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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-12-19 Conservation Commission MinutesMinutes - Conservation Commission, December 19, 2001 1 _.a 'AS S. Minutes of the Conservation Commission Town of Reading 2_: O b Selectmen's Meeting Room, 7:00 PM December 19, 2001 Present: Will Finch, Chair; Patricia Lloyd, Vice Chair; Larry Goulet, Doug Greene, Thad Berry, Commissioners; Fran Fink, Administrator. Absent: Leo Kenney, Harold Hulse, Advisors 7:00 Old/New Business No more minutes to approve tonight. 268 Franklin Street Site cleared and utilities in, but rest of work on street and drainage remains to be done. Applicant will be asked to put timetable on paper for January meeting. Bond issue will wait for next meeting. Fran Fink had explained to applicant need for erosion control. Applicant found asbestos in existing house so needs permit from DEP to demolish. Revised site plan shows more details. Pat Lloyd moved and Thad Berry seconded accepting new plan as insignificant change. Voted 5-0 in favor. Also, tree fell on sign for Kirchian Woods. Fran Fink has picture of a sign. New sign will be done and paid for by tree contractors. 9 Gregory Road On Friday, wall completely done and most of backfilling done. Muddy from snowstorm, slowing down final work. Fill needs to sit and settle over winter. Mr. Emery will mulch it. Frail thinks he's complied with order, will send letter. Membership Peter Hechenblecher said new member appointment is on Selectmen's agenda for Jan 8, since Vincent Falcione resigned. Position needs to be posted first. 518 Summer Street - Enforcement Order Progress reported from Commission site visit. Needs follow up letter or visit to make sure he spreads more hay. Mass Highway Department Facility No. 76, Causeway Road, DEP 270-313, RGB 1998- 17 - Request for Extension Permit Pat Lloyd moved and Thad Berry seconded extending permit to April 15, 2003. Voted 5-0 in favor. 2-6-10 Franklin Street - Request for COC As-built site plans submitted and reviewed. Minutes - Conservation Conumssion, December 19, 2001 2 Pat Lloyd moved and Thad Berry seconded issuing COC with continuing condition to put appropriate language in deeds to preserve ZNV. Voted 5-0 in favor. (No COC form available - Fran Fink will bring to next meeting.) Pat Lloyd moved and Doug Greene seconded releasing $3,000 bond. Voted 5-0 in favor. 908 and 912 Main Street - Request for Extension Permit and CR approval, DEP 270-323, RGB 1999-27. Conservation Restriction not ready. New owners have to sign. Patricia Lloyd moved and Doug Greene seconded extending permit to Sept. 16, 2002, under local bylaw. Voted 5-0 in favor. Haverhill Street - southern end Wetlands delineation requested by Reading Engineering Department for possible sidewalk installation. Will Finch said Fran Fink's flagging looked good. Pondview Lane - Conservation Restriction Commission signed Municipal Certification form. 81 Forest Street - RDA, addition to house. Haybales in. Green light to begin. 115 Charles Street -tree cutting Call received from neighbor regarding cutting trees. Fran Fink called and visited site. Cutting trees in buffer zone if not wetlands. Owner is Grace MacCormack. Her son cut about 6 large trees and another 8-10 smaller trees, plus bushes. He was trying to clean up tangle in back yard that was neglected. Lower end of back yard was used for burning trash and dumping rubbish so scrap is out there and brush pile. Also, they have a well and pump used for irrigation. Son wanted to get brush out and clean up area, fill and turn into lawn. Still good canopy at site. Commission will look at site to make final decision. Will Finch suggested planting something on the shrub level to replace cut vegetation. 7:40 Continued Public Hearing, DEP 270-362, RGB 2001-28, 25 Sunset Rock Lane Applicant requested continuance until 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 23, 2002. Pat Lloyd moved and Doug Greene seconded continuing until Jan 23, 2002 at 7:30 p.m. in this room with no further notice to abutters. Voted 5-0 in favor. Lot 198, Harvest Road -.Appeal to DEP. Additional information submitted by applicant to DEP. Fran Fink drafted response. Pat Lloyd moved and Larry Goulet seconded approving Fran's letter dated Dec. 20, 2001. Voted 5-0 in favor. Track Road area - update on beavers _._Jane_Fiore-from_Dept of Health presented. plan to trap beavers. -Board-of Health-voted 3-0-0 - to find it was a public health hazard to have dam as existing with beavers. Trapper noted 6- 10 adult beavers will be taken out. John A. Bettencourt is the trapper. Reserve fund transfer Minutes - Conservation Conunission, December 19, 2001 and emergency permit by Board of Health. Consequence of traps may be incidental breaching of larger dam. Jane Fiore and trapper are concerned about possible inadvertent disruption of second dam while setting traps. If he does that, it could be a breaching. So, they will need emergency certification to breach the second dam. They're not touching water flow device. Only chair needs to sign, but needs vote by commission. Thad Berry moved and Doug Greene seconded emergency certification allowing incidental breaching of dam. Voted 5-0 in favor. 7:55 Continued Public Hearing, DEP 270-363, RGB 2001-29, Roadway and drainage improvements within Walkers Brook Drive and Village Street Procedure read; attendance circulated; commission introduced. Dave Picart from VHB presented plan. Filed a notice of intent in Wakefield. Sent additional materials and went through them. Mark Nogueira available for questions on drainage calculations. Will Finch Roadway issue. Will's not convinced that dirt area is a travel lane. It's variable along road. Fran Fink discussed her memo on the issue. Thad Berry questioned culvert extension and asked for soil tests on roadway. Tests weren't done for 30 inches. Wants detailed drawings and soils. Not just one side, but both. Needs to be put in the order. Nancy Eaton, Short Street, asked Commission to consider that much of Walkers Brook Drive vegetation was destroyed during sewer line project. Might need to be revegetated No further comments from public. Discussed Joe Delaney's memo and Fran Fink's Dec. 19, 2001 memo. Pat Lloyd moved and Doug Greene seconded continuing to Jan 9, 2002, at 8 p.m., at the applicant's request, in this room with no further notice to abutters. Voted 5-0 in fovor. 8:00 Public Meeting, 8 Morgan Park, RGB 2001-32, Request for Determination of Applicability Brian Hohmann: addition to house within Buffer Zone Shirley Griffin from Seekamp Environmental Consulting Inc. presented plan. No BVW soils in yard. No habitats of rare wildlife. Vernal pool 200 feet away. Garage there was taken down in 1998. Now simply grassed lawn. Letter from architect describes footings -_----and-frost-wall _and- _l2 1L2_.cubic yards of soil--removed. Fran Fink drafted conditions and said it appears to meet standard conditions. Minutes - Conservation Commission, December 19, 2001 4 Doug Greene mentioned leaves upstream might need to be removed. Mr. Hohmann said he would take care of leaves. No public here to speak on this property Thad Berry moved and Pat Lloyd seconded closing public hearing. Voted 5-0 in favor. Thad Berry moved to approve waiver from by law and Pat seconded. Voted 5-0 in favor. Pat Lloyd moved and Thad Berry seconded issuing negative determination with conditions. Voted 5-0 in favor. 8:45 Public Hearing, RGB 2001-33, Abbreviated Notice of Resource Area Delineation, Meadow Brook Golf Club, Town Forest, and Town Water Department land off Grove Street Procedure read; attendance circulated; commission introduced. Joseph Orzell presented wetland scientist. Hugh Mulligan and Brad Latham and club representatives also present. Joseph went through plans to show protected areas. Will noted scientist did a good job. Leo couldn't be here, but told Will that whole area is breeding habitat for blue spotted salamander. Also, area near Susan Drive had fairy shrimp and spotted salamander. Doug Greene - Wetlands near Susan Drive had lots of leaves dumped in there, not from Meadow Brook but abutters. Would like that cleaned up and a biologist present and perhaps a plan to prevent it. Fran discussed her memo prepared before site visit. Might want to not determine FEMA line at 80 right now. Low spot on last sheet is it a wetland? Whole thing in Aquifer Protection District. Ben Nichols - from Town's Land Bank Committee. Plan has the wetlands laid out but not lots. Joe Orzell responded - Lots on the plans - just can't see from audience. He made them darker. Said he understood town engineering gave permission to go on town property to survey. John Powers, 256 Grove Street - Where is this leading? What is this about? Brad Latham - Not a development. Looking to see whether they can improve layout of golf course. To do anything, need to determine whether within jurisdiction of Conservation Commission. Mr. Groughton from 414 Grove Street asked for map orientation. Minutes - Conservation Commission, December 19, 2001 Nancy Eaton, Short Street - Asked to put up Strout Ave. sheet. John Powers - How much was wetland before golf course was there? Joe Orzell - Some wetlands were created as a result of excavation. Small upland island filled to make tee that is no longer in use. There are areas of fill and area where wetlands were created. Question regarding whether they pay one lot fee maximum or something different. Pat Lloyd's inclination is to use the plain language of by law and charge for each lot. Thad Berry wants to look at how many deeds instead of how many lots. Brad did not know how many deeds. Town is exempt from fees, but it was not the town requesting the delineation. Commission recommends run by Town Counsel. Thad Berry questioned floodplain delineation. Doug Greene thinks we should talk to Joe Delaney and see what is identified as baseline. Thad Berry thinks Joe Delaney should approve. Also need to do vernal pool boundaries in spring season. Pat Lloyd moved and Thad seconded continuing to Jan.9, 2002, at 8:15 p.m. in this room with no further notice to abutters at the request of the applicant. Voted 5-0 in favor. 9:50 Public Hearing, Proposed Amendments to Town of Reading Wetlands Protection Regulations Due to lateness of hour and absence of Leo Kenney, will only be considering the fine schedule. ITEM 8 - Nancy Eaton pointed out separate offenses in Fines chart for each day might give impression only daily fines for number 6. Should apply to all. Also mentioned progressive letters have been used in past. Pat Lloyd moved and Doug seconded approving item 8 as revised, the fine schedule. Voted 5-0-0 in favor. Pat Lloyd moved and Thad seconded revising Item 6. Voted 5-0-0 in favor. Pat Lloyd moved and Thad Berry seconded revising Item 7. Voted 5-0-0 in favor Nancy Eaton commented on Item 13, p. 7 underlines at the end should talk about ANRADS, as well. She also commented that on p. 13, the definition of vernal pool habitat should discuss drought. Misc. business: Report on oil spill off Mill Street. Eric's' Greenhouse - lawyer trying to schedule site visit. Send letter to Mr. Harper, 695 Pearl, clarifying land swap role. 10:20 p.m. Pat Lloyd moved and Thad Berry seconded adjourning. Voted 5-0 in favor.