##VIDEO ID:DMN6aEW7doc## [Music] good evening everyone today is December 5th the time is 6:00 p.m. and this is the acis Planning Commission this meeting is being recorded for future viewing on the town's YouTube page and we are also live tonight via Zoom can I get a motion to open the planning board meeting motion open to meeting second all in favor I I you uh can we get everybody to introduce themselves sure Victoria Alfaro Town planner Steve bu member Mark Fran chairman Brian damp member Rick Ellis Vice chairman okay uh minutes so we had meeting minutes from November 7th emailed to us and November 21st yeah both of them relatively short meetings uh all of us were in attendance for both meetings did anybody have a chance to look these over I don't have a problem with either of these I there was very little done at those two meetings so I would make a motion to approve the minutes for November 7th and November 21st as written second that all in favor I I okay excuse me next discussions and other topics uh an informal meeting for 96r pekam road map 16 Lot 4 a applicant Cameron of course yeah LLC Cameron LLC representative by Zenith Consulting engineering LLC scope of the work is the definitive subdivision good evening Jamie biset zenth Consulting Engineers for the record thank you for taking the time to meet meet with me I'll be brief could you just elevate your voice just a little bit certainly thank you I wanted to come in front of the the board tonight and talk briefly um to get some feedback as to how to proceed I believe John romanelli came in about six months ago talked about this it's kind of been put on on the shelf and it's coming back up so we're going to look to proceed with this um essentially the applicant has enough area to do three conventional Lots with a roadway um we're looking to try to minimize the impact out here um and so when we came in the last time we talked about waivered Road being private and you know three lots uh the board seemed amendable they wanted us to consider looking at other roads fur or right of ways further down um to avoid adding any drainage strain I think on warning side um we wanted to actually find out the um the whether the board would be amenable to uh going down to two lots with a gravel roadway instead of three with a paved way if if I remember correctly I actually went back uh it was February of 23 I think it was the last time that uh John romanelli was in front of us and I went back and I watched that meeting actually two hours ago okay um I don't think the issue was was a gravel road and or an asphalt road okay um we were asked at that meeting if we had any issues with three lots private Lots on a private road well first he came in wanting to do two different roads with um without having as as anrs and then we had said that we weren't going to accept that that you were creating Frontage and that we needed a form c um and then at the time we had uh Dave thean on on the board and Dave and John kind of bed back and forth on what they thought would be a better plan um I don't think at well back then these are some new members on the board so we'll ask them but back then we didn't have an issue with uh a gravel road for three private Lots on a private road okay we just suggested that you have to have some type of a homeowners association uh that is responsible for maintaining the road okay um from what I gathered and again I'm just speaking for myself the main issue was drainage with storm water um and again I looked at this plan earlier today and my biggest concern is Woodland Road is almost a 10 foot height difference from where it crests up top to where on the bottom that's correct um I see you put some Retention Ponds here in the back which is great and it does pitch the rest of the road from this side does pitch that way which is fine and you'll um maintain that now you haven't filed for storm water no we we haven't filed officially for anything anything all right um and I think you're going to have to file for storm water I would imagine we will you file with storm water and you can figure out where this water is going to go cuz now you got 150 ft of roadway here that's a 10t height elevation from this end to this end you're just going to flood everybody on the other side of the road especially since morning side has no type of drainage or anything it's all on top and it's just going to flow downhill whether it's asphalt or gravel doesn't make a difference it's still going to just flow downhill um that was my issue a year ago when John was in sure um and that is uh my issue still okay um that's just my two sents genten um additionally I mean this proposed drainage ement and this detention SL retention Pond that you've got out in the back yes have you done any percolation tests there do you know what the seasonal ground how high groundwater table level is the and the reason I the reason I asked that question is there's a this is an area of town where there's a lot of very tight soils yes and not I don't expect much infiltration to happen I agree so if the storm comes and the basin's already full then it overflows into somebody else's yard sure um yeah that that's a big issue for me sure you know we we've had a couple of projects in town where infiltration basins have not worked very well it's not that they won't work uh but they will not work in all soil situations yep um I I that's an issue for me you know that that has got to work and there's got to be no chance that there's going to be water that's overflowing a basin that's full before the storm begins into other people's property yeah we expect that groundwater is going to be about two feet um it's going to be very high have have you done any uh initial percolation tests back there no we have not okay again you know we we're talking about an area of town where the high point in Middle Road you know there's one system back there at the high point and it's an elevated system yeah which says High groundwater table at the top of the hill forget about at the at the bottom of the hill sure um and then as as Mark pointed out you know You' you've got a the beginning of Woodland Road is there's a relatively decent slope down towards Morningside and there's one catch one or two catch one catch Basin on that side of morning side that's got to handle the whole thing yep um gravel could be even more of a problem because gravel flows downhill when water runs over on runs over the soil um so now there's an issue about keeping sand and sediment out of that one por catch Basin that's down there to handle uh whatever is coming down a Woodland Road and and obviously with the with the road up there even if it's gravel there there will be substantially more water that that comes down uh towards uh morning side and ultimately towards the drainage system in Middle Road um I mean I'm to me this looks like a difficult subdivision uh diff and a difficult section of road to put in sure and a difficult place to put a couple of houses in in an area that's known to be difficult to to percolate sure um Rick let me ask you a question if they asphalted all the way up to when the the ground starts to level off so we don't have any sand or gravel runoff from the from the road but then cut the rest gravel when it's flat and if they were able to connect I don't know if they can connect to the C catch basins I mean that would be that would be ideal in terms of of drainage we've still got the infiltration Pawn to to deal with but that's that's a whole different subject that's a that's a storm water that's they're going to have to go through storm water storm water is going to have to determine if that's even possible with soil samples and and percolation test that I mean that's a Val to me that's a valid comment you know it's pave the first section you know get some kind of storm drainage in there and maybe a couple of catch basins to catch any sediment that comes down that uh New Road uh before it gets the morning side and ultimately Middle Road I don't even know how well that drainage system that short section of drainage system on morning side works right don't and quite honestly I would want to uh solicit some uh some information from the the town Highway super or Department of Public Works superintendent to see if they've had any problems down there uh in in the past now did you guys look at possibly instead of using Woodland Road possibly using pine or even Hemlock where I think you don't go all the way down with elevations but I think it's a little bit from just me driving down the road and look at the the the it's much more level down the further down you go you wouldn't have this massive ramp that you have on Woodland have you guys looked at maybe going up Pine or or Hemlock we have and that's that's on the table for us um tonight again we didn't change the plan from when John was in here um to talk to you and it's because we wanted to discuss uh what way the board wanted us to kind of go in so we will look at those Avenues we'll look at the drainage situation we did know it was a sensitive Point uh we can look to see if it does get to the back we are aware the soils are extremely tight they're mapped as SL D um so we do expect twoot water tables and tight tills out there I I mean to go back I don't know probably two years now I mean I know the person that lives at the top of the rise on uh on pekham road and I got called at like 7:00 at night to help out with the flooded Cellar yep um when I went down in the cellar they had two sump pumps on an alternating system piped by a plumber and both of them did not work and honest to God there was I helped them pump out about 3 or four feet of water in the bottom of the cellar oh wow so that's that's to me an indication of a very very high water table and soil that really doesn't perk very well at all to have that much water in the basement of the the the house that's on the top of the hill uh that that doesn't speak too well for uh ability to drain or infiltrate anything uh in that section of the world so you came here looking for a few answers uh let me ask the board and this is an informal question if Jamie were to figure out a way to get this road well let's just say go one first example if you were to keep it at Woodland would we be happy going asphalt to gravel on a private road yeah I mean I think so I mean but you still got to answer the question about additional runoff top of hill on adjacent property I'm just trying to give him answers on whether or not he can to get three lots on a partially asphalted partially Gravel Road if you were to be able to come down this way and you didn't have a 10 foot height elevation and this is a lot flatter you might get away with all gravel going out because it's not we we have approved gravel RADS for three uh sub three house subdivisions in the past it's all about the drainage so if you didn't go down wood Woodland and you ended up possibly doing this you might save on asphalt if it wasn't such a steep pitch and if you still get all the setbacks you can probably still get you three uh as far as drainage regardless of what road you use and the back you're going to have to go through the storm water you're going to have to do the perk test you're going to have to do soil samples you're going to have to go through that whole rig to get those answers understood those questions answered oh I get it all right and I guess that's the comment uh we want that looked at very very closely because we don't want to create new roadways and New Lots that are going to put an additional uh burden on the adjacent properties oh I understand yeah we we typically look to lay it out first before we go out and park so we know where we're trying to set the houses and put the septic systems and so this is kind of the first step on us getting there that that system that I helped the guy pump his basement out of that it's a mound system on the top of the hill sure no I I get it no it's it's always been an issue down there what's that it's just septic systems in that area been issues so over the years I mean just trying to put a septic system in Period oh yeah AB that's been that's been problematic for absolutely CU as we had talked about sewers coming down that way to pick up PO ofor ins Side Avenue at one point in time which we couldn't we weren't in the predicament to do because we couldn't tie into the school system right but I I mean I've seen all kinds of soils perked uh during the dry season you know a lot of things that can happen so I mean that's where Engineers will come in for Designing septics whether it perks whether it doesn't perk that's where the engineers come in for drainage and all that um that like Rick said needs to be you know looked at very carefully not a problem I I think that's one of your biggest hurdles here to be quite honest with be the per handling of the drainage from the storm drainage from the property I don't think it's if you can get it the perk get it the per that's B of Health you get it the per get it the perk um it's where's all that water going to go sure that's that's the biggest key uh and then you know but then again if you go through storm water and everything's done properly and they figure out a way to do it then there's a way to do it all right um I think I got what I need fabulous anybody else questions comments concerns the only comment I would have is that if it does end up and it works and wherever they put a Gravel Road in it we minimally there should be some sort of apron that goes an x amount of feet oh absolutely yeah yeah keep that when you and I'd stay at the 20 foot 20 foot width 20 foot width okay all right appreciate it have a great night you too all right next we have a public hearing site plan review for special per for 21 Middle Road map 23 L 29 29a 29b applicant re wild Renewables LLC representative BS and Thomas uh scope of the work uh proposed is 6 megawatt solar photo volic development um I'll entertain a motion to open the public hearing motion to open the public hearing second all in favor um this was in accordance with the massachusett general laws chapter 48 section 9 you are hereby notified of a public hearing the chrisan planning board would hold this hearing on Thursday December 5th at 6: p.m. to review a site plan review as follows submitted by Middle Road chrishna solar LLC rewind Renewables property owner is whites Farm Inc represented by bills and Thomas Inc scope of the work the applicant proposes to conduct the ground Mount solar energy facility the location is 211 Middle Road Kush Mass map 23 Lots 29 29 29b this meeting will be held at 1222 Main Street of Co Mass 02743 border select from the meeting room and over Zoom the zoom link will be on the agenda and posted at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting all persons parties or Corporation interested therein may appear and be heard in relation there too please introduce yourself good evening I'm Greg Samson with Sullivan and Wester I'm here on behalf of Middle Road Acushnet solar LLC care of re wild Renewables um with me tonight is Zach Faris from RE Renewables and Sarah Sterns from bills and Thomas um so we're happy to be here to present this project um as you may recall we had an informal meeting with the board on September 5th which was happened right after uh we had a meeting with all the town staff on octo August 22 um and so that was part of what informed the filing that we made in October um so it is a site plan review and special permit filing for the large uh ground mounted solar project um I think this site is probably one that many people in a cushion are familiar with it's the whites Dairy um historically it was a dairy farm uh more recently I believe it's been used both for driving range and for some uh kenneling of dogs and other animals um it's a large site it's 54 Acres a good part of it is uh there's some Wetlands on it which we have gone through a process with the Conservation Commission to confirm the Wetland boundaries so those are all confirmed through an in red filing um there is some work within the 100 foot buffer zone to the wetlands there's no direct Wetland impacts so we have filed a notice of intent that is being reviewed by the Conservation Commission basically concurrently with this application um as part of our meeting with the town staff one of the things we're very happy that we're able to do is uh we we have a coordinated peer review uh process with I think the the board is seen uh the preliminary comments from GF engineering so I'll mention that in a few minutes but um as I said it's a 54 Acre Site uh we're looking to do about a 6 megawatt solar project um it's going to occupy um about 13.6 Acres of the 54 Acre Site uh in the layout is basically shown on the aerial overlay so just for the uh the members of the public we we have the same plans will be presented up here as for you as well um so it's basically occupying most of the Open Fields it's a site that's unusual in the sense that we do not have significant clearing of any vegetation it's it's been clear it's been maintained as you know driving range or lawn and ground cover so the vast majority of the work is being done on a cleared area um the majority of the work that we're doing that involves site work involves uh the construction of a firm for screening of the site which I'll mention in a minute um so the solar the project involves the construction of the panels they're oriented obviously to the sou which is you know plan self is is actual self inness layout um so we have we've looked at a number of issues related to the the visual impacts we've looked at uh a lot of concerns have been raised regarding storm water management which we understand um frankly those are a little bit of a challenge to address because uh of the fact that we don't have great soils here as well it's it's mostly dooil so we you know the benefit we have is we're not doing a substantial change of ground cover and really the only impact that we have from this project is the area of the gravel road that Rings the solar site so the fire department asked us to make sure that we had a full Ring Road for Access around the perimeter of the field and so we have a pretty extensive 18 foot gravel road that goes around the field the entire thing yes um so we had that's that's the biggest concern for stone water management is the conversion of that field to a gravel road so but we do think we have um a proposal that will address the concerns um address the stor bylaw and address the concerns of the peer reviewer um so I mentioned we did uh we received an initial response from the peer reviewer that we are working through um we're hopeful to have a response back to them within the next couple weeks um there were some good technical comments that we just do take a little while to respond to so our goal is to do a full response and hopefully work out a lot of issues that are you know technical issues that we can just work out with them directly um you know as far as the project impacts the board is aware of solar uh has se number of projects I know of um there's very little impact from a utility perspective the this all of the connections will be done um right at uh there's an interconnection point on Middle Road um um there's a number of poles that will be put on our site there's a number of poles that will be connected on the public road um so it's a fairly easy interconnection again the site has the benefit of being pretty open so we have a decent amount of lay down area for construction uh staging area for construction I'm going to have to interrupt you for one second keep your train Victor got a question for you if Zoom isn't working is that uh a violation yeah I was advertising The Zo to work get on okay because of it's not working the the the link that we have on the agenda is I never realized there were this many houses in that were access from New Bedford back there yeah I've only driven by it for the last 50 or 60 years just that's all that's all you been driving by there legally [Music] this is the this is this is the Which is closest to this is Middle midd where's Mary drive it's right here Ed this detention [Music] Basin here what that's proposed that's proposed that's proposed that's that's part of the stor Water Management you were here at the conservation I was okay and one of my biggest questions was brought up was there nothing been resolved from the consummation meeting right we haven't gone back there again they wanted us to come to this meeting first yeah that'll be continued as part of the process yeah because um this is my biggest concern he had always right now even without this and I think mention we know that storm water Smalls like similar issue with this it doesn't make any difference to that develop well as it is yeah oh so this Bas is this propos area this is right on the other side of the which I call a cat yes right across right so that's that's in okay that station actually that's proposed to catch any of the water that will be coming off the gravel that was to pick up that was to pick up that little mini indust thing is they're proposing this this over here n Lane yeah they've got this whole area down here is all going to be used for your construction coming down yes all right and how long is that going to be all disrupted down there three four five months F three 3 to five months how long three to five months three to five months okay all right because uh uh in the road that comes up here there'll be there'll be a road that comes up here which again is in my backyard see the black that's so you'll be you'll be traveling with across all of this of the that that in itself is very disruptive to me you know I it was odd the cushion Avenue never makes it to a cush goes by it didn't want any part of a cushion I guess I don't know fencing all this in you got to access a cushion back into a when you get up that way com down is that going to be fenced in or is that not going to be the red line you see is the fence this is the fence here so this really nothing in here is going to be done to help my whatsoever doesn't look from this chart so what do you we can't obviously propose any work on what are you up to what are you up to these days you still working finally got our permit I've been trying to get an inspection for a year we finally I'd like I'd like some kind of you know some kind of protection more material s we need other St so what they want to do is I guess when they recycle stuff and it doesn't happen to recy so what they want is they want these recycling for sending their stuff here like this is the last house on the RO techically it ain't a land we're do the problem I have is is been right along is thing is now they can ship it to the other statesas for to do you know what cheap exactly this is all likeing a stream that came recycling credits and they'll send it to us they'll send it for us to be able to process it what happened right now that's what we're going you want say yeah you're going to give them Recycling and like they put have train right there and comes right across for us to use this pipe when you say they they said this would be a good site to show us how the product works we trying to do that but now you you're putting restrictions on us there was a lot of stuff going on at that time it's a wonderful I bought the property and I knew about it they told me about it and I I accepted it for a whole year I had to sit there and we get a lot of come give me that inspection I say a lot of rain even normal rain this all comes down and so muches com down floods the end of my lot now we got this hang on you know which you probably have seen we've been working on this thing for 5 years we've seen years lot also another drain up in this are existing sewer dra near my house yeah there's a lot there's a lot of lot of water that comes down through there I'm surprised that or has the potential like 24 in of con dirt there this group over here don't want to come I'm afraid the group over here is going to so much water that comes through here drive the driveway she constantly no wor there was a house on the corner she had no idea she was living there she had a Porsche out there and I said you know there's nothing under that asphall I took a stick and put it through the crack and almost lost the stick the street there's a lot of a lot a lot of water there's a driveway that just constantly collapses for making because I used to mow the grass comes from the governor's office the asphalt would just settle Andes I talked to her Park portion on that hot asphalt CU there's no no gravel left she had the going I could have just dropped it just they dug up the asphalt it's a constant water problem down in it we have 255 top the hill and I have sink holes in my brought in in five my driveway Mar I'm onth Anthony at the top right at the top of I have enough yeah cuz I had a 20 foot piece of metal and it just kept going to keep going the way we are going if we're reting any of that water to the hope is getting in here developing this that's the hope is that we can move the water toward this DET this if this water this coming down that to me it sounds like a disaster I mean there is a lot of there's a lot of water that's going to is this part isn't going to change that much the thing that changes the here that's being what I'm saying alone now I've seen when the water comes off of these panels and hits the ground F to get that decision not having anything here I mean this is going decision that's why I think drainage is is is very very important this and that's why we're working at to engine culations and basically they can't be happy until ladies and gentlemen sorry thank you very much um something has come to my attention that we are having technical difficulties with the zoom link uh in other words it's not working okay um with that being said and it being advertised as having a zoom link uh we would be an open meeting violation if we continueed with this meeting um as much as I'd like to continue this unfortunately we're going to have to postpone this meeting due to technical difficulties um again my apologies I know you guys all drove out here I know you'd rather be home having dinner um this is something that was out of our control um but uh the way things work that people read something that we post and legally we are liable for that and if we do not abide by that we can get in trouble uh if you went through this whole proposal you'd have to go through from scratch again the next meeting so uh it and and we can't vote or say anything on anything that's said so it' be a waste of of time uh and then we can still get in trouble if you still do anything so unfortunately uh again we're going to have to uh um postpone this public hearing to our next meeting you're not going to have to uh repost anything no um it will be posted on our next meeting that this will be on our next meeting which is January 2nd um of course and uh that's that I I'll take any questions that anybody might have and I'll try to answer those questions uh after January 2nd could I ask what the next meeting is is it uh 16th yeah it's two so jary yep the 16th yeah do we think it's better to go to the 16th given the holidays all right so now I kind of see where you're going with this because you're still waiting to hear from all the peer revie so I'll kind of share with you what's going on so they sent their plans to another engineering firm uh that is reviewing what reviewing the plans and that engineering company came back with oh they're going to change this they're going to change that they're going to tweak this they going to tweak that they're still in the process of that so even after today's meeting they would still be back to go over those changes that they still have to make regarding the other engineering's peer review uh but instead of them starting from the beginning today it'll have to be on the next meeting so to the board it was it was our intent to open and present the general project today Y and then continue yeah our expectation was we'd be continuing to the 16th right after our conversations with Mr Madden and and GF y understanding that we probably wouldn't have the peer review letter resolved by the second right so would it be preferential to the board for us to try to come back or one of us or whoever is available on the second and just basically restate or do you want me to just postpone it to the 16th I'm just I'm asking if if you guys would be we're open to postponing it to the 16 I mean if we have to postpone it which we do um in my opinion whether I postpone it to the second or I postpone I know not not everybody lives no nearby sometimes so if you know to have you come back on the second just to say I'm going to push it to the 16th doesn't make any sense so if you would prefer to go to the 16th and we have to do this regardless due to uh issues we'll just postpone this public hearing to the 16th very good the 16th is preferable for us that way instead of doing this in two sessions after the uh Bill the uh changes have been made maybe we can do it all the one shot yeah it Be My Hope to come in with a clean peer review letter on the 16th and we can see where we get then but yeah great thank you okay again ladies and gentlemen I I apologize uh it's out of my control can you just do a formal motion to continue absolutely I I make a motion Contin this public hearing to our meeting of January 16th 16 January 6:00 okay retion a oh motion to close okay right so let me just go down I understand thank you with a fence on top of it just to help a a good point and it makes things easier on us when you come back you can kind of highlight change not guessing thing flipping look going back and forth usually we go right down the line and say you know this is what we had this is what you know then down line some of the comments are real easy and some a little bit more extens app all these people got a chance to ask question why you in there so they were all they kind screen the panels themselves we going to discuss the but that's the idea right now so that's we had to I'm sorry our uh our next meeting is Thursday January 2nd comments concerns questions gentlemen I get a make a motion to adjourn check it out all in favor good night [Music] [Music] [Music]