hello and welcome to the April 24 2024 meeting of the emis Conservation Commission we have all members present tonight and staff Aaron jock and Dave zc uh first up on our agenda is my report I just want to congratulate Bruce deadmond for his completion of the Mac Bruce is there any words you'd like to impart to us now or yes it's a very Zippy certificate me okay what was that Bruce I didn't cat very a very Zippy certificate that they sent me what does Zippy mean for a certificate moves around it's just weird that they would even do it but I don't know I I learned some good things I was especially the the session that was in Jason's Arena was especially good about flood issues and Water Management that one was good some of them weren't that well taught I must say but anyway I went through it learned some good things end of story great well thank you for putting the time in on that um all right that's all I have so I'll hand it to Dave for director's reports sure thanks Michelle a couple of quick updates on on larger projects in town and happy to take any questions but I'm pleased to let let the commission know we are underway uh with the trails at Hickory Ridge um as you may recall we uh hired Taylor Davis they were the low bidder on the project and we're very happy uh that they were they're local and they know us and they know the site quite well because their their main headquarters is right down the street so uh they are kicked off we have all of our Turtle barrier and sediment control in place Aaron organized a an outstanding uh Turtle training for uh we had about 25 27 people there uh including many Town staff Our Town engineer came uh the the fire department personnel came uh pure Sky their Consultants us fish and wildlife service and many others so it was uh it was great to have everybody there um the main focus will be on the loop trail uh right out of the gate that's the trail along West pomoy Lane that you can you can actually see the turtle barrier SL silt fence up uh as you drive by um there's equipment in the parking lot and um with the with decent weather we are we're underway so we're excited to get that going again I don't want to predict uh it's not a long construction period we hope because we have some grant funding kind of writing on it all but I oh you muted yourself Dave sorry um giving you a date um but weather permitting we're going to go quickly this is a six foot wide Crush Stone Trail with some benches and kiosks so let's hope for the best in terms of weather so um that's going well out at Hickory um the town is also a project U I'm involved with and many other uh Town staff are involved with we're kicking off the uh wayfinders affordable housing project um off of uh near the E Street School in 70 belter toown road um the planning staff is working closely on this uh with with myself and Aaron and you will be hearing from wayfinders uh and the town on that project coming up uh later this summer early fall um this is recall we're reusing uh we're repurposing the East Street school or or wayfinders is and then we the town purchased some land off of belr town road that happens to abut the Fort River Farm conservation area and there'll be about 78 units of uh affordable housing in those two developments so really excited it will be a 40b so it will be um you know primarily going through the um through the zoning board of appeals but the commission will um have a role in this as well and then um Erin as I recall the town will have kind of a parallel project on the East Street school property which is there is an old failed covert that we would like to improve and uh we just recently hired a u a consultant or we're on the verge of hiring a consultant to help us with that project and it might actually be a stream daylighting project so it could be really pretty cool and and uh we're looking forward to bringing that to you as well um so we've got Hickory underway East Street School Bel down Road the wayfinders project will'll be getting underway later um probably Midsummer and then I think later on in your agenda under um other business there is um um there is a reference to an emergency search that I authorized uh yesterday or Monday I believe um we if you're familiar with the KC Trail bridge off of Southeast Street uh this is a foot bridge that goes over the hopbrook and with some of these recent rains uh we had a um one of the abutments basically fall in and um the stream has significantly undermined the um the uh east abutment of the uh of the bridge so we had a number of people call and um concerned about someone getting hurt down there we went down with staff including our Building Commissioner and uh um decided we needed to do something as quickly as possible so we'll we'll have more on that I think under other business business later I don't want to throw off your agenda now but we came up with I think a very uh a very wellth thought out and minimally impactful um short-term solution to try to stabilize the bank and also um make sure our Bridge didn't wash into the hopbrook um so those are the main um main updates for you today um I don't want to go into detail tonight but I I will say that staff and I including the fire department are making good progress on a possible emergency access at um um um Hickory Ridge um so we're we're going to be meeting with J Sky uh I imagine next week to talk about that that possibility so um good discussions going on there and I'm I'm pretty hopeful we'll have we'll have a a viable solution um so that's all I have for this evening happy to take any questions on those quick updates any questions Commissioners okay seeing none um let's move on to land use applications this is a Mount poock wedding do we have someone here I don't don't think we need to yeah okay so aon's been in communication with the applicant and um I don't know these are pretty routine by now so I think you've relayed that take take all the trash out with them yeah they've only got a few folding chairs they understand the parking and that it's not closed to the public during the ceremony or any other time so I think that's it yep okay um I think we need a motion to app approve the landuse application for the mount poock wedding I don't have the date on me I can uh tell you the date and uh it is uh a quick question are we getting more of these than we normally do I don't think so I don't I mean it's weding season so it's hard to tell so far but um okay I think this is the first that we've got this year okay not that surprising the first uh eloping ceremony I've ever seen yes and it's on uh June June 8th it's scheduled for and they are um nearby to mount Pollock their residents so they have their own parking they're only planning on bringing a couple chairs and they said that they'd welcome the public attending if they want you know people come up or whatever they said they understand the public has access okay great go ahead Alex did I miss um voting on the minutes oh I missed the vote on the minutes but let's let's just finish this up and then I'll get back to that all right so I move to approve the um I'll second it Andre uh let Andre finish the motion and and then you got it Lord go ahead Andre yeah I move to uh approve the uh request for uh public land use for Mount Pollock on what's the date June 8th on June 8th 2024 and I second that Andrea on the motion Laura on the second Rachel hi Andre hi Alex hi Bruce hi Jason Hi Laura hi n i okay uh minutes we're tabling these to 58 yeah I got about halfway through uh Bruce's draft but it has been a really really tough week for me so um I wasn't able to get all the way through with edits no problem and thanks as always for taking the minutes Bruce okay uh moving on to hearings so General procedure for fairness to all applicants each hearing has 20 dedicated minutes on the agenda it's five minutes of comments from staff five minutes of by the applicant five minutes for the public or two minutes per person then five minutes for each conservation commissioner or or the conservation Commissioners so for revisions the Commissioners require all submitted and revised materials to be submitted for by Wednesday the week prior to the meeting at the close of business and for all presenters please clearly state state your name the address of the project who you're representing as well as if you have preferred pronouns for all members of the public clearly state your name address and preferred pronouns okay first up so Michelle I'm sorry to interrupt you but we can't start hearings until 7:30 um let's move down to other business um should we do our emergency certifications and yeah that'd be great okay um so the first uh that I have on the uh on the PowerPoint is um for Eastman Lane um UMass had a situation with a road collapse um and it was caused by a failed Culvert under Eastman Lane just east of the north ammer fire station it's the road that goes between where the north ammer fire station is and the dormitories on UMass campus so um the road is currently closed and they have um come up with a design solution to replace the failed CT and um repair the road um I did not have any concerns they already had erosion control barrier set up um they have a pretty slick setup for their dewatering operation because there was already um some catch basins which were on either side of the road that water could be um pumped out of and over the road and into the other catch Basin basically directing it back to the same Outlet um for the stream so that worked out well and um yeah they anticipated starting work Tuesday or Wednesday so unless anybody has any questions um it's a pretty straightforward one and I can pull up pictures if anyone wants to see they're also in your pocket go ahead Alex but that's more like a sinkhole right uh it was a sinkhole that formed in the road and the road started to collapse in the sinkhole yes yeah pretty pretty big deal yes pretty big deal it was a pretty major emergency it was a big emergency week I go by it all the time yeah okay um any other questions okay do you want to are you bringing things up or um I can if you want to or I can just move into the next um I put them together in a motion to be approved together um the second emergency certification was for uh the bridge repair on Southeast Street that Dave mentioned um it's uh the the path that originates on Southeast Street and goes over the hot Brook um recently constructed Footbridge and the um slumping of the bank underneath the bridge necessitated some sort of stabilization measures So the plan was formulated to put um landscaping fabric and then hand placed Stone um under the bridge using the butt minint sort of to brace the bottom of the the stone and building up to the top there's also photos of this in your packets if anybody wants I can also pull it up to share um but if anybody has questions for Dave or i on that we're happy to field them oh um one other quick piece of that is that we did submit a um checklist to natural heritage because it is located in an HP habitat area um we notified them as part of the emergency certification process and issued a checklist to them right away with a plan and explanation so um they are in the loop as well Michelle if I could add that we also hired an environmental U monitor to come out to the site from Goddard Consulting um that consultant um came out to the site before work began and did a thorough search Our concern is that the bridge is in estimated in priority habitat um likely certain turtle habitat um so um the consultant did a thorough search of the bank um a very thorough search we were we were quite surprised because it was very cold morning and uh um he reached in every nook and cranny uh under that uh that bridge and uh was looking for any turtles that might be uh might have spent time in there either during the winter or or short term here on some of these warm days but um I just want to emphasize that um despite the possible need to use equipment we decided to actually do all of this work by hand so staff went down with wheelbarrows and literally uh picked up every stone uh that was brought to the site and then hand placed them um under the bridge uh to stabilize the bank as Aon uh indicated and the hope is that this could be you know give us some time basically buy us some time to come up with a longer term solution uh for that bridge it is a very uh popular Trail it was once actually a u a crossing for um farm equipment um but um we lost that bridge some years ago so anyway the hope is that this buys us some many months and then we can come up with a larger plan that would likely of course require an noi so happy to take any questions thanks Dave Alex I'm just curious if the failure is because we have a changing environment and uh That Couldn't been been anticipated when the design of the bridge was made um well the brid Bridge didn't fail actually Alex the uh the abutment caved in so no doubt um I I've been down there during some of these storms as says Aaron as says Brad um this is a pinch point in the in the hot Brook created by this historic farm Crossing no doubt about that um and these two abutments you know we all hoped I think they would last another hundred years but they've been in there a long long time and I think in some of these very powerful flashy storms water was able to get behind this the eastern abutment and literally cause it to slump into the river so it's it's probably 15 18 ft long and a combination of large stones and concrete it's not going anywhere but um it's not the ideal um environment to have that bridge be on for the next many years so we've got to figure out a solution there thank you Bruce is this the kind of thing for which we could get State Grant support uh anything's possible I guess Bruce um I I yeah anything's possible I I I can't think of a grant funer right off the top of my head that would be interested in this project unless um unless we you know we' really need to look at this comprehensively and we will but the long-term solution is to expand the pinch point and make this a much longer bridge and basically blow out what the what the farmers did a hundred years ago by pinching the the uh the um um flood plane of the of the hot Brook there um Aon what would you estimate is it is it 10 foot uh way through there 10 you mean the width of the access road or the WID between the the existing uh it might be it might be 12 feet 12 to 14 feet something like that yeah I mean I would estimate probably 20 feet width but or less um it wants to be much it wants to be much larger it was it was clearly a constructed berm um that was built a long time ago and it's I looked at the deed for that property and I believe it and I can't recall the exact name but it's actually in the packets it's uh I want to say it's called like Brickyard way an an ancient way um it's defined as in the deed which is interesting so it was like an ancient Road um that was located there um but yeah it's it's all historic fill we we would love to someday restore some of that area and and figure something else out but it's it's a challenging location in a very expensive effect so we'll we'll we'll uh sharpen our pencils and see if we can figure out a solution great okay thanks um if there's no other questions we're looking for a motion to ratify the emergency certifications for Eastman Lane Road culbert repairs and stabilization of the H Brook pedestrian bridge of Southeast Street was that Alex on the motion yes yes second Bruce on the second Rachel hi Andre hi Alex hi Roose hi Jason I Laura hi I'm an i okay we have a few more minutes um minor modification yeah um so I've been in contact with um the project at 1220 belr toown road which is the old Michaels Billiards building um it's the service net facility that we permitted back in 2022 um there is a very challenging Outlet which is a sump pump Outlet um that comes off the building in proximity to the fairing Brook and um initially when the outlet was installed it was in the wrong location so I reached out to them and said it's in the wrong location it needs to be relocated to its correct permitted location um the original location was right behind the wing wall of the um the covert um and so it was basically the location that the commission said no to so that's why I wanted them to move it back immediately so they moved it back up onto the slope but when they installed it so it was sort of supposed to discharge parallel to the um faing Brook but on the top of the bank and when they installed it they put a um an elbow on the end of the outlet pipe so it basically directed it in a 90° um down into the brook again which caused more erosion and so going back and forth with them they were concerned just the location and it being at the top of the bank so they suggested that they relocate it to discharge into the catch Basin which is a much preferred option in my opinion than having it discharge on the bank so that is what the change is very minor but I just wanted to make you aware of it I don't even honestly think it requires your approval because it's significant Improvement and much less impact um but if the commission wants to make a motion to approve it you're welcome to or if you're just okay with the change that that's fine too Bruce so my only concern is the email of SE uh April 1st I think it is or April 2 where it goes on at some length from you saying that the final plan was not being followed Etc and there was a lot of stuff and you gave him very little time to fix it and and all of a sudden it's a very simple thing and I I just wonder if there's more more to it than that um yeah so yeah I didn't realize that there was a big long forward on that email exchange um the the backstory on that is that the original preconstruction meeting happened in the fall and I met with the contractor and um um some other folks on site back in the fall to because they wanted to start work on the building and so they had to post their DP file number and um you know kind of get approval to start when we had that meeting it was understood that the erosion controls weren't installed or inspected and so in the fall when earthw work began they had to came come back to me for a an inspection um and then I found out that work had started without an erosion control inspection and erosion controls had never been installed and so when I found out about it I went out and did an inspection and I gave them basically uh about six hours to get erosion controls installed because it was in a really bad situation when I got out there but they did correct that by the end of the day and installed erosion controls so I was satisfied that that was resolved very quickly um and so that is sort of the backstory on that the the discharge pipe at the time when I was out there on that inspection was that's when I found it relocated behind the wing wall and it had no um armoring whatsoever or erosion control around it it was discharging directly to exposed soils behind the the um uh Wing wall and so I asked them to immediately armor it but that I told them that it needed to also be immediately relocated to the correct location so they did relocate it within a matter of days to its correct location but it was still causing issues so like I said I've been kind of in constant contact with them trying to get this matter resolved but um yeah there's this is a great example of how there's always stuff going on in the background with the commission like I'm there's projects kicking off there's work underway I'm doing inspections I'm having Communications with applicants I don't always share all of these details with the commission because it's just there's so much going on but frequently I do have these scenarios come up where I ask for immediate Corrections and we go back and forth to have things resolved um and only would I sort of bring it up if it was something that was um egregious or like a serious violation so fair enough I just the reason I brought it up is a concern that some contractor or contractors were not doing what was already agreed to in a somewhat significant way um and I want to I want us to be supportive of what you and Dave trying to do but to see that they're just ignoring what you ask them to do in the fall is concerning yes um it was it was concerning but I think we we've been able through kind of um multiple meetings and discussions and site visits uh kind of get it addressed so I think I think we're in a better place now thank you for your attention and rectifying that Erin go ahead Bruce and I'm in favor of a negotiative process you know over a number of meeting and discussions that's all good but anyway or they could have just follow the plan from the start so if anybody needs or feels the need to make a motion please go ahead and do that um I think we don't necessarily need it going once going twice okay let's move on I think we are at 4 7:30 so um up to our first hearing okay hearing one um Aon I see some folks here for this one do you want to bring them in while I read so this is a notice of intent for Wendell Wetland services on behalf of Scott tle for the replacement of an existing 665 squ foot barn with a 336t shed within the buffer zone of bordering vegetated Wetland at 172 Snell Street mat 14c lot 95 607 Square ft of buffer zone and 518 square feet of bordering vegetated wetlands are proposed to be restored at the site okay want to K us off and this one's opening Michelle just so you know oh it is okay yes this public hearing is now called to order the hearing is being held as required by provisions of chapter 131 section 40 of the general laws of the Commonwealth and act relative to the protection of the wetlands as most recently amended in article 3.31 Wetlands protection under the town of ammer general b okay can you provide us our intro update Aon yes um I'm going to just pull up my slide give me a moment um so uh we had a site visit on Monday morning um staff sort of thoughts on the project um or background on the project are that um Mr tle um reached out to me back in 2023 to um kind of Express what uh he was wishing to do on his property um I gave him guidance and um based on my review of the materials I believe that um he followed staff recommendations that were offered back in 2023 and um I believe that the project overall represents an improvement to existing conditions by reducing the existing structure on the property moving it further away from the Wetland um also providing a significant mitigation area and returning a portion of his lawn to Natural Area again um just providing a uh Improvement to existing conditions the one recommendation I did have was that in the proposed mitigation area there was a pretty significant um area of pandra that had um been growing in a general area where the naturalized area is proposed to be and so um my request was basically that that P Cassandra um be removed from that location where the Natural Area is going to be located thanks sarin um I can't see the entire screen now but let's see Scott Ward would you like to um I just I don't know if you have a copy of the um screenshot of the site plan you could put up Aron just so Commissioners are aware um basically the site has a u man-made Doug Channel that's an intermittent stream that was probably dug who knows long time ago it kind of goes through the lawn um drains a wet meow and a big oite red maple wooded swamp and part of the lawn is a buffer zone that's proposed to be mitigated and part of it is um actually Wetland if you look there's the proposed um shed and you look up and right of that that mode area there is actually underl by hydric soils so that area is proposed to be returned to Natural Wetland conditions um and the buffer zone to the east of the proposed shed um the area identified there is proposed to be returned to Natural buffer zone conditions uh we're proposing to plant a total of 11 Wetland shrubs at the edge of the the boundary of the mitigation areas to permanently demarcate them that they won't be mowed any longer so it'd be three Silky Dogwood four Winterberry holly and four spice bush would be planted in that area and um as eron recommended and I spoke with Scott and he agreed to remove the pandra within the mitigation area um so that that's uh not doesn't continue to spread we had some questions by one of the Commissioners that Scott answered I don't know if you had a chance to share that with the commissioner that asked the question Aaron um I think Rachel was copied on the answers um to the questions um but I did not share them with the overall commission so I don't know if somebody wants to summarize any of that um I'm gonna open it for public comment so please raise your hand if you have any questions um not immediately seeing any so I'll go to Bruce you're muted Bruce yeah I think I was the commissioner who was there so and it all all the description so far comports with what I observed and what we talked about thanks Bruce Rachel yeah great I um I wasn't able to attend but I did look at the plans closely and um agree I think it's it's an improvement over existing conditions um and I just want to the questions that I had asked were just to a little bit more detail and specific necessity to make sure that we're approving everything that you want to do um with related to the scope and so the question was one you know are you raising the elevation of the shed and the answer is yes I think about nine inches to a foot above grade right a little bit of fill adjacent to that um it sounds like it's 16 18 inches out from the building so the footprints a little bit bigger yeah and that'll give a drip edge you know as well because you asked about that in ter about the storm water coming off the roof and right erosion so you're doing all the right things um and then I'd also had asked about the you know what what's happening to the footprint of the barn um where the barn is being removed if that would be scarified and what type of seeds and they answered a you know a perennial perennial Ry which is actually better for climate change um and will handle drought and what conditions um so you answered all all my questions right super great thanks guys um all right well I agree with everything this is a improvement over existing conditions and thank you for doing the restoration back to Natural cover and removing that pandra um Alex I see you have a question but you're muted I have a question for Mr Ward it's just a g general question um what do you think about vibr um I have no problem with VI burum I there's been a a I can't remember what it is but it's a beetle that's kind of hitting them out in uh New York State why you recommend VI burum instead of the species that I recommended I didn't say that okay I I have no problem with viburnum dentatum or is that what you're thinking Airwood something like that something that provides berries um yeah I think the Silky Dogwood and the winter Berry Holly provide berries if you if you would like to get more diversity and um change a couple of these or um burn them I have no problem with that just add some wildli value some more value yeah diversity you just maybe throw in a couple of I burum into the mix so if we knock the number of Winterberry holl spice push down by one and added two by Burnham great would that be good super sure do you need uh for the Winterberry sorry I don't know this exactly do you need mail and female plants for that you do okay well yeah you do to get uh to get berries so we would have three propos so hopefully we would get at least one male and two females would be ideal all right sounds good any other questions okaying for a motion um Aon do you mind fing go ahead Bruce yes I move to issue the order of conditions D number 089 d07 35 with the standard boiler plate conditions under both the Massachusetts wet L protection act and the wet L protection town of amoris General bylaws article 3.31 and regulations with the noted additional conditions second Ru on the motion Andre on the second Rachel hi Andre hi Bru hi Jason Hi Laura hi Alex hi and I'm an i all right thanks for thanks thank you very thank you very much thank all right thank you thank you okay all right um next up we have notice of intent for Karen environmental Consulting LLC on behalf of LLS forx LLC and WD CO's Inc for the construction of a battery storage system Associated Access Road improvements and storm water management within the buffer Zone to bordering vegetated Wetlands on monu Road Route 63 map 2A lot 16 all right do we have anyone here for this one tonight yes I added Jeff um if there's anybody else for this project that I should let in um either raise your hand or Jeff if you could let me know it's just me and um yeah just me for now okay hi welcome um okay so we're looking to move this tonight I mean sorry continue tonight um and you are seeking feedback on the draft invasive species management plan is that what we're setting out to accomplish yeah so I I don't think we have the plan to submit I I we've received a proposal about the removal of the uh invasive species but we don't have a plan to submit yet so I just wanted to follow up our meeting of yesterday and attend to see if there are any followup questions or concerns about the S sidewalk sure thanks um so were you intending to submit a new or different invasive species management plan or do you want some thoughts on the proposal that you've submitted already it would be great to get your thoughts um on that and we can iterate with Scott and Oxo and and you know feed that back to them if there are some suggestions sure um so Alex and I were out on the site is that just yesterday and we um great job on the staking made it pretty easy to see what's going on there and took a walk on um along the Wetland there's Little Brook that feeds into the Eastman Brook is that right it goes some way um and I got a chance to look at the plants and sort of compared it to the invasive species management plan so um for those of you haven't looked at it yet the invasive species management plan is is is big in size it's about six plus acres which is great um it encompasses this this property and then the adjacent one um both owned by koh's and it's the proposal from Oxo was to do spraying it was like 16 hours a year um with a focus on certain species that they identified so Alex and I were out there and we saw that it was a primarily um it was dominated by primarily native shrubs a lot of Alder and stuff with some herbaceous under story just because it seems to be grazed in the past or some kind of Farmland so it's it's not a heavily impacted site currently it's um it's kind of got a nice aler buffer along the stream um so I we're considering building um in the 50 Foot buffer and within the 50 Foot no disturb no build so I have some considerations and recommendations um for that and specific to the invasive management plan so some of these that I was thinking are um okay so rather than having a 16h hour per year um to have some kind of performance standard like 10% invasive cover and when someone's out on site they could sort of do the survey while they do their treatment and to use that as a sort of a a co- goal or a supersedence over the 16 hours whatever whatever it takes to meet that um so including cutting and treating stumps if there are some bigger buckthorns on site they're going to have to be cut and treated and removed and maybe include plantings um if there's going to be a lot of shrub removal to keep the cover and yeah like I said the annual survey while people are on site with sort of a short report just on activities and what the what the cover is looking like and that let's see this be done through the life of the project um so those were my thoughts anyone else have any comments Reflections Alex you were there any thoughts yeah I do um I'd like to know what I don't think Jeff is the person to answer the question but how much Buckthorn do you think there is it's a good question we can certainly ask um ask Chuck Karen and and the Oxo team from their survey what they can quantify for us yeah I mean Alex I didn't really I saw like one Buckthorn plant most of it was multiflor Rose for the invasive shrubs but um yeah I guess I don't think I mentioned that just to expand the non-native invasive species Target list so that it's not just a couple because once you treat some something else may pop up over the life of the project so to make it adaptive in that way and so rather than list specific species just because we never know it's going to what it's going to look like in 15 years um just non-native invasive plants yeah and so um I went back with somebody who's pretty good at identifying shrubs and we walked East from you know if you drew a line from the western side of the concrete pad down to the brook and then walk East to the stream that comes underneath the eversource power line we found one uh Buckthorn and um um or maybe a minute I just looked at my notes two or three Buckthorn most of them are Alders and um so I I'm with Michelle in terms of not being specific to buckthorne but rather talking about uh invasive or even non-native plants and if there are a low density of them on the site because the battery is the battery project is actually integrated into the solar it's all one project and I was going to propose if if the if the density of of the plants we want eliminated is light then go to all three Parcels so that if you're planting and I was going to suggest for Buckthorn for example for every 10 that you put out plant some a couple of viburnums and then give you a list of them so that we're putting back some of the cover um and Wildlife uh food um and and building that up and also there's a the stream that goes underneath the eversource power line is exposed to the Sun and its radial and its and its warming effect uh I don't know if you could plant some of that uh along that stream and still not get in the way of eversource but that would be a nice place to plant some stuff and uh do some healing there that was my I didn't quite know where the bound where the parcel boundaries are so uh I just um when I walked out today it just rather than we're putting a plant where you take a Buckthorn out find a place where it could really do some good so I would that's that's the only changes that that I thought of and I sent that to Aaron and Michelle later earlier today but uh is to expand the parcel to all three to give opportunity to um take non-natives off the entire project and give you the freedom to plant things where they could uh improve conditions and maybe when you bring back your plan you could if you're up for that you could um talk about where you think planting would be good okay so it it sounds like you're the area you're talking about adding would be on the east side of Eastman Brook is that what you're suggesting that side of the parcel well when I wrote this up I just I didn't know where Parcels were so I just said uh because the battery project is on one parcel but there are three involved in the whole project and the battery is integral to the whole Pro to the solar project so that's it's all one project so I just said consider all three pars and and based on the walk around I didn't it didn't look like invasives were um uh extensive I'll use so I didn't in terms of ation package um was sort of like the sleeves off my vest uh if we didn't if we didn't have a lot of invasive species um then if we expanded the area probably the cost wouldn't be that much more and be more effective yeah I mean it is invas of light currently and I don't even think it would take 16 hours if you're just spraying but if you're pulling and treating um maybe are you willing to sketch something up or explore the possibility of expanding onto other Parcels Jeff is that sound like a possibility sure sure I I you know some of the area we mentioned the Robert Frost Trails over on that Eastern Edge where if you're going to expand on the other parcel I'm just curious where the commission thinks that would be most beneficial um the immediate the area immediately adjacent to where the battery is is the Eastman Brook Corridor there that we talked about which has that Wildlife Corridor in it um yeah that's that's really nice and so you know that seems like a good area to focus on the Robert Frost Trail which we talked about which had been relocated further east of the solar is another area to think about which had a wetland buffer when we originally built the solar so it's really far away it's probably you know it as the crow it's probably like 1500 feet to the east there but I'm just trying to get some idea of what we want to suggest to Oxo as to areas to think about um you know whether contiguous is more beneficial or just since we're talking about adding that other parcel what areas might be of interest to the commission it's kind of hard to talk about this without a map in front of us um for for people who are walking the Rober far Trail which is on the other end of the parcels uh but still on the owner's land I think um there's a um there might be a visual benefit for planting shrubby tall shrubs but which wouldn't be a bother to ever Source but create a visual barrier for people walking on the Robert Frost Trail I know Michelle has walked that trail and commented about it I've walked that trail and when frogs are chirping and um so that might be one area but I I didn't walk the site to answer the question that you've got in front of me now sure and and I mean yeah sorry um as a thought exercise but um if I think eron's right on this here um if you you sort of take your cursor Ain and outline the okay and then East my Brook goes that way and then to the east of your cursor the Wetland area is that the is that the part keep going east is that the part that you were talking about which was near the solar installation Jeff believe it or not okay I'm talking about is right where Aaron was just showing way that wet area so I mean I I guess I'm just trying to think about what's going to be most beneficial yeah um my first inclination is contiguous as far as you can do that so I think you know that would have some effect um kind of treat it like a management unit area um so maybe we can see something that encompasses a larger contiguous area on the three Parcels is that that Al I can I can certainly take that back to um to Oxo and get their thoughts on what would be appropriate um in continuing this um beyond the six acres and for planting purposes and um think about some ideal locations for plantings uh to include viburnum and you know some other species too it's pretty wet back there so um there'll be a a Salo of things that you'll be able to put on that list can great thanks I can provide something through Aaron if you want something written that won't be real specific but it would give you something to talk about sure clearly Alder is doing well y yeah alder's a successional plant so something's going to come in there eventually we don't know what that's going to be um it can get pretty big by beram okay um so I think also tonight uh Commissioners were looking for some input um whether or not given this discussion and the further recommendations to the invasive management plan if we're willing to Grant this waiver to the 50 Foot no disturb and 75 foot no build um it's not something we're going to vote on tonight but I think Jeff you probably want to know what our what our lean is on that one uh go ahead Rachel yeah I um I visited the site on Sunday and thank you very much for staking that that was really helpful to see um where everything is I I looked at um full application in detail I think I spent six hours um pouring back and forth through things in detail and um um just my comments to the commission is um just want to make you aware there's a little bit of an inconsistency between the Geotech report what how they characterize the soils and what the storm water report characterizes the soils as which could lead to some problems down the road for both the wet lenss and for the actual installation um I think there the the storm water report is based on nrcs data which is know a GIS based mapping system and then the Geotech report really dug holes and got in there and looked into at that actual soil so the Geotech report makes recommendations of construction methodologies which were not Incorporated in the drawings fully if they are then the footprint of the limit of work might expand might expand into the riverfront area might expand further into the Wetland um so those are things that could be fleshed out if the applicant is going back and looking at the plans you know that's something that they could review um they could put the limited workline on the plans they could look at the details and and weigh in which detail they're going to use either it's the engineer's detail or the Geotech engineer um also I have questions about soil excavation so the Geotech was saying the soils are unsuitable for construction as they are um for both the road and the battery storage and those are recommended to be removed um and new soils placed that are structural and have bearing capacity so in the past on some utility projects those soils have been kept on site and they create the Mounds like we saw up slope of property and that really can change the hydrology so clarifying that soils you know they're going to be removed and what their plans are manage manage that managing that on site would be really helpful to the commission's riew great thank you Rachel um okay Jeff do you have you probably can't respond to that right away but um obviously they would be important for us evaluating the footprint again possibly okay my my understanding though is I mean we would probably look for a balance site um if it was possible to use the spoils from these soils on site on areas like any of the um existing um impervious surfaces you know there's some areas we may want to repair or top coat we may be able to to use those with some other aggregate on site rather than export them um our goal would not be to change the hydrology on site so if any structural soils are brought on um we likely would use those as a base material for the footprint of the pad here um and so um it well I'll have to get more information from our our civil engineers about that and and circle back yes great yeah they were there's I mean every every paragraph was like soils are not good basically danger danger danger excavate 5et out from the footprint excavate down really deep so there's going to be a lot of soil volume movement on site for this okay and that might actually extend it further into the 50 Foot buffer you're saying and the riv area yeah because they're right Edge but the could oh I'm sorry didn't raise my hand go ahead Alex instead of going towards the Wetland uh because then we get into um the coridor and closer to the stream could the design of the pad and the fence be elongated in uh and still serve your same purpose that is a possibility we'll have to as as we mentioned on site this is a maximum build size so this is um the equipment we're looking at ordering will likely fit in a smaller footprint than this so um it when we first designed this we designed this with what was available in the marketplace and some time has passed since then so we think our footprint May shrink a little so it's likely that we'll be able to shrink the footprint um or reconfigure it um so it's something that we could explore um but I would have to talk to again our civil engineer and just understand from his perspective what the what the best layout would be yes before Laura speaks I just wanted to clarify the the fence everything's going to be inside the fence and I was just wondering if the um um if the fence could be more rectangular than square and and deal with this the the soil issue and not encroach anymore on the on into the 30 foot buffer that's all MH um just change the shape and and the second part of the question is if the and this could go to Commissioners too if we spread the soil out that's being removed I assume it can be planted and put to good use I I I don't know what the answer to that is I assume the answer is yes but I would ask those who know more than I do um I think we can leave that to the um Oxo professionals whether or not that would be said well didn't look like great soil when we were out there is pretty Sandy um go ahead Laura yeah know my question was so it sounds as though you all will be looking to redesign anyways based on availability of equipment and where did you go let me see there you are um Jeff um in the redesign do you expect that you're still going to be inside well within that 50 foot um buffer or excuse me no build we do think as Technologies change we keep shrinking the footprints of these so we think we'll we'll gain some square footage um the background on this project is this was designed with the the original effect project um and we can New Generation equipment that has a slightly smaller footprint um and in that sense we would be able to shrink the existing footprint and pull that fence line back or slightly reconfigured to try to move off of the buffer Edge okay when do you suppose because I think what you know we're not going to vote tonight but you know if you it's it's you know if you're not building within that 50 foot no disturb it's obviously a very different conversation than if you are and and I can't answer that question I'm not sure we have enough room to pull out entirely so I would have to I'm not sure that we can get foot um so um that's that's maybe a bridge too far but I can I can certainly explore a little more just for Laura's sake they're they can't build in the osaurus right away they're right up against it so they don't have much leeway somebody has some background just mute how about everybody who's not talking at the time mute please okay umel good uh Rachel you're next um also if you're talking with your storm water engineer he's claiming some exemptions um with the storm water um regulations that do not apply if you're in the 50 Foot buffer zone of a wetland and if you are um dealing with silty soils that are really classified as Class C so if he could look at that in detail also I think that'd be important okay so let me just make sure I get that right so he's claiming some exemptions and this classy soil types may not afford US those exemptions so just reevaluate right his the nrcs calls him Class B but the Geotech report calls him Class C okay Jason yeah I just was G to ask about the length of the road and I think it was Alex that brought up the eversource um right of way looking in the packet that we have and looking at previous maps that we looked at for this project I don't see that where that's marked on here um could that road potentially be shortened the access road be shortened and the whole area bumped up or to the kind of northeast or Northwest where just where is that where is that ever Source right away uh eron do you have the map handy it it's on there's some topography here too to consider um yeah and I think you know there's a it says electric easement I'm assuming that's it yeah so the ean's right in this location Jason you can see this this line cutting through the site here yeah so the axis road comes in off monu and comes down and actually under the um utility line and then um you can see on this page it's um it's north of the utility line so the the facility is actually proposed right up to the edge of the eversource RightWay which is is demarcated here the width of it this is a it's a pretty major transmission line Corridor y okay so you can't go any further north no okay all right that was my own question thank you Laura I guess my question Michelle is we're asking for a lot of um you know more additional work on their end and you know I don't know if you know I I personally you know I know we revised the bylaw so I was getting confused last time about whether we had partially approved something and I know we didn't and not last time a couple meetings ago and we didn't and um you know I personally am not in favor of building within that 50 foot no disturb um and I don't want to have load Stars spin their wheels um you know I just I don't know what the process is so that's you know perhaps it can be redesigned um in a way that's more favorable but um I would just hate to have weeks pass by where they're answering all of our questions and then the answer is no ultimately no so thanks Laura um I was going to because since I mentioned that we would be trying to give you some inclination tonight but we've also come up with a lot of other questions about the design some of which may reduce the footprint possibly some of it may increase the footprint um so I mean I would be interested in you guys coming back with something that um aners some of those questions but Commissioners if anyone is feeling strongly one way or the other um you know as per Laura's statement please you know voice that now um otherwise I would entertain um some revisions and uh plans that sort of address all of these things phased tonight okay and if there's any public comment please just raise your hand before we move on okay um Alex go ahead you Meed Alex just for commission information I raised the fire truck access issue a couple times and that got clarified during the um site visit and the answer to the fir Tru uh access is that it would it would not alter the site anymore because they would use the eversource uh road that the service road and the fir trck would not leave the eversource um Service Road and would be able to turn around there Chris baskam would have to approve that but the answer that Jeff gave us when we were there is that no alteration of the site would take place to accommodate the fire truck it's already there and that was news to me um and I appreciated that and I also want to say thank you for the marvelous staking job they really did a good job it's a complicated site and uh they made it easy thank you so I I have and to address Laura I was also very sensitive to the 50-foot buffer and so on and so forth um as I've learned more about this project and how squeezed in they are with the eversource uh constraint and um um although it has nothing to do with our jurisdiction or how we make a decision I I and Laura knows more about this than I do but the solar project serves a different need with the battery storage than it does by itself and um and the battery thing I thought it was separate in apart from the solar it is not the solar will charge the batteries um and then discharge into the grid um you know at another time so they are one project and um that that kind of changed my mind in terms of could we have a mitigation package that was [Music] um um U robust enough to allow to have a straight face in approving it and to me and I was pretty strong had pretty strong feelings about this project and where it was but if we could if they can redesign it a little bit and lessen its impact and have a robust uh mitigation plan that includes all three Parcels I could soften my point of view thanks Alex and Jeff just as you're going back to the drawing board on the um potential invasive management Zone like seeing something that improves conditions over a large area and thinking about Wildlife corridors um that would be something that I'd love to see because currently the area of impact is pretty native and in pretty good condition and serving a purpose so um I guess expanding the reach for you know showing some greater good there would be of interest okay any last comments Commissioners okay um with that we're looking for a motion to continue um we don't have to open up for public comment Michelle do we or the very end I I have um asked for raised hand several times and I'm seeing none so okay I'll make a motion um to continue the public hearing for the monah road battery storage project D 89731 to May 8th 2024 at 7:45 p.m. second we're on the motion Andre on the second Rachel abstain Andre I Jason I but I'm not sure if I can vote on that sorry I'm not keeping track of all of the I I'll abstain from this one okay uh Laura hi Bruce Alex hi no and I okay thank you Jeff thank you thank you Jeff have a and thanks for being there yesterday great thank you all appreciate it okay um next up abbreviated notice of resource delineation s swca environmental Consultants on behalf of emerth college for the confirmation of resource area bound rings of bordering vegetated wetlands and Bank on a portion of zero and 151 College Street map 14b and lot 14d lots 165 and and one encompassing approximately 4.1 Acres all right Erin want to give us a update on this one yes um so the applicant did provide um an updated uh figure for us um immediately following the um April 10th meeting uh which added the limits to the study area um kind of where I'm standing with this one is that I um am in favor of the commission issuing an or ad um based on the delineation we have before us um however I was hoping that we could close the public hearing tonight to allow me some additional time to craft the finding effect fact so that we could be prepared to issue this on um May 8th if the applicant is is okay with that then um otherwise we should keep the public hearing open until the but um if Commissioners don't have any further concerns um I would be in favor of closing the hearing there are a couple um in the PowerPoint a couple findings of fact that I wanted to make sure that I highlighted um so I noted those in the PowerPoint but I could certainly review those if you'd like thanks aarin um I see Meredith and Darren um you guys want to take vibe sure hi everyone Meredith Bing sbca um I can show everyone the plan that we resubmitted um I never heard back if that was satisfactory um but I assumed it was um we just added a study area after our site walk with Aaron and Alex and Rachel um we had updated some flagging and I showed that at the last meeting and then we just added a study area zooming into the exact um area that we were hoping to get approved with this anrad um I can show the commission if you'd like or I don't know if Darren wants to say anything he's here from um immerse College too no I mean I I saw the exhibit you submitted it looked really good and thought we had a very thorough site walk and good participation um thought this was good con ensus and collaboration throughout on the flags that removed and it sounded like um just because of the not having submitted something before that Wednesday we were coming back tonight and so eron I'm not would you mind just kind of re-explaining what you were it sounded good I just don't think I picked up the first time yeah so um when we issue a permit we there's two parts so we close the public hearing which is the the part where we you know take testimony from the applicant and also from the public um to it basically brings us to plan revisions and changes Etc um and so because I'm satisfied with the plans that have been submitted to us and I believe that we're ready to issue an order of resource area delineation at this point I would be um in favor of closing the public hearing this evening because I believe we have all the plans that we need to do that it's just that the finding a fact has not been finalized yet so um and the finding of fact details certain things about the plan so um I'll just go ahead and share my screen so you can see what I'm talking about and I'm not talking about anything extensive um so just to give you a couple examples um we had discussed in the field that the the bvw that's on the north side of the fairing Brook was not delineated as part of this or ad and so that's one of the findings that would be in the finding fact and then also um flagging that's south of the W2 Wetland um and I specifically demarcated the two flags um were not delineated beyond that boundary so it's basically the limit of the study area um but it was clear that the Wetland continued to the South and um the same with Wetland W1 so it's basically just indicating we know that those Wetlands continue to the South but they're not um delineating and we haven't reviewed those or studied those so it's just making that clear because like in the study area there's a gap between the Wetland boundary and the study area and so um but the polygons aren't closed right so potentially um you know they extend further to the South so right um relatively simple no that all sounds good um notes number one where it talks about to the South um I I know exactly the area you're talking about it's completely not impactful to um the previously developed areas on our campus um I just wouldn't want that to be misunderstood I mean because it could be taken as something like proximal to the curb line for instance of the parking lot um but otherwise makes perfect sense um so I'm just going to pull up the plan really quickly so I can show you because I think it'll um make a little more sense if I show you yeah that would be for me I'm trying to yeah I just want to make sure that we have the C all the flags on there that are relative to like where they're working yeah no you you all of your your so are there yeah so do you see the um I'm GNA zo screen oh I'm sorry okay hold on bear with me one second okay so what I'm talking about so W2 is a a good example um so do you see how there's a line here indicating this is the limit of the Wetland on the um parking area side but what I'm indicating is we know that the Wetland continues in this direction so it continues to the South and so because typically the study area boundary would sort of match that line to say we're not studying Beyond here um and so the finding of fact would just State this area was not confirmed um behind the W2 Wetland boundary and similarly um and I know that this is like I said these are these are very minor but I just want to make sure this is noted like 149 that's not where the Wetland stops the Wetland continues um it's just the limit of the study area so it's just to say nothing Beyond flag 149 nothing Beyond flag what is it 100 R and 110 has been has been included as part of the the or ad makes sense and similarly like um the other the other finding was um this uh the wetlands on the north side of the fairing Brook weren't delineated they're not really relevant to the project they're not going to impact your buffer zones um because they're only going to impact on this side of the road but just to note that those were not studied or confirmed well it makes sense it helps to see it with the exhibit and I know in your findings there'll be combined right so makes walking through it yep okay so you guys clear on that okay Commissioners any questions and if there's any public comment please raise your hand now okay I'm seeing none from anyone um we're looking for a motion to close the public hearing for ERS college and R Depp number 089 d07 34 I move so moved I'll second Alex on the motion Laura on the second Laura hi Andre hi Jason I stain Alex I uh Rachel he and I'm an I did I get everyone okay all right Bruce Bruce you're and I there's a lot of people to scroll through tonight sorry okay thank you all have a good night thank you thank you uh did Rachel abstain on that that's what I heard is that thank you I thought Jason did Jason OB yes he did yes that's correct okay thanks Darren and Meredith have a good one thank you Darren okay and um I think there's another I might hang around and listen to another part of it okay okay I'll just take you off our panel and put you back in the in the audience good night all right next up um birkshire Design Group on behalf of the Emily Dickinson museum for the construction of a historic Carriage House and Associated site work in the buffer zone to bordering vegetated Wetlands at 2114 Main Street map 14b lot 26 and I saw Chris there he is yeah and I don't know if anybody um raise your hand if you're here for this y yeah yeah uh Jane Wald should be on the meeting from the museum and um she should be admitted as panelist that's possible got it hey Chris all right welcome Chris welcome Jane okay um so we were out on a site visit this past week eron do you w to provide an update for this one you're on mute sorry I don't see Jane on the on the call but if if she is I add Jane already oh okay sorry Michelle must have gone before okay um so we held a a follow-up site visit on April 22nd um uh just as a followup there's a a waiver required for this project for the 50 Foot no disturb and the 75 foot no build um there were additional comments and suggestions made at the site visit including um adding snow fencing around the native vegetation to prevent construction disturbance of the berm um preserving native vegetation on the site um to the degree possible um naturalizing a portion of the lawn area as additional mitigation and again not to um allow it for succession purposes but more so to like leave um to not Leaf blow it and not mow it just to leave it for um sort of in its natural state remove barbed wire fencing um and then there was a discussion about uh Japanese nie lilac that was um discovered on the site or or um identified on the site so there was some discussion about that and um I think it was there was there was sort of some discussion around all of this and it was that we were going to sort of regroup and um come together to figure out what uh what the proposal ultimately would be yeah thanks Aaron and just to add to that um we were out there with Chris and we you know sort of did a slight survey of the site and um saw that there the Wetland that had been delineated is pretty much overtaken with this Japanese um lilac and just looking at the sort of the source of those seeds which is um some mature of that plant and sort of overhanging into the Wetland area and so we we talked about ways to if that would be a mitigation area how to best approach that um and so I think we gave Chris some thoughts on it so if you guys want to take five minutes um love to hear about yours sure yeah um that that was a good summary um and I think um for the most part A lot of the comments uh that came out at the site visit um the museum is going to be able to accommodate and will be able to incorporate into the final plan um I'll tick through them quickly um the the snowfence protection absolutely uh uh we can we'll incorporate that um there uh what wasn't mentioned there um I think Bruce had identified there's some barb wire fence along the back that's sort of practically in the Wetland that will also remove we add those minor things to the plan um the big one is the um the Japanese tree lilac um there is a fair amount of that tree lilac on the site it was actually one of the favorite plants by the Dickinson family so that's why there is so much of it um in looking uh did some research SE Arch on that species in particular and while it's not listed as an invasive um it is being considered for monitoring in both Vermont and New York um which has seen isolated pockets of this similar situation where the seeds are getting into a natural area and coming to dominate um it uh based on what I've found uh the seeds are relatively heavy and don't get wind blown and so that's why this isn't often seen as a problematic plant that it's often in the center of a landscape and as long as it's mowed around there's no vegetative spread the seeds can't go very far and it stays contained but in these situations where we've got a mature tree throwing off lots of seeds into a naturalized area exactly like what we've got that's happening um so as long as we're talking about limiting it to the um area close into the wetlands um and not some of the more distant areas where there uh maybe tree lilacs on site the museum um is uh happy to commit to cutting the mature uh lilac trees that are contributing to the to the seeds there um and then um because the uh it takes three or four years for those plants to even start seeding and it's really the mature trees that are a problem we feel really good that if we get in there um and remove the younger plants um and you know our proposal for the mitigation in general was uh one year of removal followed by a couple of years of Maintenance um that we should really be able to knock that population down quite a bit um and allow the the native vegetation to come back in um so we're absolutely um happy to commit to that as as part of this process um additionally um leaving the corner of the site uh that we've identified there um to to allow the leaf litter to move in and sort of renaturalization plants from starting to uh creep into that area um they can absolutely uh commit to that and we were talking about the uh question of delineating that area which is something that came up in aon's comments originally and was discussed a little bit on site um and a little bit of a of a creative solution that Jane and I were talking about earlier since we'll be cutting trees in that area um might it make sense to propose a line of three or four trees to be planted in that location um they could be tagged as they're already tag trees on the museum property to identify them um but in a a clear line of uh a native species that's historically appropriate to the site to try to uh delineate that without sort of an artificial or modern um uh aesthetic uh in terms of uh dictating where that line is going to be um there were also some comments uh that's didn't get mentioned U about the particular shrub uh and Native planting selection um there was a a suggestion that instead of the blueberry uh that had been proposed as native shrub plantings um to potentially consider uh an appropriate species of Viburnum in that area um and the museum certainly open to that um and that's a little bit more of a substantial shrub that will uh um hopefully crowd out the tree lilac that may remain uh and sneak through our our mitigation efforts um and as long as that uh the one thing we would say is that as long as that's um contained to sort of what's on really the ammer college land in the currently wooded heavily vegetated Brushy areas since that's not part of the historic aesthetic of the site we wouldn't want to see that um further out into sort of the more formal portions of the site um and then the the one last thing that I want to add there's been just some uh uh comments uh about the building location and that actually is fundamental to a lot of what we're talking about here um I know I mentioned a little bit uh just really scratching the surface on the process that we went through in terms of locating the building where it is which is quite close to the resource area um and I think Jane would just like to to explain a little bit of the background there because uh it's not a decision that was made lightly and there's quite a lot of research thought and also um regulatory guidance that went into that into what into locating the building where it's proposed on the plan and that that specific location uh um as shown yeah I was going to bring that up there's also if I when when it's time for Commissioners I have a something that we talked about that you didn't discuss so I'll come back to that when it's our turn sure great um Erin do you mind pulling up the map of the site um and you know just to summarize this a little further this is um building in the 50 Foot no disturb and this is the drain pipe the storm water drain pipe that's going to be um dug through the 50 Foot am I getting that right and so sewer sewer yes yes sorry the reason that it's not going to be outside of the 50 Foot is because the area hasn't been dug before and that you're trying to avoid the historical survey that would have be necessitated by disturbing the dirt so even though there is an alternative to being inside the 50 Foot that that's what they're proposing so that's for the Commissioners to understand that there is a viable alternative but they're asking to put it in the 50 Foot and this is the mitigation that's being proposed and eron can you kind of zoom in on the building area in the burm um yeah so I guess I was confused last meeting because I guess the way that historical folks talk about disturbance is different than the way way ecological fotes talk about disturbance so outside the 50 Foot is heavily Disturbed and non-native you know and now invasive in this context um but just not historically or disturbed in modern times to necessitate historical survey um okay and so the hash marked is the proposed mitigation treatment area and that's basically a burm that's sort of Sheltering a wetland behind it and if um I don't know if you have look like recent pictures but this is pretty much a solid cover of these plants um the progyny of these trees that's to the east of it um overhanging and dropping into the into the Wetland area so um thank you for considering all of our comments and it's great you know but you're saying is great I guess one thing that I couple things is um just given that there's probably other seeds in the seed bank um I think maybe extending that oneyear treatment period to maybe two or three would be useful I know you said maintenance following the one year but you know I don't know what the life history of that tree is and so it might take more than one year of pulling and spraying to get it back down um and then we had talked about I think in the original plan there was something about some species were identified to focus on so I think we've already you know determined that there's other species that should be added to that list but I think just expanding the target species to just be any non-native invasive plant um and yeah so that's the ground that we were suggesting would be sort of leave the leaves situation um it's just Leaf blown um to the dirt and it's also functioning as a pathway up to that fraternity um so there's a lot of sort of disturbance to the ground going on um so some other thoughts I had were expanding the treatment area into the Wetland instead of just the BM um if we can go back to the map yeah so I mean this is really just sort of a swamp right here all the way up to that a19 and over to the a23 and just focusing on EX excuse me um could you with a cursor or some kind of um delineation identify the area you're talking about yeah and maybe you zoom in just a bit Arin oh there we go okay so that is the extent of this wet area so it's basically a island of a wetland but still um supporting some native species up on that North End and and the place closest to the Emily Dickinson house is mostly overrun with that um Japanese lilac so that was just one suggestion I had because if you stop short at that line I mean the rest of the site is just going to become overgrown with invasives and continually recede into that burm um so it makes sense to treat it as sort of an a single area because it's all connected um and then the other thing is we talked about on this site walk with Alex having this be for the life of the project so that uh it's just maintained in perpetuity or whatever the life of that building is as a naturalized area so those are my thoughts on this um commissioner's comments Bruce so um the added piece for me would be that that the wonderful uh carpet of um trout lies that are there now which we had a hard time not stepping on um be identified and delineated so you can try to avoid digging them up and try to avoid compacting them so that they don't come back and it's they're really obvious right now but they won't be in another what month or so you won't be able to tell very easily so I would get out there and put some markers around it so that it's at least try to not disturb them and and just to clarify you're you're talking about um inadvertent disturbance while we're doing this mitigation work it's possible I mean I get that there's it's it's a constrained site but you were there you saw difficulties we kept trying to not step on them and they're all it's wonderful but it won't be if that all gets dug up well particularly because there's a sewer line that's proposed to run in that location where the trouty was located so if there's any way during I mean I assume that because this site is sensitive that when the excavation is done there's going to be some sort of um uh careful excavation of that area to lay down the sewer line and so I think another sort of potential condition that could be um Incorporated here is to try to save the soils where the trout lily is growing so that they can be placed back once the sewer line is L laid down I mean it's just an idea C certainly oh go ahead I was just going to say I'm sure there are experts you could confer with about how easy that is to do to take them somewhere keep them and then put them back I don't know but yeah and certainly there's um there's going to be this came up uh I we were talking with Alex um that the the straight run of the sewer from the building to the corner of the property where we need to stay just outside the museum property to avoid the archaeological study is pretty much set from there um you know the the route is flexible as long as we get up to the Marshall connection um and so one thing that Alex had highlighted that that we were already thinking about is marking that exact route out in the field prior to any work being done um so that we can stay away from larger trees um and certainly avoiding uh communities like like the trout lily um to the extent we possibly can we certainly will um already have plans to be doing that as part of the construction process to ensure that that pipe can go where it needs to the pipe can B it's a force main it can bend it can go around uh certain areas and and really be put wherever we want and uh it's a two-inch pipe that that needs a very narrow trench than Alex yeah if Aaron can bring up the photo that she had that looks up that hill um that's so best I can it was a broad view looking up the hill not the plan but the but a photo almost yeah that one so um you can't see the big trees up there but you can see what Chris was talking about um well nobody can tell where the marker is up there but there is a way to take an angle and avoid a lot of those trout llies and go up um between the trees um but the thing I so that's all I'll say about that but there the other thing I wanted to bring up is there is that's the stake okay there is a drain pipe coming from the fraternity house that comes right down that hill and it it the water comes down to the building site and Chris and I talked about maybe having the college re-root that so water doesn't come down uh um in back of the building because that's going to be a construction problem for you and yeah so Jane's not a grad she knows exactly what I'm talking about okay I just wanted Chris didn't bring it up so I wanted to make sure I brought it up and I don't know if the trout llies are depending on that if it's um it's not sewer it's it's some sort of drain yeah my uh it's based on the way it's laid out in the elevation and the fact that there are multiple of them I'm almost certain that that's Foundation drainage from the building okay so I just wanted to bring up that that source of water might be a good thing to re-root someplace and then I I'm the one who brought up the location of the building and could have be moved over 10 feet to save that tree and I think I just saw Jane quiver so I'm sure she'll address it yeah go ahead Jane yes thanks um so this uh the water drainage down toward this site is uh of historic and almost Monumental proportions um uh the Evergreens the the the 1856 house um had so much water drainage into it that it had um it had like a little stream running through it from east to west to uh convey the water out of that out of the cellar because of the runoff and the high water table uh on that site uh so the Emily Dickinson museum has done quite a bit of work to um to mitigate the that kind of water intrusion uh that does not entirely address Alex's Point uh but I I I think what I you know what I want to say is that um th this whole site U has historically been subject to uh to to this kind of water intrusion we we have found found archaeologically we found clay pipes that have tried to convey water in various directions um we ourselves have taken many significant efforts to uh to mitigate the water that goes goes under the house because that creates a a a just a terrible environment for for the house itself and for the collections within it so that's just one point on want to make um the other thing about the sighting of uh the sighting of the Carriage House itself um as a historic site um you know we've we've got some other sort of regulatory things we need to be cognizant of and one is um the uh uh Secretary of the interior's standards for uh preservation um so under the national preservation act and this is way back in 1966 um the Secretary of the Interior is responsible for establishing Professional Standards and providing guidance on the preservation of the nation's historic properties and so both the homestead and the evergreens are counted among the nation's historic properties uh um so the Evergreens and its grounds are subject to um National Park Service regulations known as section 106 um in addition the Massachusetts historical commission uh has a preservation restriction on the Evergreens historic structure and the and the grounds and the property so whatever we do uh respect uh with regard to the house and the grounds needs to be approved by the Massachusetts historic commission uh and you know in addition to that the local historic district commission has a role to play in approving our plans so we've got we've got a kind of a number of historical agency regulations both at the federal level the state level and the local level on you know what will be acceptable so we've been through the approval processes with each of these agencies up to now and they've approved the plans that we've put in you know the plans that you've reviewed um each of these agencies has uh approved those plans um so one other like little tidbit of the like the Nery historic preservation uh landscape is that the Secretary of this is the United States Secretary of the Interior uh has issued standards for the treatment of historic properties that apply to all projects um assisted through a historic preservation fund which includes save America's treasures and so all of those standards apply to the Evergreens uh and those standards address four different authorized treatments and those are preservation Rehabilitation restoration and reconstruction um and all of these treatment standards were codified in National legislation in uh in the mid 90s so what we're trying to do here at the Evergreens is reconstruction and reconstruction is um in a way in a way it's the least common of those four treatments because it's the most difficult to achieve yet um there are clear standards um which we've which we've already met and part of those standards is the sighting of a reconstruction and so the The Evergreens Carriage House um has already clearly qualified um according to these different you know local uh State and national uh agencies it's already qualified as a reconstruction Jane I think we sorry to interrupt you I just we need to keep moving it this all very interesting um you are obviously in a lot of um jurisdictional um nexuses here with uh State and local Wetlands laws in addition to the historical so I think you gave us a pretty good understanding of the the building placement um but I think we need to move on with our other hearings okay very good that that is what I was trying to convey to you thank you yeah great Michelle I do have a question I was waiting for her to finish um right and if there's any public comment please raise your hand now and I'll get to you Al Alex go ahead was there a bathroom in the carriage house um in the 19th century carriage house there was not a bathroom but according to the ntion the secretary wait according to the Secretary of interior standards the standards apply to the exterior appearance of of the of the structure the interior can serve other functions okay so you're building a visitor center to look like a carriage house no we are building a carriage house that will serve other other functions it will be at first it can be um used as visor Center ultimately it will be used as a program and education space okay I think this is sort of beyond our jurisdiction Alex well I I have a point to make I mean I understand where you're going um with it but I I think since we are going to move to continue this public hearing tonight I just want to make sure that Chris and Jane have heard our recommendations about what we'd like to see with the mitigation and was all that clear did you get it down do you need some further correspondence from us um we had just some additions to what we discussed or what um Chris said and I do appreciate you addressing those things that we discussed in the field um Laura go ahead I've been making notes um so I believe I have all of the pieces of it but I'll I'll follow up with Aaron to make sure that she on the same page go ahead Laur I wait hold on Laura hasn't talked yet go ahead Laura I I just had one question in the very beginning Michelle tell me if I heard this correctly did you say that this they were intending on building within the 50 Foot no build so no disturb area the sewer line is going to be trenched through the 50 Foot no disturb area the structure is building is as well enti inside I'll pull the plan up so you can see it again but yes the structure and the sewer line work so there even though there's alternatives to putting it within the 50 Foot no disturb so I did mention the alternative to trenching in the 50 Foot and then um we just heard a explanation of the historical constraints on the sighting of the building yeah I heard it yeah okay so the 50 Foot follows my cursor um so the majority of the structure itself is located within the 50 Foot no build can you draw a line please H yeah I don't know why hold on bear with me just a second I my screen is not cooperating yes um the 50 Foot line comes like this and the Wetland is located up here yes so that is what we are considering Jason yes sorry I I know you you mentioned that there were some constraints um and there are alternatives to the Force main or is there I'm not sure if I understand what the constraints are but why can't it just go down the driveway to there's no s there's no sewer in Main Street so you have to Force main it up to where we're going to connect it to the Sewer that leaves amrest College's Marsh Hall which is on the property directly north at the top of the hill um and from there there is a sewer that runs down to Triangle Street we also explored reusing the sewer that leaves the Evergreens from the Eastern side um the condition of that pipe is poor and it also goes through town own own land that's not a right of way so there are legal issues with that and we would still need to trench behind the Evergreens to the West um right along the edge of the inner buffer well with inside the 50 Foot the reason that we are not uh from the location of the building not going directly toward Marshall across Museum property is that that Northern portion of the property has never been explored archaeologically and therefore any disturbance that we propose of the the gra a disturbance in this case meaning um excavation within that area would trigger uh an extensive archaeological study including test pits along the entire length of the trench um uh just in order to be allowed to do that work whereas if we are just to the left of that property line onto ammer college property there are no archaeological restrictions whatsoever okay and so and just to reiterate there's no sewer line in Main Street not in front of this property no okay all right I'll wrap it up real quick but did you just say that there's another in your a solution that would require there's a RightWay by the town was there was that another option on the map um I was trying to keep up with all the options yeah sorry there there is a so um let let me sh if I have the ability to share I'll bring up the plan and then I can point um so uh this is a portion of the building that we've been referring to as the Evergreens um and there is a sewer that leaves the Western portion of this building and runs West um that has been out of service Jame could say exactly for at least 20 years um the condition of that pipe is poor it runs through town-owned land but not but that land is not in the right of way so there would be easements required from the town but also it doesn't get us out of the disturbance within the 50 Foot because we would still need to Tren around the Evergreens which itself is only 20 feet from got it okay so it doesn't solve the 50 Foot perhaps it minimizes a little bit you know okay Jas it's your hand up again or just leave it up you're good okay all right um we need to move on with this one so I think Chris has heard our comments and I'm looking for a motion to continue I I have I was I had my hand sorry couldn't see it go ahead Alex so um when I was there we had a Jane you were not but we had a conversation with Chris about where was the historic boundary for the carriage house and you've got those L-shaped blocks in the ground for which there was a picture but you're not sure exactly where the Carriage House was am I correct no I'm sorry uh we do know exactly where the carriage house was I apologize if I uh didn't communicate that correctly I thought there was a slight uncertainty but um I was not involved in the extensive research that was done on that location I came on board after that okay so I'll just say that um the value of that tree that you want to take down if you took the cost of the seedling and compounded its value forward the the life of that tree it's worth thousands of dollars and would it really make a whole lot of difference to move that building over 10 or 15 feet to save the tree maybe that's just something to consider Chris um and if they did move it 10 to 15 feet over would it damage the roots to the point where it would kill the tree anyway Alex also maybe that's rhetorical um okay may may I just refer us all back to the Secretary of the Interior standards for reconstruction yeah I know Jane but but we we're we're we're just trying to uphold the bylaws of the Town yeah we're the Conservation Commission the Conservation Commission yeah yeah and I I think ultimately that's our response is that Jane's um you know that that other standard that you're not upheld to um but we are with this project um and so um obviously the the commission can decide what they want but the the building's been placed based on best practices under those guidelines Andre yeah I just want to make sure that we're not uh getting confused between between acts uh by the federal government that uh that essentially tell you what you need to do to preserve or do work on historical uh buildings and so on versus the regulations that we're talking about today what you have applied for and that's what we're talking about is what you applied for not spec let's not uh so I don't you know I think what you're trying what you trying to say before is that you have to that any change would be very complicated because you still have to then um get those changes approved through all these other permitting processes but the Secretary of interior's uh regulations or uh laws they're not they don't they don't compete with uh with the with what we enforce here or with what we your uh uh requesting a permit for so I I I keep hearing you talk about the uh these laws and it's if it's in the context of um you of making it more complicated for you to move the building for example I understand that but uh um the ammer concom is not subject to the regulations or is not subject to or affected by um those laws that you're talking about do do you understand understood and and I I'm approaching this more from the perspective of um on the vast vast majority of requests and comments and questions when I'm in these hearings with conservation commissions and planning boards we always try to look for what can we give to to sort of come to a middle ground and this is one of those rare occasions where where you know the the museum being held to those obligations makes this something that that we can't just say oh yes we will move that building a little bit which on really any other project would probably be a no-brainer that that we would go ahead and do it thank you Andre aarin I was going to request that the commission continue this hearing and allow myself and Chris to um Talk offline to try to come up with reasonable um adjustments that meet what the commission has asked for in terms of um mitigation um and potentially review that at the next meeting um because I think that we're kind of at an impass at this point and we have another hearing and just in the means of respecting everyone's time great okay looking for a motion to continue move to continue the public hearing for 214 Main Street Emily Dickinson Museum to 5824 at 7:50 p.m. he second on the motion Alex on the second Rachel stain right okay um Jason abstain Alex hi Bruce Andre hi Laura hi I'm and I okay thank you Chris thank you Shane have a good night thanks we'll see you then okay next up we have abbreviated notice of resource delineation for Pure Sky development Incorporated on behalf of WD K's Incorporated represented by Goddard Consulting for the confirmation of resource area boundaries on site limited to areas that fall within the 100 foot beet of the proposed solar installation at shsb road map 9B Lots 11 and 12 and map 9d Lots 27 okay so an update on this one is that we at the last meeting had continued and had requested some revisions to the plans um particularly putting a polygon around this the project area where the resources were specifically delineated and updating the plan set to show revisions and the final date um as I understand it there are several plans that came in that did not meet those um requests and something came in at the last minute that still had some outstanding items so I believe we're going to have to continue this um because I think it came in right at the last minute today um Aon do you want to add anything to that um yeah so just to give the commission sort of a I mean I don't know how much of a comprehensive update you want um I was prepared to recommend that we issue tonight um but I understand from talking with the chair based on Emily Stockman's review that there's still outstanding concerns and I think that the concern as I understand it is that the initial revision that came through didn't include the revision dates of the original plan um we requested that those be added and I think that there was a little bit of a disconnect between the plan revisions for the plan set and the survey um revisions so the survey going out and picking up data in the field so when the surveyor made the plan revisions they updated the dates that they were out in the field collecting Wetland points as opposed to the plan revisions so I negotiated with Steve um offline to try to get the final revision date added for today um and sent that around to everybody hoping that we could approve tonight but I think there's still some concern that the um dates of the various revisions for the plans that were submitted to the concom were not included am I stating that accurately yeah so I think that the title needs to be changed to show the final date and that some of the sheets were missing the final date so it just was in a comprehensive revision showing the final dates and the revision box didn't list all of the revisions um for example March um so I'll give you guys five minutes um if you want to respond to that or give us any updates on your part so I don't know who wants to take this Mark Cory I think Steve was on too okay please raise your hand Steve and we can add you okay right welcome Steve welcome Mark Cory yep go ahead yeah so yeah so I think there was I think like you said there was some disconnect in what you intended the revisions to be we relay that to the surveyor they gave their version of it we provided that and then we just had some back and forth in the last couple days about the final plan date being updated um as opposed to the last time that they surveyed the site which I think is what the date on the actual plan shows okay yeah I think it's a pretty simple fix just needed some clarity and communication and um hopefully that'll just be very simple and provided Dar and um if there's any public comment please raise your hand now Cory you want to add something yeah thank you um madam chair so um Erin just to be clear because we were the ones who were um requesting these updates with our survey Meridian um they had a list of the dates of all of the surveys that were shared with the concom um since we submitted back in October and those were initially listed as a note and then we did see the correspondence that you wanted to see those dates of the revised plans dropped into the revision box so those dates were then dropped into the revision box and unfortunately there's not yeah sorry go ahead so the um the the notes in the the notes were fine as far as when the survey was done in the field I think we're mixing up two things here the dates that the surveyor went out and picked up the flags in the field are one set of revisions the revisions that the commission is referring to that they want to see on the plans are when you originally submitted your application there was one date on your application which was the date the final date of your plan for the submission then Emily did her review the plans were updated and a revision was submitted to the commission there was another subsequent set of revisions from there so the dates that we're talking about are the actual plan submissions to the Conservation Commission as part of the anrad applic not the date that the surveyor was out picking up Flags in the field if that makes sense I think that there was a crossing of informational lines there okay I okay so those dates were we shared those with them and those were the dates that of the revised plans that we have shared with the commission not the dates that they were in the field survey Baron do you have the dates if would that beeld ful if you guys can sort of corroborate your timeline and the dates offline like their their submission to the concom dates right and and those were those were the dates that were added to the survey you're muted Ain Ain you're muted sorry I don't have the dates at the tip of my fingers right now to to list all of the dates but what I can tell you is that between February 12th and April 24th there were revisions made to the plan set um that were not noted on the plan um the the notes that I saw on the revision boxes appeared to be um related to this date that the surveyor was out in the field picking up flagging cuz there was like six revision dates we only had I want to say from the original submission we've had three revisions and there was multiple revisions noted in the revision box so there was an initial there was the original submission date there was a revision from Emily going out initially with Steve Ribery in the field and hanging flagging there were comments on the on the first revision for um addressing um the call outs and and um the various uh designations of the various resources areas on the site and then I believe there was a the final plan that was submitted to us so those are the dates that I'm talking about and if those if if I I can go back into my emails and list those dates because I have them all um on the website of when plans were submitted to us but I I don't have them available right now for this yeah that's fine I don't think we need to hammer them down right now and just you know the relevance to us is the back and forth that we had especially with Emily Stockton and you and the revisions that came from those conversations not necessarily just the survey um okay I'm going to go to public comment I see one hand up Judy Eisman I'm going to allow you to talk please take two minutes welcome Judy yes hello um I represent the pum planning board um since we about the proposed project I had planned to make some more extensive comments about my background and and why I have feel competent to discuss this but in the interest of time um I will simply say that I believe that since I last sat on a concom the the regulations have changed um apparently but in my opinion um pure sky is uh by failing to delineate more of the property is really adding to its own problems here um because we it's very difficult to understand uh the entire project and the potential damage that could occur either during construction of anything that is permitted or something else that goes on on the remainder of the property at any rate um in briefly uh I think this area is not only inappropriate for such industrial use but the main question is whether the cutting of trees for industrial solar panels is in furtherance of State policy and I don't believe it is I will be going to the Zoning Board hearing and and I will attend the continuance of this hearing and give you more information which I have already provided to the zoning board thank you thank you Judy um Lenor allow you to talk pleas take two minutes hi um Lenor Strong Street ammer thank you for your very good thorough work this is a general statement also the liaison from climate action now unfortunately there's not enough understanding about how natural systems have always regulated the climate and how intact ecosystems like Forest are critical to mitigate the disaster effects of our current climate catastrophe and even though the current Healy Administration has outlined climate goals that that uh that highlight restoring soil Health protecting greenlands like Forest there remains archaic legislation and Regulatory processes a lack of an integrated Regional approach shortsighted policies and subsidy programs and an inefficient lack of oversight so we're crippled with this fragmented governance leaving our local Town boards and committees to have the foresight courage and Clarity to do the right thing for our public personal and pl planetary health and as you all know because something is legal does doesn't mean it's right because something was perceived as right in the past doesn't mean it's right now because something's right in theory or in certain places doesn't make it right in practice or in every place so I'd like to offer you as the liaison of climate Action Now a wealth of current resources if you'd like that include academic papers scientific lectures scholarly articles websites Etc that clearly make the case that installing industrial solo plants on any land that we need to protect Water Supplies soil integrity biodiversity and to help prevent impacts of flooding droughts and the heat that's only getting worse is the wrong course of action to address the mess that we find ourselves in because of our disconnect with nature and our Colonial economies based on resource extraction so we urge you to do everything in your albeit limited power and your con and your good conscience to make the right decisions and provide the necessary guidelines as you proceed with this thank you so much thank you um Alexandra two minutes please hi uh this is Alexandre valunas from 2011 shoot spray Road um in ammer I just wanted to continue that I feel that this uh continue to say that I feel that this is a site that's very ill suited to any kind of Industrial Development um the water supply I feel like would get get run down all the way into amethyst Brook with how things run like I I've seen really some very bad solar projects where you have soil soil erosion from cutting down trees up land like again I don't know nearly as me much as many people have commented on this um but I do know that plot of land particularly well I've walked all the way up to Leverett from that site I've done grid walks in those Backwoods over and over since I've been four years old and I'm nearly turning 40 now um 36 years of walking across all that land I can tell you again there's many rare and endangered species back there that aren't in that Wetland that only come up for maybe two weeks out of the Year some of which don't come up every year they're affected by fungus networks between trees and require very specific soil function to exist and so cutting down trees on that land is going to impact things that I have a poor understanding of and people who have you know phds in master's degrees and all kinds of things that really understand this much more deeply than I might um but as just a local citizen that's been born in the area and lived here my entire life I would strongly urge you to not allow this to continue with whatever power you're able to thank you so much for your time thank you uh Renee renie go ahead two minutes please good evening um hi Renee Moss uh shuberry Road ammer um and just a quick comment um we here looking at uh I believe 102 acre parcel of which 40 acres 31 football fields are going to be clear are being proposed to be clearcut and what sort of perplexes me is why we don't why in that latest plan that that came through why there's not you know why only those 40 acres is what we're showing the wetlands delineation of it seems to me that clear cutting that amount of forest can't help but affect the other 60 Acres or at least or or maybe not all 60 of them but many of them and why we are only requiring Wetlands delineation on the 40 that's being cut down when we know that once that's down the water will flow differently there will be a heat sink there will be there there will be so much reaction to that that that massive amount of clear cutting that can't possibly not affect the land outside of that 40 acres but within that parcel so that's just you know I think as Alexandra um said I am not an expert but it just sort of perplexes me as to you know why we're only looking at the 40 acres that are being cut down so that's my comment and thank you all for your hard work on this I appreciate I appreciate it thank you uh Michael two minutes please oh thank you and uh just like to say many of you uh on the board haven't had the full pure Sky experience um Laura has been here throughout the whole thing I think all the way back to 2019 and what you're seeing here and what you've seen all along is typical of pure sky in action remember they're the same company that let their original uh anrad orad expired now they're back again now they're going through a process that should take a short period of time should be pretty straightforward and somehow over and over and over again they manag to mess up small details and sometimes big details they're creating a problem it's going to haunt them down uh in the future by not delineating the entire parcel they're trying to push this project through the zba without the Conservation Commission having approved the delineation in advance the whole process has been really turned upside down sideways and it's just typical of how this company operates basically they just seem to pile confusion upon confusion until boards just give up because they just don't want to deal with it anymore and it looks like they're repeating the same mistakes again here um you have to understand that what you're seeing here is not unusual for them it's standard operating procedure it's almost like no one's in charge and no one knows what any other part of the operation is doing they're also a company that is not afraid to leave out things in this case they're leaving out major sections of the delineation and making believe that the wetlands that are in them don't exist they have huge um drainage areas that are draining into areas on the map that appear as grayed out hash marks like it's a black hole or something well that's real property that's real um wetlands and they try to kind of brush it off is don't look here so instead of seeing a real delineation on the map you see gray out rectangles you see gray out triangles it's just incredible how poorly the this company goes about doing their business and it scar to think that a company that has this much trouble just getting something as basic as an orad through is a company that you're going to trust to remove 40 acres of forest and put up a functioning solar operation it's a scary thought and I hope that you people will really hold them to a high standard because someone needs to and unfortunately there's many many small towns around here that don't have the resources amers have that don't have the staff that ammer has that don't have the volunteers that ammer has where this company has just bulldozed their way through and put up operations that are really really scary okay thank you Michael um I just want to respond uh very very briefly about um you know our jurisdiction in relation to the cutting and um we don't take over our jur jurisdiction until there is an impact to the wetlands so the forest cutting plan is not something that we have control over um we can give our we don't have anything in front of us but we can give our comments on it but that's a DCR jurisdiction no okay Erin fill me in sh there's no Forest cutting plan um no I know there's none yet but as far as like cutting surrounding the site if it's outside of our jurisdiction we have no ability to to do anything about that until there's impa right I think we're getting so yeah I mean they're going to be coming once once we issue an an or ad they're going to be coming back to us with a notice of intent application they're going to need to have a notice of intent application they're Crossing an intermittent stream they're Crossing an isolated Wetland um so there is going to be a notice of intent application to the Conservation Commission following the issuance of this or ad in order to permit this project at that time time the commission is going to have the full authority to review the Wetland delineation review the proposed work determine potential impacts as far as the Wetland delineation I just would love to comment on this I would love to see the entire Wetland the entire site delineated it was previously delineated and confirmed as part of the previous orad but we as a commission can only confirm the resource areas that the applicant has submitted to us um do I think it's in their best interest to delineate the entire site absolutely but if they choose not to there's nothing that we can do to force them to do that if they choose not to do that so we can only confirm the resource areas that are within the study area or the designated area that they ask us to confirm within but but I think sorry I didn't raise my hand go ahead go ahead Laura um I was going to say but I think Erin that that's a good point while we can't require a certain something that you know would be great to see um right I'm I would like to move to um continue this for the night since it's late I see your hand up Corey but I don't really want to get into a big discussion yet um we can continue this when we have the full plan set in front of us and with all the requested and outstanding revisions and I just wanted to provide that brief comment for the public just so you know where our process is more clear to you um but for tonight I'm looking for a motion to continue because this is uh kind of a a last minute um discussion I don't have a a slide um teed up for a continuance on this but um I can offer a time slot of May 8th at 7:55 for the continuation of the um uh abbreviated notice of resource area delineation for Pure sky on behalf of WDS at shutesbury Road um D file number 089 0727 I move to move that uh move the hearing to or to continue the hearing in uh on May 8th at 7:55 p.m. [Music] looking for a second everybody's muted so if you're talking we can't hear you I think I had Bruce on the second so Andre on the motion Bruce on the second Rachel Jason obain Bruce hi Alex hi Andre I Laura I'm an i okay thank you everyone have a good night okay we still have a couple more items of business here um I have a jurisdictional question maybe I should use it I I'll ask it offline okay um let's see I guess we're just at an enforcement updates okay yes let's start with Trillium so Alex and I went out to um 11 Trillium um the Thursday following uh our April 10th meeting and the site certainly looked a lot better um out on that site visit and definitely give Alex a chance to give his comments um my recommendations were at that site visit um number one that the the slope was supposed to have erosion control blankets on the entire extent of the slope and they had only um put erosion control blankets on the upper half also um to my knowledge there had been no seeding of the slope um under the erosion control blankets which was a requirement so we were told we advised them um to get conservation seed mix from um appropriate vendor and to uh seed the entire slope and to um complete putting down erosion control blankets on the remaining slope also um the the owner and I discussed the fact that there is some uh it's it's not clear where the extent of the 100 foot buffer is on this site they measured it with a measuring tape um my concern is that we need to have the 100 foot buffer marked um bounded essentially by um a surveyor because I don't believe that the measurement that the owner provided is entirely accurate and um I think that the commission needs to see that that completed in order to understand the where their jurisdiction lies and to be able to sort of move forward with whatever they might require from this point forward um there was some fill which was remaining in place on the slope I did question that because some of the trees were still buried um and the owner was concerned that it was not possible to reach the area where the fill was located with a piece of equipment and was concerned that they were going to cause a bigger stability issue and also violate the enforcement order by bringing equipment down into that area so um we wanted to bring it to the remaining group to explain sort of the overall conditions and Alex if you have anything to add please well I just have a question because when I was there which was couple few weeks now um the same issue of not having equipment on a slope to remove the fill was was an issue then and they were hand removing it and there was shovels and buckets down there so why can't they just continue to do that so is there a reason yeah um I mean yes and we there was hand removal going on and there was quite a bit of hand removal that had been done particularly beyond the erosion controls in the resource area um I don't disagree with you um um we're I certainly brought this up the the comment from the owner was that it was too much to do by hand um and that a piece of equipment would be needed I I do think it is a substantial amount of fill that's on the slope that was kind of sloughed off um and Le and left there um it was not permitted um but I think it would be a major task to do that by which again if the commission wants it then that's what needs to be done it's we're just reporting back to you of what the owner is sort of advocating like silty free dirt that's just poised to go into that stream um anyway uh and I also just wanted to point out that within the area that is you know the 100 foot buffer line which is unknown exactly there's been some installments of like uh lighting with concrete footings um so I just wanted to point out that uh I think we should ratify the enforcement order that the 100 foot buffer needs to be surveyed and bounded with a you know a month time frame on that because there's a lot of productivity and installments of things happening and um I don't think we have a clear understanding of where it is and he's putting it right on what he thinks is the line so it's going to be it's going to be tight no matter what uh Andre so um let me just ask those of you who are most in the know there um what they're they're talking about or they're concerned the homeowners are concerned that um getting equipment in there to remove that um that extra fill is um it's going to do what it's going to violate our uh our enforcement order is that what they're so the enforcement order states that equipment cannot enter the slope um and that was intentional because I didn't want them driving the equipment down onto the slope to try to remove it um because it was already so destabilized um and so my advice was remove by hand um and what you can reach from staying on the upper part of the behind the erosion control barrier if you could use the arm of the equipment to reach down and carefully um uh remove the fill that that was feasible but beyond that um that they should not have equipment on the slope right protected and so they um you know what they were what they've been doing right now has been uh some removal by hand and uh doing some other taking some other steps to uh uh to comply and but what is their proposed solution to uh the re how do they propose to remove the uh remainder of what they've uh filled in there so can you just hold that picture Aon yes I can yeah go ahead Alex please yeah I if you'll recall the homeowner uh was in a bit of a bind he was leaving on a plane to go get his 92y old mother who is moving to his house and there was some urgency in in arresting the erosion and he went out and bought this blanket that you're looking at um locally it happened to been available there's a long length of it and it was going to take him another two weeks to order the same amount his son showed up on the scene was very helpful um when Aaron said that recommended a conservation seed mix he got right on the phone with the store that Ain identified and bought uh the seed they were very responsive but it was kind of like what do I do first and uh he was under the impression that he needed to do something to stop the erosion so um there was a discussion about um getting more out or and I I don't recall it as discussion about what the priority was but he moved as fast as he could to stop the erosion and once he learned from Aaron that an error had been made and his son got involved uh he moved quite quickly to try and correct things with with good intentions so my feeling is that the unless we order it the the fill that was down the slope will stay there and what he'll try and do is seat it and put the blanket over it all the way to the stream to try and arrest the uh uh the erosion whether or not that fill is deep enough to injure the trees given what's been removed is a whole another question but um um um and and I was there when we talked about the lighting that he put and and I think some of it just showed up in the picture there's some of it yeah and requests were made to have it surveyed I don't think he's acted on that yet but he probably would um I don't he's trying hard to cooperate and he's gotten his son involved who's very good at U communicating and getting things done but I I don't think he's going to have an army of people down there uh carrying buckets out of soil it it may be there forever unless we re order it removed thanks Alex and eron it looks like the plastic uh stuff is still down in the front they were going to be replacing that but it's not been replaced we can go back to that Jason go ahead oh I'm sorry I'm still on my question I'm sorry oh sorry um the oh the question of whether why can't I'm just trying to clarify what um I'm trying to clarify one um what's down there and two uh what you know uh I guess what are we going to do with it you know uh is it okay to leave it there um and if uh if it's okay to leave it there then all right um but otherwise I mean uh I'm also trying to I I I'm not I'm getting a little bit confused but is the Aaron is this uh this is something that you learned about after the fact or did you had you spoken to these folks beforehand as far as the remaining Phil no um uh did you learn about the did we learn about the um uh that fill and uh so on after you had already spoken to them or was this just uh we never uh they so have you spoken to them before uh they did any work I guess I'm a little confused by the question so I'll just I'll just I'm going to try my best to answer it so they had no permission to put Place fill on the slope whatsoever that's why they have the enforcement order they were supposed to remove all of the fill um I think they did do a a pretty decent job um removing the material that was in resource area by hand um and I think they did a decent job removing I would say 85% of the fill that was on the slope the only amount that's remaining is this this area that I keep highlighting here you can see the trees are still buried um it's it's just beyond where the bucket can reach um on this this slope it's not a huge area I would say it's maybe 15 feet by say I'd say maybe 15 by 15 foot um and it's it's it's not a tremendous amount of fill um and my concern was the girdled trees like the trees that are buried that they're going to be killed um so my advice to them was until we could get a further read from the commission was to hand shovel out the um bases of those trees so that they're not killed by the fill and that the commission ultimately would need to make a decision as to whether that fill needed to come out or whether it could be stabilized for me personally my my professional opinion is to leave it there and stabilize it um to not have them do any more because I'm concerned that they're making forward progress on stabilizing at this point and I'd rather see the site stabilized and get some native vegetation growing there um as opposed to having them continue to have um disruption and and uh excavation in that area but I you know it's like six of one half a dozen of the other how we proceed with this um I guess I'm just thinking button up the site as quickly as we can as the growing season begins to try to stabilize the slope um and I do think once we get that 100 foot buffer um uh bounded we're going to be having a bigger discussion which is them filing a notice of intent to restore the area that they damaged um in some capacity thank you Jason uh yeah I want I have I think two or three questions here but first I agree with Aaron that if they can get that fill out from around the trees that would probably be um the most the quickest remedy um certainly don't I don't want to see them taking equipment down on the slopes or anything like that so I think that would be the best thing to do by hand um I did want to ask I thought that we had said they needed to use a biodegradable we did blanket and none of that is biodegradable that's standard like S150 straw with polypropylene netting yes so we did talk to them about that they said that it was they were not able to get it they said that they tried to order it and that it was not available um this it would take two weeks yeah they they had they they ordered everything they could with what was available which is that option and that the other material was going to take an additional two weeks to to do the remaining slope which is the lower portion of the slope so they were ordering I believe from ammer farmer Supply um or some other local Source but um yeah they they said it was a sourcing issue so I you know what I don't honestly I don't buy that um can call up EJ Prescott they're in Springfield they deliver all over the place like there's a lot of places that carry a rtion control blanket um I know that they potentially the homeowners wouldn't necessarily have a good list of people to call but the contractor whoever did this should know I mean it's spring in Massachusetts it's raining erosion control blanket is an item that all these places have stocked um so I would really you know and if they're going to see this area and put erosion control blanket down you got to put the seed down first then put the erosion control blanket down or you're you know you lose a bunch of seed by not being in contact with soil so is their intention to potentially in two weeks when they get this other material remove all of the non-biodegradable and then seed and then recover it hasn't been covered I would like to see all that polypropylene taken up I mean that was a condition that we gave in the enforcement order and it's basically just suffocating that ground with plastic I mean that's that's a lot of area that would otherwise be natural Leaf litter um that's going to have a sheet of plastic under it so well it's also an entanglement like yes all kinds of things that are using the resource they're going to get trapped in that netting and that's one reason why a lot of places don't allow for that type of netting anymore okay yeah and that's just sticking to the original conditions that we gave that go ahead Alex my gut is that the household the owner with his son did what they could as fast as they could um they don't have knowledge of Springfield and I but on on the flip side I think they'd be perfectly willing to rip that out and put down what you want I think they were just trying to do something to respond to Aaron talking to them about uh trying to stop the erosion so I don't think it was um I don't think they were intent intentionally disregarding the order I think they were just trying to be expedient to doing something with find fair enough um I understand that so let's just like as you said Alex they just needed clear instruction so let's be clear about that and provide maybe additional resources for them to get it and if you know even if they can't get it in two weeks put the order in so it can happen I they have a whole entire unstabilized backyard right now do we have any idea what their plans are for that I I assume some Hydro it it's probably SED by now they they were going to put in an irrigation system and then sod the entire area wait which area is this the back or the front the lawn the backyard oh the backyard yeah I'll show you the area well my thought my my train of thought was that if they were going to have somebody come in and hydro seed that that would be an option for the slope as well Hydro seed it with conservation mix and a hydraulic Mulch and that would take care of the problem but it sounds if it's if it's already SED then it is what it is he's probably got SED down right now yeah that's what I was that's what I had initially recommended um they decided to do that instead um so I have I have a list of conditions here for a ratified enforcement order I just want to make sure I have these correct and if anybody has anything to add the first is to survey and bound the 100 foot buffer within a 30-day period the second is to um hand remove the fill from around the tree trunks and seed and stabilize um the fill in place that is not girdling the trees um that they remove the um uh existing blanket which was not what was um requested and replace it with a biodegradable erosion control blanket after they put the seed down um so I have those 1 two three before conditions um does anybody have anything else that they want to add to the ratified enforcement order we give them a timeline for the survey a 30-day window for this the um survey I'm good anybody else I think it's good okay so we just need a motion to ratify the enforcement order with the noted conditions moveed to ratify the enforcement order with the noted conditions I second that Jason hi Bruce hi Alex hi Andre hi Laura hi and I'm an i great and then um a wild flower Wildflower I have heard that the um the owner so I don't know if I mentioned this or not but myself Bruce and Alex did sit down and and Dave zc sat down with the owner um in the town room and he had um promised the group that he was going to put uh erosion controls in place that day or immediately following the meeting and that he was going to um reach out to um a wetland professional to take care of the filing of his notice vent I did give him a list of local Wetlands Consultants um when I was out inspecting um in that vicinity I did check the um Wildflower Drive location to see if erosion controls had been installed they still have not been as of um just a few days ago so we're still waiting on erosion controls and um I know that he did reach out to at least one Wetland consultant who was considering taking um the project but they ultimately decided not to um so I don't know if he has gotten a wetland consultant but I do know that April 30th is the deadline for his enforcement order so I'll keep you I'll continue to keep the commission posted um but it looks like it might we might be hitting a deadline at the end of April and then this will be on for the May 8th uh meeting for discussion sorry planning on reaching out to him again just to remind him of that deadline so we don't have to get to that point yeah I mean I'm happy to remind him um I'm trying to be as um diplomatic as possible but i' I have been told multiple different stories at this point um so I'm uh I will reach out um and I'm not sure what the commission wants the messaging to be like if the 30 days is not met then what is going to be the repercussion Andor are you going to give him more time time um what is sort of the consensus of the commission Andre I'll give a piece of my mind um you know I think that uh you've already spoken to him uh taken the time to speak to him at at the office and he's made a promise how many days ago was this um it was I'm it was right around our last meeting date I'm not sure if it was immediately before or after our last meeting 12 13 just a couple of days after okay um right around the and he and he was going to do this right away and in the meantime we we've been having all this rain uh and the resource continues to get damaged and uh if he you know and he's been on notice so I think the next step is to uh to be more forceful about it and that would be I would I you know I would either finds I mean he has to do this he's got to do something about it you can't just leave it so the consequences of not doing what you're uh what you uh are through an enforcement order uh instructed to do uh there should be some kind of consequences and um I don't have a problem I mean I know that it uh can get complicated when we uh begin to Levy fines but uh I mean he's got to do something okay so um Alex has his hand up pulled on one sec go ahead Alex uh maybe outside what we actually do with this enforcement order but one of the issues that was on my mind when I visited is he's only allowed to cut down 50% of the basal area within the Wetland boundary and we don't know know if he did that so all the stumps are piled up and I talked to Aon about the possibility of having somebody figure out what the basal area is of the standing trees within the buffer and I even volunteered to go down with her dape and measure all the dbhs of the trees but it wouldn't take very long and then with the stumps if he brought a back ho in we could measure the diameter of the stumps estimate the basal area and find out if he had a violation of cutting down more than 50% of the trees in addition to the violations that aon's got now and that's good s thing but should that be on us or him I don't know yeah I mean for we shouldn't really be entering the property without the land owners sort of consent um so I'm a little concerned about too much um issue that might like potentially be a trespass issue um but I do I I have a a sense of you know I can have a conversation with him in advance of the meeting on the third or in advance of the April 30th deadline which I know is fast approaching um I could also talk to our um Town attorney and see if um maybe they send a strongly worded letter and I can you know seek some guidance on um you know if there is no action sort of what are um some other potential um actions might be and certainly finding um so is the commission thinking I mean so I think having a conversation with him might be a good idea it could be he reached out to 10 different consultants and nobody could take it so I don't know if it's a matter of him um making efforts and just not having progress maybe he's found somebody and he's working on it so I can get of an update I'm just not going to have a meeting between now and then so um if he's made substantial efforts I'm going to continue to suggest that he continue making forward momentum on filing a permit if it seems like he has not made efforts and he's sort of things aren't going anywhere then um I think more of a um strongly uh in in strong enforcement action would be necessary if that makes sense yeah go ahead Alex the gentleman when we met with him was s was somewhat surprised he had written checks before the work was done to people to do the work trusted them to do it uh he's not somebody who's done this before I don't mean the violation I mean uh bought a lot and built a house for himself um he sort of knew at that and knew at everything that that we're talking about and he was um very cordial during the meeting um he thought he was going to get beat up at the meeting and he wasn't at all he was very happy about that then Dave was very nice just trying to bring him into compliance so I don't think we have somebody who is being obstinate I think that you just got somebody who has uh trusted people too much and paid them before they did the work and got himself in trouble um and by the way in just saying go in and do the dape uh I don't really want to do that I'm just that's was my way of saying it's an easy thing to do sure we have pictures before they stumped and that might be useful too go ahead Laura um so my I mean it sounds like the period is almost over with anyways that it's 4:30 as far as like when he needs to have some stuff done um I'm kind of with Andre like if he doesn't get stuff done like we need to you know he might be very well intentioned and I'm glad to hear that that it's not like malicious but um I mean I guess within a week we'll be having you know you'll know Aon very clearly whether or not he's taking what you said seriously so um because the truth is if he called all 10 and wasn't able to make progress the next call should be to you to say I I don't know what to do you know and he hasn't done that so I mean um anyways it's kind of you know it's I gu you need something from us in terms of like what you know voting on a next step or no I mean I think I'll just use my best discretion to try to manage the situation and to be totally honest with the group it's it is complete triage at this point I'm I'm getting calls I'm getting emails I'm we've got permit filings coming in I've got construction kicking off um we've got emergencies happening and I'm trying to manage enforcement so I'm I'm going to do my very best um to manage everything that's going on but it's just hard to sort of manage people uh to do the right thing and also like it's it's administratively intensive to do it but I'll I will do my best to bring us to a positive result at the next meeting yeah but you already kind of done it you've already kind of sat down with him and had the I mean it's kind of like you've done what you can do so that's my opinion at least yeah okay thanks aarin thanks Laura okay so I think you have what you need from on this yes um thank you for following up um I guess we'll be hearing about it but uh definitely utilize the lawyer strongly worded letter uh if you can and hopefully we'll get some better news Okay um I think we're at the end of our agenda yes um public comment general public comment please raise your hand okay seeing none for a motion to adjourn I move that we adjourn at I second that 956 Bruce Jason hi Bruce hi Alex hi Andre hi Laura hi and I'm I right good night thank you everyone everyone