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12/14/2016 06:00 AMI attended the public hearing in Guilford on Nov. 1 on the Shoreline Greenway Trail (SGT) application to begin construction of the first segment of its continuous 26-mile bike road between Madison and New Haven.
At the hearing, it was my privilege to read a letter from Mr. Daniel Mackay, the executive director of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, who was prevented from attending the hearing in person, but sent a letter to be included in the testimony presented to the Board of Selectmen.
Mr. Mackay’s letter repeatedly stressed the need for proper planning when addressing SGT’s proposed bike road, and its potential impact on important historic structures and protected landscapes. If implemented, SGT’s bike road would traverse two National Register Historic districts, the historic Town Center District, and the Route 146 District, extending from the West River Bridge in Guilford to Flat Rock Road in Branford.
Yet remarkably, nothing, to date, in SGT’s planning efforts reflects any awareness of these impacts, nor of the legal requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which requires consideration of historic preservation and National Register-listed or eligible resources in projects involving federal funding or permitting.
The fact that SGT has not planned for compliance with applicable federal laws and regulations governing historic preservation, after 16 years pursuing its dream, clearly demonstrates that the necessary planning for any such bike road, directly affecting Guilford’s historic architecture and neighborhoods, needs to be taken out of the hands of amateurs and conducted by recognized experts in the planning field.
SGT has a dream, not a plan. Guilford has irreplaceable historic structures and districts, for which this proposed bike road would be a nightmare. We deserve much better for our remarkable historic legacy than what SGT is proposing.
Emilie Waters Harris
Guilford