Old Lyme ― A local sand and gravel supplier, who for years has been excavating his Hatchetts Hill Road property using a now-expired permit to extend his driveway, has been issued a notice of violation by the town.

Timothy Suchocki, principal of Northland Group LLC and president of Suchocki & Son, had been allowed to conduct business outside the special permit process for gravel pits ― which provides detailed requirements and oversight ― because he said the construction of the driveway necessitates the removal of the material. But that permit expired in the summer of 2022.

The town’s GIS map shows the Three Mile River runs through a portion of the southern end of his property, with wetlands along some of the western border and a smaller area on the eastern side.

Zoning Enforcement Officer Eric Knapp on Thursday issued the notice as a follow up to an August letter directing Suchocki to stop blasting and crushing rock on the site until the businessman applies for and receives a new permit.

Knapp’s initial letter went out in August of 2023, about a year after the driveway permit expired.

“It has now been seven months since I first notified you that your permit has expired. I continue to hear nothing,” Knapp wrote. “I will be waiting no more than an additional thirty days and then will issue a cease and desist order.”

But Suchocki, reached by phone Friday, said he thought he was already under a cease and desist order based on Knapp’s August letter. He said there’s been no excavation activity on the site since then.

He said his engineer, Seamus Moran of Mystic, is working on the permit application.

Suchocki said his only violation is he has taken longer than expected to complete the project due to the excessive rain last year.

Knapp on Friday described his initial letter to Suchocki as “informational” rather than an official order. He described the intent as “I notice that your permit has expired. Please stop work until you obtain a new one.”

Knapp acknowledged he has not personally seen the site being excavated.

“At this point, what I can say is that there is still a great deal of heavy equipment on the site and it has not been restored, so it cannot be left in its present state,” he said. “At the very least, (Suchocki) has to come in and explain how he gets from where he is now to a buttoned-up site.”

Suchocki estimated he’s cleared about half of the 50,000 cubic yards of material he was approved to remove.

Gravel pit or driveway-in-progress?

In the 2021 permit application and Zoning Commission public hearing, Suchocki and his representatives pitched the excavation work as a way to make room for a loop driveway. The loop would make it easier for a fleet including 21 excavators as well as trucks and construction equipment to maneuver around the Suchocki & Son storage and office building.

The commission at the time rejected the advice of the town’s consulting engineer, Thomas E. Metcalf, in issuing the permit for the driveway extension. The engineer suggested a driveway could be created without excavating so much material and that the application should be treated as a gravel pit operation instead. But members in May of that year approved a permit giving him 15 months to haul away all processed material and to complete the driveway. T0he work could take place Monday through Friday during the day.

“[T]he project is, in my opinion and for practical purposes, an earth removal operation, i.e. a gravel pit,” Metcalf wrote at the time.

Knapp declined to opine whether he considered the operation a gravel pit or driveway in progress, adding he’d “let Mecalf’s letter speak for itself.” The ultimate determination will be up to the Zoning Commission to make once Suchocki submits a special permit application, he said.

Suchocki said he hopes to submit an application to extend the driveway permit in May or June.

A public hearing will be part of the application process.

Nearby resident Arlene Sherman said she sees activity on the site when she drives by.

“There’s all kind of digging. There’s excavators. There’s rock crusher type things,” she said.

She wondered how the situation was allowed to continue so long after the permit expired in 2022.

“I think the town feels like it can’t disturb a business,” she said.

The Zoning Commission in 2021 was assured by Suchocki’s attorney, Harry Heller, that testing of the Hatchetts Hill site indicated no subsurface groundwater in the project area. He said the wetlands enforcement officer at the time determined no wetlands permit was required. Heller agreed to get a licensed land surveyor to stake the clearing limits and emphasized erosion controls were part of the plan.

Knapp in his notice of violation said time is up.

“I simply do not understand why no one will at least communicate with me about the status of the site,” he wrote. “I have given you enough time to take action. I will not wait any longer.”

The complaint comes as officials also deal with unpermitted activity at a gravel pit at 308-1 Mile Creek Road, where the operation is allowed in the residential neighborhood because it was being used that way before zoning regulations were updated in 1988. But the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission Thursday night said the site needs an inland wetland permit in addition to the zoning permit.

“Old Lyme has the most beautiful wetlands and we just seem to wreak havoc with the place,” Sherman said.

e.regan@theday.com