NORWALK, Conn. — Little delays continue to plague the controversial development planned on the Westport/Norwalk line as a Norwalk public hearing has been postponed.
The Conservation Commission’s Inland Wetland Agency was not in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) compliance Thursday when it set a June 9 date for a public hearing on the plan to build 15 houses on the old White Barn Theater property at 78 Cranbury Road, Norwalk Senior Environmental Engineer Alexis Cherichetti said. The June 9 meeting will therefore be used to set a new public hearing date as all actions taken at Thursday’s Inland Wetland Agency meeting are null, she said.
The new date will be June 23, she said. The FOIA problem was revealed by NancyOnNorwalk.
The proposal from Special Properties LLC also needs Zoning Commission approval. A Zoning Commission public hearing was set for June 17. It was unclear Friday how the Conservation Commission delay would affect the timing of the Zoning Commission’s decision and/or public hearing.
This is not the first Conservation Commission delay. A lack of a quorum kept the Commission from hearing the proposal in early May, according to minutes of the Zoning’s Commission’s May 14 Plan Review Committee meeting. The Commission was set to discuss the proposal Tuesday, but the lack of a quorum prevented that, prompting a special meeting to be called for Thursday.
The meeting was not advertised on the city’s website, which is not an FOIA violation. But at 3 p.m. Thursday, City Clerk Donna King said in an email that she had no knowledge of a meeting. NancyOnNorwalk questioned the omission after Thursday’s meeting.
Cherichetti said the agenda had been emailed to Administrative Assistant Rebecca Kovacs. The agenda was posted outside the agency’s office and outside the Planning and Zoning Department’s conference room, and the meeting was in FOIA compliance, she said.
On Friday, however, Cherichetti said in an email that she had discovered that the emailed notice never got to Kovacs. Therefore, she said, the meeting’s actions were void.
There were four members of the eight-member Inland Wetland Agency present at Tuesday’s meeting; that would be a quorum, but D. Seeley Hubbard needed to recuse himself from this issue, Cherichetti said.
Other business was conducted as usual.
There are currently no alternates on the Conservation Commission, although there are three alternate positions.
Matthew Caputo, a new member, was greeted warmly at Thursday’s meeting as it was his first meeting. He was appointed March 10.
Volunteer Commissioners Karen Destefanis, Ed Holowinko, Robert Mercurio and Hubbard have been at every meeting since Oct. 28. Lou Bonsangue is also a stalwart member, having been present at six of eight meetings, according to the minutes. Marybeth Sullivan has been at five meetings, and Bill Nightingale, who was reappointed in March, has attended two, the latest in November.
Mayor Harry Rilling did not reply to a Thursday email asking if there was a problem finding volunteers to serve on the Commission.
The proposal for the White Barn property is opposed by members of the Save Cranbury Association.
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