The views stated here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors of this newspaper. We welcome supporting or opposing views on any published item. Received February 7, 2025.
How many times are we going to beat that poor horse? The garage has been there for over 90 years, sitting on contaminated soils that can never be cleaned. It’s on two major roads and centrally located. Some people think it should be moved to perfectly good land: strip it, blast it, pave it, put oil and diesel tanks, salt sheds, park trucks, store sand, catch basins, millings, trees.
Destroying a perfectly good piece of land to gain what? Then what do we do with the empty contaminated property that it was sitting on? It’s polluted! It can’t be cleaned. It has to be capped, so pave it and make it a parking lot?
Planning and Zoning should focus on being creative and design it to fit where it is as well as cost to the town. Side it, put the garage doors facing away from the street, landscape it and we wouldn’t know it was there. Planning and Zoning’s job should be how to make businesses fit within the town – not to pick and choose what they want where.
Dan Luisi, Haddam