Chichester Conservation Commission
02/07/05 Meeting Minutes
7:00, Chichester Grange Hall
Present: Gwen Adams, Jeff Andrews, Gordon Jones, Bob Mann, and Deb Soule
Public Hearing: Using Conservation Funds for Prime Wetland Study
The public hearing began at 7:03 PM. Only one member of the public (Brandon Guida) was in attendance. Jeff explained the prime wetland designation process. Mr. Guida stated that he had a problem with spending money on something he didn’t perceive to be a problem, thought the commission was focusing too much time on wetlands, believes wetlands are well protected under current laws, and is resistant to restricting landowners rights. The hearing closed at 7:26 PM.
General Items
Minutes from last month were unanimously approved.
Noteworthy mail consisted of a copy of the groundwater management permit for the Hess station, which includes monitoring of the culvert which feeds drainage from Main Street towards Marsh Pond and is south of the fire station.
Brandon Guida – Golf Course/Retirement Community Development
Mr. Guida described his intent to develop his 240 acre parcel into a golf course and retirement community. He stated his desire for the Commission to endorse performance (cluster) zoning.
Richard Debold – Carpenter Park Ball Park
He presented plans to make the upper ballpark regulation size by filling in wetlands. Deb and Jeff questioned whether all alternatives to filling in 2500 sq ft of wetlands had been exhausted such as moving or realigning the current ballpark configuration. If no alternatives are viable, Bob suggested that if mitigation was required that it could be accomplished by placing a conservation easement on part of Carpenter Park or the Spaulding town forest lot.
Joe Austin – Proposed Fire Pond at Rte 4 Retirement Community Development
Mr. Austin presented plans to build a fire pond at this proposed development on Rte 4. He has a letter from abutter Shirley Waters to allow a drainage outlet on her property. He would build the pond after the mud season. It will replace the detention pond on the previous plan. He is not opposed to allowing the pond to be used for recreational pursuits.
CCC Goals Status Review:
1) Land Protection Subcommittee
Nothing new to report.
2) Source Water Protection Education Efforts/Web Site
Deb spoke to Fred Shaw about getting the Commission info on the web. He is interested in helping us and will contact the Virtual Town Hall web site folks to gather pricing on different scenarios of updating the web site to accommodate our info.
3) Designating Prime Wetlands
The subcommittee met last week and selected the 3 best proposals for delineating prime wetlands. Bob motioned to authorize interviewing the consultants of the 3 best proposals and to bring a recommendation of the preferred proposal to the March 14th CCC meeting. The motion passed unanimously. Interviews will be on February 16th.
4) Warrant articles and 5) Blaze Paint Property Bounds on Conservation Easements
Both skipped in favor of discussing next month.
6) Water Quality Monitoring of Marsh Pond
Nothing new. Training will likely be in May and sampling to begin in June (if the pond still exists).
7) Implementing the Sanborn Cray Conservation Area management plan.
The fate of the Marsh Pond Dam is still under consideration by the Town. When a plan for the dam has been made, progress can be made on this project. The Plummers had their attorney look at the draft Purchase and Sales Agreement and Jeff forwarded the comments along to the Selectmen for review by the Town Attorney.
Other
Bob requested a $1000 budget for the Commission in the town budget.
Jeff displayed the latest Rte 4 widening plans. The latest proposal is to reroute 60% of the project’s drainage from Marsh Pond to a proposed irrigation pond on a proposed golf driving range.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:25.
Upcoming Meetings
02/16 @ 7:00 PM at Town Hall – Interview 3 consultants who submitted prime wetlands designation proposals.
03/14 @ 7:00 PM at Town Hall – Regular CCC meeting.
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