Last month Shelton homeowner John Wardowski complained to the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission that faulty excavation work had left his house perched at the edge of a pit carved from a hillside to allow the construction of a strip mall.
He and a neighbor also said blasting damaged their homes and broken a public water service line.
The PZC is scheduled Tuesday to hear more about a developer’s plan for rectifying the excavation that went awry at the River Road property.
Meanwhile, Wardowski and his neighbor are still waiting for answers.
He said last week that except for the construction of an access ramp inside the excavation pit, nothing has been done by the developer or the blasting contractor’s insurance company to resolve the situation.
And although a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC), Joan Flannery, has asked for an investigation of the blasting company, Shelton Fire Marshal James Tortora said he has not found any violations and believes the matter should be left with the contractor’s insurance company.
Background
Bishop Management owns land at 781 – 785 River Road, underneath Wardowski’s property, at the end of Turner Road. The company also owns the Connecticut Sports Center, across the street on River Road.
In 2011, the company won approvals from the Shelton Planning and Zoning Commission to change 781 – 785 River Road’s zoning from residential to commercial.
That paved the way for the developer to build a retail building on the site, the construction of which required the blasting of rock ledge.
But, in December, after extensive blasting and material removal had taken place, the side of the ​“rock cut” collapsed — and carried with it a 25-foot buffer zone meant to separate Wardowski’s property from the retail property.
The collapse left Wardowski’s house perched precariously at the edge of a steep cliff.
Shelton Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Schultz slapped a stop work order on the troubled project in December.
The stop work order was revised in January, requiring the developer to propose a remediation plan. Last month the commission voted to authorize Bishop Management to begin work on the retaining wall, but said they must seek additional approval from the commission before actually pouring concrete.
Hearing
The PZC hearing scheduled for Tuesday is on modifications of the development plan, Planned Development District 73, at 781 – 785 River Road, because excessive excavation encroached onto the ​“buffer zone” the approved site plan required along the south edge of the pit.
That excavation left Wardowski’s home at the end of Turner Road, a private road to a row of homes atop the hill overlooking the Sports Center of Shelton, perched only 15 to 20 feet from the edge of the sheer, 45-foot cliff.
The site plan approved in 2011 by the PZC required a buffer zone adding 15 to 20 more feet, planted with shrubs to screen Wardowski’s view.
Work on the shopping development was halted by a stop work order issued in December after the side of the pit collapsed.
Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Schultz blamed the developer for not performing test borings that could have shown that the hillside was made of loose rock and dirt, not solid rock, as the developer, Bishop Management of Shelton, assumed.
Bishop Management also owns the Sports Center, located across the street from the problem development site, as well as several other commercial property developments nearby.
Investigation?
Flannery confirmed that she sent letters to Tortora and Connecticut Fire Marshal Robert Ross in March following the first session of the public hearing on March 12, but she wouldn’t comment further because it is still an open matter before her commission.
But according to Tortora, Shelton does not have any municipal blasting regulations and the state fire marshal won’t start an investigation unless he, the local fire marshal, recommends it.
Click here for more information on blasting from the city’s website.
And Tortora said his review last December, based on a complaint by Wardowski, found that the blasting contractor, Shoreline Blasting of Madison, CT, was not responsible for the collapse of the south wall of the excavation pit.
Tortora said he referred Wardowski to Shoreline Blasting’s insurance company and doesn’t see any reason for his office to investigate the matter further.
Damages
Wardowski said the blasting company’s own seismic monitoring data show the blasting contractor set explosive charges that exceeded the limits set by town and state regulations.
He said the data show ground vibrations of about four inches per second, although the regulations’ limit is two inches per second.
Wardowski and a Turner Road who also spoke at the March 12 PZC hearing claim the blasting caused them damage.
Wardowski said it caused cracks in the walls in his house and that water is seeping through cracks the blasting allegedly caused in his garage floor.
His neighbor blamed the blasting for damage to her water service line that resulted in a $2,300 water bill, plus the cost of repairing the line at her own expense.
The damage is under review by Shoreline Blasting’s insurance company, but Wardowski said the insurance adjustor has not returned his telephone calls seeking information about the progress of his damage claim.
Shoreline Blasting and the state fire marshal’s office did not return telephone calls seeking comment.