Letter to the Editor from Rep Phil Miller on the Haddam Land Swap

RE: The Haddam Land Swap 

I wish I wasn't against Senator Daily on this since her public service is quality.  I'm surprised that Governor Malloy wouldn't recognize the bad public policy and false argument that this is.  It isn't really about swapping public land, since it presupposes that the legislature would first convey what is clearly conservation land as though it were surplus to a private developer.  

This precedent undermines the foundation of our conservation hundreds of years in the making here in Connecticut.  It is too bad that a world class academic like the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Esty wouldn't commit to study this issue. I think we have had a great opportunity to do things better. 

If we fixed the zoning issues and could clean compromised groundwater in Tylerville, we could thoughtfully develop existing street parcels in a walkable village within breath of the river in this particularly beautiful area.  Conservationists, sportspeople and and citizens from all walks of life in Connecticut are disappointed with the process.  

Some citizens of Haddam feel disenfranchised because not a single Board or Commission has had this subject on their agendas and no town sponsored public forum was ever committed, and yet in the absence of this, individual commissioners and elected citizens identifying themselves as such wrote letters of support to legislators which in turn caused many legislators to falsely suppose and state that the town was for it.  A number of my House colleagues told me that they felt that the Haddam Land Swap was bad public policy but since it was bundled with other conveyances which were indeed conveyances of surplus state land and represented good opportunity for their communities that they'd have to reluctantly vote for the entire conveyance bill.   

I'm not sure if there will be a legal challenge ahead or the exact nature of it.  I'm proud to still stand with citizens who feel as we do about this issue.  

Representative Phil Miller, D-Essex