Minutes - Economic Development Commission

741 Colonel Ledyard Highway

Ledyard, Connecticut 06339

TOWN OF LEDYARD

Economic Development Commission

Meeting Minutes - Final

Chairman

John Vincent

Regular Meeting

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

6:00 PM

Town Hall Annex - Hybrid Format

CALL TO ORDER

Vice Chairman Hary called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. in the Conference Room of the

Town Hall Annex Building. Chairman Hary welcomed all to the Hybrid Meeting.

II.

ROLL CALL

Chairman Carol Ann Schneider

Recording Secretary Michael Dreimiller

Chairman Peter Hary

Present

Chairman Richard Tashea

Chairperson/Market Manager John Vincent

Chairman Michael Cherry

Excused

Chairman Kevin Aherne

In addition, the following were present: Mayor Fred Allyn III

Director of Land Use & Planning, Elizabeth Burdick, and Town Council Liaison, Jessica Buhle,

were also excused.

III.

IV.

ADDITIONS OR CHANGES TO THE ORDER OF THE AGENDA

Add “Business Survey” to Old Business as item G.

CORRESPONDENCE

None.

RESIDENT & PROPERTY OWNER COMMENTS

None.

VI.

MEMBER COMMENTS

None.

VII. REPORTS

Mayor’s Report

Attended a SeCTer Economic Development Committee meeting as did Commissioners

Hary and Dreimiller. Discussion involved tiny homes - 1 bedroom 1.5 baths 800-1000

sqft. Julie Savin of ECHO discussed some of their projects. Amanda Kennedy of

SECOG. Clayton Potter of the Town of Groton discussed their economic impact analysis

of the new apartment developments in Groton. Triton Square has 300 units but just 1

child in school. The former Groton Motor Inn with no school children, and another hotel

that was converted to apartments that had 2 or 3 school children. A total of a possible 4

school aged children vs. $1,558,000 new tax dollars from those developments. This

mirrors what the Harvard and Yale studies on how market rate housing doesn’t have a

huge impact on schools.

Sat as part of an internal roundtable meeting with a developer who is looking to build 50

or 60 town house condos just past Bestway on Rt. 117. Also in attendance were the town

engineer, planning director, fire marshall, the architect, and the engineer. The project

seems to be moving along. They are looking to extend sewer line from the library down

to the site.

Preliminary work on the parcel behind Town Hall which extends to Stoddards Wharf Rd

and behind Village Market. They have a conceptual plan which includes some

commercial development on the first floor and residential on second floor behind Village

Market as well as some single-family, duplexes, and some town houses with access from

Stoddards Wharf Rd. Access would be via the driveway between the police station and

Village Market which would most likely become a private road with a possible red light.

He expects them to come to Planning & Zoning in the next month or two.

Attended the ribbon cutting at Plaza Mini Market. Aherne and Dreimiller also attended,

as well as State Rep. Larry Pemberton. They have about two dozen different fresh fruits

and vegetables.

Dreimiller asked about Phase 2 of the sewer extension. Mayor Allyn said the developer

of the parcel behind Town Hall will pay to extend the sewer from the Congregational

Church to the police station and that will also provide access for the two 36 unit building

being built behind the old Ledyard Center School. Dreimiller asked if there was any

interest in extending the sewer all the way to the post office. Mayor Allyn said that there

was surprisingly only interest from one business.

Tashea asked if the parcel owned by the Sylvia family on Iron St. across from the post

office which he thought might be for sale. Mayor Allyn said it is residential R20 and

noted that the parcel was only .38 acres.

Planner’s Report

Not present.

VIII. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

EDC Regular Meeting Minutes of May 5, 2026

MOTION to approve the Regular EDC Meeting Minutes of May 5, 2026

APPROVED AND SO DECLARED

RESULT:

Carol Ann Schneider

Richard Tashea

MOVER:

SECONDER:

Schneider Dreimiller Hary Tashea

Vincent Cherry Aherne

AYE

EXCUSED

IX.

OLD BUSINESS

Business Directory Update/Ownership

The revised business directory is live. Dreimiller is still working with Justin Dube to

tweak the layout. He will also generate an updated PDF version.

No update from Burdick on the three add requests that she’s looking into.

Business Directory Email Program

Aherne not present to provide an update. Dreimiller worked with Justin Dube to create a

page on the website where each month’s newsletter will be archived.

RT-12 Streetscape Action Plan/Funding

Cherry not present. Tabled until next meeting.

CEDAS Certification/Membership Update and Town sell sheet

Burdick reached out to them again about our membership request and is waiting for them

to send an invoice.

Hary is working on a town Sell Sheet and will share a draft with Dreimiller.

Sustainable CT Action 6.1, Implement Complete Streets: Discussion of “Best Complete Streets

2023 Webinar” by Smart Growth America

Dreimiller re-watched the webinar again. It was interesting but he didn’t find anything that

might be applicable for Ledyard. He also mentioned that the Sustainable CT Ad-Hoc

Committee is planning to conduct a Walk Audit and possibly a Bike Audit in Gales Ferry.

Sustainable CT Action 2.4.1, Provide Resources and Supports to Local Businesses: Discussion

of hosting a business roundtable and/or event with municipal officials and staff to support

dialogue on topics including but not limited to the needs and opportunities to build and expand

business development in the community

Dreimiller said that he ran across a reference to the Ledyard Business Network which

operated from 2015-2018 and was briefly resurrected in 2021-2022. Mark Caise from

Thiry Marketing was involved with both efforts. Perhaps we could use the roundtable to

help reboot that organization.

Hary offered to reach out to the two Chambers of Commerce to check out the feasibility

of doing something like this. He suggested that the Ledyard Senior Center would be a

good location. He will report back at our next meeting.

Resident & Business Surveys (2022) updating and re-running in 2026.

Dreimiller provide a first draft of the 2026 Business Survey. He removed 8 questions and

added three new items, and re-ordered the remaining questions to put the most important

questions at the beginning.

Schneider suggested that we print up some cards with a QR Code pointing to the survey

that we could drop off at businesses.

Dreimiller noted that in 2022 the survey was mentioned in The Day. Hary said we could

submit it as a Business Brief.

Since Vincent, Cherry, and Aherne aren’t in attendance Hary suggested that we table any

action on this for our next meeting.

NEW BUSINESS

None.

XI.

ADJOURNMENT

Our next meeting is scheduled for July 7th at 6:00 p.m. in the Town Hall Annex.

A motion was made by Commissioner Tashea seconded by Commissioner Schneider to

adjourn at 6:29 p.m. The motion carried by the following vote:

RESULT:

MOVER:

APPROVED AND SO DECLARED

Tashea

SECONDER: Schneider

AYE:

ABSENT:

4 Dreimiller, Hary, Schneider, and Tashea

Aherne, Cherry, Vincent

For the Commission,

John Vincent, Chairman

Dated: June 2, 2026

DISCLAIMER: Although we try to be timely and accurate these are not official records of the

Town.