A battle is brewing over a proposed development to mine and put five new housing units on the Hoppers Birge Pond Nature Preserve, as advocates say the proposal will be devastating for wildlife and the surrounding community.
The nature preserve, located at 54 Ambler Road and just minutes from downtown Bristol, contains eight miles of hiking trails and a 270 acre wildlife refuge.
Birge Pond and the surrounding preserve are used for non-motorized boating, fishing and hiking year-round. The 270 acre preserve was acquired in 1973 from Bristol Savings Bank, according to the city.
The Friends of the Hoppers Birge Pond Nature Preserve, a group dedicated to its preservation, is speaking out over a proposal to excavate 145,000 cubic yards of sand and soil from the “middle of the preserve.” In addition, the plan calls for building five homes on a six-acre parcel off Grassy Road.
The plan involves removing trees and topsoil, according to the group.
H & T Holdings, LLC purchased privately-held land on the east side of the Hoppers for mining and development back in August, according to documents. H & T Holdings is seeking a wetlands permit to excavate and build properties at 45 and 51 Grassy Road. The LLC is affiliated with local developer Tom Tobacco, according to documents filed with the city.
The Hoppers Birge-Pond Nature Preserve in Bristol on Dec. 11, 2025. (Stephen Underwood/Hartford Courant)
The Friends of the Hoppers won a previous battle with a different developer over a 11-acre privately owned parcel on the west side of the Hoppers that was going to be sold, according to the group. The city purchased about 10 acres on the western side of the Hoppers with a $420,000 open space grant from the state back in July.
“We were fighting the previous development proposal for about three years and we succeeded, as the city ultimately acquired the property,” said Jan Gatzuras, a member of the Friends of the Hoppers.
“We got the news over the summer and we were ecstatic. But then literally right after, we got the news that H & T Holdings purchased this other property so the celebration was unfortunately short lived.”
Michelle Rudy, president of the Friends of the Hoppers, said the group has “filed as intervenors” to the process of the developer applying for a wetlands permit. Rudy said that this allows them legally to provide feedback and comment on developer proposals at the city’s wetlands meetings.
“We respectfully urge the proprietors of H & T Holdings, LLC to pause and reconsider the proposed sand mining and housing development within the very heart of Bristol’s city-owned nature preserve, known as the Hoppers,” the group said in a statement released in response to the development proposal.
“This treasured landscape is not barren land, it is alive with habitat for rich and diverse plant communities which support wildlife not seen in the surrounding suburban landscape. Construction here would fragment and destroy the intact core forest that is now the Hoppers.
“The massive, intended earth removal would disrupt the delicate hydrological balance that sustains groundwater-fed springs, streams and Birge Pond, and threaten the glacial hillsides, known as kames, that tell the story of our region’s past. The expansive deep woods experience, miraculously present in the middle of suburban Bristol, will morph into a set of narrow trail corridors, bordering on yet more housing at every turn. We ask the developer to acknowledge these lasting impacts and consider alternative plans to protect this valuable natural environment for future generations.”
Birge Pond in Bristol on Dec. 11, 2025. The pond is part of The Hoppers Birge-Pond Nature Preserve with over eight miles of hiking trails and a 270 acre wildlife refuge. (Stephen Underwood/Hartford Courant)
The city has currently put H & T Holdings, LLC’s permit on hold because of a dispute over the result of soil tests and whether the proposed development will impact natural wetlands in the area. The Friends of the Hoppers group employed Dr. Brian Neff, a hydrologist from Colorado, who showed findings that the development will drain wetlands. But the developer’s consultant, Jim McManus, disagreed in a report filed back in November that showed wetland boundaries further away from the property.
“Our soil scientist has said that the wetlands in the area would be dried up if the development went ahead, yet the developer’s scientist says there are no wetlands even there,” Rudy said. “So either he is just working on behalf of his client to say what they want to hear or our scientist mischaracterized the landscape. We now have these conflicting opinions and we need to try and figure this out.”
A site walk is scheduled to be conducted on Dec. 20, with soil scientists from both H & T Holdings and The Friends of the Hoppers. The public is invited to attend but cannot ask questions or speak with the scientists, according to Rudy. As for now, the city has put the permit application on hold until a site walk takes place.
“Inviting both soil scientists on the same walk may be a little interesting and perhaps contentious,” Rudy said. “But the results we get will be very important in determining writher the city’s wetlands commission grants a permit to the developer. If a permit is granted, then we go through the zoning process, which will involve the public to make comments and speak up. We have had a tremendous response from the public, and we encourage people to speak up and be vocal.”
Bristol Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu, who played a role in advocating for the preservation of the Hoppers in the past, said that as an elected official she cannot comment on active land use applications. But she said that she is following the issue closely and awaiting the site walk results later this month. In a meeting on the topic Monday, Zoppo-Sassu said the developer offered to swap the site of the proposed six-acre parcel in the middle of the Hoppers to another site north of the residential lot he owns.
The Courant reached out to the attorney listed for H & T Holdings, LLC for comment, but did not hear back in time for the story to be published.
Stephen Underwood can be reached at sunderwood@courant.com.