Yale Farm Golf Club debate comes to an end

So, the debate is over on the Yale Farm property proposal, since its developers have issued a Notice of Withdrawal (see The Lakeville Journal’s story by Karen Bartomioli in the April 30 issue). Surely the better part of seven years is long enough to argue over whether or not a golf course should be built. Developers Roland Betts and David Tewksbury, who were the primary investors, cited the worldwide economic crisis as the reason for their pulling back on The Yale Farm Golf Course, which would have straddled Norfolk (also known as “The Icebox of Connecticut,� seemingly not the friendliest place for a golf course) and North Canaan.

However, seven years of discussion saps not only time and money, but energy. Whatever vision these men had in the beginning for the Mead property on Canaan Mountain had to have diminished over that time by the sheer effort of trying to find common ground to bring together environmentalists, townspeople, area town officials and, finally, the state’s attorney general, to agree upon a design for the golf course (and eventual residences) that all could find acceptable.

Of course, environmental groups, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, state Rep. Roberta Willis (D-64) and many neighbors to the Mead property found any golf course to be unacceptable. Too much water would have been used to keep the course green and as stated by Blumenthal in a release following the withdrawal of the proposal, “The Yale Farm project would imperil wildlife and water quality, impacting present and future generations.� But the Mead brothers have stated that they want (and need) to do something with the land, other than place it into a land trust, so this very likely will not be the end of some kind of development on the property.

While there will be no golf course at Yale Farm, it is very likely there will be something built there, something different from what has been there in the past. Will it be as difficult to find support for other uses for the land as it was to find support for the separate proposals of the golf course and housing by Betts and Tewksbury? Could it be the next alternative will be even less palatable to those affected by or just interested in what happens on the property?

            u    u    u

What sort of development would be acceptable, not just on the Mead property in North Canaan and Norfolk, but anywhere in the Northwest Corner? It has come to the point where any development engenders opposition, strong opposition that tends to draw out the approval process interminably for new, especially commercial, building in the region. In Sharon, Robert DePretis found the town and its residents to be unwelcoming to his idea of building 55-and-older housing on the property he inherited from his parents. His parents, by the way, ran a multiple-unit home for older persons: Does anyone believe they could find approval for that use on that property now? Yet their small business was a necessary and well-used one, giving support to those in the community who needed it as they aged.

Our town planners need to find a way to accept some development of new business and industry in this region, creating more job opportunities for people of all ages. Otherwise, the towns of the Northwest Corner will find themselves without the social and economic critical mass they need to make up and maintain vibrant communities.