Conservation/Inland Wetlands Group Stalled

Since legal problems stalled the formation of a new combined body, “the Conservation Commission is out of commission until we get our issues resolved,” Town Council member John Vibert said Tuesday night. That will not be until February, after a public hearing on the issue, set for Jan. 25.

The new body was to join the Inland Wetlands Watercourse Agency with the Conservation Commission through an ordinance taking effect Jan. 1 but the council was unable to appoint new members to the body at either its December or January meeting. The problem is a legal one, Town Manager Kathy Eagen said Tuesday.

“When the political parties were in the process it came to our attention …that we really didn’t create a new commission, even though that was the intent of the group,” Eagen explained. “We did not write the ordinance in that way.”

A draft of the ordinance has since been rewritten to clarify the language, Eagen said. At the Jan. 25 public hearing, the council plans to repeal the old Chapter 9, regarding the Conservation Commission and Chapter 38 “Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency” in the Farmington Town Code and establish a new Chapter 9, called “Conservation and Inland Wetlands Commission.

The move would finally shift the duties of the Inland Wetlands Watercourse Agency from the Town Plan and Zoning Commission to the Conservation Commission, something conservationists in the town, including Irving A. Robbins’ Green Team, Farmington Land Trust members and new Town Council Chairman Jeff Hogan have been advocating for years.

Vibert, who is council liaison to the Conservation Commission and a former land trust member, called it an embarrassment that the town has not been able to activate the new group because of attorneys’ errors. Jeff Hogan described the commission’s state as “purgatory.”

Until the new body can be established and its members appointed, the town is not without a wetlands agency or a Conservation Commission, Eagen said. Because terms expired and no appointments have been made, the Conservation Commission is not at full membership but, she said, it does have a quorum and is able to take care of any necessary business. The zoning commission continues to act as the wetlands agency.

If all goes according to plan, the new ordinance would go into effect Feb. 27, 2012.