Month: November 2019

Green’s Farms Association held their Board Meeting on Monday, October 7^th. President of the Board Art Schoeller led the meeting. Board members attending included Lois Sussman, Birthe Shwisha, Bob Scholl, Dick Lowenstein, Norman Kramer, Judy Swan, Matthew Spiegel and MaryAnn Meyer.

Topics Discussed

1) Save the Trees

Reviewed the progress on the potential redesign of the proposal by the State DOT to widen the Post Road near Stop & Shop. The Board has been in contact with local and State officials to gain support to save the trees along the Post Road. The State DOT may reconsider tree removal to accommodate the proposed widening of the Post Road near Stop & Shop. GFA Board will continue to follow up with local and State officials as the proposal makes its way through the DOT process.

2) School Redistricting

The Board of Education may be considering school redistricting to create a better balance of student enrollment in the two middle schools. As the Board of Education is up for election in November, the GFA Board will continue to monitor this issue as new members of the Board of Ed are elected and new proposals are presented.

3) Governor Lamont’s Task Force on Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) for Fairfield County

The newly created Task Force on Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) will address the need for CT to act to meet the demands of our workforce and businesses for TOD in order to avoid continued decline in population and talent drain that will impact the State’s ability to remain economically competitive in our region. The Task Force brings together leading regional influencers from the public and private sector with decision makers from key State agencies. The Task Force has 28 members. The GFA Board will keep the Task Force in their sight as they develop proposals that may affect our area.

Remember municipal elections are scheduled for Tuesday, November 5^th. We hope everyone will take this opportunity to get out and vote. Many positions critical to the town such as Board of Education, Planning and Zoning, plus our local District 5 Representative Town Meeting were in play. Plus, many more. We count on all of these critical town elected officials to preserve and protect the quality of life in the Greens Farms area.

Save These Trees!!

Not one, not two, but ALL these trees lining the Post Road in front of Stop and Shop are headed for the chipper. Surprised? So was the Board of Directors of the Greens Farms Association after listening to Dick Stein a member of the Tree Board present at our September monthly meeting. He shared large scale aerial drawings of the Connecticut Department of Transportation safety improvements for the Post Road, but the shocker was his commentary and insight exposing the details of tree removal not covered by state officials. Dick shared that the proposed safety improvements and addition of a sidewalk require taking away some of the grass strip and relocation the utility poles closer to the Stop and Shop parking lot. The utility poles would then be too close to the trees so they would have to be removed.

There are 12 Sycamores and 1 Elm tree that would be affected.  Looking more closely at the State presentation, 12 trees would be cut down and the one remaining on the west end of the parking lot might be saved.  Dick believed that these trees were planted as part of the “Greening of the Post Road” which began in 1972, making the trees approximately fifty years old. The trees are 70 to 90 feet tall.  There could also be tree loss across the street on the Bulkley Avenue portion of the project.

Aside from the obvious environmental advantages, these trees also provide an aesthetic benefit of scale, softening of the area, and noise reduction. Our October board meeting, thanks to RTM District 5 member Karen Kramer was heavily attended by state and local town officials to hear out our concerns. We hope that this level of concern and involvement will result in a revised plan that protects these trees and still enhances safety along this stretch of the Post Road.