This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Marina Project on East River Postponed in Part as Owner Looks for Partnership

A marina at 4 Boston Post road that was approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) in April and received significant scrutiny over potential environmental impacts is temporarily on hold, according to the property owner Michael Barnes, who said that while the plan is still to have some docks available by the spring, larger portions of the project are being postponed while he seeks further partnerships and also deals with a personal, family issue.

Speaking to The Source, Barnes pushed back against Town Planner Dave Anderson’s characterization at a recent Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting that the project is “not moving forward” currently, saying that he and his family fully intend to see the marina completed.

“We do have intentions of following the project through one way or another,” Barnes said.

The property is currently up for sale, Barnes confirmed, and he said he is still looking to find a partner to help “move it along a little faster.” The “full buildout” of the marina, with land-based infrastructure will “take a little more time,” though, with a timeline at least partially dependent on family issues that are out of his control, Barnes said.

But he said some docks will be completed and available this spring in accordance with deadlines put in place by the state.

Anderson also told the BOS that he hasn’t received very many “solicitations of interest” on the project since it went up for sale.

Six months of public hearings and consideration by the PZC, which saw grassroots opposition as well as an official legal petition by the Madison Land Conservation Trust (MLCT) to intervene against the development, eventually resulted in a conditional approval, with PZC members saying that Barnes had been responsive to concerns that were raised.

The state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection also eventually approved the project with a multitude of buffers and modifications meant to stave off environmental damage.

Conservation advocates, including a Yale faculty member with expertise in the area of conservation and suburban wetlands and a UConn professor and ecologist who studied that specific marsh area, raised alarms that the project could destroy the habitat of endangered species, disperse gravel into delicate marshland nearby, and potentially cause more pollution during a flood event.

Barnes was cited in 2013 for illegally dumping fill on the property, a decision that was upheld on appeal. He subsequently restored wetlands on the property to make up for that violation.

A number of neighboring property owners spoke out in support of the project during the various public hearings, and Barnes emphasized the marina was sorely needed for boat owners, with relatively few options for storage or launching boats in the immediate area. The project was endorsed by the Madison Economic Development Commission.

As approved, the project would include 45 boat slips approved by the state along with boat storage and related infrastructure and possibly a restaurant or retail building.