SWSA withdraws snow pond application pending restructured plans

SALISBURY — Salisbury Winter Sports Association (SWSA) has withdrawn without prejudice its application to Salisbury’s Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission to build a snowmaking pond beneath the ski jumps.

SWSA President Ken Barker said in a follow up interview that the decision to temporarily withdraw was meant to give the organization time to restructure their plans in response to new information from the commission and letters from the public.

“We’ll be back once we’ve sorted through all the new info,” Barker said.

Salisbury Planning and Zoning Chairman Michael Klemens authored one such letter, which was added to the public record on Nov. 18. Klemens, who is a conservation biologist, recused himself from reviewing or commenting on the SWSA application if it were to come before P&Z, which it would if excavation were to occur. “My comments are as a private citizen with expertise in the matter before you,” he stated in the letter.

Klemens’ letter, which is accessible on the commission’s webpage, focused primarily on the ecological impacts of the project, as well as the example it might set for future wetland conservation in town. Klemens asserted that the wetlands commission, like P&Z, regulates “the use not the user,” arguing that SWSA’s popularity should not influence the decision: “taken at face value, the applicant is requesting to significantly alter and destroy a complex forested wetland.”

“Precedent matters,” he said.

Representatives of SWSA have maintained that the project wouldn’t affect the entire range of the wetland, but would disturb 0.46 acres which is just over half of the total wetland. Project engineer Pat Hackett and environmental consultant Jay Fain have also stated that the project would include an emergent shallow-water shelf wetland, which they asserted would diversify the ecosystem.

Klemens’ letter insists that SWSA seriously consider alternative approaches that do not significantly alter the wetland. “In my professional opinion, there is a large reduction in wetland function by the proposed conversion, whether or not it has a perimeter planting shelf,” referring to the emergent wetland zone in the proposal. SWSA has described the prohibitive costs and logistics of alternative systems (such as a cistern) in prior meetings with the commission.

Despite their disagreement over method, Klemens and SWSA agree that more water for snowmaking is vital to SWSA’s functionality. “That SWSA needs to secure additional water is well established,” Klemens’ letter stated. Both Fain and Hackett have described the urgency of increasing the snowmaking system’s water supply as essential to SWSA’s continuation as winters warm and weather windows shrink.

SWSA President Barker was determined to keep momentum in the project as the group reassesses its plans in the wake of the public hearing and Klemens’ letter. “We’re going to keep moving along with this as soon as we can,” he said.