Elissa Wright moves to protect Connecticut Open Spaces


Our new state representative, Elissa Wright, has joined with other legislators to propose legislation designed to ward off excessive development, preserve Open Space, and clean up brownfields.

Calling its campaign the “Face of Connecticut,” the coalition calls on the state to establish a regular funding stream from a mix of yearly appropriations, bonding and surplus funds that could support $100 million per year in investments to protect the state's farmland, watershed lands, forests, wildlife habitats, historic neighborhoods and urban centers. Legislation for the campaign will be introduced this session.

“I ask any of you doubters, if New Jersey can do it, why can't Connecticut?” said state Sen. Bill Finch, D-Bridgeport, co-chairman of the Environment Committee, referring to a similar initiative in the Garden State. He added that he didn't want Connecticut to turn into a state of “Wal-Marts and Costcos” and that his city of Bridgeport has as much to gain from the campaign's plan to invest in cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields as rural communities do from the preservation of farmland.

“We are now sprawling past our brownfields to develop your greenfields,” Finch said. “This definitely would benefit urban, suburban and rural areas.”

...

Legislators who attended the announcement included Finch and his co-chairman on the Environment Committee, Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford, and several other members of the committee, including two representatives from southeastern Connecticut, Democrats James Spallone, of Essex, and Elissa Wright, of Groton.

Both Spallone and Wright said that if the fund is created, they would put The Preserve, a 1,000-acre forest in Old Saybrook, Westbrook and Essex, high on the priority list for open-space acquisition, if the state has not been able to purchase it by then. Spallone said property near the decommissioned Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plant in Haddam Neck and some smaller farms in his district would also be prime candidates for protection.

Wright's priority list included a 160-acre parcel known as the Watrous Property, near Route 1 and Noank-Ledyard Road. The land is slated for development, she said, but includes some productive vernal pools that are considered critical wildlife habitat. Oswegatchie Hills in Niantic and three parcels in North Stonington and Voluntown that would enlarge the Pachaug State Forest would also be on her list.

This is an investment well worth making, and it looks like a smart mix of programs that benefit both urban and rural areas.

Wright has her faults (as I've mentioned in the past), but she has always been good on the environment, and she deserves commendation for getting involved so quickly in something of this magnitude. This is the sort of thing that veto proof majorities are for.

Obligatory dead horse beating: this type of program would be much easier to implement if we could relieve the pressure for development. A large part of that is property tax reform.
Posted: Saturday - February 17, 2007 at 04:24 PM          

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