| Last year, a resident of
Chester (let's just call him "Mr. M—" because he doesn't
need any more aggravation) wanted to build a dock. So he hired an
engineering firm, who drew plans for a REALLY BIG dock, WAY
over a hundred feet long. |
| Mr M— duly submitted
the plans to the DEP, who told him, "Sure, go on ahead. Build
a dock from here to Haddam if you want to. Whatever, it's fine with
us." |
| So here sits Mr M—,
citizen, secure in the knowledge that he's done his duty and cleared
his plans with the DEP, so his dock won't be any kind of detriment
to the environment, right? |
| Wrong. |
| All of a sudden, there's
a hue and cry from every direction, people and kayakers from all walks
and paddles of life are raising hell in the press and all over about
how a hundred-plus foot dock is way, way too much. |
| Meetings of all sorts ensue.
Articles and letters are published in the papers. Lines are drawn,
coalitions are formed. |
| Feelings are hurt. Tempers
are frayed. Mr M— is al little honked off, and with damn good
reason.The DEP said his plans were just fine, didn't they? He had
no reason to think there was anything wrong with the original 100-plus
foot dock until people started yelling about it. |
| As it turned out, Mr M—
listened to the voice of reason instead of the DEP, and scaled back
his dock plans to a reasonable length and number of boat lifts. At
a final meeting in Chester, he presented those plans to the Wetlands
Commission for approval, though not before there was one last outburst
of entirely unnecessary, misguided, and really impolite acrimony
directed against the quondam "opponents" of his dock. |
| This didn't have to happen.
If the DEP had done its job right at the beginning, and told
Mr M— "Ah, sir, this dock is a little bit excessive,
here. You could get your boat into the water with half the
length, so that's all we're going to approve you for," there
would have been no reason for any of the hard feelings. Nobody
would have had a problem with this dock! |
| Although, something good
did come out of the whole mess. The fact that Mr M— submitted
his dock plans to the authority of the Wetland Commission in Chester
(thereby establishing a precedent) was a big victory in local control
over riverfront development. He didn't have to do this, but he did,
and river preservationists owe him thanks for doing it. |
| So I'll say it here. Thanks,
Mr M—. |
| And I'll let you in on a
little secret: Nobody was going to oppose your dock after you cut
the length in half and the Wetlands Commission approved it. But we
had to keep the pressure on in order to help get the Wetlands Commission's
authority established. You, of all people, understand how these things
work, yes? |
|
Too bad the DEP didn't do its job way back at the beginning and
save you (and all the rest of us) all the heartburn.
Thanks for nothing, DEP.
|
