When the Town of Darien tells flooding homeowners that the town doesn’t have money to cover building inspections and enforcement of wetlands regulations … you need to know that the Town collects $$$ from
builders to cover these costs. So where is the $$$ going? is this just another lame excuse?

Quote from a conditional building approval issued by the Darien EPC:
“Submit a $100.00 inspection fee payable to the Town of Darien to cover the cost of inspections during construction. Work may not begin until this fee is paid. Our office will have a number of brief, unannounced site inspections throughout your project, and those will generally occur on weekdays between the hours of 8:30 A.M.”

More Houses on Darien’s Stony Brook Flood Plain – Good Grief!

Darien, CT – Land for sale in Darien, CT. It’s zoned for residential building. It’s right at the end of Cherry Street. Cherry Street? Oh, you must remember Cherry Street from the floods in 2007. Feet deep in water, boats were used to navigate the street!

Was Darien’s Town government serious when they wrote the 2006 Town Plan? It extolls the need of “open space”, not just for aesthetics, but for permeable surface. It hems and haws around considering to buy property to maintain open space.  Just alot of hot air?

The Milone and McBroom study and recommendations are now done and they have a something to say about Cherry Street and Hecker Avenue. They recommend a floodwall (see map below).

On the above map from the Millone and McBroom report it shows a bright gold outline of the proposed flood wall. The flood plain is the blue line. The added green triangle is the land for sale. Will the people who purchase homes on this site be provided with a multiple page disclaimer to inform them of their risk of evasive water, washed out cars, and flood risks? As more permeable surface is covered will homeowners downstream be compensated for the added water coming their way? How can the Town of Darien possibly give someone a permit to build on the watery side of a proposed flood wall? Calling Brad Pitt… Yoo-hoo, Brad… Can Darien have the plans for your highrise New Orleans homes on stilts?

How about the Town buying this property? Sounds like a pretty good idea since Milone and McBrome recommends a floodwall for this area. The Town is really entrenched in the position they won’t do any work on private property. Wouldn’t be great if this were owned by the Town. The Town of Darien then could build the flood protection without the fear of stepping on private property? Guess they aren’t planning any flood mitigation for Cherry Street. Sorry, folks.

You may be thinking, “Oh, surely the Town won ‘t let anyone build right next to Stony Brook.” The Environmental Protection Commission has made it clear that people can build on their own land in Darien. So something’s going in on this site. Won’t it be fun to watch?! Maybe the builder will put in a rain garden.

Ready to Pump… Again…

Darien, CT – Rain predicted. The pump is set up on the Heights Road today.

It pumps the water “UP” to the Depot parking lot. See, Public Works Dept. employees are there waiting for the rain and are ready to turn on the pump.

The water will come out into the parking lot and the water goes to.. ????