WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS SWAP
•
17 acres were purchased for the purpose of conservation. Trading this land violates a conservation agreement and violates the public trust of the government.
•This will set a very dangerous precedent and make all state owned open space vulnerable to developers.
•This will jeopardize future land donations or sales to the state for open space - why would anyone sell or donate their land to the state if someday in the future it might be swapped.
•It was the intent of the seller that these 17 acres remain open space.
•DEP documents show this type of swap is unprecedented - there are no other examples of publicly owned conservation land traded to developers for private gain.
•The swap may be unconstitutional. Article First Section 1 of the Connecticut Constitution reads in part “and no man or set of men are entitled to exclusive public emoluments or privileges from the community."
•These 17 acres belong to the residents of Connecticut. We have not had an opportunity to vote on this project in public forum, referendum or town meetings.
•The developers have no set plans - only conceptual.
•Existing infrastructure of a two lane road leading to an antiquated 100 year old swing bridge will not support a project of this size.
•There are no existing sewers.
•There is no public water - contaminated groundwater is an existing problem in Tylerville.
•There is nothing that says the developers have to do anything with this land in the near future.
•There is nothing to prevent the developers from selling this property for a very comfortable profit.
•Although the Goodspeed Opera House has been taken out of this bill, the developers have publicly said that they would solicit the Goodspeed and the new theater would be a symbol of the "present" looking across river at the "past".
•This project will lead to more taxes for the Haddam residents as they will have to deal with infrastructure and tax abatements.
It will be a travesty if this swap is allowed to happen
*The information on this site has been very thoroughly researched; however, if you find anything in error please let us know, thank you.
