The company whose plan to put a 2 million gallon water tank on Derby’s Telescope Mountain was roundly condemned by residents in January intends to submit a revised proposal for the project it says will address the neighborhood’s concerns.
The company, South Central Regional Water Authority, hasn’t met with those neighbors, and has pushed its timeline back slightly.
But Derby’s mayor said private talks with the company on the proposal have been “favorable” to the city — though details on how the water company plans to make its plan acceptable to neighbors are still being worked out.
Background
In December Regional Water proposed putting a 2 million gallon concrete storage tank on Telescope Mountain.
Company officials said they want to build the storage tank off Summit Street and Mountain Road to provide better water service and fire protection for Derby’s west side.
Water service in west Derby trickles to next to nothing when the city’s old water mains fail. It’s a dangerous problem for Griffin Hospital, the institution’s chief executive officer told the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission in January.
Local fire officials also endorsed the proposal, which is detailed in the map below. Article continues after the photo.
But neighbors in the area were less enthusiastic, especially after leaning the proposal involved blasting into the mountain’s rock outcroppings to remove some 13,000 cubic yards of rock.
The blasting would last three to four weeks and involve at least 750 truck trips to cart rock from the site, company officials told the Planning and Zoning Commission during a public hearing in January.
Click here to read more about the public hearing.
Plan Withdrawn … To Be Submitted Again?
Last month Regional Water withdrew its application before the PZC, noting the “significant concerns” of residents in the area.
At the same time, the company said it planned to submit a new application with an “improved project design” after meeting with neighbors.
That meeting hasn’t happened but will be held before the company submits new plans to City Hall, Regional Water spokeswoman Kate Powell said Monday.
What those new plans will entail is still up in the air, she said.
“I can’t really say much without sort of giving away a lot, and we’re not quite ready to do that,” Powell, said. “The plan does address a lot of issues that the neighbors raised. We’re putting some finishing touches on it.”
While the company said last month it would submit a new application in May, Powell said Monday that “the earliest I think we’ll file is probably June.”
Mayor Weighs In
While the water company hasn’t told neighbors of the area the plans yet, it has shared them in closed-door discussions with Mayor Anthony Staffieri.
He won’t say much about them either.
“There’s good talks going on,” Staffieri said Friday. “I’m not at liberty to say what has happened yet. Things haven’t been finalized. (But) they’re looking to do what’s right for the community, and the neighborhood. Talks are going on and it’s very favorable talks.”
While Staffieri wouldn’t say explicitly that the proposal would be to put the tank at the same property as originally planned, the mayor said the company’s new plan will be much more sensitive to concerns of residents in the Telescope Mountain neighborhood.
Asked directly if the tank would be at the same site, he said: “Let’s put it this way: Regional Water Authority has come to the table with a very open mind and a good idea. I’m trying to be very diplomatic.”
Article continues after video of Staffieri’s remarks to the PZC from January’s public hearing on the proposal.
“They didn’t take everything into consideration before, from the old infrastructure that exists all around the other streets these heavy trucks would go through, the traffic, the blasting,” Staffieri said of the water authority’s original application. “I think (Regional Water) is more receptive to what needs to be done and doing it the right way.”
Better water pressure in the area would obviously be good, the mayor said.
“Nobody is against getting more water pressure for fighting fires and for Griffin Hospital,” Staffieri said. “We’re all in favor of that. But how it’s done to get there is what we’re trying to work out very amicably.
“I want to make sure it’s done right,” he went on. “I don’t want a project to be done with the heavy truck traffic ruining all our sewer lines in that area. We’ve got to make sure we do things the right way.”
