Old Lyme ― It’s not a quarry. It’s a paving project.

Timothy Suchocki, principal of Northland Group LLC and president of Suchocki & Son, has been granted another special permit to continue installing a loop driveway that he said will necessitate the removal of 50,000 cubic yards of rock material.

The Zoning Commission after a Tuesday public hearing voted unanimously to approve the application. It will be good for two years with no option for renewal.

The 43 Hatchetts Hill Road site will be the Preston-based company’s new headquarters once the work is complete, according to project attorney Harry Heller. It will be the home base for a fleet of trucks necessary to deliver residential and commercial construction services and to supply crushed rock along the shoreline.

But critics like nearby resident Arlene Sherman characterize the driveway project as a “ruse” to circumvent local zoning regulations that apply extensive rules dictating how earth material can safely be removed in town.

The excavation regulations do not apply when removal is deemed “reasonably necessary” to carry out a construction or paving project.

Sherman also alleged excavation activity continued after Suchocki’s first permit expired.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Suchocki said he’s cleared about 25,000 cubic yards of material since he was approved for his first permit in 2021. That permit, which gave him 15 months to complete the driveway, expired in summer 2022.

Town warned owner

The new application came after Land Use Coordinator and Zoning Enforcement Officer Eric Knapp first warned Suchocki to stop blasting and crushing rock on the site in an informal August 2023 letter. Knapp emphasized the need for a new permit.

Suchocki has said he stopped excavation at that point because he interpreted the letter as a cease and desist order. On Tuesday, he told the commission the only activity on the 21.2-acre site involves trucks coming and going as part of the company’s regular business activities.

Knapp said he did not see any signs of a new permit application until this spring, after he sent out an official notice of violation because the site could not be left unfinished.

Suchocki said the project was delayed in part by a condition of the previous permit that prohibited him from stockpiling excavated material on his property. That meant he had to wait for someone to buy the material before he could excavate more.

Heller said the new site plan, which calls for a driveway 320 feet longer than the original proposal, is necessary to give the fleet enough room to maneuver and will provide storage space for the equipment.

Heller said referring to the site as a quarry or excavation site is “categorically false.”

The commission in approving the 2021 permit rejected the advice of the town’s consulting engineer, Thomas E. Metcalf, when he suggested a driveway could be created without excavating so much material and that the application should be treated as a gravel pit operation instead.

Suchocki during the public hearing received support from Ron Swaney, a fellow businessman who owns a nearby property on the other side of Hatchetts Hill Road that he said he intends to develop.

“They’re taking a piece of land that’s unusable and making it usable,” Swaney said.

Swaney owns a quarry at 308-1 and 304 Mile Creek Road, where operations are allowed because they predated the 1988 excavation regulations. But his failure over six months to obtain an Inland Wetlands and Watercourses permit led to the threat of a lawsuit by the wetlands commission.

He finally submitted a permit application in time for the wetlands commission’s October meeting. The application is scheduled for a public hearing in December.

Swaney in supporting Suchocki’s application said the activity is appropriate for a light industrial zone.

“Unfortunately, there are some neighborhoods that are in that area,” he said. “That was their choice. That industrial park has been there a long time.”

Environmental concerns

The town’s map shows the Three Mile River runs through a portion of the southern end of his property, with wetlands along some of the western border and a smaller area on the eastern side.

Resident Millie Caron was critical of the risk to the area’s natural resources not only in the excavation activity but in Suchocki’s use of the river to fill his 2,000-gallon truck to keep the dust down.

“Why is it OK for people to be taking water out of a freshwater river that relies on rainwater to replenish it,” she said. “It should be protected.”

Knapp said Suchocki would have to take 50,000 gallons per day from the river to trigger state permit requirements.

Caron also questioned who is going to enforce the conditions placed on the permit approval, including one that allows Suchocki to stockpile excavated material as long as he submits a plan endorsed by town engineer Geoffrey Jacobson. Another condition requires him to address additional erosion control issues laid out in a Nov. 12 letter from Jacobson.

Knapp took responsibility for enforcement.

“That’s theoretically my job,” he said, adding he drives by on a regular basis.

Caron wasn’t convinced.

“If no one’s watching, anything can be done or not done,” she said.

e.regan@theday.com