Tyson Odermann, Contributing Photographer

The City Planning Commission approved Tweed New Haven Airport’s request to extend their Flood Damage Prevention ordinance variance of their temporary buildings Wednesday night after a contentious public hearing, where 14 members of the public voiced their thoughts on Tweed and the temporary facilities.

The CPC approved a request made by Avports, the company that manages Tweed, to extend the airport’s flood damage prevention ordinance variance. The variance grants permission to Tweed to continue operating on temporary facilities that currently sit below the base flood elevation. 

A flood damage variance request from Tweed had previously been approved by the CPC in 2021. Avports’s request to extend the temporary variance comes as a result of their current variance’s expiration approaching in November. 

“I’d like this board to consider this extension a bridge to New Haven’s future,” Tony Lorenti, a commercial pilot from Meriden, Conn., said. “It is a necessity. The airport is a public resource, not just for our community, but for the region.” Lorenti was the only member of the public to testify in support of the extension.

The request comes amid increased tensions between Tweed and the public surrounding recent plans for expansion. 

Originally planned to be open only to the CPC, the hearing was made public after 30 members of the community submitted letters requesting that the hearing be made open.

The hearing began with a consideration of two members of the public — Lorena Venegas and Patrick Rowland — requesting “intervener status,” which would have allowed them to present evidence to the CPC and directly question Avports representatives. 

Both requests were denied unanimously, though later on the two had the opportunity to speak as members of the public — who were each restricted to three minutes of testimony.

As the public hearing began, members of the community brought up concerns about the contents of Tweed’s temporary trailers, given that they reside in a floodplain and could be released into the water system in the event of a flood. 

Dr. Dana Walker, a resident of East Haven who fishes in the creek near Tweed, was one of the first members of the public to speak on the variance.

“We need to know what’s in those trailers by detail,” he said. “We need to know those chemicals, because we have tested the water for [other chemicals], and we have seen a change, and now we need to know what’s in those trailers.”

Joining other members of the New Haven public were representatives of the town of East Haven. Part of Tweed occupies East Haven land, while the other part resides in New Haven’s Morris Cove neighborhood.

Steven Trinkauss, a civil engineer representing East Haven, testified with his concerns about the safety of the below-floodline construction.

“My primary concerns are building anything below the base flood elevation is simply a bad idea, temporary or not,” he said. “It puts things at substantial risk.”

Christopher Rousseau, a lawyer representing the town of East Haven, questioned the confusing timeline of the variance application process, which contained multiple variations of the application. 

Members of the public brought up other topics concerning the variance application as well as Tweed’s overall expansion plans. Concerns included general complaints about Tweed and its plans to expand, confusion about the timeline of the ordinance, and uncertainty around the number of temporary trailers being stored at Tweed.

After two rounds of public testimony, Commission Vice Chair Ernest Pagan closed the public hearing and Alder Adam Marchand began to question the Avports representatives, including confusion surrounding the basis of the necessity for the ordinance. 

Responding to confusion about the type of hardship demonstrated by the application, Avports attorney Joe Williams stated that it was not economically impossible but physically impossible to put the trailers anywhere else.

“We made that argument, and the commission accepted and approved it three years ago,” he said. “So the question is whether there’s a change in something before you to justify denying it now. And I think the answer is clearly no.” 

According to the New Haven Municipal Code, an applicant for the FDP Variance must demonstrate that following the city’s usual floodplain ordinances would cause them “unnecessary hardship” in construction. 

Alder Marchand worried continued extensions would allow Avports to stall on building permanent structures in a safer area. 

“I feel some concern about the possibility that we’ll be facing this same situation three years from now, and I think a preferred outcome is the airport moving to a more permanent and better facility,” he said. “I’m leaning towards voting yes on this, but I’m not excited about voting yes again three years from now.” 

New Haven resident Patrick Rowland added that Avports has not provided an emergency plan, which is alarming. 

Others have pointed out discrepancies in the application, including failure to update base flood elevation and acquire proper permits for additional trailers. 

“This project has not moved as quickly as the applicant,” Morris Cove resident Gabriela Campos said. “Who knows, maybe three years from now, we could be looking at another request to extend the variance. And then, to me, that does bring into question that we’re not really talking about a temporary structure anymore … I want the applicant to say a little bit more about the issue of time frame.”

After consideration between Vice Chair Ernest Pagan and Deputy Corporation Counsel Rod Williams, the vote went forward with no prohibition of a future application, but with conditions for approval that included anchorage of the trailers to prevent them from becoming unhinged during floods. All three present members of the board, which included Pagan, Marchand and Joy A. Gary, voted to approve the extension. 

Commissioners also discussed renewing a special permit and coastal site plan review for Sims Metal. The facility has been operating for the past year without a permit due to a delayed application because of COVID-19. This application was unanimously approved. 

“I don’t see a diminishment of that an important waterway and the coastal resources that are implicated in this application,” commissioner Adam Marchand said. “So I’m comfortable with the staff reports findings on the coastal, and I’m also comfortable granting the special permit.”

The regular City Plan Commission meeting will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 16, on Zoom.