By Cassandra Day, via The Middletown Press
MIDDLETOWN — A city agency recently prolonged a cease and desist order it issued in June to a local farmer and owner of 13.5 acres at 350 Randolph Road following a wetlands dispute.
Matt Mitchell, owner of Lovie’s Farm, returned to the Middletown Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency meeting last week without a wetlands delineation study that commissioners had told him on June 5 he needed before his application could be considered.
“In order to make a decision, we need to know where the wetlands are,” Joseph Carta, the agency’s chairman told Mitchell at the July meeting. “The only way to know where the wetlands are is to have them delineated. The only way to have them delineated is with a registered soil scientist. You don’t have any kind of a plan for us to look at.”
Mitchell said Monday that he is in the process of finding a soil scientist to do the required work.
Money is another factor, said Mitchell, who was told that delineation could cost between $3,500 and $10,000 depending on the extent of the job.
It comes after the agency already raised concerns over whether he was disturbing the wetlands on property.
Mitchell is looking to create a community farm dedicated to regenerative farming practices that would “promote long-term sustainability,” according to his application. He named the farm after his 4-year-old daughter, Sienna “Lovie,” and will raise chickens, goats and honey bees on the land.
“It would help maintain the land,” Mitchell said. “It wouldn’t be an eyesore because of overgrown brush when people drive down the road.”
Mitchell said Monday that he would eventually like to offer small plots to the community to farm for free, or a small fee, as part of an incubator program.
That idea was born during the pandemic, after Mitchell purchased fruits and vegetables at a local store. They were spoiled a day later, he said.
Education is also a big component of the plan. Mitchell wants to eventually sponsor youth to apply for $5,000 loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to plant their own crops.
Farmers need to obtain a number from the USDA in order to receive grants, Mitchell said.
“Nobody’s telling minority farmers to go out and get a farm tract number so you can qualify for programs,” he said. “This will serve as an incubator to assist and help people to do that. If you don’t have a farm tract number, you’re a gardener.”
In the future, Mitchell would like to teach people about land conservation, pollinator gardens and other aspects of farming.
Lovie’s Farm has partnered on the initiative with Dee’s Crafty Bees, Chicks Ahoy LLC, Chick’s Ahoy Farm, and Cultivating Justice, a project of the Katal Center for Equity, Health and Justice.
Before Mitchell’s ideas can happen though, he and the city must reach a resolution over the wetlands on the property and the pallets placed there.
During the June meeting, Michell explained the situation arose after the city received numerous complaints that a large number of wooden pallets were on the portion of the property designated as wetlands.
According to the cease and desist order, dated May 24, city Environmental Planner James Sipperly issued a verbal work stoppage order after he saw someone carrying what he said were wood chips through wetlands.
“Nobody was carrying wood chips to the back of the property,” Mitchell told commissioners in June. “It was food.”
The commission then asked Mitchell to have a wetlands soil scientist walk the property and to submit the findings prior to its July 3 meeting. In the meantime, officials gave Mitchell permission to feed his animals, but to refrain from all other activity.
Agency members visited the farm June 14.
Commission Chairman Joseph Carta said at the recent meeting that members saw pallets placed in the wetlands across a stream to get to the animals contained in an upper part of the property.
“In some spots, there are two layers of pallets because they sunk,” Carta added.
Mitchell said the pallets are different sizes and made of untreated wood.
Members also questioned the use of wood chips at the site and if the birds eat them.
Mitchell said the pile attracts insects, that the chickens will dig for and eat. He added the pile also turns into compost.
“It turns into compost,” Miller said. “They decompose, so it’s a cycle.”
“This is not about chickens or goats or farming. What we saw was that all the animals are on high ground on the far side of the stream,” Vice President Ken McClellan said at the meeting. “We also saw wood and pallets and scrap in a very wet area with what appeared to me to have wetland vegetation, streams — and that’s what we’re concerned about.”
Mitchell said Monday that he had hoped to put up greenhouses by now and plant pumpkin seeds for the fall, but it’s too late in the season to do so. He’s also had to hold off on buying more goats that graze and help sustain the land.
The matter was continued to the Aug. 7 meeting at City Hall, 245 deKoven Drive. For information, visit middletownct.gov.
