Six Lakes Park’s Future Sought

Trails for wheelchairs and strollers. A pavilion for events and education programs. Kayaking and fishing.

All these ideas and more emerged from a meeting at Thornton Wilder Hall at Miller Library in Hamden, held by Six Lakes Park Coalition, as the coalition invited the public to submit input on what a future state park in the middle of Hamden might look like, and how it might best serve the community around it.

That most recent meeting took place on Saturday. The next Six Lakes community meeting will be held on Thursday at 6 p.m., at Whitneyville Cultural Commons, 1253 Whitney Ave.

Six Lakes refers to a 102-acre plot of land, also known as the Olin Pine Swamp and the Powder Farm, bordered by Dixwell Avenue, Putnam Street, Treadwell Street, and Leeder Hill Drive in Hamden. For decades, the Olin Corporation, which owned the Winchester firearms manufacturer, used the site to test weapons and to burn and dump hazardous materials. In 1966 the site went dormant after an order from Hamden’s public health department. A 1986 consent order from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection requires Olin to remediate the site — an order that Olin is now complying with. It is currently conducting studies to determine the extent of the pollution on the site, and thus, to figure out how extensive a remediation effort will have to be.

In the meantime, the plot of land has been effectively reclaimed by nature; it’s a thriving ecosystem of dense forest and ponds, full of wildlife. The Six Lakes Parks Coalition — with the support of town and state officials — has thus been working toward having the land become a state park, open to the public as a swath of natural habitat amid an otherwise developed place.

The question at hand: how much remediation will be necessary to make that state park a reality. The land is currently zoned as open space, with one acre zoned for industrial/commercial use. As owner of the property, Olin could satisfy the requirements of the 1986 consent order by remediating it for industrial and commercial use. Residential use requires a higher standard of remediation; it also happens to be the standard that would be best suited for parkland and recreational use. The level of remediation thus depends in part on what plans are in place for the land after remediation occurs.

Hence Six Lakes, and its community meetings. This meeting attracted about 20 participants; according to Kathy Czepiel of Save the Sound, a previous meeting at Keefe Community Center in Hamden drew about the same number.

“We have gotten this far from three years ago,” said Elizabeth Hayes, a community activist who is also on the Democratic Town Committee in Hamden and on the town’s wetlands commission. ​“I think this is a great opportunity for Hamden.” Foreshadowing the event, she talked about the possibility of developing small businesses along the Six Lakes property where it connected to the Farmington Canal Trail, which in turn connected to points north and south. ​“We’re looking at it from an economic standpoint, too,” she said.

After remediation, Olin could sell the land to a private developer for housing or industry. But ​“our current goal is to see this be public recreational space,” said Justin Farmer, representing the Six Lakes Park Coalition — a place where ​“people can go and rest, and be in community, and enjoy nature.” Undeveloped land is now in very short supply so close to the coast in Connecticut. Six Lakes is ​“a gift that we should not throw away.”

Farmer has been helping shepherd the process since serving on Hamden’s town council; Saturday’s meeting was about addressing a fundamental question. Much of the preliminary work has been between Olin, DEEP, and various town and state entities. ​“How do we get it back into the community’s hands?” he asked. The timing was right to ask the question, as Olin was, after decades of inactivity, moving toward remediation.

“We want people to envision what could be on the property,” Farmer said, to give ​“the state and Olin a better opportunity to meet us where we want to go.”

“Think big. Think boldly,” he added. ​“Hopefully it does come about.”

Farmer then handed the meeting over to Elizabeth Torres, a community development advisor for Vita Nuova, a consulting firm specializing in rebuilding communities and redeveloping surplus industrial properties. Torres encouraged the participants to divide into four even groups, and to brainstorm with strangers. ​“If you’re at a table where you know everybody, move to a different table,” she said.

The groups quickly began discussing both their aspirations and their concerns about what Six Lakes might look like if it were a public park. Ideas began to go up on the boards, from murals and sculptures to bathrooms and boardwalks. They talked about trails and picnic spots, natural play spaces, public safety, wheelchair accessibility, the chance of cleaning up the ponds enough to go kayaking or fishing. They talked about how to create opportunities for local businesses without infringing on the natural beauty that was already there. They talked about sustainability, how to ensure that the park stayed in good shape over time at a reasonable cost.

With 10 minutes remaining for discussion, Torres encouraged them to focus. ​“If you could only recommend three or four different uses for the property, what would they be?” she said.

At the end of the discussion period, the four groups presented their results. Consensus among them emerged on a few key points. First was a desire to preserve the natural landscape that had come about from decades of nonuse; in short, they agreed with Farmer that a 100-acre parcel of essentially wild land in the middle of Hamden — a place that many people wouldn’t need a car to get to — was a gift that shouldn’t be squandered.

Many of the suggestions thus coalesced around the idea of having just enough infrastructure for people to be able to appreciate it fully, to ​“make it a place where people want to go — a destination,” Torres said. Parking was available in the lots on Dixwell Avenue and could perhaps be reserved by arrangement with their owners; a parking lot on site might also serve the double purpose of containing contaminants, ​“catching two fish with one net,” Farmer said. A few paved trails could make the park accessible to wheelchairs, strollers, and bicycles. A small pavilion could create a spot for events and education programs. Small businesses could provide a few amenities. Access and programming was key even to get people to know about the park’s existence. As Torres put it, ​“if people don’t know about it, no one’s going to come.”

The groups also agreed about the need for an ongoing organizing entity — such as what the state park system would allow, or a nonprofit — to keep the park in good shape once it was created. Torres agreed: ​“It’s one thing to build a beautiful place,” she said, and ​“another thing to keep it sustainable.” Public safety from pollution and crime was a prime concern, followed by concerns about picking up litter and maintaining the trails and facilities. Possibly a volunteer organization, akin to the Sleeping Giant Park Association, could be formed to do some of this work.

All of the suggestions, however, pointed to a common action, which was that the site would need to be remediated to the highest possible standard.

Farmer informed the group that there will be one more public meeting to gather community input, on July 18, at 6 p.m., at Whitneyville Cultural Commons, 1253 Whitney Ave. In addition, Six Lakes has set up an online survey for people to fill out if they could not attend one of the in-person sessions. At the end of the summer, all the comments from the in-person sessions and online survey will be compiled into a report to submit to the state. Six Lakes hopes to get 2,000 signatures to file to state legislators by October ​“because we are envisioning it as a state park,” he said.

The last words, however, belonged to Hayes. ​“This is a process,” she said of Six Lakes’s community engagement. ​“If you have any suggestions to make this better … we welcome your input, whatever it is.” Creating a park ​“can and should be a partnership” with the community; ​“it’s vital to getting this project where we want it to be.” By we, it was clear, Hayes meant not just the Six Lakes organization, but the greater New Haven community.

“Talk to your neighbors. Talk about Six Lakes,” Hayes said. ​“There’s an oasis that’s on the horizon.”

Sign up on Six Lakes’s website to register for the last public meeting on July 18. Follow this link to fill out Six Lakes’s online survey about your vision for the park. Follow this link to learn more about Six Lakes generally and to get involved.