Town of Bellingham
Conservation Commission
North Community Building
Bellingham, MA 02019
Minutes of the meeting of July 13, 2011
Project: BWP7 Project Description:
Continued RDA Mass Bay Commuter Railroad Right of Way
Wetland re-verification for Yearly Operational Plan
Applicant: Representative:
MA Bay Commuter RR Kyle Fair, TEC Associates
32 Cobble Hill Road 46 Sawyer Street
Somerville, MA South Portland, ME
Plans: RDA & RDA Narrative 5/31/2011, Rev. 7/6/11 & Plan Town of Bellingham, Franklin Branch
Rev 5/25/2011
Cliff Matthews opened the continued meeting. No one from the public was present. Mr. Matthews stated that 15 years ago, the Commission had walked the entire length of the railroad tracks running through Bellingham indentifying and confirming all the resource areas on the Right of Way. Recently, TEC filed an RDA with Narrative and Map that had excluded two of the previously identified no spray zones. At the last meeting, TEC was asked to revise both the Narrative and Map to include these two formerly identified protected areas. The Commission is in receipt of the revisions. Brian Norton asked if TEC has notified the Commission of a contact at the railroad so that the Commission could ask for cleanup of railroad ties deposited in buffer zones and resource areas. We will have to contact TEC again for that information. Motion
was made, seconded and voted unanimously to issue a Negative Determination with Conditions under the WPA and to grant an exemption under the local Bylaw. The Commission signed the Determination and closed the meeting.
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Informational/ Hartford Avenue, Culvert Replacement/ DPW & consultant, STV
Marian Barth and Will Allen of STV were present for the informational session. Cliff Matthews stated that the DPW and STV requested an informational session in order to receive guidance for filing for the repair of a failing culvert on Hartford Avenue. Marian Barth of STV stated that the DPW had contacted STV because they simply wanted to repave the road and repair a sinkhole that had formed in the road over the culvert and wanted their engineers to evaluate the stability of the culvert. After review and a site walk, STV notified the DPW and Mass DOT that the culvert was not safe and recommended that one side of the road be closed to traffic. MA DOT, the DPW and STV then proposed replacing the culvert structure and MA DOT agreed to pay for the component while the DPW would pay for the installation. Will Allen of STV stated that
the proposed replacement would be a three sided precast arch culvert, installed in concrete footings including precast headwalls and wing walls. The width of the culvert will include a five foot wide sidewalk. He anticipates that the work would take approximately two weeks after the bid has been awarded. The culvert would be installed in a low flow period. Will then presented specific quantified resource areas impacts including BVW, Bank, BLSF ad Riverfront Area. Mr. Allen understood that the Stream Crossing Standards must be incorporated into the design and agreed to submit the hydraulic analysis that was created by MA DOT. Ms. Barth stated that the culvert replacement is necessary for public safety and the project must be completed ASAP. She indicated that the stone arch portion of the culvert, which is currently open for traffic, may fail at anytime. Mr. Matthews then asked Marian and Will to speak with Don DiMartino of the DPW in order to investigate other alternatives for
completion of the project.
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Conservation Commission
Minutes of the Meeting of July 13, 2011
Page #2
Project: 105-682 & BWP-5 Project Description:
C Notice of Intent Countryside Road, Pine Hollow Estates
36 condos in 12 bldgs, stormwater mgt.
Applicant: Representative:
Robert Corey, Corey Builders LLC Robert Poxon, Guerriere & Halnon, Inc.
237 West Central St. 333 West St.
Milford, MA Milford, MA
Plans: NOI & Plans entitled “Pine Hollow Estates, Sheets 1-15, 7/23/10, revised 4/14/2011
Continuation time: 8:00 PM
Robert Poxon of Guerriere & Halnon requested another continuation to the meeting of August 17th so that the peer review would be complete. To date, the Commission has not received any peer review funding from the applicant. Cliff Matthews presented DEP’s legal opinion of 1994 on the abutter notification process for condominium associations which states that the owner of record (the condominium association) must be notified and bears the responsibility of notifying all unit owners. George Holmes stated that the Commission has had the policy of accepting certified abutters lists from the Assessor’s Office. Due to the fact that there is some question regarding the abutter notification and the absence of peer review funding, the Commission voted to continue the hearing to Wed., August 24th in
order to assure ample time for receipt of the funding and the subsequent completion of the peer review. George Holmes will contact Mr. Poxon as soon as the funds are received.
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Project: 105-686 & BWP-8 Project Description:
NOI Cross Street, upgrades to well field
Applicant: Representative:
Don DiMartino, DPW Director Eric Ford, Stantec Consulting Services
26 Blackstone St. 136 West St.
Bellingham, MA Northampton, MA
Plans: NOI & Cross Street Well Improvements, Sheets 1 through 5, June 2011,
Hearing time: 8:05 PM
Eric Ford, wetland scientist, and Jeff Faulkner, project manager, both of Stantec, were present when Cliff Matthews opened the hearing. Jeff stated that the proposed project consists of decommissioning two of the three existing buildings, consolidating activities into one building, and upgrading wiring to pumps in the existing well field. The project aims to improve the Cross St. well fields by restoring the wells to their original permitted capacity, improve well control and provide emergency backups. He stated that the two newly proposed propane tanks will be aboveground on concrete pads and fenced. Eric Ford then described the resource areas on the site that included BVW, Riverfront Areas, Intermittent Stream and BLSF and added that the Commission had walked the site on Sat., June 18th to verify all the identified
resource areas. He described the impacts and mitigation measures that are being proposed in the limited project filing as described in the Notice of Intent. All areas will be stabilized with erosion control measures and restored to their original condition once complete. Eric has not yet received any comments from Natural Heritage regarding Estimated and Priority Habitat of Rare Species. He then requested a waiver to the Bellingham Wetlands Bylaw also described in the Notice of Intent. Cliff Matthews stated that there are no new impacts being proposed to the BVW. The Commission requested that areas for snow storage and for building and demotion materials be identified on the plan. Jeff Faulkner stated that this may be a winter project if funding is sought by approval at the October Town Meeting. Eric and Jeff then requested that they not be present at the continued hearing if the revised plans and the letter from Natural Heritage were submitted. The Commission agreed to prepare the
Order of Conditions for signing at the continued hearing if the revisions
Conservation Commission
Minutes of the Meeting of July 13, 2011
Page #3
are submitted in a timely fashion. By unanimous vote, the hearing was continued to Wed. August 17 at 9:00 PM.
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The Commission signed:
Certificates of Compliance 105-299/ Buffy Road and Penny Lane/ Weston Estates
105-556/ 93 Silver Lake Road/Hafers/sfd (George Holmes will
hold the Certificate until the manhole is filled.)
Determination of Applicability BWP-7/Mass Bay Commuter Railroad/Veg. Management
Cliff Matthews reported that a meeting was held on Friday, July 8th at the MA DOT headquarters on 101 Pulaski Blvd. to discuss action that must be taken to correct the design and construction of at least three detention basins permitted under DEP #105-632, the reconstruction of Pulaski Boulevard. Representatives from MA DOT, BETA (Phil Paradis & Darshan Jhaveri), Lynch Construction Co., Tom Sexton, Don DiMartino, Cliff and Anne Matthews were present at the meeting. At the meeting, Webb Larkin of MA DOT stated that all information must be sent through BETA to MA DOT. Cliff stated that the first step is for BETA to schedule soil testing to determine ground water elevations. Once the ground water elevations are determined, the basins must be re-designed and reconstructed. It is highly possible that the basin
bottoms as well as the inlet and outlet structures and the side slopes may have to be raised in order prevent the loss of flood storage capacity. Cliff will keep the Commission apprised of the project’s progress.
The minutes of the meetings of June 8th and June 22nd were accepted with the corrections as noted.
Cliff Matthews stated that he had written to the Planning Board regarding the Shores at Silver Lake project asking them to take no further action until Fafard filed with the MEPA unit as directed in the Secretary’s Certificate #13957 Lakeview Estates, Chapter 40B Project. The Planning Board continued the discussion.
Cliff then stated that he wrote to Jeff Roelofs, attorney for Fafard, regarding that The Shores at Silver Lake and the directive from the Secretary under EOEA #13957 to address all cumulative impacts for both the Lakeview Estates 40B project and The Shores at Silver Lake project in the NPC for Phase I. Mr. Roelofs responded that he would check with his client.
Lori Fafard presented a copy of the list of task completion from Mr. Yacino of Farm Street. George Holmes will schedule a site walk with Mr. Yacino to check on the status of the Violation Notice.
Norfolk County Mosquito Control has notified the Commission of two upcoming projects: one at 292 and 296 Farm Street and one at the culvert at North Main Street just south of Larry’s Package Store. George Holmes will look at the sites.
Attending the meeting were: Cliff Matthews, Barry Lariviere, Neal Standley, Brian Norton, Lori Fafard, Michael O’Herron, Anne Matthews and George Holmes.
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