##VIDEO ID:JZqBFxZMMDE## I'll start mine as well [Music] now so we all should be good to go just rolled to the top of the hour so everyone welcome to the lomberg Conservation Commission meeting for October 2nd 2024 we'll read through our script in accordance with the requirements of the open meetings law please please be advised that this meeting is being audio and video recorded the agenda lists all of the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and those that are reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions and not all items listed May in fact be discussed other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by the open meetings law please address all comments to the chair that would be me uh this meeting of the Conservation Commission will be held by Zoom at the link provided in the notice uh and uh for anybody that's joining us with Facebook live uh or streaming that would like to join us via Zoom the meeting ID is 853 4264 2102 and uh as always I would encourage uh members of the public to download the agenda from the lunenberg mass.gov calendar uh because you can just click on the link there there we will start out with a roll call vote uh Jenny hasn't rich is not here you have your sound off uh Jeff present Mike present Chris present very good uh do we have uh do we have any um announcements by members of the commission okay and I'm not seeing any um so uh if we have any comments from members of the public those are welcome uh we I ask that comments be limited to 3 minutes they must be on a subject matter that's directly under the jurisdiction of the conservation commit uh comments about current agenda items are to be made during the comment period of that specific agenda item so for any of the hearings please hold your comments until that time uh please address all comments to the chair that would be me and uh for for all public comment please state your name and your address uh for those of us that maybe aren't as familiar with zoom or the protocol um I encourage people to raise their hand uh along the periphery of your Zoom window depending on what your operating system is that may be at the bottom it may be at the top right uh so we don't uh appear to have any public comment uh so we'll move on uh minutes from previous meetings September 18th have those been distributed uh s Sophie September 18th I I didn't yeah okay so then we don't have meeting minutes to approve um uh so appointments it looks like we have a office equipment WPA appointment Sophie yes so I just wanted to inquire and bring it to the commission's attention that I am struggling in the office to conduct uh certain parts of my job like um taking soil samples um because I don't have the proper equipment uh one would be the augur uh the soil augur that extracts the the core so that I can actually visually see the different layers of soil um I kind of priced that one out um roughly between I guess 160 on the cheaper end um to almost up to 190 um and that would be out of the uh WPA revolving account um the other piece of equipment um I my boots has have finally um died essentially um I'm getting blisters and today I had water coming into my boot um so I would also request some boots that are waterproof to an extent um they don't have to be anything fancy but just something so that I can actively be in the field and not being in pain or hypothermic um so those it really depends on what's available and what's in my size but I think I priced those out to somewhere between 60 and 90 so um okay so you've got uh one uh one request so Sophie you had a boots uh proposal not to exceed uh 90 and then a augur proposal not to exceed what I would say uh not to exceed 200 just kind of thinking about taxes and okay and then um it's it's unusual for you to have to come to the Conservation Commission and make these requests um I assume that uh your manager or someone is saying that you need to um so yes um when I was working Gardener that that was the protocol uh for their Commission um I needed some specific equipment and so I went to them and they voted on you know approving a certain amount um and then I spoke to um The Building Commissioner when he was acting um as my Superior um a little while ago and it was also uh briefly discussed with press um and so that that was kind of the direction I was given and then I was also speaking with um Jenny and she gave a little bit of input that it should come out of the WPA account versus any of the other accounts um I think it's the the general budget that is funded by the overall fees that come in okay okay okay so um I'm fine with um I'm fine with making a a uh accepting a motion to accept um that right a motion a second and a vote but I think um moving forward I'll try to talk to Chris this is not something that uh this is generally that account has been managed by the um the office and the office management staff um so I'm accepting a motion to approve $290 for office staff uh technical equipment so moved Mike thank you Mike second thank you Jenny roll call vote Chris hi Mike hi Jeff hi Jenny hi and I for myself and I think um also Sophie uh moving forward let's um put agenda items like that uh on the business um portion of the agenda okay okay very good uh and have we had any uh requests for continuation for any of the hearings that aren't already noted [Music] there no okay and did uh 171 Arbor Street confirm for tonight yes yes I did reach out and they confirmed they're going to be here okay well then we'll step through the uh agenda in the order that it's outlined here I'll read the scripts pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 131 section 40 as amended in the town of lunberg wetlands protection Municipal bylaws a public hearing for a request for determination of applicability to Paul J and Lois block represented by Matthew uh Proctor for the installation of a 30 foot by 30 in uh wide stepping stone pathway from the dwelling from the dwelling to the existing dock on Hickory Hills Lake all to be built without the use of heavy equipment the proposed work will span the 30 foot buffer zone at 451 Townson Harbor Road I do we have uh the residents Andor their representative here with us tonight yes uh can you hear me Mary Madam I can yes y so yeah Matt Matt Proctor 180 Hemlock Drive here to represent for the steppingstone pathway U Matt hang on just a minute I'm sorry to interrupt you I just noticed that Mike uh L Ro had his uh hand up absolutely Madam chair I uh would like to recuse myself from participating in this application at this time thank you for that Mike I appreciate it thank you okay Matt uh and I do have Paul block uh you have your hand up Paul or just to say that we're present oh okay very good yeah thank you um mat okay Matt back to you take us through this project sure um well I don't have screen share for you um so I don't know if there's anything that you want to pull up for a visual aid on it um but yeah so basically looking to do a a stepping Stone pathway um they're about 2 in thick U Stones blue stone material regular flagging um grass space between each Stone um you know not to exceed 30 inches wide um they're just going to kind of meander from the steps on the back porch um over to the boat dock try to keep you know people's feet out of the grass and those kind of things give them a hard surface um to walk to the boat like I said there'll be full space around each Stone um it's not a steep slope I don't foresee it causing any water to run any differently than it would across the grass um and it's not a continuous hard surface to the water as well um no heavy equipment to be used this is all bring things out with dolles just kind of hand dig and just put them flush in with with the ground you know as is um to get to the boat dock that's what we're that's what we're looking to accomplish very good I did have the uh opportunity to go out there and walk on the property this weekend with uh Jenny and Mike and it does look just as straightforward as you um have articulated and uh yeah I'd say it's a relatively flat uh surface as well I didn't have any concerns I'll open the floor to other members of the commission anybody have questions and I'm not seeing any uh Jenny yes I was just going to say I also didn't have any concerns with this one it was very straightforward thank you Jenny do we have any uh comments from members of the public I know not seeing any uh so I think I'm looking for a motion to approve so moved thank you Chris thank you Jenny roll call vote uh Chris hi M um Mike's recused uh Jeff hi Jenny hi and I for myself thank you thank you very much all right uh moving along pursuant to Mass General La chapter 131 section 40 is amended in the town of lunenberg wetlands protection and Municipal bylaws a public hearing on a notice of intent by Daniel Hernandez represented by Dillis Roy civil Design Group for the proposal of a garage addition removal of vegetation and structural renovations to a single family dwelling the proposed work is within the 100 foot buffer zone of a bordering vegetated Wetland and a 200 foot reparan zone of an intermittent stream at 48 Island Road do we have the applicant Andor the representative here with us tonight Madam chair Greg Roy with Dolson Roy representing the applicant this evening I I did see um my client on earlier but I do not see him at the moment so um that's just for record uh so as you as you mentioned I am representing um Mr Hernandez and family um at at 48 Island Road and um the property um is quite small it's it's 22,000 why don't we try um let me see if I can permit you to share um oh yeah I wasn't even gonna ask well I was going to see if I could just do it on an individual basis um like the hosts always have the ability to share I don't know if you wanted to yeah I'll make you momentarily co-host oh okay uh okay let me see if I can share okay how about that very good thank you okay so um the property lines are shown in dark um black heavy uh bold uh those are the the extents of the property there is a um a boarding vegetated Wetland on the um northeasterly corner of the site it's um denoted with these green Wetland flags and it's a light green hatch it's kind of hard to see and then there is an unnamed stream that traverses along the uh North easterly Corner within the Wetland um area that does have a 200 foot Riverfront area asso assciated with it um the limits of your 30 foot uh no disturb zone are shown on the plan with this dashed excuse me with this uh dotted line right here goes down through the site like this and then the 50 is the next uh next line here and then the entire property the 100 foot buffer zone is located off property so the entire site is located within the 100 foot buffer zone um the um inner 100 foot Riverfront area is this blue uh line right here that traverses the site the 200 foot is another 100 feet past and the entire property is located within the 200 foot Zone um so there's an existing house as was mentioned um which is shown here in the light um light hatch uh area cross- hatching area here um there's a driveway uh at the front of the site which is sort of an H shape if you will um and uh the property is uh uh I guess uh rundown Al I'll call it um so U the Hernandez uh family has actually purchased it they're looking to renovate it uh for their own personal use um and they're proposing to do several several improvements to the to the property um first is uh the areas that we showing in red uh would actually be removed so those uh projections of the structure in those areas um are going to be removed this um this back bump out here would actually just be um you know reconstructed almost in the same place um but there's some um there's some work that needs to be done those those bump off are just kind of too far uh degraded to save so they're going to be doing um removal and in this case replacement over here this is sort of a shed that's been attached to the building and they're going to take that off and not reconstruct it um and then in the front is really where the new additions are going and those are both going in areas that are are have already been um developed as driveway so it's basically a conversion of driveway surface to roof uh where the existing garage has historically been they're going to be converting that space into living area and putting in a new Entry Way which is this smaller rectangle here and then building and constructing a new two-car garage in this location uh which is the larger of the two rectangles here um the um the other uh portion of the project is um they're looking to remove uh six trees from the from the site and to flatten off the area um in this area of the site with the um construction of a short uh uh retaining wall along the property line shown here in GR gray um and then removal of these um six trees that are shown with the red circles um five of them are deciduous and one of them is a pine tree um we are showing some proposed uh mitigation plan things that are these smaller green uh circles here one two three four 5 six um you know pursuant to your um regulations for mitigation planting with uh with tree removals we have uh included those in the plan um I I wanted to be fairly brief this evening um I know I'm sure that several of the commission members um may have been on site um we um we also received D comments uh relative to uh Riverfront area metrics um the intention is is to comply with the rivers Act of course um I just think we need to um quantify that to um to the department um into your commission um but really there's not a lot of um new alteration proposed I guess arguably you could call this this work on the side here alteration but it's um it's really removing three trees and sort of flattening out the grade it's not as if we're permanently encumbering that portion with uh with new structures or new impervious area in fact we're reducing the amount of impervious area on the site when you take it all in aggregate um with the reduction of and removal of some of the um uh building uh building protrusions I'll call them um on the site and the the the significant um new building additions are being done in areas that are already uh improved as driveway surfaces so um I wanted to acknowledge the theep comments and uh and and also just um I guess take any question the other thing I wanted to say was this project also uh required uh zoning board relief uh we did appear before the zoning board uh several weeks back and they did give us the uh relief dimensional variation relief that we needed to construct the uh proposed garage Edition as you see it so not that that impacts your commission but I do like to give just an overall Viewpoint of the overall perming uh that we've excuse me been working on um so I think that's it Madam chair I'm happy to take any questions or any comments from the commission so I do have a couple of questions um looking at the D comments uh how does your proposed alterations uh stack up because they they noted that there's 20,538 ft of river fun on the site uh the allowances for 10% in the inter reparan Zone uh which would be 2,000 54 square fet right um and I don't know how much of that is already existing right versus what you're proposing to add on right so I don't have numbers um for you this evening um I realize we we have to document that I think there's also been some discussion about the trees that are being that are proposed to remov so we were just interested in coming tonight to get your comments um understanding that we probably need a few weeks here to clean up those and and effectively address them um but um uh so there's a 10% threshold so you know the river Rivers the basic performance standard of the rivers Act is is you're allowed 10% alteration um within the of the portion of the the site that is Riverfront so you calculate the amount of area that's Riverfront and you're allowed 10% or 5,000 square ft whichever is greater so in this case because it's a small lot the threshold would actually be 5,000 square F feet and so we need to do analysis for you uh and rect tabular Analysis I think a River's analysis on on that metric um there's also other provisions on a Redevelopment site where if areas of the site U are degraded uh quote unquote degraded and that's kind of a term that's defined um in a specific manner uh you can actually you can actually uh work on those In Those portions of the site that have been previously degraded even if it's over the 10% or 5,000 foot rule um but we need to document those areas so yeah that's my understanding as well but if you it's also my understanding that if you were at the at the threshold that was previously Disturbed you would not be able to add to that disturbance so you don't get to come back and do another 10% each time that's right unless it falls under the the original 10% or 5,000 so we need to we need to clean that up