Zoning board ends Sunshine Children’s Home offsite well monitoring, contingent on final consultant fees

The New Castle Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously March 25 to discontinue the offsite well‑monitoring program for Sunshine Children’s Home Rehabilitation Center, provided the applicant pays final outstanding consultant fees.

A representative for Sunshine Children’s Home told the board the center was approved in 2016 under a special permit that required offsite monitoring of neighboring wells and that the center reached full capacity in 2023. “They have 122 beds,” the representative said. Town staff said the monitoring program originally covered eight properties (one owner had opted out) and was carried out with both the applicant’s water‑quality professionals and an independent town consultant.

Town staff said the town hired HES (later merged with Criteria Associates) to review monthly monitoring reports and to perform on‑site work. According to staff, Criteria Associates reviewed the data and “agree[d] with the termination that there are no drawdowns by this facility to the surrounding ground properties,” and recommended the program could end. Staff also said the applicant has been up to date with fees to date but that the board’s resolution to discontinue should be made conditional on final payment of all outstanding review fees.

Board members pressed staff on whether the participating property owners had been notified of the termination; staff said the addresses and locations of the monitored wells were kept confidential at the property owners’ request and that the town had not sent direct notices. Staff said discontinuing monitoring would not affect neighbors because the reports show no impact. Staff also told the board that when termination is approved, the applicant’s contractor (WSP) will remove monitoring equipment from the participating properties.

A board member moved to approve the discontinuance, with the condition that all outstanding fees be paid and that the zoning board retain continuing jurisdiction over the property. The motion passed on a unanimous 5–0 voice vote.

The board’s action ends a monitoring program that tracked groundwater before expansion and for more than the two years required after the facility reached full capacity; the town will not remove its continuing oversight of the property as a result of the vote.