ANSONIA-DERBY — Click play to watch the latest episode of ‘Navel Gazing: The Valley Indy Podcast.’
Here’s the script I wrote for this episode, which I pretty much stuck to:
Hey everybody, welcome to Navel Gazing, The Valley Indy Podcast.
My name is Eugene Driscoll. I’m a reporter with The Valley Independent Sentinel, an online newspaper covering Ansonia, Derby & Seymour in Connecticut.
I’m recording this on Friday, by the way, to post Sunday night. Just keep in mind that meetings and events can, of course, change.
Anyway there are a bunch of important meetings coming up in Ansonia and Derby this week, and I want to take a moment to go over them.
But first I want to tell people about a workshop coming up sponsored by The Valley Community Foundation.
The foundation is sponsoring a workshop on diversity, equity and inclusion Tuesday, Sept. 21 titled “The Groundwater Approach.”
The workshop will be held online from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Tuesday. The workshop is free and it’s being run by the Racial Equity Institute.
Registration info can be found under ‘Extra,Extra’ on The Valley Indy or search ‘Groundwater Approach’ in The Valley Indy search box.
Registration link: https://vcfevents.kimbia.com/groundwater-vcf-09 – 21-21
Ansonia Planning And Zoning Public Hearings
So that workshop is Tuesday, but the day before — on Monday, Sept. 20 — the Ansonia Planning & Zoning Commission has scheduled a number of public hearings.
The meeting itself will be held on Zoom. Assuming you have the Zoom app installed, according to the City of Ansonia website the Meeting ID is 874 4473 3855 and the passcode is 06401.
Marijuana
The first public hearing is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. The subject: a moratorium on recreational marijuana. You can read precisely what the city is up to my visiting the city of Ansonia website, use an endless number of drop down menus to find the P&Z. Or just click here.
Hotels/Motels
At 6:45 p.m., the Ansonia P&Z will hold a public hearing on a “zone text amendment” concerning hotels & motels, which was a hot topic in front of the Ansonia P&Z a few months back when a developer wanted to open a rest stop with a motel at the former JJ Sullivan’s on Wakelee Avenue. The public came out in force against it, and then the city government came out against it.
Click this link to read what precisely the city is planning to change.
It looks to me right now hotels & motels are allowed in commercial zones with a site plan application. The city wants to change it so that hotels-motels would need a special permit application approved. That gives the commission more control over such proposals, from what I gather.
Rock Crushing
So that’s motels & hotels in Ansonia. Then, at 7 p.m., there is a public hearing on a zone text amendment that would add the term “rock crushing” to heavy industrial zones in Ansonia.
OK, so this involves Burns Materials, a company on Riverside Drive that operates a rock crusher. Residential neighbors don’t like it: noise, dust, major annoyance to quality of life and property values.
The neighbors have a lawyer. The lawyer says rock crushing is not permitted in Ansonia because rock crushing is not listed anywhere in the city’s zoning code. If it’s not listed, it’s not allowed.
The property owner’s lawyer says it is allowed. The property owner’s lawyer is the person who wrote the regulation the Ansonia Planning & Zoning Commission is holding the public hearing on.
The city’s corporation counsel also said rock-crushing is allowed because the materials being crushed do not originate on site. The city’s corporation counsel said the zone text change under consideration is a good compromise, balancing the concerns of the neighbors with the rights of the business.
I did a rather detailed story on the legal issues involved a few weeks back.
The CT Post recently did a story that included some of the political response to what’s happening.
Two neighbors I’ve interviewed are worried that the city has already sided with Burns Construction on this.
On social media Mayor Cassetti, using his personal account on Facebook, got into it a little bit with Ansonia’s William Luneski over this subject on Thursday.
Contributed Photo
Burns Construction in Ansonia.
In an Ansonia Facebook community page (not affiliated with city government) Luneski posted a comment saying the city allowing rock-crushing could result in a lawsuit if people fall ill from breathing the air generated. The mayor responded that American Brass and Farrel’s was there banging and smashing and blowing out black smoke no one said anything. Cassetti said it’s a heavy industrial zone and said “please get over it.”
In a second post, Cassetti pointed out that DEEP has been on scene and found no evidence of air pollution.
I actually have a communication from DEEP about an inspection conducted in late August and I’ll read it to you:
We made several attempts to conduct an unannounced inspection of this plant; however, each time that we visited, the plant was not operating.
During these visits, we did observe that water sprays were installed throughout the plant, but again, we wanted to see the plant in operation and our understanding was that the facility did not maintain regular operating hours.
Therefore, we decided that the best course of action would be to coordinate a scheduled inspection of the plant for a time when we were reasonably sure it would be operating.
This inspection occurred on Wednesday 8/25. While scheduling this type of inspection is clearly not ideal, doing so enabled us to observe the plant in operation and to determine if it was capable of meeting state and federal fugitive dust standards.
During the inspection on 8/25, we observed that the source was using adequate wet suppression methods (sprinklers, water plumbed to crushers – see attached photos) to comply with these standards, including applicable prohibitions on (i) the emission of dust beyond the facility’s fenceline and (ii) the opacity of dust emissions from the crushers and associated conveyance equipment.
We also observed that the facility appeared to be in compliance with DEEP’s air “permit by rule” requirements for rock-crushing operations.
We did, however, discover several violations of the federal New Source Performance Standard for Nonmetallic Mineral Processing Plants (40 CFR part 60, subpart OOO), including violations of performance testing, monitoring/self-inspection, and notification requirements. This will be addressed through the issuance of a Notice of Violation, and my staff will continue to follow up with the source to ensure a timely return to compliance. Concerns re hours of operation and noise should be handled through the municipality.
Our hope/expectation is that Burns will continue to use the same dust suppression methods observed during our inspection to limit the opacity of dust emissions, prevent the emission of near-ground-level dust beyond the facility’s fenceline, and ultimately avoid a public nuisance.
Likewise, our hope/expectation is that the performance testing and monitoring requirements in the OOO standard will encourage Burns to maintain its wet suppression equipment in good repair, which is critical to achieving ongoing compliance with dust opacity requirements.”
So that’s all happening in Ansonia Monday, Sept. 20 starting at 6:30 p.m.
Let’s take a deep breath and take a look at Derby’s municipal calendar.
The Derby Planning & Zoning Commission has scheduled a public hearing on Cedar Village Minerva Square. That’s at 67 – 71 Minerva St and 147 Caroline St. That’s at 7 p.m. Tuesday online. Visit the city’s website for more info.
According to an agenda, 90 apartments are being proposed at a long-vacant Minerva Street property.
The audio-only version of this episode is available below (and everywhere podcasts are available):
