Preston — Plans for a controversial RV campground at the junction of routes 2 and 164 will dominate the agendas for the Inland Wetlands and Planning and Zoning commissions in January.

The plan by Blue Camp CT LLC, the company created by Maryland-based Blue Water Development Corp. for this project, calls for a resort recreational campground on three parcels totaling about 65 acres of land owned by the Mashantucket Tribal Nation. The land fronts on Route 2, and abuts Avery Pond, where the developer proposes to build a “safari tent” camping area, a floating dock and an elevated boardwalk for golf cart access to the shore campsites.

Blue Water Development has entered into a lease agreement with the Mashantuckets for the property that now consists of open fields, wetlands, brush and forested areas. The property had once been farmed, and later was used for a sand and gravel operation. A residential house and other buildings were torn down years ago.

The 304-unit project, called Bluewater Recreational Campground Resort at Avery Pond, is made up of 104 drive-thru RV sites, each with 2,424 square feet of space; 169 back-in RV sites, each with 2,223 square feet; four compact RV sites with 1,819 square feet, and 27 safari tent sites with a minimum 1,500 square feet. The proposed campground would be seasonal, running from about April 1 through Oct. 31.

In addition to the campsites, the project would have a 5,000-square-foot welcome center, three 1,560-square-foot bath houses, a 1,640-square-foot pavilion, a 3,350-square-foot maintenance building, a 3,857-square-foot swimming pool, a 950-square-foot splash pad, an 1,800-square-foot volleyball court, a 5,033-square-foot playground, two 1,288-sqaure-foot bocce areas, two 7,000-square-foot tennis courts, a 118-foot-long floating dock in Avery Pond and a 12-foot-wide golf cart boardwalk to the safari tent area in the northwest portion of the site.

Parking areas and a private road network through the property also are proposed.

Members of the wetlands and planning commissions toured the property in December, accompanied by dozens of Preston residents. Documents, including the site plan, wetlands reports, maps, comments from outside agencies and some written comments from residents, are posted on the commissions’ pages on the town website, preston-ct.org.

The wetlands commission opened a public hearing on the project Dec. 21 that featured a two-hour presentation by project attorney Harry Heller of Montville. The commission will continue the hearing, with residents scheduled to speak, at its Tuesday, Jan. 18, meeting. The hearing portion will begin at 8 p.m. at Preston Plains Middle School.

If the wetlands commission cannot complete the hearing that night, it will need to request a 35-day public hearing time extension from the applicant, Town Planner Kathy Warzecha said. Once the hearing is concluded, the wetlands commission will have 65 days to review and vote on the application.

In addition to the work in the pond for the floating dock and along the lake shore, the wetlands commission must review plans for stormwater retention, erosion and sediment, and temporary disturbances to areas near the wetlands during construction.

The town’s professional wetlands consultant, Joseph R. Theroux, submitted a 17-page report on his review of the project’s wetlands impacts and made several recommendations for the commission.

Although residents have yet to speak at the wetlands hearing, several submitted written comments to the commission in opposition to the project.

Gary Piszczek, chairman of the town Conservation and Agricultural Commission, acknowledged that his commission has no regulatory authority over the project but called the proposed floating dock and elevated boardwalk “a long term adverse environmental impact to the Avery Pond ecosystem.” He also noted that ownership of the pond itself is in question.

“A key question of concern to the Conservation Commission is who actually owns Avery Pond, a cornerstone of the campground development according to the applicant,” Piszczek wrote in his comments. “The answers we received were no one knows, or no one at all. If no one owns Avery Pond, then our view is that everyone does and should.”

He continued that the concerns of the residents “should weigh heavily” on the wetlands commission as it reviews the potential impacts of the project.

Land for the proposed campground is mostly in the town’s Resort Commercial zone, with one part in a residential zone. In both zones, campgrounds are allowed through a special exception permit from the Planning and Zoning Commission, which requires a public hearing.

The PZC is scheduled to open its public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 25, at Preston Plains Middle School. Warzecha said the commission can open the hearing and start the review process before the wetlands commission completes its process.

The Blue Camp application to the planning commission called the project a “luxury level hospitality property” compatible with the Resort Commercial zone and said the project design would be a “low profile use” with landscaped buffers planned between the campground and neighboring properties.

The application pointed out that the town’s Route 2 Resort Commercial zone has been “primarily fallow” since its inception, and the project would be “a significant benefit,” attracting vacationers who would support other businesses in the town and surrounding communities.

c.bessette@theday.com