Quechee — Federal officials have told the town of Hartford that its $350,000 plan to convert a flood-ravaged site on Quechee Main Street into a small park is unsafe, and have approved a scaled-back design that would keep the public further from the Ottauquechee River.

Town officials say they are continuing to press the Federal Emergency Management Agency to approve the Selectboard’s preferred design, which includes three different levels of benches and landscaping features connected by a network of ramps and stairs. 

However, time pressures mean the town will be forced to also begin development on a two-tiered design that would eliminate the lowest level and conform to FEMA’s current position, according to Town Manager Leo Pullar, who said the letter from FEMA mitigation division Director Dean Savramis arrived Tuesday.

The letter, which was summarized to the Selectboard Tuesday, reads in part that “several of the activities that the Applicant wishes to pursue in creating the park present a future risk to life and safety by encouraging the public to recreate on the lower-level (sic) near the river in a high-hazard area.”

The letter plays into concerns that Selectboard members have expressed for months about whether the proposed $350,000 plan would meet federal standards.

Selectboard members expressed disappointment with the latest communication.

“We’re right back to, the only documentation we have is ‘no,’ ” said Dick Grassi, according to a CATV video of Tuesday’s meeting.

Pullar said he has been told that the town’s project is being held to a higher standard than other projects.

“I understand that there are instances in which FEMA has approved like construction with like risk,” he said.

Pullar said that the Vermont Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, which has represented the state in the discussions, and the office of U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., which conducted a site visit last week, both back Hartford’s preferred design.

“This is a great collaboration between the state and Sen. Leahy to help us get to what the right solution is,” he said.

Pullar said that it was unclear whether FEMA officials had reviewed the correct set of plans, and that he hoped the preferred design would be approved.

Tim Lewis is the general manager of the Quechee Lakes Landowners Association, which has lobbied actively for the town to remediate the site, which was damaged during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and which is currently covered in exposed concrete and rebar that they worry depresses property values and the local tourism industry.

In the past, the organization and some town officials have clashed over the details of the site design, but Lewis said that, now, they are united in their purpose.

“There’s been a target set by both the town and QLLA moving forward,” he said. “We’ll do whatever we need to do to get the next best step.”

Pullar is meeting with QLLA officials sometime in the next couple weeks, and said he plans to discuss the situation, among other issues.

In the meantime, he said, the town has no choice but to move ahead with plans to develop the site, because some of the construction funds are from grants that will expire next 2017.

“I think (the timetable) is worrisome now,” Pullar said. “We have to start planning in parallel — the three-level plan is there, but we have to start looking at a two-level plan.”

Town officials have complained in the past about what they have characterized as slow and contradictory responses from FEMA about the site over the past 13 months; in July, the $350,000 budget was approved on the assumption that the preferred design would eventually be approved.

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.