A plan for new apartments is moving forward in West Hartford. The town’s wetlands agency approved the proposal Wednesday night despite concerns from neighbors.
“I’m extremely disappointed in the decision that was made,” Gary Schulman, of West Hartford, said.
He’s among those upset about the Oakwood Park development getting a wetlands permit to build at the former UConn campus site. He and others are concerned about the impact of plants and wildlife.
“This is a large impactful project in a very sensitive, wetland sensitive part of town,” Schulman said.
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The town wetlands agency approved the permit during Wednesday evening’s special meeting saying the petitioning neighbors did not present substantial evidence of an unreasonable impact to the wetlands. They also believe developers took steps to reduce that impact.
“We found that under the regulations, it did meet the thresholds and so we voted yes on it,” Kevin Ahern, chair of the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency, said.
The project developers say they’re pleased with the decision.
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“We are pleased to have received the wetland permit approval for the portion of our proposed project at 1700 Asylum Avenue. With each step in the permitting process, we have worked with the town to improve our plans and minimize impact on the site wetlands, and we look forward to continuing through the permitting for our entire mixed-use village on both parcels at 1700 and 1800 Asylum Avenue,” Domenic Carpionato, with West Hartford 1, said.
Conditions such as preserving a number of trees on the property were added to the permit. Neighbors say they’re glad to see that added, but believe other concerns will be brought up in future zoning meetings.
“Now it’s going to shift what is the impact upon traffic. What’s going to be the impact upon services?” Schulman said.
The permit only applies to the eastern half of the former UConn campus. The site across the street still needs to go through a wetlands permitting process.
