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Politics & Government

RTM Approves Open Space Downtown

In spite of a clearing of the room, the RTM approved the gifting of seven acres of open space downtown.

Following a clearing of the room by Moderator Chris Sullivan to restore order to the on Wednesday, the issue of contamination once again took center stage at a town meeting—this time, with regard to acreage gifted to the town by Branford developer Alex Vigliotti of .

The RTM ultimately voted to accept the parcels by a large bipartisan majority.  The parcels total seven acres and constitute downtown open space, with a conservation easement that will preserve the land as open space in perpetuity.

Prior to the vote, RTM member David Baker, who chairs the Administrative Services Committee that had approved the acquisition of the parcels and also the conservation easement before its review by the full RTM, said that on Wednesday he had received a phase one study on any contamination on the open space land.

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Prepared by Triton International Inc., an environmental consulting firm in Guilford, the study found no evidence of contamination on the open space acreage.

RTM member and Majority Leader Anthony Giardiello noted that a phase one finding serves as an accepted standard of due diligence in environmental findings.

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Baker also fielded questions from area residents, such as Michael Vergato, who lives on Cedar Street.  The open space, which is accessed by Hillside Avenue, borders not only Cedar Street but also North Main Street and Ivy Street.

The Branford Land Trust will join the town to manage the open space, although the Parks and Open Space Commission has jurisdiction over the maintenance of the property, whose uses will include passive recreation such as hiking.  The easement on the site—and its monitoring by the Branford Land Trust—will prevent the placement of structures such as cell towers on the property.

“It’s a .  It’s not a grass park,” Bill Horne, who serves as a Branford Land Trust director, had said at a former town government meeting.

Vigliotti, who gifted the acreage to the town, plans to develop three senior housing complexes called Founder’s Village on the property behind Rose Hill Apartments but below the open space.

Almost overwhelming the RTM meeting on Wednesday were comments, some of which Sullivan ruled out of order.

At one point , who at the meeting provided an overview of earlier environmental findings on the site, remarked that the RTM had been in session for two hours but had yet to cast a vote.   

That the RTM ultimately did.  Earlier this year, the gifting of the land. 

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