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08/08/2018 08:00 AMA common enemy unites a town and puts its many differences in perspective. Shoreline Rail & Recycling (SRR), a New Jersey company, and Thomas Cronan, its Guilford-based attorney, are serving this function for Clinton.
SRR’s proposal to locate an 18,000-plus cubic yard recycling and reduction facility in proximity to very sensitive wetlands and watershed to the town harbor, beach, and shellfish beds was on course for denial by the Clinton Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC). Hundreds of residents attended multiple public hearings in protest to this proposal. The IWC reached a consensus to deny, delaying the official vote to prepare a legally bulletproof resolution to deny. SRR wisely withdrew the application.
Such facilities were not defined as a permitted by Clinton zoning regulations. Under Zoning Regulation Section 26.3.1 “Uses not listed are prohibited.” But in an abundance of caution, Clinton’s Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) took the initiative to define this use and to prohibit it in all zones except the Industrial Park (IP) Zone as a special exception, which requires a public hearing.
Like all changes to zoning regulations, this proposed change by the PZC required a public hearing, which was held on July 30 in the Town Hall Auditorium. It was packed with concerned citizens, all of whom who spoke, spoke passionately in support of this new regulation.
The only opposition voiced came from SRR’s hired gun, Tom Cronan, who attempted to publicly depose the PZC and to bury them in minutia.
The PZC has great latitude in forming such regulations and did not succumb to these antics, voting unanimously to approve the new regulation.
We do not inherit the environment from our parents. We borrow it from our children.
Thanks to the PZC and the IWC, Clinton united in preserving its environment for future generations.
Kirk Carr
Clinton