A national warehouse builder is facing residents’ opposition over its proposal to build a million-square-foot distribution center in Cromwell.

 

Indiana-based Scannell Properties company plans to build on a 250- acre parcel north of Court Street and east of Route 3.

 

Residents who successfully blocked Scannell’s for a million-square-foot warehouse on that site last year are working against the new version as well.

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Their “Stop the Geer Street Truck and Freight Terminal” GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $15,000 toward legal and technical help to fight Scannell’s wetlands application — and potentially any zoning application that follows.

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And so far, 813 people have signed a Change.org petition entitled “Citizens Against Project Donkey Kong,” their informal name for the proposal that town documents list as Project Highlands.

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“The size and scope of this project is completely inappropriate for the neighborhood that the property is in, not to mention the destruction of a natural habitat for hundreds of different species of wildlife that live on the property,” the petition states.

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“It also does not meet the community standard for what is an acceptable project in a residential neighborhood, next to homes, parks and schools,” it adds.

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The petition writers focused their remarks on wetlands and zoning issues, but the document also includes a message for the town council in case Scannell prevails in getting permits.

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“We are also opposed to any special tax considerations that are given to this project,” the petition says.

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This summer Scannell won approval to build a million-square-foot warehouse in Plainfield, and two years ago built a $50 million, 420,000-square-foot distribution center for Home Depot in South Windsor. South Windsor’s council gave a seven-year tax abatements for the Home Depot project, with an estimated value of $310,000 a year.

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Scannell has developed dozens of large warehouses around the country, sometimes for specific tenants such as Amazon or Home Depot and other times as speculative ventures with tenant recruitment coming after construction.

Scannell has told Cromwell that its Highlands Project is speculative. Its site in Cromwell is attractive because of highway access, being relatively close to I-91 and Route 9. But Scannell acknowledges the property includes wetlands.

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Construction would destroy part of the nearly 30 acres of wetlands, but Scannell is proposing to create a 25,000-square-foot wetland with vernal pool to compensate. Neighbors are calling on the inland wetlands commission to reject a permit for the project, saying it would do environmental harm that simply doesn’t have to happen.

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Neighbors have hired Somers attorney John Parks and wetlands specialist George Logan to present a case against granting the permit.

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About two dozen residents spoke against the warehouse plan at a July hearing, arguing that a mammoth building is out of place in Cromwell and that the wetlands damage and potential pollution are both reasons to reject the plans.

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The commission, whose jurisdiction is restricted to wetlands impacts, is scheduled to discuss the proposal on Sept. 7.

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But the next step for Scannell — the planning and zoning commission — has more leeway to consider broader issues ranging from economic development, jobs creation, aesthetic and traffic impacts on the town, and compliance with Cromwell’s long-term plan of development.