Conservation Commission Meeting Notes 3/11/2010

The Conservation Commission meets on the second Thursday of every month. There was no meeting in February due to lack of a quorum. The March meeting was held Thursday 3/11/2010. The meeting started out with happiness and congratulations all around thanks to the return of our illustrious Sheila Stoane. We are all very thankful to have Sheila back and glad that she is feeling better.

The Commission held its elections at Thursday night's meeting. Sheila Stoane, after a long stint as Commission Chair, the actual length of which was up for discussion but was generally thought to be about 20 years, was elected as Vice-Chair. Jane Brawerman who had been the Vice-Chair for the past several years was elected as Chair. Votes were unanimous.

Planning and Zoning Commissioner Catherine Johnson visited the Commission to discuss the previous night's vote to approve the City's Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD). The POCD has been undergoing a revision process which was under a state-imposed deadline restriction for certain funding stipulations. This has been written about in the Eye in several past articles that can be found by searching for "POCD" in the search box at the upper left corner of the Eye blog. There was some confusion among the Conservation Commission regarding what was actually voted on and what version of the POCD was adopted. At the time of the P&Z vote on March 10th, he POCD document was still in a draft form and the revision process that Commissioner Johnson was spearheading was still ongoing, with a definitive completion schedule sketched out that would meet the state-imposed deadline. The Conservation Commission is actively seeking clarity about what was adopted and where the current revisions stand in terms of how the revision process can move forward as a potential amendment process, with the goal being to have a stand-alone document that provides a clear and concise guiding framework that will be practical and can be put into active use.

The Commission also discussed the March 8th vote of approval by the Economic Development Commission for a lease of Maromas land for a proposed 9-hole golf course. The Arawana golf course and other proposals for Maromas land have also been extensively written about in the Middletown Eye. The Conservation Commission voted at the March 11th meeting to write a letter reiterating the position that we have previously expressed regarding any potential development of Maromas land. The Commission has expressed support for proposals that uphold these key principles: 1) maintain public accessibilty to the land and maintain ecological integrity of the land and 2) take into serious and thorough consideration all of the public comments that were obtained during the many public informational sessions that were held prior to the Request for Proposal (RFP) process. The Commission is opposed to the golf course proposal because it does not uphold the stated principles. The stated principles were written by the Commission collectively to express the need to put the protection and health of Middletown's land and resources at the forefront of importance.

Additional items were dicussed briefly; the complete meeting minutes, as always, are available on the City's Planning website, via the link on the left side for "Conservation" in the list of Boards and Commissions.