By Hayleigh Gowans
Staff Writer
A proposal to bring a wetlands mitigation banking program to DeWitt has been introduced — and residents got a chance to learn more about it at a public meeting held March 20.
Dan Spethmann, managing partner of Working Lands Investments Partners, presented the Central New York Wetlands Mitigation Banking program, a plan to convert 90 acres of land in the town of DeWitt between Kirkville Road and Fremont Road to a restored wetland mitigation bank to encourage industrial growth in the area.
“This type of investment in the environment has been precluded in New York so far,” said Spethmann.
Typically, any applications for developments that will impact current wetlands must take mitigation actions to counter adverse effects of the project, said Working Lands Investment Partners contractor Charlotte Brett, and applicants are currently limited in the paths they can take to do that in Central New York.
Spethmann said Working Lands would restore the wetland and allow projects that will impact portions of existing wetland to purchase units from the restored wetland to ensure there is not a large net-loss of wetlands in the area. Wetland mitigation banking is another alternative to lessening the impacts of development on wetlands, said Spechmann, and the proposed area would work well because it is a degraded wetland and would encourage industrial growth in DeWitt by providing a simpler way for applicants to make up for any wetlands they may impact. The restoration of the wetland would also include eliminating invasive species from the land.
Working Lands is in partnership with the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board (CNY RPDB) and Applied Ecological Services to move forward with the project.
The wetland mitigation banking program works on a unit system, and Spethmann said from a preliminary study, this area would provide about 50 units. The proposed area of land is also where the proposed inland port by 3Gi CNYIP is located, but Spethmann said there has been no movement forward with that project.
Spethmann said the group is in the early stages, and is still waiting on a prospectus of the study to be complete. More public meetings will be held in the near future, and a public hearing will eventually be held if the project moves forward, and more information will be posted on the CNY RPDB website.
“We really want this to be done with the input from the community,” said Spethmann.
