Developer seeks wetlands permit for first phase of Perkins Farm project in Mystic
Mystic — The developer of the former Perkins farm property is seeking a wetlands permit for the first phase of the project, construction of a four-story, 121-unit apartment building.
While the Stonington Planning and Zoning Commission already has approved a master plan to construct a 71-acre medical, academic and residential campus, the application by developer David Lattizori of Groton to the town’s inland wetlands commission is the first to construct a building. The wetlands commission has slated a public hearing on the application for 7 p.m. Feb. 1 at the police station. If it is approved, Lattizori will need to obtain site plan approval for the building from the Planning and Zoning Commission.
The wetlands permit is needed for the construction of the building, roads, storm drainage, utilities and landscaping. Some of that work would be done in the wetlands and the upland review area that borders wetlands.
The application states 3.7 acres of upland review area would be disturbed, as well as 4,953 square feet of actual wetlands, where 45 cubic yards of gravel would be deposited. The apartment building has 286 parking spaces and a pool.
Lee Gardiner, who owns an adjacent home at 223 Jerry Browne Road has sent a memo to the wetlands commission opposing the permit. Specifically, Gardiner objects to the location of a secondary entrance that would serve the residential portion of the project and be located 100 feet from the Gardiner home’s driveway. The entrance would be located just southeast of Pequotsepos Road.
Gardiner wrote that Lattizori’s engineers have not offered alternatives to the road location that would have less impact on the wetlands and upland review areas. Gardiner also projected that this so-called second entrance will become more heavily used than the proposed main entrance.
Under the approved master plan, the main entrance to the project, which is projected to serve the medical and academic portions of the campus, would be located at the existing intersection of Coogan Boulevard and Jerry Browne Road. Plans call for a four-way stop there using signs, not lights.
If built as envisioned by Lattizori, the project would become the town’s largest taxpayer, generating an estimated $1.3 million a year in tax revenue and creating several hundred jobs.
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