A presentation on Low Impact Development (LID) will take place on Thursday, April 26, at 7:00 p.m. at the Tolland County Agricultural Center, 24 Hyde Avenue, Vernon.
The presentation will culminate a year long project to develop LID regulations and an LID design manual for the Town of Vernon. The work was done by the engineering firm Fuss & O’Neill.
A fourteen member Steering Committee, comprised of members of Vernon land use commissions, town planning & engineering staff, the development community, and interested citizens, worked with Fuss and O’Neill on developing the LID regulations. Eric Mas and Jim Reardon of Fuss & O’Neill will make the presentation.
LID is an innovative approach to stormwater management. It applies the basic principle modeled after nature: manage rainfall where it lands. LID’s goal is to mimic a site’s pre-development hydrology by using design techniques that infiltrate, filter, store, evaporate, and detain runoff close to its source.
The project was undertaken by a collaboration of local organizations and the Town of Vernon that came together in 2006 to understand existing conditions in the Tankerhoosen watershed, and to identify future protective measures. The collaborative group includes the Friends of the Hockanum River Linear Park, the North Central Conservation District, the Belding Wildlife Trust, and the Town of Vernon.
The project has been funded by a grant from National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, Long Island Sound Futures Fund. A key goal of the project is protection of the high water quality in the Tankerhoosen Watershed. This is the third grant that has been awarded to the collaborative group by the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation.
Materials from the study can be found on the Town of Vernon website at
http://www.vernon-ct.gov/planning-development Other information on LID can be found at http://tankerhoosen.info/resources/issue_lid.htm
Members of the Steering Committee are land use commissioners Charles Bardes, Vic Riscassi, Tom Ouellette, Ryan Goad, Mark Kalina and John Kopec (now a Town Council member); town land use staff Len Tundermann, Terry McCarthy, and Craig Perry; David Askew of the North Central Conservation District; Erik Peterson, of Gardner & Peterson Associates; Ann Letendre, Friends of the Hockanum River Linear Park; and Chip Bellows and Jon Roe, interested citizens.
The meeting is open to the public. All Vernon land use commissioners, Vernon Town Council members and other local officials are encouraged to attend.
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Contacts:
Tom Ouellette 860 872-6180 Ryan Goad 860 872-2059
Ann Letendre 860 875-4623 Len Tundermann, Town Planner 860 870-3640
