Neighborhood Concerns Grow as Vote Nears

A recent report has heightened concerns about significant adverse environmental impacts that come with a proposed private school development in a residential neighborhood in North Haven, in the shadow of Sleeping Giant State Park. An increased hazardous run-off from a septic system threatens the fragile ecological balance in the adjacent wetlands in both North Haven and Hamden. The report underscores widespread opposition to the plan and adds to concerns about the dangers of a dramatic increase in traffic on narrow, windy and steep local roads, particularly during the morning and afternoon peak hours.

Neighbors note that for many years, the property was home to a modest house of worship, and the new developer plans to disrupt 87% of the 3-acre site by removing almost 20 mature trees to make room for a second building, an amphitheater, and an expanded parking lot, as well as 82 new outdoor lights. They worry that the development will inevitably change the character of the area in contravention of the Town’s Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD). The POCD stresses that development in the area should be limited “to preserve the rural and pastoral nature of the area, which is slated for future scenic road status.”

The neighbors have launched a website, www.sleepinggiantneighbors.net, to provide the community with updated information, including the report on stream water quality testing that was completed last month by Phoenix Environmental Laboratories, Inc., and confirmed the predevelopment pristine water-quality, now at risk if the proposed development proceeds.

Concerned citizens are invited to visit the website and sign an online petition encouraging local officials to deny the development application. An in-person petition initiated late last year has seen the number of signatures more than double in recent weeks, from about 50 to more than 120, with most living within a mile of the site.

The North Haven Inland Wetlands Commission will be voting on Slate School’s proposal on Wednesday, March 24. The 7:00 pm meeting will be held virtually, and can be seen via Zoom. A link is expected to be posted to the town website in the coming days.

The development, at 5100 Ridge Road in North Haven, would endanger the many pedestrians, joggers, bicyclists, as well as teenage students driving to the proposed school, due to increased traffic (estimated to quadruple during peak hours) and especially during winter when plowed snow would further reduce sightlines and passable roadway.

The forested wetland, immediately down-gradient of the proposed site, is an expansive, diverse and scenic area, and is headwaters to a perennial stream that is a tributary to the Mill River. The Mill River eventually flows into the Lake Whitney Reservoir, and the intervening aquifer is the source of well water for many local homes.

Increased septic discharge from the proposed new use of the property will elevate nitrogen levels inevitably causing infiltration of algae and other invasive vegetation, and severely reduce the diversity of plants and animals that rely upon the existing wetlands and pristine stream habitat, turning a high-quality wetland into a degraded swamp, according to the opposition’s experts.

As proposed, the two structures would interrupt and dominate the landscape, oversized and out-of-proportion in a residential neighborhood, simply too much development for such a small site. Overall, it would do more harm than good, opponents stressed - the wrong project in the wrong place.

The new website also includes the developer’s site plan, the North Haven Plan of Conservation and Development, and additional information and resources, including photographs of the site.

Slate School, which operates an elementary school elsewhere in North Haven on a 24+ acre property, would build a middle school/high school on a 3-acre site on Ridge Road, according to the proposed development plan to be considered by the Inland Wetlands Commission. The Commission’s inquiry should be focused on, and limited to, two issues: will the proposed development have a significant, adverse impact on wetlands resources; and, is there a feasible and prudent alternative to the proposed development.