so it's March 26 2024 uh 7:00 um we will start the Conservation Commission meeting for Halifax it's being recorded by area 58 and can be viewed on YouTube is um also can be seen on Zoom um so for our first hearing it was on zero Laurel Street and zero Thompson Street Maryland's Landing it's an interad um continued hearing and there was a request to um continue it to April 9th I want to make a motion for that sure I can make a motion to to continue the hearing for zero Laurel Street and zero Thompson Street to April 9th at 700 p.m. I second the motion all in favor I and then the second thing on the agenda was 8 hildan uh and it was um we engineering is waiting for natural heritage determination so they ask that we continue this also to April 9th um at 710 p.m. and make a motion for that I put a motion that we continue in 8 hi in Lane to uh April 9th 7:10 p.m. I'll second that motion all in favor I and then and the Third on our agenda was 266 B quer Street uh it was for the storm water management permit application and I know at our last meeting we had asked them to delineate the pel they have S asked if we can they could withdraw without prejudice and then resubmit at a later date uh they had um some isses I believe have been a better so make a motion to be to accept the withdrawal yeah I put a motion that we accept the withdrawal to a further date without prejudice for 266 M Pon street I'll second that motion and all in favor I I and then does it have to be at 7:30 or it is in the discussions it's under discussions um I don't know if um see if we did 285 Palm Street is attorney hexim available now or not yeah we can Bounce Around okay so we have 25 minutes we do the go to Pastor lane or do uh we can just uh yeah whatever you so next thing that was conversation was for the talent Bank form uh so we had an application from Alan Diaz and is Alan here hi there so um thank you for the application and does anybody on the board have any questions for maybe you can speak and let us know why you're interested in I do I do know some members of the board I'm a 46 year resident of the town I've been an Excavating contractor for about 35 years um I've seen the last year so what the board has gone through the turmoil of complaints and whatnot and um it's I you guys are volunteers and I don't think you really should have to go through what you've been through um but I do have some strengths in storm water management in xring so I thought that I would try to lend my experience to the board for about a year or so I'm in a position where I'm trying to retire all right um but St morning management is important I don't believe we're up to date STM Water Management with all the regulations so I think I can be a plus for the board thank you um questions from either um any experience on other boards you have been on right oh yes yeah through my career I started back in 1980 on the mosqu Control Commission I was on the bylaw study committee twice put on the board of health six years put on a planet board for one years one year okay I do have extensive soil experience and I do and I have in the past for clients participated in delineation of wetlands so I know you know you need a certain percentage of species certain percentage of soils in order to be determined for what but let me just point one thing out that I'm not a tree hugger per se all right and I try to use a scientific approach to making decisions I mean because we're making decisions for our nabes and our friends so okay I have a couple questions so um you are not retired as of yet so do you see any conflicts of interest that might potential conflicts of interest interest um with your general contracting business that you have now and being a member of this board that does make decisions regarding no cuz I haven't worked in Halifax I I've only done excuse me I've only worked a couple jobs in Halifax in the last 10 to 12 years I don't anticipate doing any heavy extensive excavation so the answer to that question is no okay um my other question is so I see it um as our job is to protect the environment I would say I am a tree hugger and um I also see it as enforcing the bylaws and the part of the bylaws are the 100 foot buffer zone around the wetlands and not allowing um building or development within that 100 foot buffer zone unless it comes before the board for approval and the applicant can prove that they are not affecting the hydrology do you agree with that or do you see that differently I I agree with 100 foot okay some towns are 150 fot all right and I I believe that if you're doing anything within that 100 foot then you should file whether it be a noi or an Ida I have a little problem with the 50 Foot no dist 50ft no disturb is in most towns sometimes it makes it a little difficult for for contractors to come in and complete projects with without wavers in the 50 um have I ever gone into the 50 I don't believe so but yeah I believe 100% we need we need a place for water to go when it range okay we've got about 2600 Acres of swamp and bogs and Halifax and if we destroy those areas we're going to be flooded so the answer is yes okay thank you very much okay thank you um anybody in the audience have any questions okay um like to take a vote sure if we want to um it's a recommendation obviously the selectman make the decision to the selectman um we don't make the decision no but we can send a recommendation to the board of Selectmen all right I put a motion that we put a vote on um Mr Alan Diaz to be a board member on the conservation I would um be in favor of that I I'm going to abstain because I am too new to really have experience um and and know for sure okay how I should vote on this so I'm going to it's just a recommendation recommendation so it's we don't know not to recommend or not okay all right we s a recommendation to them we will see you soon thank you I'll sit in I'd like to in yeah thanks and the next thing then is the um five pasture Lane somebody here for that hi um so my neighborhood um and I'm also EST agent potential um the question was they the property they as listen I I I came before the the delation of my property it's the same exact line um so I brought the plan I know I think I did look at it um prior to the meeting and it looked like yours was within the 100 but outside of the 50 this one here it looks like it would have to be within the 50 put it for okay so this one is here so maybe I just guess that but that was the idea there so it would basically be right behind the house which which is already cleared yeah and so this is the Wetland Line This is the 50t here yeah so they would be they be outside the 50 but they still be within the 100 foot right so they would have to do the the leg work that I did just to make sure but it would be right near the house but any Excavating would be close to the 50 Foot it would you'd have to do you know their their buffer line and their silk fence and everything else and I'm sure that they contct very first spoking to anyone on specific plan just kind of trying to get an idea of what's yeah is even possible yeah right I can share my stance I just stated it basically um so I feel that if you're going to go within that 100 foot buffer zone the onus of responsibility is on the applicant to prove to us that the hydrology will not be impacted and that hasn't really been happening in front of this board that I'm aware of really a lot of people come to us and ask us what to do and I think that's sort of backwards it should be that you're telling us what you plan to do and then we can look at that and you if you've proven that you have that you're not going to or your client is not going to impact the hydrology by replacing replicating you know um engineering environmental engineering however they're planning on doing that you come to us and show us that so and once they purchase but they just kind of wanted to get an idea before they purchase is it even impossible they don't want to go ahead and buy this property and then decide there's nothing all we can do with it as I've told him what I did was we went to land planning we had them come up with the plan so that they could show all that information if they developed this to begin with anything so they know all the boundaries they know where the houses were and everything else so my guess would be the planning or whoever you choose would come before you with that the delimination the no of um most but we just to find out before they even put in an offer would it be possible looking at this within the 50 if we did the correct measures within the 50 to if it's in the 50 I'm I'm against this not yes the 50 is here so they'd be here right next to the house it's justly close we can't say yes or no until we see the plans like not what he said like what's going to where's the water going to go how you going to drain and where where all that it's going to what's going to be affected in the area so we can't say oh yeah definitely we if we say that now then we say oh we look at the point were against it iend no I know you can't give a hard and fast explanation I was kind of just curious I mean if it's the type of thing that is common enough like the typical um landscape architect in the in the area would know what to expect like what you look for you know like said how it affects the hydrology and to me obviously I don't know what that really means but I would hope that there's at least pretty um you know reliable resources that we could use to that should know at least what you guys would expect is that think a reasonable assumption or is it just totally you've seen all sorts of some people yeah some people say this and we get the plants it's totally different like until we see the plants itself we can't really say yeah and n and I'm sorry to put you in that position you think about buy house oh if you don't get a not going to buy the house like that's your decision is it just in terms of like the final result you mentioned like excavate like if they have to move around to to make that happen is that still like damaging that would be damaging that's why I'm thinking we're so close to the 50 that they might have to go inside of that okay they may not have to but that's my feeling that they might so they couldn't go into this area in order to make uh a pool basically where you're worried they would just end up going too far and go actually go into the wetlands you wouldn't want them to go disturb that area at all oh yeah okay so this I think somebody mentioned a no disturb no touch yeah okay so within that 50 basically says you can't do anything okay and and is that true just in general 50 ft of wetland so like you know this was okay so this was also like right now trees so you couldn't even take that trees to like not even bringing fill or anything but take down that to make a try to make a yard or anything like that or is that what you mean by inside the 50 yeah no touch like the trees when people want to move trees in the 50 they have to show it's going to make damage to the house or property usually we don't like people moving trees in the 50 as well gotta okay there are exceptions but yeah it's mostly if there's like that risk of damage to the property because of the tree that's dying ready okay well thank you for uh for explaining no problem at all good luck uh next one is so next one is 550 mon ponet Street and that one was um that was a complaint was it that was a complaint it was a complaint that I received yes um I know that um uh one of the admins uh Peggy did reach out to them and they were um they did agree to um keep the equipment 100 ft away from the Wetland line and for covering it they were questioning as far as putting the top on it with the wind they were wondering if we'd be okay if they um put um or they sprayed it with was it they wanted to spray it with Hydro because they felt that the sand of top would just fly off so and where's their pile of dirt is it near the L it's I'm not even sure it and I'm curious about that um because with the RDA it looked like they were not going to be having equipment in that area to be you know and and filling anything in that area so the work to my understanding was going to be mostly in the driveway so I'm not sure why the equipment is there in the first place the excavation equipment in the sand in the first place because my understanding was that they were doing a boardwalk or or replacing a boardwalk in that that area not um Excavating and filling so I'm not sure why it's there to begin with that I I'm not the one who made the complaint I just received the complaint but I'm a little curious why that is down there instead of up in the parking lot to begin with I know they've to they dig H I have no idea it's the old restaurant there making the RDA and see exactly what they said they were doing again I know they were doing some work around that area like okay I think it was mostly landscaping and they said something about a walkway to the right yeah and it was and it was going to be above ground and so so it wasn't going to be um clearing any of the vegetation there it was going to be going over it to my understanding perhaps a misunderstanding like I said I I should probably leave the RDA again to understand but um so the equipment was down on the water the sand I'm not sure if them spraying it it would have to be something that they're spraying it would would have to be safe yeah for the right sprayed within the around a pond and I'm not sure what it is they're saying there spraying it with but at least they've moved the so they've moved the equipment up to the the parking lot but it does bring up the question of why the equipment was down there in the first place for me and I okay I didn't bring the file with us tonight I don't believe um we could continue until the next hearing and then we could look into that I would like to why don't we some two of us make a site visit that too um this weekend or if either of you want to go before that uh obviously Sunday is Easter Saturday I can know that's I can do um sure want to do a Saturday yeah like we can reach out to them and I should check to see anybody here for 550 no okay we can contact them and see we can go down on Saturday then yeah okay anything else on that one Melanie no I don't think so that would be perfect if I I just need curious why it was there in the first place because it did not sound from my understanding of the RDA that they were going to be doing something to that extent so and then 40 Old Summit Street uh you went out there Ed and spoke with the the uh Builder yes the Builder yeah um let in the vicinity of my hes so somewhat a little concerned about the woods being cut everything else but you show me his lot he has to take down two decent sized trees two pine trees which he wish he didn't have to but that's where the house is going so that's not within the 100 or whatever so it's where the house is being built um he says I'll be by to check on the tree removal they got put the S fence after the tree removal because it would just get run over with the Machinery uh I'll keep my close eye on that project they got to call it they got to contact us when the sil fencing yeah and I'll go by again make sure everything's fine sounds good anything you on that one no okay and not this time 48 Elm Street uh you had reached out to D yes and found out that he considered it was ponded yes so the the river because of the impact of the dam the nearby Dam the the representative from the D that I spoke with referred to it as Pond did um so therefore it is it falls under the same regulations as a pond and I believe I forwarded that email to you okay so that was the the outcome of that from my looking into it the yeah yeah yeah that that was a little misleading I think for some people saying this is a river when stream and it wasn't they we did due diligence you ha to have the the person put the foundation down and after the factory going after them it look like almost so I'm glad we Treet out in a couple days I think right and I don't and it is it is a river technically it's just what the criteria is that that they use is not always intuitive so it's moving water but it's the rate at which it's moving the impact of the dam can affect that and it can create a RI if if it's a damned River it can the pond because it's now slow moving because of the impact of the dam was my understanding yeah so that's what that's what I learned let's see and then we have a Fuller Street that was um illegal dumping complaint and it looks like um the highway department went over there and it was actually was on the HX Clinton line but looked like it might have been in Middle borrow so it wasn't in HX and then for 711 ponet Street was the um complaint about the trash Appliance junk buildup on the property and I know we we had um voted to send a certified letter last meeting and the admin is still working on that letter so it hasn't been sent yet okay so we'll give that moment till the next meeting since it has been sent out okay I'm sorry for Home Street it is 265 Home Street 26 yeah we didn't to discuss it yet we're wait till 7:30 that's we were getting through a few other things first but 285 home street we have a couple more minutes see bills if any wants to I put a motion that we approve the bills I'll second that motion all in favor I I and then we have meeting minutes for January 23rd they over there are they in here let me see if I have them Med BS I have them there you go I make a motion to accept them oh where's the bills H oh we didn't pay the bills did we we didn't sign that if it's not here we'll sign her another time she give us a reason to come into that the building the building you want to see the minutes for the 23rd oh sure I'll see before we put a motion approv okay no we we didn't discuss that yet I did try to speak to him earlier but I don't think he heard Rich can you hear can you hear okay I I can hear you I'm having I'm I'm not able able to hear the board members can you hear us now can you hear me now maybe how about now if you could maybe speak into the microphones and speak you know loudly hello I was I'm just I'm having trouble understanding what you're saying how about now can you hear that um I could I could hear you but it's hard for me to understand what you're saying that's not Good's Cesar okay these minutes okay great me just get this one motion for this sure uh motion approved the minuts for January 23rd I'll second that motion and all in favor I I okay it's done that sounds a lot a lot louder louder yeah okay is the volume any better now yeah let's see yeah are you able to hear this now yeah I can I can kind of barely just understand what you're saying hear you and understand so the louder you can talk and the more clearly the better I I appreciate it okay okay so all right so um being 7:30 I opened 285 Home Street uh it was U flooding water runoff in tree removal complaint um and attorney Town Council is attending via zoom and do we have anybody here for that I'm okay okay all right and that was um would you like to speak up come up to the mic I'm here on behalf of the property owner he couldn't attend um my name is an seski I'm their attorney okay um so we had gotten a complaint uh that there had been some clearing of land there's been no clearing of land on this property since June of 2021 the property has achieved site plan review they got site plan approval for the existing addition on the back the property in June of 2021 I can show you an aerial photograph there's been no clearing on this property since then the rear of the property is GR travel and it's been that way during that entire period of time the only thing that has not happened that was approved on the site plan from the planning board is the front portion of the parking lot has not been paved so it's currently a pervious surface and not an impervious surface there are no impervious surfaces on the property yeah we went out um I contacted my Wetlands consultant Dave Gordon I believe he's appeared before the board before at least he said he has there are no wetlands this piece of property he went out he took a look we are in the process of um obtaining a new tenant for the property and when that happens we're going to file a new site plan review application for the new use of the property and in that context we have an engineer that is looking at some additional storm water management for the property to potentially address this issue because there isn't anything but at the moment it is an entirely graveled surface and yeah do you know when the um current owner purchased the property in 202 because we have um aerial views of the property in 2020 where it was fully head trees right part of the safe plan approval was for the property to have the gravel yard right and all of that was completed and the building was expanded okay so there was October 2021 this is the property line there are no trees on this property with the site plan approval for the site from June of 2021 okay this is the yard the existing Tree Line This is the current condition of the property this is an existing conditions plan that was prepared in connection with the tenant it has not yet been submitted it's the same thing it's gravel that's the tree line nothing has happened in the back of the property with respect to trees since the site plan review I guess the thing was was before the site plan review they were it was fully vegetated and trees and I guess the question is um you know the S time review shows it as a gravel yard there are no Wetlands on this piece of property your St Water Management regulations weren't adopted after this happened so there was no prohibition on the tree removal at that point in time yeah I can all of you yeah did you have any questions uh yeah I was concerned about the trees obviously and we were told that there was tree removal and we have the um yeah we have the but she's saying that um that was it was approved that they could take the trees down well you didn't have to come before us because it will no Wetlands right I mean I can appreciate there are some issues with at the front of the property and that's one of the reasons why my engineer is looking at some additional storm water management structures for the front of the property at the same time I will say the entire there is no pavement on here it's all perous surface it's all gravel so to the extent that there's water runoff I mean we can address that situation but I'm when I was at the planning board a couple of weeks ago to talk about the complaints that have been made about the use of the property I observed them talking about other cyclan reviews where they were promoting imper excuse me promoting perious services so I don't know if there's going to be a continued requirement to pave that front of the property or not I think we would recommend probably that actually not be paved and that would allow more water to infiltrate one of the things that my Wetland scientist who came out to the property said is you know he was doing some additional research on the site and he's wondering you know maybe the conditions of the soil at the front of the property have been very compacted from uses over time and that's certainly something that we can look at as well when we design some storm War management structures but we're not at that point yet we don't have a a tenant ready to file site plan review so it's an opportunity for us to you know navigate that from an engineering perspective and then present something in that context that might address some of these runoff issues do you have any other question um is there any way you can correct the runoff water situation now before the plans because it is impacting um the water shed across the street so we've rather have it addressed as soon as possible to run off water if you can contain that now that'd be I mean I can talk to the engineer about it maybe we can um put in some kind of temporary burm or something I don't know whether that's going to um you know address the situation completely I think the water seems to be coming off of the elevated area adjacent to the property and then running down through the front into the road at least that's what it look like from the images that I've seen but I could certainly talk to them about maybe coming up with some sort of temporary BM or something like that I don't know whether that's then going to sort of shift the water well that's what the engineers for you can usually figure out a way to yeah the isue I can certainly ask them if they can design something like that I problem with that I would just recommend not suggesting it's a burm and just add asking them to to try to alleviate the issue and seeing what they come up with um and I I do like the idea of keeping it unpaved that sounds Reon sounds sensible um and I I think that should probably stay that way until this is resolved rather than add more runoff is it possible for you to do a Still Water Management for the property right now as it is are you waiting for everything to be planned out what's going there and go that room it doesn't I based on my conversation with the engineer it doesn't necessarily make sense for him to design something in theory where he can design something based on how somebody's going to actually use it but we're very we're very close to that point it's not going to take a terribly long time I think it's it's pretty it's pretty we're pretty close um attorney hexom did you have any questions or concerns um again it's it's been very difficult for me to hear everything that's being said so excuse me if I'm like repeating anything it's already been dealt with but um so I guess I have a question is it is it true that the the site plan approval from the planning board had some some measures in it involved with like either storm water or control of water on the site and and um are those if that's true are those measures being taken because I think I heard one of the um um members mention that there's water flowing off the site I mean I've seen pictures of that that where water appears to be flowing off the site and that's I mean that's a that appears to be a violation of the commission's regulations under the storm water bylaw and it's and and so I I wonder whether that's something that's um that that uh the site plan approval measures would would um help with at the site plan approval mentions um storm water controls during construction of the addition of the building which happened the building was completed as of October 2021 it also mentions you know that when the front gets paved to ensure the pavement is arked up to try and stop water from flowing off but again we haven't paved it so we haven't we haven't done that yet but we will be including I mean i' I've given the engineer your storm water regulation and he's got them and he's drawn that preliminary plan which doesn't include it yet um so please don't take that plan to heart that's that's purely preliminary it's more of an existing conditions plan and he is looking at it and when we submit we will submit something to address what seems to be a a very concerning issue for the commission and the town yeah can you give us an idea when you think that will be submitted I'm hoping in the next couple of weeks but I can't say for sure because engineering schedule thank you there and thank you yeah all right and I think that's it if anybody has any other questions or concerns um I'd like to bring up that we did receive an email um that is not on the agenda that um someone wanted follow up on a previous complaint that they had and I was just wondering if we can try to put in um followup old business in our agendas going forward so that we make sure that we're keeping people a breast of of where progress is we could look into that or we could just make sure we put it on the agenda okay may that would be yeah cuz I know um yeah if you think of anything that's not on it like when we put it when py makes it and puts it out to us if you notice anything else you want on it we could also do that this particular one the email came in after the agenda was already made yeah so and I know we can't discuss things if they're not on the agenda so just I'm thinking of um for us to try to think of what we need to follow up on in advance of the agenda so that we're touching base and not leaving anybody wondering where we stand yeah that's a thought thanks um um yeah maybe better communication to say oh someone brought this up hopefully you can get it on the agenda we know that it's something that we want to discuss we can always put it on put it on we could just go past it if nothing new comes about right okay excuse me with the correspondent um and you are I'm sorry was the correspondence received over the last week where it will be considered under correspondence on the agenda see you um did you receive it within the last couple of weeks since the last meeting it was just received after the agenda was already made so yesterday I believe it was I think we going to put it on the next meeting okay yeah okay um motion to adjourn unless there anything else get the bills we did the bills minutes yeah yeah I don't think we have anything else on the agenda I put a motion that way J um can I ask one more question sorry um if there's somebody in the audience that does have a concern that isn't on the agenda is there is there time on the agenda for for that for um no it would just be anything that's on our public comments I think is what I was thinking of because a lot of a lot of boards do have time for public comments on their agenda uh we haven't done that and again I think what you're talking about we are putting it on the next meeting okay all right yeah yeah so motion to adjourn I'll second that motion all in favor I I okay thank you thank you a