Town of Bellingham
Conservation Commission
North Community Building
Bellingham, MA 02019
Minutes of the meeting of January 25, 2012
Project: 105-615 Project Description:
CNOI Hartford Avenue / Shoppes at Bellingham Phase I
14 building, parking areas, stormwater & wastewater mgt., & new access road off North Main Street
Applicant: Representative:
Robert Frazier ERM / Ann McMenemy
W/S Development 399 Boylston St.
1330 Boylston St. Boston, MA 02116
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Plans: Proposed Site & Roadway, notice of Intent Permit Plans, Revised 4/27/2011
Drainage Report, The Shoppes at Bellingham, Appendix A & Appendix B, rev 4/27/2011
Continuation time: 7:30 PM
Attending the hearing were Bob Frazier, Austin Turner, Ann McMenemy and Tom Sexton. Cliff Matthews opened the continued hearing. He requested that the site walk be tentatively rescheduled to Sat., Feb.4 due to illness (Barry Lariviere was not present) and personal conflicts. Austin Turner asked if the Commission would kindly contact him to confirm the rescheduled date. Cliff then told the applicant that the Commission will request a wrap up meeting that would incorporate the revisions to the entire project to date. This meeting would take place at the end of the hearing process and the meeting or meetings are necessary to update the Commission members on the project as revised in order to satisfy the Mullen Rule since the filing is approaching the five year hearing period. Obviously, no commissioner was able to attend every
meeting but in accordance with DEP policy, a concise presentation of the project as revised will be sufficient to bring all Commissioners up to date. Austin Turner said he would prepare this information at the same time as he presents a formal response to Tom Sexton’s peer review letter and develops the plans with all of the revisions.
Beginning with item SM# (pg 24) (2 inch orifice in the basin, O & M Plan and trash rack) Austin Turner stated that Stormwater Compliance LLC has reviewed and will make recommendations, but they seem to agree that the current design and O & M Plan as proposed are sufficient. He said that he had sent out CAD files on Jan. 12 & 13 to Barry Lariviere (copying the files to George) regarding the location of the monitoring wells, infiltration basins and detention basins. George Holmes remarked that the Commission has no means to open CAD files. Mr. Turner said that he was out on site the day before (Jan. 24th) and staked out the monitoring wells. Cliff Matthews asked if all of the soil logs have been submitted and if they are properly plotted on the current plan under review. Mr. Turner responded yes. Austin
Turner described the methodology used in testing the ground water elevation in the wells. He said that the results were consistent with the previous readings. After presenting data on MWRIZ1 (GW 15 ft from top and 13’ down) at 214.5, MWRIZ2 and MWRIZ5 (GW 4’ below at 219.5), Cliff Matthews stated that the Commission has actually observed groundwater at 225.5 in that area. He said that IFB5 is
Located above the groundwater visibly seen at the 225.5 elevation. He said that the Commission is less inclined to believe that any result is an “anomaly”. Mr. Turner responded that all the drainage systems are designed to meet the minimum standards per DEP. He added that the town has more stringent requirements under a separate ordinance which would be addressed in the future. He stated that the applicant desires to move along and get the project finished. Austin Turner said that TetraTech will meet with Tom Sexton soon to discuss Tom’s memo of Jan. 20, 2012. Cliff stated the importance of accurate preconstruction information to assure correct design. Even in the case of the detention structures where an
Conservation Commission
Minutes of the meeting of January 25, 2012
Page 2
impervious liner is proposed to separate basin bottoms from groundwater, we need to be assured that high groundwater will not push up the basin bottoms causing the liner to float or distort the shape of the basin.
Cliff then continued the review of Category 2 items as follows:
Category 2 A-1 (pg5) (LID measures ) Meets current DEP standards. Comment addressed
11 (Pg 9)( Infiltration Basin setbacks) The Commission will insist that the design meet the current stormwater management standards. The applicant will investigate setbacks and report back. Pending.
46h (pg 11)(Emergency Response and Contingency Plan) OK to be condition of approval.
WRA5 (pg19) (Hazardous Material Plan) OK to be condition of approval.
WRA8 (pg 20) (Disturbance limits at wetland “M” crossing) Condition construction on sheet piling to assure minimum disturbance. Comment addressed.
WRA add 1 (pg 20) (Preservation of wetland material for reuse) To be done where possible. Special Condition to inspect replacement soils prior to utilization. Comment addressed.
WRA add 2(Pg 20) (Wetland M crossing impacts) Austin Turner recapped the strategies and techniques the applicant proposes to minimize impacts to the crossing area.
SWM5 (pg22) (Detention basin freeboard) Information has been submitted to Tom Sexton for his review and it will be discussed at the forthcoming meeting with TetraTech. Pending
WP% (pg24) (Campground resource area buffer zones) Offsite buffer zones in this areas are shown on the plan. Comment addressed. The Commission discussed conducting a site visit to reacquaint with drainage structure locations and monitoring well locations and a tentative date of Sat., Feb.4th at 8:30 AM was set. Bob Frazier offered to provide a key to the gate behind Home Depot so that Commission members would be able to drive to those locations using the existing dirt road. By unanimous vote, the hearing was continued to Feb. 8th at 7:30 PM.
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The minutes of the meetings of Dec. 14, 2011 and January 11, 2012 were accepted.
The Commission signed a Certificate of Compliance/ 105-691 & BWP16/ 53 Box Pond Drive/septic repair/Page
The MACC Annual Conference is scheduled for Sat., March 3rd.
FEMA maps are finally complete for Bellingham. An article will be placed on the Annual Town Meeting warrant to accept the new maps. Suggested language as authored by Chris Markesich of DEP for the article was developed for the 2010 annual meeting but the maps were not ready. The language was recently sent again to the Planning Board for inclusion in the warrant for the May 2012 town meeting. The special flood hazard area is a Planning Board bylaw.
Attending the meeting were: Cliff Matthews, Neal Standley, Brian Norton, Lori Fafard, Michael O’Herron, Anne Matthews, and George Holmes.
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