Last night, UConn held a public scoping meeting for a newly proposed seven-acre golf practice facility in Storrs. Members of the University’s Planning, Design and Construction Department, as well as GZA GeoEnvironmental, an environmental and construction management firm, hoped to dispel resident concerns surrounding the facility.
“I think we’d be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge that there’s been a lot of commentary already received to date, commentary that we’ve seen online and in the media,” said Sean Vasington, Executive Director of UConn’s Planning, Design & Construction department.
The public comment portion of the meeting gave a space for residents, researchers, and several UConn affiliates to share concerns surrounding the site’s status as a watershed and long-term home to UConn’s Conifer Collection, a patch of unique evergreen cultivars first started by the late Sidney Waxman. Waxman was a former UConn professor and was well-known in the horticultural community, especially for his work in cultivating 40 unique tree cultivars. Stephen Lecco, an environmental planner at GZA, said the collection has not been maintained since 2015, having since been overgrown and encroached upon by invasive species.
“Those collections represent the over 40-year career of Sid Waxman at the University of Connecticut, and to lose such valuable collections for something as, no offense, but silly as a driving range that is not going to better research at all, would be an abhorrent use of land grant money and land grant space and resources,” said Robert Eselby, a recent UConn grad pursuing his Master’s in plant breeding and molecular genetics at the University of Minnesota. “It could provide another source of income for the university if we decided to do further development of those conifers in the future, which is more than you can say for the golf program, which is a hole of which to pour money into.”
The seven acre facility would be built on a 22-acre parcel of land off of East Road in Storrs.
The proposal calls for the construction of a 6,000-square-foot building containing a locker room, team room, indoor putting and simulation areas, as well as office, equipment storage and repair spaces. Additionally, the site would contain a small parking area, an outdoor driving range, and outdoor chipping and putting areas. UConn’s scoping notice states the site’s construction would require “site clearing, earthwork, utilities and other site activities.”
The school’s 9-person golf team currently practices at an indoor simulator room on campus, and periodically travels over 30 miles to other facilities across the state to “meet its needs and schedules.”
“Having a dedicated indoor and outdoor practice facility would centralize activities and reduce travel time for student-athletes, while increasing levels of competition and recruitment,” reads UConn’s notice for the proposal.
Annie Perkins, who lives on Storrs Road, was one of several area residents who shared concerns surrounding the environmental impact of the development.
“We have taken our German exchange students and guests from the west coast through the conifer forest as a place of reflection and education for our children, and I just feel like it’s a treasure that we should maintain,” said Perkins.
Perkins, as well as another Storrs Road resident, Kirk Fletcher, also cited watershed maintenance as a concern for the development. Another nearby resident, Archna Khattar, shared concerns surrounding the potential use of pesticides, saying she “has a right to have clean water from my well.” Lecco noted that while the area is “within a public water supply watershed for the Windham Waterworks [a water utility company],” it is “not within an aquifer protection area.”
“Storrs Road does not have access to public water, we have well water,” said Fletcher. “I know you guys also said that the well system can’t get contaminated through any pesticides. I don’t see how you can guarantee that, it just sounds like more of an opinion.”
Fletcher also said the area is home to several endangered animal species, such as bobcats. Lecco said that GZA’s initial review of the area did not reveal the presence of any endangered species, but did find evidence of deer and coyotes.
The natural value of the parcel, as well as the legacy of Waxman’s conifer collection, was of considerable concern to several area residents. Khattar, who said she is trying her hand at organic gardening, said the development may destroy the habitat of natural pollinators. Olivia Delello, a Coventry resident and “member of the UConn community with an appreciation for plants,” asked if there were any other locations that could be suitable for the development.
“The Waxman collection is a beautiful piece of land with some really stunning specimens, and it kind of represents the life’s work of a pretty famous horticulturalist,” said Delello. “I just feel that, using that property for a golf course means that we lose that, as any kind of nursery anytime in the future, and we lose those specimens that are still there.”
Jennifer Burke, a senior project manager for GZA, said a location at 862 Storrs Road was initially considered, but ruled out, given the site’s current use in growing livestock feed for UConn. Burke said locating the golf facility there would necessitate the school to either find a new location to grow feed or require the school to “pay an annual rate to bring in feed products.” UConn’s Depot Campus and Spring Manor Farm were also considered for the project, but Burke said the Depot Campus would require significantly more work to overhaul, while Spring Manor Farm is located in a level eight aquifer protection area and has endangered species on site. Additionally, both sites are also located in a historic district.
Delello said she “understands” that the team needs a place to practice and said that “if we absolutely must destroy what’s over at the Waxman Collection,” that effort should be taken into ensuring that the remains of Waxman’s conifer cultivars be properly inventoried and preserved at places such as the New York Botanical Garden or Bartlett Arboretum, which currently maintain many of Waxman’s conifer cultivars.
Several current or former UConn staff and students also shared concerns. In addition to Eselby, Michelle McDonald, a PhD candidate in plant science who’s studying plant breeding and genetics at UConn, Pamela Diggle, a researcher at UConn’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, all spoke to the significance of preserving Waxman’s work.
McDonald said that while the majority of the collection’s cultivars may have been considered “rejects,” it is important they maintain them for the sake of preserving genetic diversity, a view shared by Eselby.
“From a plant breeding standpoint, just because something did not make it to a cultivar release, we don’t know what the potential genetic importance is of that,” said McDonald. “So given the mission of UConn as a land grant university, I think it’s important that we maintain a collection of those genetics on site where future ornamental breeding programs will still have access to them.”
Diggle said that the cultivars may hold research value in the fields of plant genetics and evolution. Eselby pushed back against the notion that the area has been “completely abandoned,” saying it’s mowed once a year by UConn’s Research Farm staff. Eselby argued that the site is an important home for area wildlife, still contains several novel conifer cultivars, and could benefit from renewed resources and attention rather than destruction.
Not all UConn affiliates spoke in defense of Waxman’s Collection, however. Steve Olson, a retired UConn staff member and friend of Waxman, spoke in favor of the proposal. Olson said he worked with Waxman from 1988 until his death in 2005, and said that even he would agree that the site lacks scientific value.
“No one knows the facility better than me,” said Olson. “Those trees were 40 years old plus, when I started in ‘88, almost nothing is named. The back half Sid planted out in ‘93 when he retired — Yes, they are rejects, because they were not significantly important to Sid.”
Olson said that there are “very few named species there of importance,” but also said they are not at risk of permanent loss if the proposal is accepted.
“UConn planted out 25 plus of his important named plants on campus for a walking tour,” said Olson. “They are available in the commercial industry, and they still are. Unfortunately, this is not a treasure for UConn. It’s Sid’s nursery that, when he passed in 2014 [sic], we moved on and planted on campus.”
The proposal is currently in the public scoping period of Connecticut’s Environmental Policy Act, meaning members of the public can submit comments until 5 p.m. on January 16. All comments can be submitted to Ian Dann, the proposal’s project manager, at ian.dann@uconn.edu.
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