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Engineer says 47,000-square-foot addition will come within upland review area; retaining wall and tree removals planned
Summary
At a Town of Bethel inland wetlands site walk, the project engineer described a roughly 47,000-square-foot building addition, a new retaining wall that will require removal of several trees, and a sizable underground stormwater detention system to manage increased impervious area.
James, the project’s professional engineer, led a site walk with the Town of Bethel Inland Wetlands Agency and described a proposal to add about 47,000 square feet to an existing building, saying the additions and a new patio will extend into the 100-foot upland review area adjacent to a wetland.
The engineer said the additions are shown as the tan areas on the plan and that one corner of the building will be clipped to allow the new construction to tie into the existing structure. “We’re proposing in total about 47,000 square ft of additional building,” he said. He pointed out the edge of the water, nearby railroad tracks and where the upland review area begins, and explained that some patio and retaining-wall work falls inside the review zone.
Town staff and other attendees pressed the engineer on locations and measurements. The group recorded multiple distance checks: for different corners of the site the engineer gave measurements of about 41 feet and about 60 feet to nearby property corners, and said one corner where the retaining wall will sit is roughly 4½ feet from the property line at a specific location. He also said a corner near the attendees is about 280 feet from the wetland and reiterated which new components fall closest to the wetland.
The engineer described a retaining wall and grading plan that will require the removal of trees in the path of the wall’s footprint. “So the trees are gonna end up having to go for that,” he said while describing sloping and wall construction; attendees said several of the trees are older and asked whether they could be preserved. The engineer and agency representative said replanting and a landscaping screen in front of the wall are intended to replace removed vegetation, but attendees asked that screening and landscape plans be shown and discussed at the next review.
An attendee asked whether Metro-North (the railroad) would need to sign off or require permits for work near the tracks. The engineer said the project does not require Metro-North approval because the work is outside the railroad right-of-way but acknowledged the railroad typically requests oversight (flagmen and on-site coordination) during construction near its tracks.
On stormwater, the engineer said the project increases impervious surface but will rely on a substantial underground detention and treatment system to bring the site into compliance. He described existing underground detention as undersized and said the plan replaces it with a large modular system — the engineer described “15 rows of 19 Colt 330s” — that will collect roof and pavement runoff, treat and infiltrate where possible, and discharge near the existing outfall close to the base of the new wall. When asked whether a hydrodynamic separator was being installed, the engineer said the parking and site use do not meet his threshold for that device and that catch basins with sumps and the underground units will handle treatment.
Attendees also asked for clearer landscape plans, exact wall height and location relative to property lines, and confirmation of how many trees will be removed; the wetlands agent for the Town of Bethel asked to see the wall location in relation to the original approved landscaping, noting that several trees were part of the site’s original approval. The wetlands agent said the original trees had matured and asked that the board consider whether they could be saved or reasonably replaced.
The engineer said the wall height will be in the range discussed on site (one segment of wall was described as about 13 feet high where it blends with adjoining property) and that replanting would be part of the landscape approach. Final planting plans, wall cross-sections and the engineered stormwater details were left for the formal site-plan review at the upcoming agency meeting.
The project team agreed to return with marked plans on the property and with the requested landscape and site-plan details for the agency’s next review. A follow-up meeting and notice were scheduled; a participant moved to close the site walk at 12:53, another seconded the motion, and the site walk was closed.
The agency and applicants indicated the next formal review will include the landscaping plan, precise location and elevations for the retaining wall, and the engineered stormwater details for agency staff review.
