Farmington's Conservation Commission is reviewing a 25-year-old natural resource inventory that cost the town $125,000 to produce — an 800-plus-page study that has never been formally discussed by any town commission since it was completed in 2005.

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Senior Assistant Town Planner Bruce Cyr presented the inventory at Wednesday's Conservation Commission meeting, walking through maps that flagged critical wetlands, wildlife habitat, and open space areas across town. Each numbered section corresponds to field research, soil surveys, natural diversity database records, and GIS data collected two decades ago.

Much of what the inventory identified has since been protected. Cyr pointed to Snowberry Cobble, where the flagged area was developed but surrounding land was secured through conservation easements. The same pattern held on Maria Road: the critical parcel was approved for development, but everything around it was preserved.

"You'll see a lot of these areas, and since 2005, a lot of these areas have then either become town of Farmington open space properties or have since become conservation easements," Cyr said. "So they are now encumbered and protected."

If the pending JBS Developers application for 598 Plainville Avenue is approved, Cyr said, the result would be "a one continuous line of open space from the town line" extending through a broader protected corridor — another area the inventory had flagged.

But Cyr cautioned against rushing to update the document. "I'm not sure how much of this is worth redoing," he said, citing cost and the fact that much of the inventory's work has already been realized through land acquisitions and easements. An update exceeding $50,000 would require placement in the town's capital improvement plan, which is mapped out over five to ten years.

The inventory appears to have been a staff-level tool, not a policy document. "I can't find it in discussion in any of the inland wetlands meetings, in the Conservation Commission meetings, or the Planning and Zoning Commission meetings," Cyr said. "I think this was a tool that was used by the staff before us."

Commissioner Elena Carvath, who reviewed the document over the weekend, said the water quality data was unusually comprehensive for a study of this kind. She noted that the Farmington River Watershed Association and the Pequabuck River Watershed Association currently collect similar data on an annual basis.

"I think it wouldn't be too hard to update that data with the stuff that they have," Carvath said. She added that advances in GIS technology since 2005 have made this type of inventory significantly cheaper to produce.

Commissioner Dave Fox raised a connection to the town's Plan of Conservation and Development, noting that the first page of the inventory describes itself as a foundation for the POCD, which was adopted two years later in 2007. Cyr confirmed that the town is preparing to issue a request for proposals for a new POCD, with a target approval date in late 2027.

"This document would be the C part of the C&D," Fox said. "Maybe that request will have to update this information for the town."

Cyr said there is no budget within the POCD process to redo the inventory, but that the consultant hired for the plan will coordinate with all land use commissions and review existing data, including the 2005 study. He said much of the mapping the commission might want can now be done in-house using GIS layers from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The town also has significant water quality data from its MS4 municipal stormwater permit program, which requires ongoing sampling and pollution source tracking across Farmington.

Cyr offered to compile a side-by-side comparison of the 2005 open space map against current holdings — including town-owned land, Farmington Land Trust properties, and parcels secured through DEP grants and conservation easements.

Chair Ned Stachen said the commission would revisit the topic after members have had time to review the 45-page executive summary. "See if there's anything that we want to try and update," he said. "And then we'll talk to the town about it."