Rocky Top property in Hamden preserved permanently

HAMDEN — The hilly terrain between Sherman and Shepard avenues known as Rocky Top was threatened with development last year, but residents who love the area fought hard to save it.

After months of the neighborhood making noise and voicing opposition, the developer listened, deciding to donate the property as a hold of the Hamden Land Conservation Trust, which will permanently protect the 18-acre wooded area as open space.

“After a long, deliberate analysis and review of the project, hearing all of the community concerns and issues with the development, I made the tough decision to donate the property to the Hamden Land Conservation Trust,” Mountain View Estates LLC developer Gary Richetelli said. “It was a very controversial application process for the past year, involving a tremendous amount of time and energy and was ultimately difficult to abandon the Mountain View Estate project. ... But it seemed like the best solution for all parties concerned.”

HLCT President Jim Sirch said, “The community really decided they wanted to protect the property and that was key. We’re grateful and honored to protect this property for the community.”

Early in 2017, Richetelli applied to build 288 luxury apartments on the site, which would’ve involved removing hundreds of thousands of yards of rock and earth, essentially taking off the tip of the mountain that sits next to Quinnipiac University’s York Hill campus.

However, residents who live in the neighborhood strongly opposed the application from its inception, crowding the public hearing at the Inland and Wetlands Commission meeting to demonstrate their opposition.

Tim and Roberta Mack moved to the neighborhood 24 years ago, falling in love with the woods and nature surrounding their new home.

“I felt a special connection to it the first moment I saw it,” Tim Mack said. “Our children grew up playing in these woods and to have that gone was a devastating thought that compelled us to fight it and that’s what we did for 10years.”

The property has seen three applications for development since 2008. From the start, the community banded together to oppose each one, Mack said, and when the most recent application came along, the community was even stronger and more organized, raising awareness through social media and donations to hire a legal team.

At the first neighborhood meeting in January to fight the development, Tim Mack said it would be an uphill battle because the developer had comprehensive plans for the site while “we had nothing,” he said, calling it a David versus Goliath scenario.

After involving the HLCT and Connecticut Forest and Park Association and long negotiations, the developer eventually pulled the plug on the operation, agreeing to donate the 18 acres instead of developing it.

“We’re very grateful he decided to do that,” Sirch said.

Rocky Top could be categorized as a traprock ridge, which means the land has a cliff and rocky area near the ridge good for certain species, Roberta Mack said.

The land is also unique because the geology consists of volcanic rock, which creates nutrient-rich soils that can have diverse flora and unique organisms that live in them, Sirch said. The step-like appearance of the weathered rock faces distinguish these landscape features, many of which, such as East Rock and the southern end of Saltonstall Ridge in East Haven, are easily viewed from some state highways.

“We were ecstatic it was a storybook ending from this nightmarish plan to take down half the mountain and devastate and level 18 acres,” Tim Mack said.

In preserving the land, it’s also protecting the watershed from soil erosion and the origins of the Connecticut Blue Trail system, which was established by a man who lived on the property and gave Rocky Top its name, Sirch said.

“It has historical significance and benefit to anyone wanting to hike trail system and beautiful view,” he said.

Lindsay Suhr, Forest and Park Association land conservation director, assisted in enabling the HLCT to become the permanent steward of the property. She said many things make Rocky Top special, including its value for conservation of endangered or threatened wildlife.

“The oak-dominated forest provides an important food source for a wide array of wildlife. And there is an abundance of open space to the northeast and west that are connected to this site by the Quinnipiac Trail, which is important as a local wildlife corridor and for recreation,” Suhr said.

“Connecticut is losing forest every year and this would be another loss of wooded area,” Tim Mack said. “You can’t just have house on house where people can’t breathe. ... You want to have those land preserves that are untouched where you can go in and enjoy nature.”

The HLCT still seeks support to pay for one year of back taxes on the property and costs associated with maintaining it. They are also asking for donations to help underwrite the cost of legal fees associated with the transfer. As the result of an anonymous donor, any gift made to the HLCT toward the Rocky Top conservation effort will continue to be matched dollar for dollar up to$10,000 collected.

“If we didn’t have the outpouring of support, it would’ve failed,” Tim Mack said. “We needed a whole community behind us because the whole community would’ve been affected and we’re proud to be part of the Rocky Top neighborhood.”