TOWN OF RUTLAND
CONSERVATION COMMISSION
MINUTES: MARCH 18, 2014
MEETING OPENED: 7:06 PM
Attendance
Board Members Present: Joe Dell’Aquila, Chairman; Scott Landgren; Shawn Moore; Willard Cannon; Eric Bigelow
Board Members Absent: Nancy Nichols
Guests
Julian Votruba; Paul Aquino; Tracey McCauley Annetts; Elizabeth MacIver; Karen Aquino; William Toomey
Application Submissions
NONE
Votes
Minutes from March 4, 2014 – Motion to approve minutes made by Shawn, seconded by Willard; vote passed at 7:08 PM with Eric abstaining.
Motion to close meeting – Motion made by Shawn, seconded by Eric; vote unanimous at 9:10 PM.
Hearings
Julian Votruba, River Road Notice of Intent for Blair Enterprises
Hearing Opened at 7:16 PM. Julian opened up the hearing by explaining that they will be on the westerly side of River Road. They are proposing 2 common driveways. There are 6 Estate lots, with each lot being at minimum of 5 acres, and they will have 7 houses with 2 common driveways. Julian went over the area extensively with Jeff Lacy, DCR, and came up with the lines that will cause the least impact for the common driveways. The soil and perc tests were both done and came back good. There are 2 lots that are within 100 feet, which they are here for as well as the driveways. There is a road between the land and the river. Jeff Lacy had asked if they could clean out the currently existing basin while they were there. Julian had to file a MEPA because they were going
through a variance. They also filed because of an endangered species, which turned out to be a shiner; however the shiner will not be affected. Mr. Aquino asked about the Woods Turtle and whether they were still endangered; he stated he documented the turtle with pictures and dropped the information off at the town hall approximately 2 years ago. Joe explained that he should go to MA Wildlife with the information, because they are who handles that.
Ms. Annetts spoke to Phil Nadeau and he told her the endangered species may definitely be a problem and he had concerns about the project. She is also concerned about the runoff because there was another house recently built and she was told that the culvert was supposed to help and it hasn’t. There has been dirt and debris going into the water because of the other house. She is also concerned because River Road itself is not a wide enough road for all the construction trucks that will be traveling on the road. There is currently too much traffic as it is from out of towners and this is going to add to the problem. The road is currently deteriorating and she wants to be able to keep what little pond she has left. She used to go snowshoeing and hiking in this area, and is very
unhappy about losing the natural state it is in. She has already lost her wood ducks and she doesn’t want any more neighbors. She also wanted to know if they plan on tapping into her vein with the wells. This happened when she was in Hubbardston and doesn’t want this to happen again. Julian stated it was not likely.
Julian explained that when deciding what to do with the property, they opted for 2 common driveways as opposed to 7 individual driveways so that they didn’t impact the area too much. The closest point to the Bordering Vegetative Wetland is approximately 35-40 feet. The septic’s are all over 100 feet. The culverts will be a depression with either grass or wild grass and they will be lower than the pipe about 1 ½ feet. They don’t want it to be standing water; it should be a slow down point. There will be a depression created when building the main driveways, so they will use those as a basin. There is silt fencing along the wetland line. Joe would also like to see an added Special Condition that they add silt fencing and fencing basket along the culverts as well as the
wetlands. Eric asked about the fill and they will not be bringing any fill in; everything will be from on-site. They are going to do the main driveways first and get those stabilized, and then branch off one at a time. Joe likes that idea and would like to see that as a Special Condition. Julian believes that the logging was already done and the only trees left to be removed are where the houses are going to be.
Ms. MacIver is also concerned about River Road because the road is very tiny and cannot handle the traffic that it gets now. Joe explained that although we sympathize with her, we have no jurisdiction over that. She also said she thinks the water table will be affected and who would check into that. Julian told her that with the size of the lots being over a minimum of 5 acres there will be minimal impact to the vegetation and to the water table.
Joe explained that we are here only to determine the wetlands safety. Anything else is not within our jurisdiction. We cannot do anything about septics, for example, because that falls under the Board of Health. We try to be proactive by having the wetlands protected before they start work, and that we cannot stop them from building. The next step is to close the hearing and issue the Order of Conditions at the next meeting with any Special Conditions the board would like to add. Motion to close hearing made by Willard, seconded by Shawn; vote unanimous at 8:00 PM.
Discussions
William Toomey, 2 Lizzy Lane
He wanted direction on how to best proceed about his pool. The Board would like to see a Request for Determination completed from him for the next meeting, and we will proceed from that. The pool is already in place.
Julian Votruba, Brice-Lemon Estates
There is currently a Superseding Order of Conditions in place for Brice-Lemon Estates. The plans were approved with bridges in place. There is now a different proposed plan; because this is more than a modification of the original, they are going to refile a Notice of Intent. What they did was take some of the lots and put them in an area they formerly had designated as Open Space, and rearranged things so that the Open Space area would be bigger and one piece instead of multiple. There is an unmarked tributary that is not on DEP’s maps, and has caused a lot of problems with this property. There will be 4,995 square feet of fill, and the wetland lines have not changed from the original plan.
They are making an Open Space Plan that is much better; almost half of the property will now be left untouched. They are not in any 200 foot zones. Because of the problems with the original filing, Julian wanted to give the Board a heads up that he will be refiling, and to make sure that all members are able to vote on this project, unlike the original filing, which had forced a Superseding Order of Conditions from DEP.
Reviewed Mail
Respectfully Submitted,
Karen Wamback
Secretary
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