Toner Dock - Largest One on Ash Creek
August 2, 2008 by admin comment
This will be the third dock to be built on Ash Creek. The DEP has granted tentative approval for Steven Toner to build a 60 foot dock on the Fairfield side, which will be very visible from St. Mary's beach and Gilman Street. The DEP gave their approval despite a letter from the Bureau of Aquaculture stating that the project would cause significant harm to the shellfish. Mr. Toner wants to put 24’ foot powerboat there and it will have boat lifts to store two boats. The dock cannot be reduced in size because it must cross a large wetland area. For this reason, we must defeat this dock completely as it cannot be reduced in size.
Thank you to all who participated in our petition drive. We obtained 230 signatures and submitted them to the DEP, which will ensure that a public hearing is held on this issue. We have not had success in getting the DEP to recognize the impact of the cumulative effect of many docks on Ash Creek. There are 24 more docks that could be built, which would drastically change this serene tidal estuary into a marina.
The Toner dock will be the largest dock by far on Ash Creek and unlike the other two docks (Ganim and Mears), a powerboat will be kept there, perhaps year round. It will be the dock closest to Great Marsh Island and will be quite visible to anyone looking at Great Marsh Island from St. Mary’s beach or on the walkway along Gilman Street. It will be located on the Fairfield side near the Mears dock, and both docks will be almost directly across from the Ganim dock on the Bridgeport side (locations of the three docks are shown in the aerial view above, please note that the docks are not drawn to scale).
A copy of the plans are shown above (click on the drawing to enlarge it). We’ve highlighted the dock in yellow and the shoreline in blue. We've circled the label for the low tide line (the dock and boat will be on mudflats at low tide) and circled the proposed boat storage davits, which raise the boat up in the air (there were two of them on the last plan we saw, one on each side of the dock).
Ash Creek Conservation Association, Inc.
247 Harborview Avenue
Bridgeport, CT 06605
