Treecutting violation, large White Oaks on Cranberry Hill Subdivision

The media clips MVI2731-32 show Shelton Officials putting up stop work order signs. My wife and I were told to leave the property by the owners and with vehicle traffic at the entrance and resulting confusion, these media clips are not the best quality but all we could get.




A large number of major trees were professionally cut down and removed from the Cranberry Hills property on a long flatbed, assisted with other heavy equipment on/about the last two days of April. This was a well planned and well orchestrated job. In the logging industry, it is called CREAMING. A number of these trees were White Oaks, the largest being 41 inches in diameter. A portion of these trees were marked on approved Planning and Zoning Commission drawings as not to be removed because they were in the Open Space property (soon to be deeded to the city) and also on land designated as Wetlands. Both the owner and the developer claimed ignorance as to who stole the trees. In paraphrasing, the Developer apparently told City officials that he would file a complaint but he did not want anyone arrested. Since there was NO performance bond in place, fines will be forthcoming against the owners as soon as an accurate assessment can be made of the damage. The city had planned to use a previously designed system to determine fines to be paid to the city but an activist group who were instrumental as interveners in determining the agreed upon housing density for this property are requesting that trees illegally cut should be replaced with trees as large as possible plus further enhancements until fines are exhausted. The DEP has also become involved in reviewing this activity because of a high number of such incidents in the recent past.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Clear Cutting
• zoning violations