Stonington — A Milford man and part-time Lord’s Point resident, whose commercial proposal to raise shellfish in Quiambaug Cove was met with widespread neighbor opposition last year, now is seeking approval for a revised plan from local, state and federal agencies.

Dana Lewis, under the name Stonington Aquafarms LLC, is seeking a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to raise oysters to maturity in stacked cages just outside of Stonington Harbor. The 7.7-acre state shellfish lease area he proposes to use is located about 1,700 feet southeast of Wamphassuc Point and 100 feet south of the harbor breakwater.

Lewis said Wednesday that the two-phase Army Corps plan would replace the second part of his original proposal to transplant the juvenile oysters he raised from seed in Quiambaug Cove and grow them to maturity in cages off Enders Island.

He said he submitted a new application to the Stonington Shellfish Commission last month to seed a section of Quiambaug Cove. He then would harvest the juvenile oysters and place them in the cages outside the harbor. He said he expects the commission to accept the application when it meets on July 5. The Commission then likely will set a date for a public hearing on the plan.

The Army Corps application states the first phase of the harbor/Wamphassuc Point project involves the installation of 70 double-stack bottom cages approximately 4 feet long, 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall. They would be attached to horizontal ground lines set in a north-south configuration. The 10 cages per line would be used to rear oysters in a 1.66-acre area of the lease site.

The gear would be in water depths ranging from 18 feet to 21 feet and will be surrounded by four navigational aid hazard markers.

Phase 2 calls for up to 400 bottom cages affixed to ground lines. It states the full project will maintain a minimum 25-foot buffer from the submerged aquatic vegetation/eelgrass bed to the west and a 100-foot buffer from the southern side of the Stonington Harbor breakwater.

The Army Corps said the project would impact approximately 6 acres of Essential Fish Habitat that consists of gravel and sand. The Corps, though, has made a preliminary determination that the adverse effect will not be substantial. The Corps said it further will consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service about conservation recommendations and that work will be completed before the final permit decision.

The public notice and specifics about the proposal are available at bit.ly/SNoysterplan. Additional information is available from Permit Project Manager Cori Rose at (978) 318-8306, toll free at (800) 343-4789 or (800) 362-4367 (if calling from within Massachusetts), or by email to cori.m.rose@usace.army.mil.

Public comments on this proposal by Stonington Aquafarms LLC (file number NAE-2018-00503) should be forwarded no later than July 19 to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, Regulatory Division (ATTN: Cori Rose), 696 Virginia Road, Concord, MA 01742-2751.

Last year, Quiambaug Cove residents packed several meetings of the Shellfish Commission to oppose Lewis’ plan to grow and harvest juvenile oysters in a small section of the cove.

Lewis wanted to seed 300,000 to 400,000 eastern oysters on the bottom of a 1.7-acre portion of the southwestern section of the cove and then dredge them up by hand when they grew to about 50 millimeters in size. No gear would have been placed in the water. He said nothing would be visible except for him at certain times of the year wading in the water with a 24-foot skiff nearby.

The oysters then would have been placed off Enders Island to grow to maturity. The Enders Island work was not part of his application. Lewis also modified his original plan so the oysters would not be in the unmarked channel and instead sit along a sandbar.

Cove residents said that allowing commercial activity in the cove for the first time in more than a century would lead to more commercial operations, decrease their property values and damage the ecology of the cove along with its scallop and eelgrass populations.

They also said the project would infringe on a small, unmarked channel they use for boating and were concerned about possible industrial contamination in the cove being released by Lewis dredging up oysters with a rake.

In November, the Shellfish Commission voted not to accept the application. Members said they would instead like him to submit a complete application that outlined not only his plan for the cove but also his plan to grow oysters to maturity off Enders Island.

j.wojtas@theday.com