Editor’s Note: We received this op-ed from Old Lyme resident Hiram E. Manville IV, who states he was, “Born and raised in Old Lyme (1972)” and is a, “Concerned parent, raising our two- and five-year-olds here in Old Lyme.”
The proposed Halls Road Overlay District (HROD) threatens to permanently alter Old Lyme, overwhelming our infrastructure, endangering the environment, and destroying the character of our town. This reckless plan prioritizes large-scale urbanization over the needs of our community. We must act now to stop it, or the following can happen to our town.
1. Uncontrolled Population Surge
The plan allows up to 40 residential units per acre, potentially bringing thousands of new residents. With 40 acres of developable land, this means up to 1,600 new housing units. This will lead to a major population surge, overwhelming our schools, emergency services, traffic infrastructure, and town resources.
“Maximum building height: 3 stories, up to 35 feet.”
2. Traffic Gridlock & Road Safety Hazards
Halls Road is a major traffic artery. The addition of on-street parking and increased commercial activity will cause severe congestion and safety hazards, making accidents and emergency response delays inevitable.
“Parking required for the customers and patrons of non-residential uses may be met through a combination of on-street, off-site, and on-site parking.”
3. Environmental & Sewage Catastrophe
Allowing off-site septic systems poses a severe risk to wetlands, drinking water, and local ecosystems. There is no clear infrastructure plan to handle the massive wastewater output this development will generate.
“Certification of compliance with sewage restrictions shall be provided upon request.”
This shows there is no clear plan for handling increased sewage waste, leaving room for future problems.
4. Massive Overdevelopment & Loss of Small-Town Charm
Buildings up to three stories, 200 feet long, and covering 75% of lot frontages will transform Old Lyme into a dense commercial district, destroying its historic charm and small-town character.
Where It’s Stated in the Proposal:
HROD Proposal – Page 3, Section 5.14.4.3 (Lot and Bulk Standards for Qualifying Projects)
“Maximum building height: 3 stories, with allowance for a pitched roof to a maximum height of 35′ at peak.”
“Buildings must occupy at least 75% of the lot’s Halls Road frontage, but no single building shall exceed 200’ in length or contain a footprint in excess of 20,000 square feet.”
This confirms massive building footprints, leading to a commercialized, city-like landscape.
5. Parking Garages & Commercial Sprawl
Three-story parking garages and massive commercial development will replace open space—replacing small-town charm with an urban-scale, city-like environment that caters to developers rather than residents.
“Parking garages may be permitted when they are part of a building or structure with an approved HROD use.”
“A standalone parking structure must be set back 120 feet from Halls Road and screened to minimize visual impact.”
This confirms the introduction of large parking structures, which contradicts the town’s historic character.
6. Developer Control & Limited Resident Oversight
A small, unelected three-person committee will have final say on zoning approvals. This removes public input from crucial town planning decisions and hands control over to private developers.
“The Halls Road Overlay District Design Review Committee shall consist of three residents of Old Lyme.”
This confirms zoning decisions will be in the hands of just 3 people, limiting community oversight.
7. No Limit on the Number of Housing Units
Despite claims of a 400-unit cap, the zoning language allows up to 1,600 units across 40 acres. If we allow this zoning to be approved, there will be no stopping further expansions.
Editor’s Note: This op-ed was sent to us by Old Lyme resident Elaine Stiles.
As an Old Lyme resident who cares deeply about sustainable growth and housing access, I am writing to express strong support for the proposed Halls Road Overlay District (HROD) and the development and planning principles that inform it. Old Lyme is a small town, but it is located near two interstate highways, a rail corridor that may soon be significantly expanded, and major employers that draw national and international work forces to the region.
Growth will continue to come to our community, and planning for the future is imperative. I support the Halls Road Overlay District because it offers controls and guidance for future development that will:
Offer community residents (present and future) much-needed housing alternatives to single-family detached units. Young single people, young households and families, and elders who want to downsize have few to no rental or ownership options in Old Lyme other than single-family, detached housing and its associated tax burden, maintenance burdens, and isolated settings. Thoughtfully arranged apartment or condominium units and walkable mixed-use development supports aging in place, attracts creative capital and future residents, and provides spaces for diverse household sizes and stages.
Reuse existing developed land to meet community housing needs. In the wake of a housing shortage (about 4.5 million units nationwide; in CT, less than 4,000 houses available on the market vs. more than 15,000 pre-pandemic), many communities also face a shortage of developable land. Reusing existing developed spaces to incorporate housing is a smart and environmentally sustainable move to address these critical shortages.
Create walkable commercial and community-oriented retail spaces. All communities, regardless of size, can benefit socially and economically from a denser commercial and retail core. The town decided in the 1960s (more than two generations ago) to move that density to the Halls Road area, which changed the character of Old Lyme from its historic land use patterns. It’s now time to retrofit that space for the next several generations with new spaces for a 21st century walkable retail and commercial district gives the town’s residents of all ages another destination where they can connect.
Offer better traffic planning, safer multimodal transportation options, and greater community connectivity. Walkable, bikeable spaces would be a boon to our young people, especially nearby middle and high school students, and better connect the cultural and commercial districts of Old Lyme. While maintaining parking supply, the HROD also gets people out of their vehicles and makes more allowances for non-car travel.
Encourage creative retrofitting of our existing tired, poorly planned strip mall retail spaces. All over the country, planners are discussing “retrofitting suburbia.” (See June Williamson and Ellen Dunham-Jones’ award-winning book, Retrofitting Suburbia.) The Halls Road Overlay District embraces these smart planning and design principles to remake Old Lyme’s designated commercial and retail space to be automobile accessible, but not dependent; incorporate mixed uses; and increase retail and service options here in town.
Change is coming, and Old Lyme needs to be ready for it. As the Halls Road Improvement Committee has stated, doing nothing is also a choice, and doing nothing has consequences. I am concerned about the fate of the Halls Road area without the HROD, its provisions, and its review procedures in place. Much of the development opponents erroneously fear the HROD will bring will indeed come, but not because of the HROD. Why not incentivize better development patterns than what zoning currently allows as a countermeasure to highly-profitable, but community impoverishing highway-oriented development?
In closing, I want to acknowledge the concerns of small business owners who currently occupy space in the existing strip mall developments on Halls Road regarding rent increases and displacement. No one wants to see businesses displaced, but it is unclear how the HROD, rather than property owners and developers, would be responsible for this outcome. If these parcels sell, there is no guarantee that new owners would not redevelop with the same result. However, I think the community would benefit from understanding if or how the HROD review board or another town entity might be empowered to negotiate rent stabilization considerations for existing businesses in new development under the overlay.
The HROD benefits our community and promotes a sustainable future for Old Lyme and helps prevent the as-of-right services outdated zoning and planning principles currently allow on Halls Road. These are the real threat to our community’s character and future.
Sugarbush—currently leased toFat Stone Farm—managedin ways that help declining forest birds
Mount Archer Woods volunteers helped remove invasive Barberry this past year, opening the floor of the sugarbush to more light and space, which allowed new maple saplings to thrive. All photos by Wendolyn Hill except where indicated.
LYME, Conn. – Mount Archer Woods, a Town-owned preserve in Lyme, has been recognized by Audubon’s Bird-Friendly Mapleprogram for its management of a sugarbush that is leased for tapping to Fat Stone Farm.
Through the Bird-Friendly Maple project (a collaborative effort between Audubon, Cornell, the New York State Maple Producers Association, and the Maple Syrup Producers Association of Connecticut), the Mount Archer Woods sugarbush—the forest area where maple syrup is produced—is managed in ways that provide more resilient bird habitat.
At 35 acres, the Mount Archer Woods sugarbush is currently the largest enrolled in Bird-Friendly Maple in Connecticut.
Maple seedlings thrive in Mount Archer Woods after removal of Barberry.
“Sugarbushes don’t just make for great maple syrup: As the production season winds down, they become nesting and foraging habitat for declining songbirds like the Scarlet Tanager and Wood Thrush,” said Suzanne Treyger, Senior Forest Program Manager for Audubon Connecticut and New York.
She notes, “On a wider scale, healthy forested landscapes provide benefits like carbon sequestration and storage, and watershed protection. By creating a more structurally and biologically diverse sugarbush, maple producers can play a vital role in conservation that benefits birds and people,”
As a recognized sugarbush, this area of the preserve is managed in ways that help these birds raise the next generation of their species.
What makes a bird-friendly sugarbush?
The Scarlet Tanager is one of the birds found in sugarbush. Photo: Travis-Bonovsky, Audubon/Woodland Trails Regional Park, Minnesota
Young trees and shrubs provide cover, food, and nesting sites for Black-throated Blue Warbler and Wood Thrush.
Snags (dead trees) are left standing to provide nesting sites for woodpeckers and White-breasted Nuthatch, and insects for Scarlet Tanager.
Downed trees and other woody material are left on the forest floor for birds like the Ovenbird and Ruffed Grouse to take cover, nest, and forage.
“We take great pride in the recognition by Audubon’s Bird-Friendly Maple program of the sugarbush area at Mt Archer Woods,” said Lyme Open Space Coordinator Wendolyn Hill.
She continued, “It is wonderful that in addition to supporting the traditional practice of maple sap collection, this forest can provide essential habitat for some of our most threatened songbirds.”
Hill explained, “The recommendations of the Audubon bird habitat assessment will be an invaluable guide for us in our efforts to protect and enhance the habitat there, as well as the land surrounding it.”
A volunteer holds up Barberry at Mount Archer Woods sugarbush.
“Earning Audubon’s Bird-Friendly Maple designation goes hand-in-glove with our organic certification, which also requires a commitment to biodiversity and a healthy ecosystem,” said Bill Farrell, Founder of Fat Stone Farm.
He added, “Lots of people in Lyme take healthy ecology seriously, and the presence of a variety of birds is one key indicator of environmental health. Earning Bird-Friendly Maple recognition shows how the work of many individuals is paying off.”
Farrell also commented that this year’s syrup is currently being bottled at the Farm.
The National Audubon Society is a leading nonprofit conservation organization with 120 years of science-based, community-driven impact, dedicated to protecting birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow. Birds are powerful indicators of our planet’s health, acting as sentinels that warn us of environmental change and inspire action.
Audubon works across the Western Hemisphere, driven by the understanding that what is good for birds is good for the planet. Through a collaborative, bipartisan approach across habitats, borders, and the political spectrum, Audubon drives meaningful and lasting conservation outcomes.
With 800 staff and over 1.9 million supporters, Audubon is a dynamic and ever-growing force committed to ensuring a better planet for both birds and people for generations to come.
A huge crowd turned out Thursday night in the Lyme-Old Lyme High School gym to support the Old Lyme boys in their quest to regain the CIAC Class V State Championship that they won last year. All photos by Warner Swain.
‘Cats Defeated Coginchaug 56-49 in Quarters
OLD LYME—Thursday night’s CIAC Division V quarter-final game saw #3 seeds and defending state champions Old Lyme defeat sixth-seeded Coginchaug 56-49.
Lyme-Old Lyme coach Brady Sheffield makes a point during Thursday’s game.
Old Lyme will now play second-seeded Grasso Tech in a semifinal game on TONIGHT, 3/10, at Waterford High School.Tip-off will be at 6:30 p.m.
Linda Ahnert, who wrote the column below, bakes this traditional Irish Soda Bread every year to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Note her shamrock plant alongside the bread. Photo by L. Ahnert.
OLD LYME—We are going to begin this article with a recipe from Linda Ahnert, who wrote the column below back in 2008. The article is as timeless as this wonderful Irish recipe.
Linda explains, “I clipped this recipe from the Ladies’ Home Journal(LHJ) many years ago. It came from a LHJ kitchen assistant named Kathleen Lee. And the introduction read: “ When Kathleen was growing up in Ireland, Sunday afternoons were always a time for relatives to drop in for a visit, a cup of tea and her mother’s Irish Soda Bread. Here is her time-honored recipe:, which Linda continues to bake every year.
IRISH SODA BREAD
1 ½ cups buttermilk 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1 large egg, lightly beaten 1 ½ cups dark, seedless raisins 3 cups all-purpose flour 2/3 cup sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9×5-inch loaf pan. Set aside.
Place buttermilk, butter, egg and raisins in medium bowl. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl and toss with two forks about 1 minute. Add buttermilk mixture and mix until combined. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake 50-55 minutes (should sound hollow when rapped.) Leave in pan 1 minute, then cool completely on wire rack. Makes l loaf, about eighteen ½-inch slices.
Enjoy!
And now to the column. LInda tells us that when this column first ran in LymeLine in 2008, she received an email from someone who lived in New York City but she did not recognize the name.
She continues, “It turned out to be the niece of Richie Brew, whom I write about in the article and in whose Irish pub I celebrated many St. Pat’s Days. She thanked me for bringing back memories of her beloved uncle. She added that if I was ever in NYC on March 17, I was invited to watch the parade from her apartment on Fifth Avenue!”
We love it when we hear that LymeLine has connected readers and sparked wonderful results!
Remembering St. Paddy’s Day in the City
By Linda Ahnert
I was a New Yorker for 30 years and, although I love living in a quiet Connecticut town today, there are still aspects of city life that I miss. There are the small things like being able to walk everywhere – to the supermarket, to the dry cleaner, to the movies. And then there are the big things…
One of those is a grand old New York tradition – the celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day. I’ll bet there are not many ex-New Yorkers (and there are a number of us in the area) who don’t get a little farklempt when calling to mind March 17ths spent in the city. After all, is there any better place to toast the Emerald Isle than on the island of Manhattan?
In the lyrics of the Irish-American showman, George M. Cohan, “every heart beats true for the red, white, and blue.” But in New York, on Saint Paddy’s Day, the city goes all out for the wearing of the green, starting with the green stripe painted on Fifth Avenue.
As nice as it is to wake up in a New England village on March 17, it could just as easily be February 17 or April 17. In New York, as soon as you walk out the door on St. Patrick’s Day, there is absolutely no mistaking which day of the year it is.
There’s always electricity in the city air, but on March 17, there is a festival mood along Manhattan’s avenues and streets. There are vendors selling green and white carnations, businessmen on their way to work sporting green ties, and teenagers with shamrocks painted on their cheeks or with shocks of hair dyed green for the day. In short, it’s easy being green.
And the great thing about New York is that whether you’re full-blooded Irish, a little bit Irish, or nowhere near being Irish … it makes absolutely no difference.
Everyone loves a parade. And as you get close to Fifth Avenue, you see families on their way to the parade and you start seeing parade participants.Oh, those kilts and tartans and tam-o’-shanters!
It might be a long way to Tipperary but on the streets of New York, I learned the names of many of Ireland’s counties. These names are emblazoned on banners carried at the head of each county society. Counties Cork, Clare, and Kilkenny were already familiar to me. But I soon discovered that there are other counties with the names like Armagh, Donegal, Mayo, and Sligo.
Unlike New York’s other great processional, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, there are no floats and balloons, no vehicles or commercial aspects to the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. It is truly a “people parade” with about 150,000 participants marching up Fifth Avenue.
The parade steps off at 11 a.m. from Fifth Avenue and 44th Street and, generally, the last of the groups pass by Rockefeller Center and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral around 5 p.m. The marchers include military units, top high school bands, drum and bugle corps, members of Eire-based societies, New York’s finest and New York’s bravest … and, of course, any politician who is running for office in the tri-state area.
A fun thing to do is to walk along the side streets off Fifth Avenue where the various groups are whiling away time as they wait their turns to fall into the parade route. Many of them are practicing and drilling and it’s like attending a giant muster on the city sidewalks.
And, when those units step out on Fifth Avenue and begin the march uptown, there is nothing like the sound that they make. The skirling of the bagpipes and the percussion of the drums echoing off the buildings thrills and stirs the soul. Spectators give appreciative cheers as a band plays a rousing version of “McNamara’s Band” or break into spontaneous song when they hear “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.”
There were years when I spent hours at the parade and other years when I could only spend a few minutes, but it was always a special time.
If many New Yorkers are tucking into dinners of corned beef and cabbage or lamb stew on Saint Patrick’s night, I’ll always associate the holiday with another Irish specialty. In my early years in the city, a woman I worked with always brought Irish soda bread to the office on Saint Paddy’s Day.
Kay was from an Irish family in Brooklyn and when she served the bread, she always put out a crock of butter with it. I can still remember my first taste of that bread. And today, even though I bake a mean loaf of Irish soda bread myself, nothing can ever quite compare with Kay’s.
The Irish pubs and saloons in the city are, of course, packed to the gills on the holiday. And that is another great thing about New York – each neighborhood has its own Irish watering hole. On my block of East 34th Street, the pub was Brew’s and it was where we ate at least twice a week. It was the kind of place where you didn’t have to order your drinks because the wait staff already knew what you drank and automatically brought a round to the table when you came in the door. Richie Brew, the pub’s owner, was warm-hearted and gregarious and called most of his customers by their first names.
We spent many memorable Saint Patrick’s nights at Brew’s. One time, as we were arriving, a contingent of bagpipers, who had marched in the parade, were getting into formation and tuning up on the sidewalk. Then, kilts swirling and bagpipes wailing, they marched themselves into Brew’s to the cheers of all the patrons.
The coda to the day’s festivities was watching “The Quiet Man” on TV. One of the local New York stations (Channel 9 or 11) always screened this movie on Saint Patrick’s night. (It was akin to airing “It’s a Wonderful Life” at Christmas.)
The movie, which stars John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara and Barry Fitzgerald, is a valentine to Ireland. With its stunning scenery and depiction of life in the village of Inisfree, the movie always had me longing to jump on the next Aer Lingus flight back to the old countryThis Saint Patrick’s Day, I won’t be in New York.But I’ll still bake Irish soda bread and put on a CD of “The Irish Tenors.” I’ll listen to songs about sweet Molly Malone, Dublin in the rare old times, and the last rose of summer.
And I’ll drink a toast to the green isle of Erin … and to the great island of Manhattan.
Editor’s Note: This article was first published March 17, 2008, on LymeLine.com.
In the lyrics of the Irish-American showman, George M. Cohan, “every heart beats true for the red, white, and blue.” But in New York, on Saint Paddy’s Day, the city goes all out for the wearing of the green, starting with the green stripe painted on Fifth Avenue.
As nice as it is to wake up in a New England village on March 17, it could just as easily be February 17 or April 17. In New York, as soon as you walk out the door on St. Patrick’s Day, there is absolutely no mistaking which day of the year it is.
There’s always electricity in the city air, but on March 17, there is a festival mood along Manhattan’s avenues and streets. There are vendors selling green and white carnations, businessmen on their way to work sporting green ties, and teenagers with shamrocks painted on their cheeks or with shocks of hair dyed green for the day. In short, it’s easy being green.
And the great thing about New York is that whether you’re full-blooded Irish, a little bit Irish, or nowhere near being Irish … it makes absolutely no difference.
Everyone loves a parade. And as you get close to Fifth Avenue, you see families on their way to the parade and you start seeing parade participants.Oh, those kilts and tartans and tam-o’-shanters!
It might be a long way to Tipperary but on the streets of New York, I learned the names of many of Ireland’s counties. These names are emblazoned on banners carried at the head of each county society. Counties Cork, Clare, and Kilkenny were already familiar to me. But I soon discovered that there are other counties with the names like Armagh, Donegal, Mayo, and Sligo.
Unlike New York’s other great processional, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, there are no floats and balloons, no vehicles or commercial aspects to the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. It is truly a “people parade” with about 150,000 participants marching up Fifth Avenue.
The parade steps off at 11 a.m. from Fifth Avenue and 44th Street and, generally, the last of the groups pass by Rockefeller Center and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral around 5 p.m. The marchers include military units, top high school bands, drum and bugle corps, members of Eire-based societies, New York’s finest and New York’s bravest … and, of course, any politician who is running for office in the tri-state area.
A fun thing to do is to walk along the side streets off Fifth Avenue where the various groups are whiling away time as they wait their turns to fall into the parade route. Many of them are practicing and drilling and it’s like attending a giant muster on the city sidewalks.
And, when those units step out on Fifth Avenue and begin the march uptown, there is nothing like the sound that they make. The skirling of the bagpipes and the percussion of the drums echoing off the buildings thrills and stirs the soul. Spectators give appreciative cheers as a band plays a rousing version of “McNamara’s Band” or break into spontaneous song when they hear “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.”
There were years when I spent hours at the parade and other years when I could only spend a few minutes, but it was always a special time.
If many New Yorkers are tucking into dinners of corned beef and cabbage or lamb stew on Saint Patrick’s night, I’ll always associate the holiday with another Irish specialty. In my early years in the city, a woman I worked with always brought Irish soda bread to the office on Saint Paddy’s Day.
Kay was from an Irish family in Brooklyn and when she served the bread, she always put out a crock of butter with it. I can still remember my first taste of that bread. And today, even though I bake a mean loaf of Irish soda bread myself, nothing can ever quite compare with Kay’s.
The Irish pubs and saloons in the city are, of course, packed to the gills on the holiday. And that is another great thing about New York – each neighborhood has its own Irish watering hole. On my block of East 34th Street, the pub was Brew’s and it was where we ate at least twice a week. It was the kind of place where you didn’t have to order your drinks because the wait staff already knew what you drank and automatically brought a round to the table when you came in the door. Richie Brew, the pub’s owner, was warm-hearted and gregarious and called most of his customers by their first names.
We spent many memorable Saint Patrick’s nights at Brew’s. One time, as we were arriving, a contingent of bagpipers, who had marched in the parade, were getting into formation and tuning up on the sidewalk. Then, kilts swirling and bagpipes wailing, they marched themselves into Brew’s to the cheers of all the patrons.
The coda to the day’s festivities was watching “The Quiet Man” on TV. One of the local New York stations (Channel 9 or 11) always screened this movie on Saint Patrick’s night. (It was akin to airing “It’s a Wonderful Life” at Christmas.)
The movie, which stars John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara and Barry Fitzgerald, is a valentine to Ireland. With its stunning scenery and depiction of life in the village of Inisfree, the movie always had me longing to jump on the next Aer Lingus flight back to the old countryThis Saint Patrick’s Day, I won’t be in New York.But I’ll still bake Irish soda bread and put on a CD of “The Irish Tenors.” I’ll listen to songs about sweet Molly Malone, Dublin in the rare old times, and the last rose of summer.
And I’ll drink a toast to the green isle of Erin … and to the great island of Manhattan.
Editor’s Note: This article was first published March 17, 2008, on LymeLine.com.
