Residents, city officials and state representatives are at odds with the U.S. Army’s plans to build a vast new training center in Middletown. At the heart of the issue is the Army’s choice of site: an area of woods and grassland along Freeman Road, which residents and environmental advocates say would mean the end of one of the last remaining parcels of rural land in Middletown.

At a crowded and often contentious public hearing at City Hall last week, Diane McCartin, a representative from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, fielded questions from residents, the mayor, environmental groups, the Common Council and other concerned citizens.

“I would welcome the Army to Middletown—but not at the Freeman Road site,” said State Representative Gail Hamm in an e-mail.

Indeed, that seemed to be the prevailing opinion among those in attendance. Several residents said they supported the military in general, but also strongly encouraged the Army to reconsider the location of the base.

“The Connecticut River and the land that drains into it are our natural heritage—we need to preserve it because it’s part of our New England identity,” said Megan Hearne, River Steward at the Connecticut River Watershed Council. “Putting the base there and extending the sewer line will encourage sprawl and so the environment will be permanently damaged for people as well as the water, birds, plants and animals.”

The beginnings of the proposal started with the federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission, which recommended the consolidation of military bases across the country in order to lower operating costs. In 2005, Congress approved those plans, which required Middletown to host the base, so long as the Army was able to acquire land suitable for construction.

The base itself is currently being planned for an area of Middletown known as Maromas, a 16-square mile section of the city along the Connecticut River. The site, which will require 31 to 45 acres of land, is near the intersection of Freeman Road and Aircraft Road, a largely rural area that is zoned for residential use. It is five miles southeast of Wesleyan’s campus.

The site will house several facilities, with the largest building measuring 184,000 square feet (the average size of a Wal-Mart Supercenter). In total, about 270,000 square feet of facilities are planned, which includes an Armed Forces Reserve Center with classrooms and barracks, a Field Maintenance Shop and a storage warehouse. There will also be a helipad and a 45,000-square foot parking lot.

Military vehicles and equipment will be housed at the site, and it will host up to 800 soldiers on the busiest weekends. Soldiers will not train with live or blank ammunition on the property.

With many residents and city officials actively opposed to the Army’s choice of site, some are asking what they can do to change the Army’s plans. But as the federal government does not have to abide by local zoning laws, and since the site is required by federal law to be in Middletown, the city has little influence in the Army’s decision.

That lack of influence is reflected in the words of Matt Lesser ’09, a Democrat on Middletown’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

“The Army has not worked at all with the Planning and Zoning Commission,” said Lesser. “We received a letter in November saying that they were exempt from all local zoning ordinances and would not be coming before us.”

Barring any serious environmental problems on the property, the Army seems committed to the site. Describing the kinds of hypothetical conditions that would be necessary for the Army to reject the Freeman Road property, McCartin suggested the discovery of “a groundwater plume contaminated with uranium.” She noted that in her years with the Army, no site has been found unsuitable due to environmental problems.

One avenue by which the project may be diverted, though, is if the state or city government purchases the parcel before the Army can acquire it.

Under the terms of a memorandum signed in 2004, between the current owner of the land, Northeast Utilities (NU), and the state Department of Environmental Protection, Connecticut would have the option of purchasing the land before other buyers, should NU decide to sell it. Hamm plans on introducing legislation that would have the DEP preserve the site as open space.

“The state is ’very’ interested [in preserving the site] and is prepared to act as soon as NU actually offers the land for sale,” said Hamm in an e-mail.

But that’s not to say the Army is not pushing forward with its plans. According to McCartin, an environmental assessment will begin on the site before any work can be started. There will be a 30-day period in which the public can comment on the results of that report. McCartin also said that she would be returning to Middletown, giving the community perhaps another chance to express its concerns.