properties LLC parcel, subject to about 25 conditions requiring plan revisions, sediment controls and an operation and maintenance plan.
The Willington Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency voted May 18 to approve an application from JT Properties LLC to construct a roughly 10,000‑square‑foot truck‑wash facility and an approximately 3,000‑square‑foot storage building on a 12.3‑acre parcel, conditioned on approximately 25 items the commission read into the record.
Lauren Melo, a professional engineer with Design Professionals, Inc., told commissioners the project avoids direct disturbance to any delineated inland wetland or watercourse and confines construction activity primarily to the regulated 100‑foot upland review area. "This project strictly follows the avoidance, minimization and mitigation sequence," Melo said, summarizing the applicants' approach.
The site plan calls for three truck‑wash bays (two automatic, one hand‑wash), an on‑site car‑wash water recycling system and several stormwater treatment features. Ian Cole, a professional soil and wetland scientist, said the firm delineated wetlands on the site and estimated about 2.18 acres of disturbance would occur in the upland review area; total project disturbance is approximately 4.3 acres. "We do not anticipate any direct wetland impacts," Cole said.
Project engineers described a closed‑loop Carrol wastewater recycling system that the applicants said will reclaim an estimated 80–95 percent of wash water, with the waste fraction stored in watertight subsurface tanks and hauled off‑site for disposal. Tracy Cousins, the presenting engineer on stormwater, said the stormwater system was modeled to the 2024 Connecticut Storm Water Quality Manual for multiple design storms and includes hydrodynamic separators, water‑quality basins and drainage depressions intended to attenuate peak flows before discharge toward the wetlands.
Commissioners and the town engineer pressed for additional plan details and operational safeguards, including: clear access and protocol for sediment removal in basins, missing test‑pit logs, an operation and maintenance narrative, a financial erosion‑control bond, scheduled inspection reporting and clarity on who will perform long‑term system maintenance. Applicants agreed to submit revised drawings and documentation addressing the town engineer's technical comments before work begins and to include operation and maintenance requirements as a condition.
After the conditions were read, a motion to approve the application with the stated conditions was seconded and carried. The project will still require the applicant to obtain any state or local permits not relieved by this approval and to submit the revised materials to the town before construction begins. The applicants indicated they will then proceed to Planning and Zoning for special permit review.
The commission's approval record notes that the project remains subject to state and federal permitting requirements and that the agency's agent will perform inspections and may require additional erosion and sedimentation controls in the field.
