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“You’re going to be sitting in your boat burning gas,” said Clem Bellairs, owner of Stamford Boats. The channel cannot handle the extra traffic that would come with a boatyard there. “If this thing does go through, it’s corruption at its best.”
Wednesday’s public hearing was with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection regarding Waterfront Magee LLC’s plan to open up Stamford Boat Works, and the redredging and construction needed to turn the 3.5 acres of land into a boatyard.
The channel is not wide enough to have the boatyard with the current barges and tug boats going through to other businesses, said Kevin Dailey, a yacht broker. It would not take much of an accident to put people in harm’s way, he said.
“You wouldn’t put a bus stop for children on the outside of a curb, why would you put a boatyard there?” Dailey said.
“This whole thing is a joke, an absolute joke,” Charles Weiner said. The proposed site is not safe for boating, he said, and it should be put on the site of Brewer’s Yacht Haven, which Building and Land Technology closed in November 2011 for remediation.
Building and Land Technology announced a plan to open a boatyard in Shippan when Bridgewater Associates announced its plan to move to Stamford last August. The hedge fund company plans to build a $750 million campus by 2017 at the former site of Brewer’s Yacht Haven, with the approval of the city.
The public comment period will end on Feb. 13. People may submit comments to Ken Collette with the state by e-mail or phone at 860-424-3043. The hearing will continue Feb. 20 at the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s offices in Hartford.
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