Attorney general: Yale Farm no longer just a local issue

NORTH CANAAN — Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has announced that he will attend a May 12 hearing in North Canaan to contest a new application for a water diversion permit for the proposed Yale Farm Golf Club. He says the application is incomplete because it does not include plans for homes around the course.

The hearing is being held by the  state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)

The application has been before the DEP for more than six years now, and has undergone numerous revisions. It focuses on a plan to pump up to 9 million gallons of water per year from bedrock wells for golf course irrigation. In January, the state issued a tentative determination to approve the permit, along with an unprecedented list of conditions.

Plan does not include home sites

At issue now is a housing component originally presented alongside the plan to build an 18-hole world class golf course on the 780-acre Yale Farm in North Canaan and Norfolk.

Shortly after beginning the local permitting process in 2003, Betts pulled the housing component out of the plan. It had become a source of uncertainty because the homesites were speculative; their final locations were based on potential changes to the golf course layout.

Betts told the planning and zoning and inland wetlands commissions in both towns that he wouldn’t jeopardize the golf course, which has a higher priority with him.

At the time, commissioners agreed with the approach.

Homesites proposed later on would require another special permitting process, though.

DEP says homes are separate

The opposition is now latching on  vehemently to this as a potential legal foothold to delay or stop the project. The DEP’s Office of Adjudications reviewed the matter, officially described as “the applicant’s objection to the request for production of documents.â€� Those documents are the future residential development plans.

On April 15, DEP Hearing Officer Kenneth Collette ruled the application is complete without the housing component.

The six-page document cites various state and federal statutes, as well as case law that support the determination. The basis of Collette’s findings was that “the proposed golf course and any potential future residential development are not interdependent parts of a larger action.�

Homes that may be built there would not be subject to a water diversion permit.

“The commissioner does not need information on any potential future development to reach a fully informed decision,� Collette wrote.

Comments made public

Golf course developer Roland Betts contacted The Journal the day after the ruling, not so much to talk about the decision he had expected, but because he was incensed about Blumenthal’s actions and comments he made to another newspaper. Betts said the attorney general spoke publicly about a private conversation he had with the developer.

“I requested an informal meeting with Mr. Blumenthal after the first comments he made about the project, years after it was first proposed,� Betts said. “We met about a month ago. The meeting included my wife, Lois, [property owner] Slade Mead and [Project Manager] David Tewksbury.�

In an April 11 story in The Hartford Courant, reporter Rinker Buck quotes Blumenthal paraphrasing comments purportedly made by Betts during that February meeting in Hartford. Blumenthal claimed Betts told him both the golf course and housing were necessary to make the project work.

“I’m not denying the quotes,� Betts said. “But I find it incredible that Mr. Blumenthal passed along that information to a reporter, and that the reporter didn’t substantiate the information.�

Buck claims in his story Tewksbury did not return his phone calls. Betts said no calls were placed by Buck to his firm’s New York City office.

Betts noted not only the DEP decision on the housing issue, but an earlier ruling in Hartford Superior Court that upheld the exclusion of those potential plans.

Golf and houses inextricably linked

Blumenthal also spoke with The Journal, calling the DEP decision “very preliminary.�

“I disagree strongly that the project can be segmented into different stages,� Blumenthal said. “The hearing officer who made the ruling is at the very lowest level. He has no authority to make a decision.�

It comes down to differing interpretations of the law, he said.

As for Betts’ allegations of indiscretion, Blumenthal said, “We had a meeting that included his lawyers and ours. It was formal and official. There was never a request for confidentiality.�

No transcript was made of the meeting.

Some, like Blumenthal, see removing the housing component as a strategy to come back for a quick approval of a second round of development. Having one successfully completed project component would be a foot in the door for others to follow.

Others feel that nothing will ever happen in this high-profile, legally contested project without the most careful scrutiny.

Blumenthal said he will be at the North Canaan Town Hall May 12 to present his case with a statement and written comments as to “why the plan must be considered as a whole, both the housing and the golf course.�

“The impact on the environment of the whole plan needs to be considered,� Blumenthal said.

The Journal brought to his attention the validation given by local planning agencies that the housing component would be duly considered under a separate application. He was asked how the housing component Betts may propose would differ from any other subdivision or large-scale residential development when it comes to land-use regulations and permitting.

“Different locations may involve different approaches. I will have to research that,� he said.

He also made the point that there are two separate permitting processes underway.

Wetlands rules are a separate issue

The North Canaan Inland Wetlands Commission is the only local agency left to rule on the project. A public hearing on a new application before them will begin April 29 at 6 p.m. at North Canaan Town Hall.

A previous approval was appealed by the grassroots Canaan Conservation Coalition. It was a decision the commission expected. During a previous application process, a motion had been made to approve a wetlands permit when a commissioner noticed an irrigation pond, also part of wetlands mitigation requirements, encroached upon the wetlands buffer zone of the adjoining property.

Not wanting to risk a procedural misstep, and certain an appeal would follow, the commission followed through on the vote. The pond was the only one of numerous points upheld in the appeal.

The appeal points the judge denied was the “missing� housing component plans. That was the Superior Court decision to which Betts referred in his interview.

Blumenthal said the appeal ruling has no bearing on the DEP decision.

“It was a ruling on an inland wetlands decision. It’s a different set of facts and legal issues when dealing with a water diversion permit.�

From local to national issue

He went on to say that this is no longer a local issue; that it is at a different stage.

“We may eventually be dealing with federal law. We are at an entirely different level. I have great respect for Roland Betts and his team. They have done a lot of hard work. But we are in serious disagreement.�

Blumenthal said he agreed wholeheartedly with a request from state Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30) that he meet with officials from North Canaan and Norfolk to discuss the issues surrounding the proposed golf course. He said he looks forward to setting a date.

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