PUTNAM—Ryan Companies US Inc., which builds warehouses for Amazon, and more than a dozen Killingly property owners have filed an appeal of the Killingly Inland, Wetlands and Watercourses Commission’s denial of a proposed 1.3 million square-foot robotics warehouse. The appeal, filed in superior court in Putnam, seeks to reverse the commission’s 3-2 vote in July that prevents the $200 million project from moving forward. The appeal also asks the court to direct the commission to approve the application. Simultaneously, Ryan Companies has filed new applications with the inland, wetlands and watercourses commission and the town’s planning and zoning commission. The wetlands application was received by the commission at its Monday meeting and a date for a public hearing was set for Sept. 14. Evan Seeman, an attorney with Robinson & Cole, told the commission that the applicants will be prepared to make a presentation on the project at that hearing. In the complaint, the plaintiffs argue that the commission’s decision to deny the application was made because Ryan Companies did not seek reasonable and prudent alternatives to reduce the square footage of the building and reduce the size of impervious area caused by the parking lot. However, the complaint claims that the company did reduce the building size by 87,000 square feet during the months-long public hearing and also investigated a suggestion that the company consider a parking structure but determined that it would not result in any meaningful benefit in terms of reduced impact to wetlands.
Amazon builder wages legal battle against Killingly over rejection of advanced-robotics warehouse
