The Stonington Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission votes Sept. 1, 7 p.m. at the Stonington Police Station.

Unless the Stonington Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission denies a developer’s application when it votes on Sept. 1, there will be a 4,300-square-foot house on a six-foot high infill mound in Old Mystic (Application IWC #22-06).

The glaring problem here is that the property in question, at 16 Smith St. in Old Mystic, sits at the edge of Haley’s Marsh.

The existing wetlands buffer protects Old Mystic neighbors from flooding. Documented rare native plant, frog, and salamander species live there.

The commission must weigh the words of the developer’s hired landscape professional against letters written by landscape ecologist Maggie Jones and scientist Pieter Visscher, as well as testimony given by neighbors.

The developer’s attorney sought to discredit opponents as not having “expert” status. Yet seasonal ponds have long been observed at the contested location. A 1930 painting by George Victor Grinnell called November documents ponding at the bottom of Quoketaug Hill at this very site in Old Mystic. (Visit Lyman Allyn Museum’s evocative exhibit Picturing Mystic, which ends Sept. 3.)

Show up for the wetlands complex that protects Old Mystic!

Janis Mink

Pawcatuck