Blue Fox map amendment application fails at Dec. 1 meeting

By John Fitts

Staff Writer

AVON – An application by Blue Fox Run Golf Course to amend the town of Avon Inland Wetlands and Watercourses map failed to pass at an Avon Inland Wetlands Commission meeting Dec. 1.

While the commission members attending the virtual meeting voted in favor of the application 3-2, the motion failed because state statute requires a favorable majority vote for a map amendment application, according to town officials.

Avon Inland Wetlands is a 7-seat commission with one vacancy, so four votes would have been required, officials said.

In the application and during the multi-evening public hearing, soil scientists and other experts speaking for Blue Fox Run said they had accurately and scientifically established the actual wetland boundaries on the site, as required by law.

Nod Rod Preservation Inc., in turn, argued that some of the methods used were not appropriate.

Proposed wetlands amendments on the site have been controversial. In the spring of 2019, the commission rejected a similar proposal that was part of a larger effort to reconfigure the golf course and develop housing on the site. This time around, course officials reiterated their desire to reconfigure the golf course, but the current application did not propose any development or other regulated activity.

Below is a graphic showing the overlay of the town's map and the changes that had been proposed in the application.