Dear Editor,

It’s disgraceful if the development of 305 Middlesex kills all the work our Town put into the 2008 Flood Mitigation Strategy. This strategy states: “… improvements are done working from the bottom of the watershed up, while detention projects are done working from the top of the watershed down.”  What’s detention? Like the sports fields on Renshaw Road – it’s an open space that fills during a storm then allows water to seep slowly into the ground. 

This Middlesex site is recognized as a high flood risk by the National Flood Insurance Program.  The builder’s legal team is proposing a flood wall to protect the new house and a drain in the street that will flow into Stony Brook.  They suggest that dead trees are blocking a nearby tributary and that clearing the waterway will cause water to bypass the property and take a more direct route through the drainage to Stony Brook.

The proposed work is all “upstream” and is contrary to the Flood Mitigation Strategy which states the bottom, or downstream areas must be addressed first.

The Town’s Strategy is clear that detention projects should be considered for the “top” of the watershed and recommends them for this area north of I-95. 305 Middlesex is about 1.4 acres. It’s rare to find property this size and this close to Stony Brook. We are supporting flooding residents by asking the EPC to recommend to the Board of Selectmen that they purchase this property for use as a flood detention area. We ask all citizens to support our Town by visiting our website to view videos of this site and to sign the petition to recommend 305 Middlesex for flood detention. www.savedarienswetlands.org

Vanessa Wood, president

Save Darien’s Wetlands