By Brandon T. Bisceglia
The Milford Inland Wetlands Agency at its Jan. 3 gave its go-ahead to the city for its Founder’s Walk project in downtown.
The project involves significantly reconfiguring the area behind the Milford Public Library, which includes Shipyard Lane, parking lots, Fowler’s Field, tennis courts, various walkways and boat ramps along the Wepawaug River.
Shipyard Lane wends its way through these heavily used pedestrian spaces, curving around the library, then cutting between the parking lot and the fields to travel parallel to the water before looping back on the other side of the fields.
The city has called the road unsafe, since it requires pedestrians to cross the street to get to the library, the fields or the nearby walking bridge along the water.
The plan would shift the road east to avoid the library parking lot and curve more gently toward the marina.
The current path of Shipyard Lane would become a walking path with more soil and plantings that could absorb runoff from the street and parking lot so that oils and other chemicals don’t flow into the river as easily.
Because the Founders Walk project is under the auspices of the city, it does not need traditional planning approvals. It did, however, need approval from the MIWA.
The agency had looked over the project plans at its Dec. 20 meeting and raised several questions. Inland Wetlands Officer MaryRose Palumbo said a main concern with the project was making sure that sediment from the construction did not end up in the catch basins or the river itself – both during the building of the eastward portion of Shipyard Lane and in the creation of the footpath where the old road will be removed.
“It’s a staging project to make sure that some of the sediments from here will be removed. They’re not suitable for creating a roadway. So it’s getting dirt in and out without getting into the catch basins,” she explained, noting that the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will also be monitoring work on the area closest to the waterway.
There have been several invasive species identified in the area of the project – most notably invasive reed grasses and tree-of-heaven. Commissioner Stephen Munson had asked whether they could include a condition to require the city remove these plants as part of the project.
Palumbo said that the landscape architect had agreed to watch out for invasives, but she noted that she wasn’t sure if the all of them could be removed from the area within the scope of the project.
“I read something up on the tree-of-heaven,” Munson said. “With the other plantings I think over time whatever can’t be pulled out or removed shouldn’t be a problem because tree-of-heaven does not do well in the shade. The other plantings I think will overcome that.”
Chair Brendan Magnan said he was comfortable adding a requirement for removal of invasives as a condition for approval, which made it into the motion that ultimately passed.
“I believe it’s a very well-designed plan,” Magnan said.