On Friday, February 10, the town received notification upholding a decision requiring North Branford to issue an inland wetlands application permit for a 60,000-gallon propane facility at 40 Ciro Road. Once the permit is recieved by the town, a public hearing will be opened by the Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC) on a date to be announced.

The decision was crafted by Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) hearing officer Brendan Schain. The town expects to receive the state-issued permit within the next week, allowing Guilford-based J.J. Sullivan Fuel Company to move forward with its next step, site plan application review and a request for approval from the North Branford PZC.

However, there are a few bumps in the road which could impact the next steps.  One is the possibility of an appeal of the DEEP decision, which could impact PZC's review.

Town Planner Carey Duques told Zip06/The Sound today that she is seeking the opinion of the town attorney to determine what that impact would be, should an appeal be made. To date, no appeal has been made, said Duques.

Another issue which could impact the inland wetlands permit issued by the state is a pending petition for declaratory ruling on whether DEEP has jurisdiction over the inland wetlands permit; as well as pointing to differences between the application submitted to the town in 2014 and what was later submitted to DEEP. The petition was submitted by a citizen and attorney, Peter White, in November 2016.

While Schain rebutted the petition's arguments in his recommendation, an actual ruling on the petition is scheduled to come down no later than May 17, 2017.  Duques said she is also seeking the opinion of the town attorney as to what impact a ruling upholding the petition's claims could have, should that decision come after the PZC begins its review.

As for when the PZC will begin its review of the 40 Ciro Road site plan application, Duques said that won't happen until likely the end of February or beginning of March, 2017. When it does, the review will begin with a public hearing. 

Pending as "old business" on the PZC agenda while awaiting the DEEP wetlands review, the state inland wetlands permit now set to be filed with the town is, "...the wetlands report the Planning and Zoning Commission has been waiting for," said Duques. "Planning and Zoning takes the final decision from the state."

The permit is expected to be received later this week, she said. Once it arrives, it goes on file with the town and the PZC will go forward with the zoning application that had been put aside.

"It becomes reactivated," said Duques. "Planning and Zoning had voted to have a public hearing, so in order to notify the public, we have to advertise [the hearing] two times prior to the meeting. So we're trying to figure out the meeting date we would have, and how to advertise it properly."

Once the PZC picks up the application, the commission will have a 35-day window to render a decision, said Duques.

The final decision on the inlands wetlands permit issued by the DEEP includes eight conditions which must be met, with a subset of seven stipulations as part of the eighth condition, "Reporting Violations."   The DEEP final decision and conditions can be viewed with this story.