Home Care In Moodus, CT

Lower Moodus Reservoir, East Haddam - 2016

2016 Aquatic Plant Survey of Lower Moodus Reservoir

Lower Moodus Reservoir is a 126-acre waterbody located in East Haddam, CT. It is a public lake with access on the northern portion of the reservoir off of route 149. The reservoir has a dam on the northern end and an impoundment separating Upper and Lower Moodus on the south end. There is a public park and a beach located on the southeastern shore of the reservoir.

The CAES IAPP 2016 survey of Lower Moodus Reservoir was third survey and year to year comparisons were provide to stakeholders in a formal report. The first survey was conducted in 2009; the second was conducted in 2012. The 2016 survey found 30 aquatic species, resulting in a modest change in species richness with 33 species found in 2012 and 27 species in 2009. Six species were found in 2012 that were not found in 2016: water starwort (Callitriche species), spineless hornwort (Ceratophyllum echinatum), Brazilian waterweed (Egeria densa), western waterweed (Elodea nuttallii), quillwort (Isoetes species), and cattail (Typha species). Only three species were found in 2016 that were not found in 2012: coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum), spotted pondweed (Potamogeton pulcher), and Robbins' pondweed (Potamogeton robbinsii). Both natives and invasives were most abundant in coves around the reservoir. The most species rich cove is located on the southwestern shoreline with 21 species.

The 2016 survey found the presence of three invasive species: fanwort (Cabomba caroliniana), variable-leaf watermilfoil (Myriophyllum heterophyllum), andcurlyleaf pondweed (Potamogeton crispus). Variable-Leaf watermilfoil was one of the more abundant species in the 2016 survey, covering a majority of the reservoir's eastern portion and covering parts of the shoreline, spreading since the 2009 survey. Curlyleaf pondweed was found more frequently in our 2016 survey, but still located only in a small abundance along the eastern portion of the reservoir. Brazilian waterweed was not found in the reservoir in the 2016 survey. Residents' concerns that invasive swollen bladderwort (Utricularia inflata) was now present in the lakes and becoming a nuisance was not confirmed as all specimens obtained by our surveyors were identified as common bladderwort (Utricularia macrorhiza).

Other Lower Moodus Reservoir Surveys: 2012, 2009

EAST WINDSOR — First Selectman Jason Bowsza says his town has done more than its share to help state go green. Now he says he is fighting on behalf of his residents by urging the Connecticut Siting Council to reject the latest proposed solar farm in town.

“We have done our part as citizens in Connecticut toward large-scale renewable energy projects,” Bowsza said in testimony to the Siting Council on Sept. 7.

On Friday, Bowsza said that Solar Two is "gobbling up prime farmland" and is contradictory to the town's plan of conservation and development, which, he told Siting Council, seeks to preserve the “rural, village and business character” of the town.

Bowsza said that along with the erosion of farmland, residents have environmental concerns with the proposed solar farm, including stormwater runoff, groundwater contamination, and fire hazards.

It's a concern many rural towns across the state have about solar farms, as it is the Connecticut Siting Council, not the municipality, that has legal jurisdiction over the location of power facilities.

Verogy Holdings LLC, the applicant for Solar Two at 31 Thrall Road, is a professional renewable energy business that develops, finances, constructs, manages, and operates solar-generating facilities.

Verogy officials say that the project will help Connecticut meet its emission reduction targets, as well as meet Gov. Ned Lamont's goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2040. Pending approval, the project would begin financing, detailed engineering, procurement, and construction efforts by the end of this year, with commercial operation planned for the project in 2024.

The town already has two solar farms in operation — NorCap South on Wapping Road and Solar One on East Road. Solar One, which was built in 2021 after Verogy developed the property for it, is now owned by NextEra.

A third solar farm development, Gravel Pit Solar between Apothecaries Hill Road and Plantation Road, is currently under construction.

Bowsza said that given Verogy's track record of not addressing resident's concerns of the noise it emits, the company has demonstrated why it is not a good partner for the town.

"Verogy did not address the concerns of Solar One to date. Neither has NextEra," Bowsza said. "Residents who live in close proximity to Solar One are having an intrusion on their home life. We haven't gotten anything from the developer or owner."

Residents living near Solar One has long complained of a high-pitched ringing noise emitting from the solar farm, with one neighbor describing it as a "whining noise that travels."

Bowsza said that the properties of Solar One and Two are owned by the Catholic Cemeteries Association of the Archdiocese of Hartford, so the location of Solar Two on its property would be a decision between the association and the Siting Council.

"They have no problem leasing the property for 30 or 40 years and destroying it, but it's a private transaction," Bowsza said. "We retained outside counsel; we've hired a law firm with considerable experience. We're working with state legislators to change the law over having a municipality have control of siting, making sure communities and communities like mine are heard or considered. We'll keep trying until they do."

Bowsza said that if the Siting Council does approve the solar farm, the town has the right to appeal the decision, which he said the town will do.

The Siting Council is accepting letters of input until Oct. 5.

EAST HADDAM — Forget camping in a dingy cabin with no running water or electricity — soon, lovers of the great outdoors can camp in style in a pastoral setting in the Moodus area of town.

The former Middlesex 4H Camp, at 298 East Haddam-Moodus Road, closed in 2019. It is now being developed by Getaway House, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based company that allows those looking to escape from their everyday lives a chance to enter nature and relax in style.

The 85-acre land is being turned into a 47-unit, micro-cabin, RV year-round “outpost.” Each cabin will have its own individual bathroom and kitchenette, and is hooked up to onsite utilities, including water, septic and electricity.

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“Getaway is on a mission to make space in the world for free time,” said Stephen Maulden, vice president of real estate and construction for the company. The camp is within driving distance of Boston and New York, he added. “It will boast dozens of tiny cabins nestled in nature for guests to escape and disconnect,” he added.

Cabins have air conditioning, heat, an AM/FM radio and wireless speakers and a queen bed with linens and pillows. Four-person cabins have two queen-sized beds that are lofted to create a “bunk bed feel,” the company said on its website.

The kitchenette in each unit has pots and pans, kettles, cutting boards and more. Each cabin includes a fire pit, grilling grate and outdoor picnic table and chairs. The bathroom is supplied with towels and organic shampoo, conditioner and body wash. Each campsite also has an onsite manager.

During a December meeting with East Haddam’s Planning and Zoning Commission, Maulden explained the company has strict rental rules, and large groups and loud crowds are not allowed. Cabins are made for two to four guests only, with the average stay lasting 11/2 nights.

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East Haddam’s Inland Wetland Waterland Commission approved Getaway’s application Dec. 8, 2020. The PZC also approved the company’s plan, and construction has been underway since.

“They’re renovating what used to be the kitchen and dining hall into their apartment and laundry facility,” said Jim Ventres, East Haddam’s land use administrator. “They’re in the process of removing, and having taken offsite or demoing, all of the structures, pool and pool house.”

Getaway House has been able to hit the ground running construction-wise, because the company met with the commission about the approval process, and was able to have bids for the site out and prepped prior to approval, Ventres said.

Not a single member on the PZC opposed this project, he added.

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“It was one resort camp to another, so it was natural,” Ventres said. “There’s just questions that come up — hours of operation, and how do you control the noise at night — but the good thing about it is that their staff was able to talk about the other sites in the United States.”

An opening date has not been set, although Getaway originally planned one by summer.

“We recognize the rich history of the former Middlesex County Camp property and the surrounding area, and are excited to soon be a part of that community,” Maulden said.

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May 17, 2021|Updated May 17, 2021 4:39 p.m.

EAST HADDAM — While there are no current plans to redevelop Moodus Plaza, the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission recently created a new zoning district around Moodus center that aims to guide future development toward a walkable, mixed-use village that more closely resembles the Moodus that many residents remember.

Since the federal urban renewal project of the 1960s razed the original Moodus Village and replaced it with strip malls, Moodus Plaza has been a symbol of regret for the people in town who agreed to trade their village for a vision of a modern, prosperous future, bankrolled by the federal government.

The project failed to achieve its promise of turning Moodus into the modern, thriving retail center of a growing town – a saga that was thoroughly detailed in a retrospective by reporter Ken Simon – and many residents of the town have regretted approving the project.

“As we know now, it was a terrible error,” said Bob Casner, chair of the Economic Development Commission for the town. “So now, what do we do to try to overcome it?”

Casner said the Economic Development and Planning and Zoning Commissions worked together to try to come up with regulations that would promote development that would resemble Moodus Village in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. He said the hope is that a village with design elements reflective of the town’s historic structures would make Moodus a more attractive place to shop.

Set far back from the street, the existing plaza, with its sprawling parking lot, represents a 1960s vision of modern progress. The new Moodus Center District regulations envision a walkable village where multi-story buildings line the sidewalks and contain a mix of ground floor retail and upper floor office and residential spaces.

“We’re looking to make it so the stores have a better appeal to people driving down the street, so they could see what stores are there and what services are being offered, because they would be closer to the street,” Casner said.

Before the change, zoning regulations restricted each building to one apartment, which could only be occupied by a store’s operator.

The new rules allow building owners to rent out multiple apartments and the extra income may provide incentive to developers, Casner said. Multi-story buildings may also contribute to the architecture of the village and provide rental housing, which is in short supply in East Haddam.

Town Planner James Ventres said he doesn’t expect any immediate changes from the regulations, and Casner said they were looking forward 5 to 10 years. But, neither envisions the current plaza lasting forever, and the idea of the new zoning district was to put regulations in place for whenever that transition does happen.

“There’s been complaints about the Moodus Plaza ever since the 1970s when it was built, but I had a land use attorney tell me one time, ‘Get your regulations in place, because every building doesn’t last forever,’” Ventres said. “Sometimes it’s easier to rebuild than to renovate. So, we’re just putting things in place to answer the question of – would a new development on that parcel face the street with some design, rather than that big open parking lot?”

Ventres said that there won’t be any 25-unit apartment buildings popping up in the Moodus Center with no water and sewer, but there is room for developers to potentially put in septic systems and wells that could accommodate three or four apartments in the upper floors of a building. They should also be able to accommodate a range of businesses.

“Restaurants, laundromats, hairdressers are huge water consumers, but if you get enough space, you can make it work there,” Ventres said. “The former lumberyard site has plenty of expandability. It’s not a dead end, there are things that can be done.”

New construction and major renovations of existing buildings would all need to be approved by special exception, which would include an architectural review process meant to ensure any project is “in harmony with and contains elements of buildings constructed between 1820 and 1940.”

The regulations allow for building up to two-and-a-half stories. Ventres said the half-story could push developers toward building pitched roofs that would fit in with the desired architecture for the area.

“That matches the cadence of the streets,” he said. “You take a look at the rest of Falls Road, or you go on to Plains Road, there are some larger structures built in the late 1800s and early 1900s that have some style to them.”

Concerns raised about the new regulations included the architectural requirements that would make building more expensive and less attractive to developers.

Casner said there is no doubt that the regulations will make new buildings and major renovations more expensive, but making the village a more attractive and inviting place to shop could allow those businesses to draw more visitors to the area to spend their money in the Moodus center.

“Tourism is a big part of our town, and we want to make it attractive for people to stop and shop here,” Casner said. “We’ve got to up the quality of our structures and up the quality of our services and capture more of the dollars that are traveling through town.”

Brendan Crowley covers energy and the environment for CT Examiner. T: 860 598-0050

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EAST HADDAM – Town Planner James Ventres said that under East Haddam’s current regulations, he had to tell several families that they couldn’t keep a farm animal for a 4-H project because they didn’t have enough space to meet the town’s setback requirements for animal shelters.

On Wednesday night, the town Planning and Zoning Commission agreed to loosen those setbacks for small “hobby farms,” including 4-H students. The commission also agreed to tighten setback regulations for new, larger animal operations – an effort to prevent a repeat of an incident several years ago when someone tried to move thousands of chickens into a residential property.

The current rules governing agriculture are one size fits all – any structure for animals has to be set back 100 feet from any road and 75 feet from a rear or side property line, said Ventres. The new regulations are meant to accommodate smaller, less intensive “hobby farms,” which the regulations define as housing no more than 25 poultry and rabbits, or up to two large-bodied animals.

Ventres told the commission that the 75 foot buffer may have been set in the “old days” as an attempt to keep any kind of farming outside of the one-acre residential zones, or to provide a 75 foot buffer for manure piles because wells could be close to the property lines.

The setbacks effectively make it impossible for anyone with a 1-acre property with 150 feet of frontage to build any kind of structure for farm animals, he said. Ventres told CT Examiner in a recent conversation that the issue has mainly come up with parents whose children are working on a 4-H project, and he’s had to tell them the regulations simply don’t allow it.

“I don’t know how many times someone has come in and wants to have a goat or a few chickens for a 4-H project, and they can’t have it,” he said.

Instead of having one-size setbacks, under the new regulations, hobby farms could have smaller setbacks – 75 feet from a street, 40 feet from the property lines, and at least 100 feet from existing, neighboring residences. The new rules should allow for some more flexibility for those small hobby farms, he said.

Emily Alger, the 4-H program coordinator for Middlesex County, said East Haddam has always done a great job looking out for 4-H students. Alger said there are young people in East Haddam raising everything from rabbits and poultry to horses and cattle as a part of their 4-H livestock project.

“I get the spirit of the law, so that people don’t build a three-sided lean-to right on the property line and then there’s an issue,” Alger said. “But we have extremely diverse sizes of property, anywhere from hundreds of acres down to way less than an acre. I think it’s great that if you have an educational project, you don’t have to put your chicken coop on your front doorstep because that’s the only place far enough away from your property line.”

The livestock projects aren’t just a way for the students to learn about the animals they raise, they learn skills that transfer into other parts of life – it’s an opportunity to learn how to keep records, and to learn how to speak in public, she said.

Because the 4-H students learn from UConn researchers, it’s also an opportunity to share the latest research with the students, who in turn share that with the community.

“You want to know where your vegetables come from, you want to know how the person took care of them, how they kept the bugs away,” Alger said. “All of those things are really important, and when kids have projects like that, they have the opportunity to educate the public on all of their practices and their best management.”

The new regulations also add restrictions for manure storage on “intensive” farm operations – meaning larger farms with more than 200 poultry or 20 large livestock, or that require a building larger than 5,000 square feet.

Under the new regulations, those farms must keep their animal waste storage or treatment more than 225 feet from the street line and 300 feet from any other property line. The commission can also require those operations to plant a 100 foot buffer with trees and shrubs around any property line, but can also reduce the setback to 100 feet from the property line if the adjoining property is open space or unsuitable for development.

Ventres said about 8 years ago someone came to the town and asked to bring in 500 chickens to create a specialty hatchery on a property in a residential zone.

“The next thing you know, he had 10,000 chickens,” Ventres said.

The operation was abiding by the 75 foot buffers, but didn’t have proper manure management or sufficiently address runoff issues. The farm became a major nuisance in the residential area before the state shut it down, Ventres said.

The new regulations wouldn’t affect existing farms, but if someone else came in looking to develop an intensive animal operation, the regulations would give the commission a chance to look at the proposal and make sure it’s properly managing issues of stormwater and manure management, he said.

“We don’t want to discourage you, but we want to have an idea of how this is going to work,” he said.

Brendan Crowley covers energy and the environment for CT Examiner. T: 860 598-0050

[email protected]