Danbury commission hears plan for driving range that would disturb about 6,000 sq ft of Wetland 17; members press for more mitigation details

The Danbury Environmental Impact Commission on Wednesday heard a presentation from Morfar Inc., its counsel and environmental consultants on a proposal to build a driving range that would affect a portion of Wetland 17 on the Morfar property.

Attorney Charles Lichtenauer, representing Morfar Inc. and Back of Beyond Inc., told the commission that planning and zoning has granted conditional approval pending submission of a site plan. Rob Dorsch, a project representative, described the project as a modernization effort for the member-owned club, and invited technical questions from the commission.

“ The location of the range is gonna result in about 6,000 square feet of disturbance for this portion of the wetland,” said Greg Fleisher of Capital Environmental Consultants, who testified that the Morfar property encompasses about 190 acres and contains two major wetland complexes. Fleisher said the driving range would occupy about 9.2 acres overall and that the team proposes compensatory mitigation totaling about 12,000 square feet (tree plantings, shrub and native-seed mixes and targeted removal of invasive phragmites) to offset the loss.

Commissioners pressed the applicants on several technical points. One commissioner asked whether stormwater from the proposed disturbance would be diverted from the Still River watershed into New York; the consultants said the stormwater design would collect and treat most Connecticut disturbance but acknowledged a small, hatched area on their plans would route to the New York side and that they would provide exact square-foot figures on request.

Concern about phragmites control was a recurring theme. A commissioner cautioned that eradication often requires a multiyear effort and asked whether the applicants' plan was a single treatment. Fleisher said the team proposes a two-year monitoring period with targeted herbicide application (‘wicking’), an adaptive-management approach and an 80 percent survival target for plantings, and he agreed to provide a more detailed invasive-species management plan for conditioning by the commission.

Commission members also requested numerical planting densities and counts for mitigation areas; Fleisher said the plan includes about a dozen trees for one linear mitigation strip and that understory plant quantities were still being developed and could be supplied.

Applicants said they follow Best Management Practices for turf and pesticide use in both Connecticut and New York and offered to provide their BMP documentation and integrated pest-management plans to the commission for review.

After extended questions, a member moved and the commission seconded a motion to table the regulatory application for further review and to coordinate a site visit; the motion passed on a voice vote. Commissioners and staff said they would circulate additional materials — site-staked plan corners, exact diverted-square-foot totals, the invasive-species plan and planting quantities — before the next meeting. Chair Matt Rose noted the commission’s next scheduled meeting is Jan. 14.