##VIDEO ID:MfZ2wDy2xrA## good evening everyone um and welcome to the Wednesday August 7th um Conservation Commission meeting uh for those that would like to to um please stand and for the Pledge of Allegiance excuse me I pledge the flag of the United States of America to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you uh do a roll call Brian ack here Joseph lavali here Samantha Woodman here uh Bernardo here here and Nicholas Rudolph is here uh John shu is not present and Wilson is not present either um but thank you very much for coming uh first up is the review and approval of the minutes um any changes or additions seems to be good anybody I'll make a motion that uh we approve the minutes I'll second it all in favor hi hi excellent okay um we have a pretty lengthy agenda today I'm going to jump around a little bit uh first up is the certificate of compliance 17 Washington Street D file number 061 0776 is there a representative here for that no okay um so this was for a new screen porch um I'm not sure if anybody had an opportunity to um walk this down I don't know line did you have a chance to take a look at this the Washington Mr chair okay yeah let's let's try that again sorry Mr chair we had a chance to walk it down on Saturday I I wasn't there for the first two y That's so yeah we were able to see it and verify that it was complete okay yeah excellent um so at this time if anybody had has any objections to this um opened up to the public first if anybody has any objections to this certificate um hearing none any of the Commissioners I I would just give a second for um Zoom to see if there's anybody on Zoom MH okay was so it was visited there was no issues no I I don't see any issues with the the work that was being done I saw I took a look at the plans and it was pretty straightforward and if none of the Commissioners have any objection to this I would call for a motion um to approve a certificate of compliance I'll make a motion to approve the certificate of compliance I'll second it all in favor I I excellent okay moving on uh next up we have a request for an extension D file number 0610 0768 40 Arcadia Street um Mr Alida hello Edward alme 40 Arcadia Street um so I had an opportunity to walk this down as many of the other Commissioners did um and what I did notice is that you finally were able to reclaim your parcel of land from your neighbor um not all of it but a fair bit of it and you were also able to put in a native plant garden to mitigate some of the water uh that was developing in that area as well as um a 3ft by diameter by 6t uh drain that they installed in that area as well um one thing I you know noticed was the improvements that you made to that area specifically um but anyways uh this is more just for an a request for an extension um and seeing as how you finally were able to complete the majority of that but not all of it um I would definitely like to ask how much time do you think you would need to complete the work um not really sure unfortunately I've been having some health issues do do you want to say one year would that be enough time we can go up to three we can go up to three for this if if we were so inclined and um I think I would I would request the three just so that we have plenty of time um unfortunately with my health issues I don't know how much work I'll be able to complete most of the work thus far has been completed by myself and and my wife um I certainly hope that I can complete everything much sooner than three years but if I have that option I would like to have as much time as possible okay I don't have an issue with that at all um considering the the scope and the size of the parcel of land that you're trying to develop I think that's that's fair um I put it to the commission um for a motion to approve or deny the extension if you guys have any questions um at this time before we take a vote y yeah just um I know we talked about it at the site visit but if you could explore any other non- Turf options um I know you talked about like looking into it but just just because we had an issue with like microplastics and potential runoff of that way um that would be much appreciated within that additional time sure and I'll just say as seeing the site what you've done in that backyard from I didn't get the chance to see what it looked like beforehand but getting to see what it looks like now um You should be applauded for the work that you've done it's a beautiful backyard so um I mean take the three years in my mind to just be able to get that done but I wouldn't take the full three I would try to get that done as soon as you can Health obviously is the chief concerned but um we're here to work with you to make sure that it gets done that's appreciated thank you I'll uh if there's nobody else I'll make a motion to approve can I get a second I second all in favor hi hi okay so you'll have three more years to get this done and I'm sure that uh with the addition of a few of the structures that you have had put in there uh we'll be seeing you for an amended um amendment to your your noi at this point but we'll work with you on this thank you very much thank you is there any paperwork that I need to file um I'll follow up with you with that thank you not a problem okay uh next up I would like to get to the request for determination of of applicability the MBTA Wonderland Station Parking Garage um phase one is there a representative here for the uh EX good evening you could stay uh turn your mic on and state your name and my name is Craig Wood I'm a professional Wetland scientist with Jacobs Engineering at 120 uh St James in Boston I'm here this evening representing the the MBTA MH on a uh request for determination of applicability for uh some uh minor work at the uh the uh bus station uh the parking garage on the ground level uh just to slightly back up uh MBTA is embarking on a uh bus Network redesign project uh this is part of phase one that involves improvements that at 18 stops at eight different locations uh two of which are in Riv uh one is uh just a couple blocks north of here on Broadway between uh Park and Central that site is not within the jurisdiction of the Conservation Commission however the second site in rever at the Wonderland Station Parking Garage is as you probably all know that part of of the city is well within the 100-year flood plane uh both from the ocean to the East and to uh a ditch to the West that is a tide controlled uh extension of a tidal Creek uh extending south from the rumney marsh MH uh so uh I have a a few plans here that are just uh part of uh the application um uh just I very quickly wanted to present the nature of the work um before I do though I I just wanted to clearly state that uh the only resource area is the FEMA 100-year flood plane for this work and uh we had a site visit uh was it the 6th of July I believe that Saturday just after 4th of July um there is uh no grade changes associated with the plan this is all on the ground level there's uh no fill within the 100-year flood Point associated with this work so uh the nature of the work uh this plan may not be uh may be a little difficult to read uh but uh the Shaded area is the busway as you approach the garage this shaded area just uh catches the uh the southern extent of the parking garage so just before you enter into the parking garage there's going to be a new dedicated uh birth for massport to service Logan airport and uh that requires a little reconfiguration of the the sidewalk uh no increase in the uh the pavement there and uh it includes uh two shelters that would be outside of the garage those are the only structural improvements there and then once you enter the garage there are are this is now an extension of the match line is right here so as you enter the garage this is the extent of the work for the uh massport uh station once you enter the garage on the uh North Side there's going to uh be some uh encroachment into what is a very broad sidewalk to uh make uh pullouts for uh buses as they're waiting for their uh route to start but again this is all developed uh impervious area under the garage on the ground floor and then uh on the opposite side as most of you are familiar there's a series of bus stops as you progress under the garage and it's simply a function of reconfiguring the existing bus stops to accommodate a total of six so it's uh just changing some signs around where the uh the the buses would actually stop and where you would uh uh enter the bus and the only other work under the garage is the uh crosswalk is being slightly relocated uh a little further uh to the South uh just to accommodate uh one other further bus stop so we are requesting a negative determination to we're clearly within an area subject to protection of react but the work uh does not result in any loss of flood storage volume uh nor in any way impedes the uh flow of storm water during flooding events MH um that building in that that area already has a pretty robust storm water management system as as it stands and you're not adding any more impervious surface to that area you're just reconfiguring it as well um I don't see any reason why this would have a dramatic impact um if this work were to be done um I leave it to the my fellow Commissioners if they have any comments or questions yeah I would just ask um when would work begin on the two in R and about how long would it take for work to be completed uh this is the last Turtle to advertise the work uh for construction and it's anticipated to uh be undertaking undertaken this fall okay and each site takes about is estimated to take about two weeks to complete and during that two weeks is that stop shut down uh no it can't be it would just be over to the left yeah okay all right just wondering because obviously that would interfere with people who use that stop and both stops are used a lot so just want to make sure right and clearly the intent of this project is entirely to improve service right is it more will it be covering as well at the stop if you're redoing the whole stop will it be something for rains like just a general Improvement for the area too is that looks Aesthetics the whole thing uh there's very little change uh visually to what you would see at the uh at the parking garage with the exception of two additional shelters uh just before you uh enter the the garage on the South Side okay thank you you're welcome any other questions go hi during the work that's being done will will the work necessitate any kind of barrier being put up for materials that might be flowing out of it by to by two minutes or of anything of that nature yeah well there will be some temporary stockpiling of materials but the contractor realizes they're in a developed very active site so the the specifications that go with the contract very much restrict uh how much work Zone the contractor has access to at any one time and the intent is to have as minimal disruption to bus service and to just general traffic and pedestrians as well as possible okay um so at this time I considering the work um and its minimal impact I would call for a motion to for a negative determination I'll make a motion for a negative determination of applicability second I'll second it all in favor I I thank you for your time this evening appreciate it okay um next up is uh notice of intent D file 061 0824 um this is 241 rice AV open the hearing this is a replacing uh previously um paved driveway imperious surfaces being replaced with pavers and um constructing a 4T freestanding block wall uh as well as putting an additional gate in the front um I had a chance to walk this down myself with many of our other Commissioners and from what I've seen from some of the plans the storm water management system that you've improved from your downspouts um will definitely make a significant Improvement to this but I'll let you speak to that uh now if you could State uh turn on your mic and state your name and address please your button good evening my name is mon farone I'm the owner of 241 RAV um again okay sure okay sorry so um this is my proposed plan we went over on our site visit uh with the details but um uh the lot is about 6200 Square ft lot and we're proposing pavers and fence wall around the property and also we're improving the drainage for the site uh we put a uh 300 gallon um drainage system CeX system in the yard and also a 50 gallon um drainage tank on the left side of the lot in the back to improve the drainage thank you um so as I said while we were on site just make sure that you have your drainage system cleared out um sure possibly on an annual basis but um you know as it gets clogged you definitely want to make sure that clears out because your property will flood um if it does get clogged up with debris and sure stuff like that so just be be mindful of that were you able to look into um securing the gate any differently or sure yeah so what do you propose we will do that um close sell installation in the SAA tube to secure yeah that works um any questions from the commissioners before I open up to the public no Mr chair but I I'd like to just make a statement about that I must go buy your property about 10 times a day sure and uh evidently you got some bad advice about not coming to the Conservation Commission which you should have prior to doing the work sure that being said I have to say that aesthetically and environmentally the property is a lot better off now than it was before so you've done a heck of a job I appreciate that thank you and to say it's hard for anyone to drive by and you know give you any trouble over what the Aesthetics are of it that uh the driveway is beautiful thank you anything else um at this time I like to open it to the public if anybody else would like to speak for or against good evening councelor Angela Gino SAA I agree with commissioner Laval it is absolutely aesthetically Pleasant to the eye yeah um I walk by it daily as well and um they're doing a fantastic job and and I'm I'm in approval of it okay thank you yeah no problem um anybody else anybody from Zoom have any comments or anybody else in the audience okay um seeing none I'm going to close the hearing um and I would seeing how this is a major Improvement to the property um removing all of the impervious surfaces that you have and improving the drainage on the properties dramatically um I would uh ask the Commissioners to approve this notice of the intent I'll make a motion to approve the notice of intent second all in favor I I excellent thank we'll be following up with some paperwork and you'll have your uh notice of intent um and when you finish we'll you'll come back before us for a certificate of compliance thank you oh yeah um so next up is a notice of intent um D file number 061 0823 uh clean Joe LLC hearing open the hearing this is uh 7 Franklin Street and this is expanding an existing parking lot within the 100 foot buffer zone um good evening good evening commission members I'm rich Kirby from LEC environmental and with me tonight actually in the audience is Joe cotch of clean Joe LLC the proponent and on Zoom with us tonight is Giovani federa project engineer federa engineering we filed this notice of intent application on July 24th to expand an existing parking lot at 7 Franklin Street in Rivier this property is just shy of two acres it's in the northern portion of town uh it is east of Route One Southwest of the sagus Town boundary north of Walnut Street and just west of the Northern Strand community Trail if I could share my screen I could walk the commission through the site and the project got excellent you a co-host you're going to be named a co-host if you can if you can hear us and then you should be able to uh to share your screen just give us one moment okay is he good you should be a co-host now and able to share your screen all right so this is the existing conditions plan submitted with the notice of in 10 application and uh as I was saying sites in the northern portion of town this is the Northern Strand Community Trail here we have Salem Street and of course Franklin Street a little side street Office Salem Street is uh is right here North is to the uh top left here as you can see the property just under 2 Acres contains two wood frame structures within the southern portion of the lot and a singl story metal Warehouse structure along the Eastern property boundary and there's an existing paved access roadway to the property that provides access and parking around this structure here and it extends around the back of the uh of the existing Warehouse the property is generally flat um ranging in elevation from elevations 24 to 27 across the site uh the property gently descends to the North toward a uh intermittent stream which is located back here and we do have bordering vegetated Wetlands along the east rather Western Property boundary as I've delineated here in blue you can see these bordering vegetated Wetlands blow or or border an intermittent stream which flows briefly with in a 36 in covert and then extends beneath a concrete covert beneath the community strand Railway um the site is largely paved there's a fair amount of pavement gravel areas on the property you can see a scalloped line here representing a wood line there's a uh small topographic burm separating the existing developed areas from the just offsite Wetland which is an emergent Marsh over here and this has scattered Upland trees on it is comprised of gravity Sandy fill material the project which is shown on the next plan here includes increasing the impervious area by just over 9100 squ feet there is pavement that has been installed and is proposed as part of this not 710 application uh back here just behind the property this area was largely Disturbed with gravel and uh they they uh cornered out the uh gravel areas to create a uniform rectangle and the purpose of this is really to provide access to a warehouse garage door which exists right here this area is labeled new pavement and is shaded in uh in Gray additional pavement proposed as part of the project includes this area over here this shaded area to provide additional parking for uh customers company Vehicles equipment storage Etc and a new pavement over here to provide a paved access to the to the front entrance of the warehouse um erosion controls for the project include a compost sock along the limit of work line and catch Bas and Inlet protection to uh protect catch basins and the adjacent Wetland area during construction Giovani has prepared a comprehensive storm water management design that meets the D standards the EP stormwater checklist calculations and an on andm plan were included in the notice of intent application and I'm going to turn it over to Giovani now to talk a little bit about that design hi um this is Javan feder with feder engineering um so rich did a really good job explaining the project and um we're proposing a little over 9100 square feet of additional impervious area and the site is um the proposed site essentially is being divided into to two different areas you have the northern portion which is going to be flowing towards a sediment forb and that sedent 4B we will have water treatment that will ultimately lead to a water a wet Basin to the north and with that wet Basin it'll um contain storm water runoff and Peak rates of runoff and eventually will go into that intermittent stream um that's the northern portion of the site the southern portion of the site is is uh being directed to a a cat Basin um and that cat Basin will have a 4ft deep sum that also has uh water treatment that will be discharged to a subsurface infiltration system and the Overflow of that subsurface infiltration system as it start you know in in an extreme storm it'll start to overflow and go towards the sediment 4 Bay so ultimately everything is being discharged to the north to that wet Basin um but the peak rates of runoff are reduced in the uh proposed um conditions and water quality is uh totally treated to meet the the STM water standard so um that's full review of the storm water design happy to answer any questions um yeah I do I do have a question um so have you have they submitted their treatment and maintenance plan for this storm water management system system have you um sorry guys it it is included in the storm water uh management report I didn't see that um apologies for not catching that on on the emails um I'll have to review that but as long as it is submitted and we didn't get any push back from no comments from the D on this one okay okay um I think that's all I had as long as your uh treatment and maintenance plan and your storm water management system Sy is adequate enough to mitigate the additional impervious surfaces on the property I think this would make uh a vast Improvement to what you're able to do and what you're capable of doing on that property um access to garages access to the to the what you need to do on that property as well um at this time I'll open it up to the Commissioners for any comments or questions uh thank you Mr chair um yeah I just wanted to comment on the fact that yes we did walk the site on Saturday so thank you guys for opening that up for us um we did walk the border of the wetlands as well um and those were obviously clearly marked and you guys aren't doing any construction in that area um I think it's also really great that the compost sock and the catch Bas and are going to be a vast Improvement to the site overall um and I don't have any other questions or comments at this time yep and as long as you are doing your inspections while construction is ongoing uh making sure that your basins aren't filling up and that your you know mitigation uh with the enviros sock is in place at all times um I think that this would be a a good Improvement to the property for sure and thank you for your presentation yeah say thank you to the people that presented through uh zoom and also just saying that having toward the site um everything from the mural that was done all these additional things that you know don't get publicly commented on as people are walking by it 2,000 times a year or a million times a year whatever it is um no one publicly comments on what you've done in that area so let me be one of hopefully many in the future to say thank you for the work that you've done from what that place was originally when you had it uh to where it is today is a night and day and a project like this which is going to help your business obviously from having smooth roads but aesthetically for the neighborhood um if I just say if I was a neighbor I'd be grateful that you were doing all these improvements and what you've done to that neighborhood so um as a Riv resident thank you for the work that you've done thank you you're welc my my wife and I walked that Northern Strand quite a bit and um well not not in recent months but it's been a little too hot but uh but it's it's a it's a beautiful area and it's really starting to come up and I think the addition of what you guys have done over there has been a vast improvement from The Rundown shabby dirt road that it used to be um so at this time I'd like to open up any comments questions or concerns from uh the public anybody on Zoom or no okay um hearing none I'm going to close the hearing um and from what they presented and being sure that the all of the necessary components store Mortage man man management plan um the inspection plan for your construction moving forward is in place uh I would call for an approval of this notice of intent I'll make a motion for approval of the noi second second all in favor I I thank you very much appreciate it thanks everyone have a good night you as well thank you okay uh next up I'm uh going to call for the presentation by LEC enironmental Consultants uh on the riv high school project uh discussion of the mitigation forfill of Part B series isolated freshwater wetlands good evening uh for the record CLA hogaboom with LC environmental Consultants uh here on behalf of the city of uh Rivier uh joining me is an Martin uh president and director of ecological services at LEC and joining via Zoom is Brian daen uh who is the city's um the owner's project manager he's with leftfield uh so as you noted we are here tonight to discuss uh mitigation proposed along with the Rivier high school project at 190 VFW High uh Parkway in Rivier uh we were before the commission I believe it was the June meeting where we closed um the anrad review process the commission issued an oad approving Wetland resource areas on the property uh during that procedure the commission uh or the over the commission issued the oad that affirmed motions to protect the B series isolated freshwater Wetland or ifw that's interior of the former dog Racetrack and the commission also uh issued a motion a motion to not protect the C D and Fs series isolated freshwater wetlands um and also at the tail end of that meeting um the commission asked that LEC the applicant return to preliminarily discuss the mitigation requirements because that was something we did ask for an opinion on during the anrad review process but the commission um understandably felt that it was too early in the process to make that decision without seeing a project before them uh so uh early this month uh about a week or so ago we submitted a brief letter with sort of a bullet point list of the mitigation that's provided along with this project uh for consideration as to whether it would be sufficient to uh sort of mitigate the permanent impacts to that B series ifw in the wetlands so I can certainly go through all of those bullet point lists with you all I know it was only a week ago that we submitted that um so I'm not sure if any everyone had time to review it or um I I think that it would be um in our best interest to review yeah absolutely um so just starting off the top of the list uh we start uh the bullet list with describing that the uh building itself is designed to meet passive house design certification requirements so what that means is that it's going to be an energy efficient building um that includes things like a white reflective roof membrane so instead of a dark roof that's going to retain that heat and really heat up the building and then also cause AC units to run all day and cool it the white roof will sort of reflect that heat um the project team's also considering solar panels on the roof of the building as well which I think would be great I think it's something that they do have to work out with the state and with sort of the funding allocated to the project but it's absolutely Ely being considered for the project um and lastly a part of that uh passive house design component is geothermal heating and cooling which is a really great feature that's a very energy efficient sort of recycling of um hot or cold water to heat and cool the building if you can get your Loops to work properly yeah right um additionally uh electric vehicle charging stations are provided for 10% of the total parking space provided so it's about 62 spaces that'll have those available um internal features to the site like bike paths and ADA compliance sidewalks um will allow for or not so much allow but like encourage and provide more pedestrian or alternative means of getting through the site getting to the site the proximity to the T Station is extremely close so just providing that connectivity um for people to choose walking into school or riding the tea uh students or uh teachers that are coming in as opposed to driving to the property uh the project at this stage of design is expected to reduce impervious areas by at least 2 Acres um that note I sort of starred on my own list because I found that to be a very beneficial part of the mitigation for this project for context the ivw within the dog racetrack is approximately 1.9 Acres so the increase in vegetated areas on the site as a result of the reduction of impervious is essentially a one:1 ratio of you know creating additional um vegetation on the site uh the project team is also considering painting asphalt with reflective um Emulsion material and or using embodied carbon content for the sidewalks and other paved areas that's also an effort to um reduce the heat island effect with the proposed pavement on the site uh as a part of the Redevelopment project uh of course the project does need to meet uh state and local standards for storm water management so uh storm water improvements to the site will be a large Improvement to what's there currently today which is very little I think some of the commission members walked with me during the anrad review process and um might be a couple of catch Basin here and there but generally when you look at the site it's vastly pavement um you don't really see very many storm water basins or opportunities for pre-treatment and storage on the site so that's all going to be incorporated into the design um of the project and that will again meet all of the local and state standards um continuing on uh new native plantings within that 2 a uh 2 Acres of impervious area reduction um the native plant will be chosen to really fit the um setting of the site being sort of like a mix of an inland Coastal area uh it'll be a mix of landscaping features and also native plantings in those storm water basins that I just mentioned earlier native seed mixes and um diverse plant Community that'll not only you know be a beautiful thing to look at on the site it'll be a benefit to uh wildlife habitat and pollinators and things like that and then sort of tying into the next bullet point we had on this list is General wildlife habitat Improvement on the site um potential mitigation that we're considering are including uh installing an osprey nest platform on the Northern side of the Eastern County ditch and sort of tying that in um the project team has been discussing you know how we can work with the city to incorporate uh a camera maybe to sort of set on that I've seen a lot of those you know I I live outside of Providence and there's Paragon Falcons on top of a a building there and there's a camera there and everybody always Tunes in every year to see the um chicks hatch so it's really exciting stuff so we're considering what that could look like for the project uh again native vegetation is going to be integrated into the storm water systems um in the buer retention areas and uh just incorporating additional education on the site I mean the purpose of this project is to provide an educational uh building and um site for students but um you know we'll include educational signage throughout the property I'm sure community members will be enjoying this site as well uh in addition to all of the students and staff members um but educational signage that could uh explain some of the resource areas that are so important uh not only on the site and in the city of Riv um wellness and walking paths will be throughout the property as well for folks to enjoy uh at least two outdoor classrooms are involved with the design of the project and lastly uh we will intend to propose permanent markers along the edge of the limit of disturbance to inform um students community members folks maintaining the property long after we're gone that there are wetlands that you know snow storage won't be pushed into them and um you know debris and trash won't be put into those Wetlands as well so that sort of brings us to the end of the list of the mitigation included in the project that's a lot of the of the things that we know are going to be included in the project there could be more down the road some things could adjust but I wanted to you know we wanted to present this to the commission to get that initial feedback on whether this would be sufficient or if you're expecting something different or more from the project team when we come with a notice of intent thank you very much thank you um I do like the fact that it is almost a onetoone um for the what you're taking off of the track and what you're going to be putting in and how you're going to mitigate or how you're going to manage the property in that way by doing the natural plantings and having it so that it's the property is more educational um having less impervious surface having walked that site down and seen the current storm water management system and the state of disarray that it was in um dare I say that the wetlands of opportunity that were present were because of the mismanaged storm water management system um say that 10 times fast and I think that also that the um access for the community members the adjacent community members and anybody else who would like to and partake in this uh what will seemingly be from some of the plans that I saw beautiful property um I think that that's going to be a great upgrade for what we're do trying to do in that area um I'd be curious to see how they're going to handle traffic flows and how you guys are going to deal with the you know Mast doot and a few other interesting players in the game at this point in time but um at this time I'd like to turn it over to the Commissioners for any comments questions or concerns about this presentation yeah what you what expectations you might have when they do present their noi so I'm very much looking forward to seeing the noi um I'm going to have a lot obviously a lot more questions at that point um but before that I did have a few questions because I get asked a lot about obviously what you're doing more than probably any project I've ever had on this commission um so for my own knowledge and as well as for everyone watching um a few of the top questions I hear is one is when are you currently planning to break ground if everything goes according to plans uh that is a great question um CL do you want me to jump in yeah actually I would uh Brian daon uh with uh left field project OPM uh Brian you could take it away sure um thank you again all of you for your time um right now it's not entirely cved in stone um due to the ongoing permitting process and namely getting ourselves deep into meepa the plan right now is to secure a phase one waiver and potentially do demolition um demolition only of the existing foundations and utilities that are down there potentially as early as next May um with real building construction digging for foundations uh Etc starting uh later in the year towards fall um there's a chance based on the permitting process and how mea goes out that all might push back a little bit towards next fall but um right now the goal that we're shooting for is uh to get site prep done next summer have construction start in Earnest next fall and open the new school building um four years from now in August of 2028 so since I do have you on here to ask this question um so while I've seen the site itself and what a current pit it looks like and you know I've seen what it's going to end up looking like and I'm uh you know proponent of what you're going to be doing there are a lot of people I don't know if you've seen online that uh make comments about it in a negative light and since we are an open hearing something that I think may make sense is if you can in layman's terms for people that may be against it the number one thing people say is about that they're building a high school on a place that's flooded and will stay flooded and since you are the probably two best people here to be able to answer that when and combat that what would you say to someone who says that since I've seen the plans I know that's not going to be the case how would you combat that comment my my take on that um is that this is a pro this is a project and a proposal that um is inherently in the public interest the local public public interest and uh as opposed to an outside developer no disrespect to any of that or private developer uh this is a building that's being designed to serve the community for 50 plus years and uh Claire our team The Architects team are really approaching this um like we have an opportunity to take what's been a dilapidated lot for decades um and turn it into a public asset not only perpetually for the students of this city but um for the public as well that's going to be a a a good connector piece in the grand scheme of um connecting parts of the city better to the beach so we are going to follow all of the applicable permitting processes we're going to engineer this site so that it's an improvement to what's always been there um regardless of what's been there for the last 10 or 15 years just a broken down uh knockdown lot um and we genuinely have uh the Public's interest at heart here because it is a project that's designed to support the community support the students and support people um that are down there at the beach and and uh making their way back into the city so I'm not sure if that directly gets it what you're asking and I could elaborate if you'd like to but I'll I'll turn it back over to you yeah I I just wanted to give the city obviously an opportunity because um I do know there's people that are against the project that online say a lot of stuff against it and I felt that this is a good opportunity for you at a Conservation Commission meeting when most people are complaining based on you know what what we do with flood mitigation and things like that to be able to just in the best layman terms for people that don't understand what we do and delineation wetlands and all that to be able to have some talking points to be able to say hey this isn't going to just be a flooded High School that this is going to be a great asset to the community so um I just thought that'd be a good opportunity for the two of you to speak to those people that are against it I understand well I was born and raised in River I've lived here my whole life and um I genuinely think as a um as a resident as a citizen here and as someone who went through the school system that I think this is the best possible development that could happen down there um there's various opinions on that some folks would like to see housing some folks would not like to housing some folks have various ideas about how this could have been developed commercially um none of that's happened over the last decade so I view it as a generational opportunity um to improve the city with a really Civic Forward Design there's going to be two Fields down there um there's going to be a all sorts of easier ways to get through Rivier Street out to the beach um and it really starts piecing together uh some of the master plans that we've heard about on the periphery of this project about really providing East West connections safe East West pedestrian and bicycle connections from the beach and all the development that's right across the street at Wonderland in the overpass um so I really think it's a uh if you're a local resident I think this is going to be a um a more useful site for you and a more beneficial site for you than has been there in my lifetime my parents' lifetime in my grandparents lifetime I mean versus a dog track I mean come on um but I just wanted to give give you this opportunity to be able to speak publicly on that um but thank you very much for your time and I'll give it to any other commissioner that has questions hi this might be a little bit uh late to ask this but it just occurred to me that in the Excavating process um I assume that there were test borings done in this area so that there's no surprises once I start digging down there because from a historical perspective we don't know what we might find underneath that track or in the are in that vicinity yeah that's right um Brian I might ask you to touch on that again because I can't remember exactly where we stand in the schedule with testing sure um we've done a phase one um environmental site investigation at this site and we're actually gearing up in the next month I think three four weeks we'll we have a grid laid out and we're going to be doing dozens I think 60 to 70 is I think the uh the new grid of borings that we're going to be doing down there we are in the design development phase of this project um the design development phase will culminate in updated presentations and cost estimates this December and January so anything we learned from this phase two investigation of additional borings down there we use to Enlighten the project costs confirm the project costs and uh present them to the school building committee um December and January of this um this winter okay so forther record then had that process hasn't hasn't proceeded yet that's correct okay yes we've only done a phase one with limited boring so we're going to go back and do a lot more borings that's right thank you um thank you so much for presenting and sharing all those mitigation techniques just to talk on like the point of why we're here and why you went over all this um that is the exact expectation at least I as a commissioner had I just wanted to make sure that we were being futuristic about what the high school should be and how it should serve the community 50 years from now um also as a res as a resident of R um I think it's a great benefit for the city I'm very excited for the opportunity for the students to have a functioning high school as someone who went to Riv high on its decline um so thank you for that and it's great to hear that there is going to be that one toone ratio and that protection of wetland areas and resource areas as well and then the educational aspect um I know when I took AP environment we had to take a bus to the rney marsh to get a chance to look at the marsh area and really understand the resource area um these students might be able to just walk outside of the classroom door and be able to do that so I think that's a huge benefit provided both to the students and the public so thank you excellent I just like to say you know resonate with some of my Commissioners are saying and and thank you very much for both of your presentations and um presenting your mitigation efforts for this what's is seemingly going to be a beautiful property um but I will definitely be looking forward to your notice of intent and thank you for your time yeah we absolutely appreciate it um I understand through the anrad review process it was early so we appreciate you all taking the time to review this information provide your input we really value what you have to provide to us uh it's clearly a very community-driven and community service project so um your your input is invaluable so we really appreciate it we look forward to coming to you guys hopefully not too long all right thank you thank you all thank you very much uh next up on the um agenda we are going to do uh some enforcement uh 14 Goldie Street uh this was a construction of a retaining wall um do we have representatives from the excellent thank you how you doing hi good evening my name is Brian hi Brian I own the property 14 gold dist Street MH um we actually had a old paver on the front uh of the house and we just um took that on uh the old one out put a did a new one mhm we did some um like U 8 to 10 Ines of Stone sand and then the paper a new paper because the old one was like when the kids was running mhm like brick was like a little bit higher than the other ones yeah some uneven Services over there yeah so we changed that and then uh my stepfather he did a retaining wall like a brick uh wall mhm but he he left some uh drains so the water can go away I just sent some uh videos to Lorena mhm yeah we just did like 10 minutes ago um and actually it's like um I can say it's not it's not going to affect the neighbors the street nothing cuz there is another four four four or five properties who has the same thing like a same kind of uh wall yep and um I think was July 24 my wife she did a video um so it was raining and the water was going away nice and you know mhm so that's it so I'm here to do um anything you guys need to resolve the problem that's the new brick uh pver I just saw can you back it up a little bit that drain that you have right there right in between so that's where you'd have drainage going through to accommodate the um New retaining wall but there is on the sides and the front there is a lot of holes like an inch and a half hole so the water can go away because there is stones and sand under uh underneath the paver oh I see what you mean yeah so it's not completely perious and that runs the through the wall correct and uh the water goes underneath the P so under underneath the P there is sand and and stone so the water go underneath that and go to the street okay and we we uh also did like a 12 in foundation so we can start the brick wall okay that day was raining that was on July 24 I think mhm so as you can see there is no water on the yeah that's water goes away very quick and you you had pavers before in that same area so you're same exactly the same semi area yes so you were placing existing conditions correct yeah we took the old all the old uh Stones Out the p and put that new the new bricks on as it looks beautiful I will say that but what you did do by creating that retaining wall is you made an impervious surface around your property and by doing that it also directs proper uh water off of your property so you're not actually capturing that water so it's giving an opportunity for it to flow off of your property um so what you could potentially do to mitigate that a little bit and I know that you've done a lot of work to secure those stones and level them out um but putting something into actually capture water instead of it being pitched away from your property and running off onto into the street or in that in that sense I mean when there's a lot of water in that area um from that little Creek in the back I actually live at the top of Goldie Street on Washington Avenue so I had an opportunity to go sneak over to your property but it looks beautiful thank it really does but uh like I said what you effectively did was um create impervious surface on your property um on the sorry on the on the right hand side that on my yard on the back I did like two big holes with like like to drain some water to MH if someone can go there and check there is like um all my gas the water from the gas go to that place it's a I did a big um like a French drin over there okay in the back of the house you know I will um I'll be knocking on your door remember this face and um just cuz it's right in my backyard and I will definitely take a look to confirm that and we'll make our we can make our determination from there um just to make sure that what you're saying is happening is happening but um I would say that next sat or this Saturday coming up I'll uh if you're available uh this Saturday yes are you available for me to come down and you can show me the back side of 10 right uh yes is it what's today today's the 7th if what time do you think you tell me your time because I got to we got to be in new Hamp till 10:30 right I mean if it is outside and he gives you permission to just see it yeah you can go there if you want my M cuz I don't leave there my mom's live there okay so but she she can be home so you can get inside in the backyard so she can show you she doesn't speak English but you she can show you and so you can take a look absolutely if you demon I can be there let's say around 8 8:30 9:00 sounds good I can do that 8:30 yep I we'll walk right down at 8: I'll be there so I can meet you there sounds good so 8: a.m. this Saturday all right thank you very welcome thank you very much uh go ahead if you have any questions one quick question you mentioned you have a sand and gravel underneath the papers how thick is the gravel you know the depth of stone the gravel and then about like 3 4 in of uh sand so I can level all the bricks okay okay any other questions okay uh so I'll see you on Saturday Okay Saturday 8:30 thank you have a good night very much you too uh next up is an emergency certification for carry Circle uh I would at this time um ask our conservation agent to make a brief presentation to the commission no we don't have to open a hearing for that hi Lena scalo conservation agent over the weekend last Friday Acom file an emergency certificate certification request for the sidewalk by carry Circle it looks like the street the sidewalk is deteriorating there's a twot void I tried to share it on my screen but oh there you go there we are there we are so that's what it looks like it's a health hazard and uh chairman Shu had issued it over the weekend with his signature so this would require the rest of you all to sign and approve okay is is it possible to show the other photos there's one that shows it from the ocean side yeah let me go back to the laptop oh I didn't know I thought someone else was uh sorry no if you need to see it that's fine um I had a chance to take a look at this myself and it definitely needs some yeah that it looks like it's so I I go there to that area all the time with my son and yeah it's uh that area has been blocked off for a long long time but if you can show yeah that's that's that's the photo that's the one yeah most people don't get to see that but um that's why we're having this conversation because it is uh deteriorating very badly and you can't walk over in that area because it's blocked off so um yeah they're so was it uh Nick is it that we're approving anything at this point or is this so we need to approve the emergency certification as a commission need to approve the emergency certification for for the work that needs to be done on this retaining wall this is similar to the situation that was over on Swamp Scott Beach over near the Red Rocks where their wall was deteriorating they have I believe it is a rest that restaurant yeah that 60ft wall as you're driving up the swamp Scott Beach uh area we're in a much similar situation not as large of a scope but it is definitely needed for administrative requirements it the form requires the whole commission to ratify it and a copy will get sent to Mass DP so do we make a motion at this point yes we do um and considering the deterioration of this wall and the fact that it is a very heavily used area I would recommend that we make a motion to approve the emergency certification I'll make a motion to approve the emergency certification I'll second it all in favor I I thank you um and we'll we'll get that signed and we'll get um all that together for that certification to be official um so last but certainly not least we have a continuation of notice of intent D file number 0618 0822 uh MW 28 RAV and a portion of rice AV adjacent to Linway and this is to replace a portion of the water main section 56 uh that previously crossed the general Edwards Bridge good evening Kate shorth aeom also online with me I have Jennifer D Breen from aeom uh Jim Sullivan from aeom Julie Sullivan and um Peter Grasso um they were all here last month with me when we presented so I won't be doing another presentation um we had a site walk two weeks ago uh John Shu was able to attend and since then it became it came to our attention that nhp is requiring a Misa filing even though that the work that overlaps with the habitat is is 40 ft beneath where it's mapped so we will be filing with them we just submitted that today and um we're asking for a continuance to allow them time to submit their determination to the commission um so you all can make your decision with that information in mind okay um so when will when do they anticipate that coming back back they have 30 days okay that's that stinks I'm sorry that's that's that's a bummer anyways um so I guess we're going to have to continue this uh process but at at this time I'd like to open it up to our commissioners to ask any questions about this process or if you have any questions for them about this process so this is just continuing it until yeah okay until they until they get their stuff back and we can make kind of a final determination of this so would you be back for the September meeting do you believe yes that's the plan okay okay all right and and you can definitely let us know if you need a little bit more time or if you need more time to review um their findings and maybe change what you have to do in the meantime um but yeah I think we we're going to have to definitely continue this for sure and um we'll definitely see you hopefully in September fingers crossed hope everything comes to fruition I'll add that NSP uh has reviewed the project already when we went through meepa um and they didn't have any significant comments so we don't anticipate this being a major hurdle but yes see you next month um at this time I'd like to open it up to any residents or any people in the audience that have uh some comments questions or concerns sure thank you Mr chairman I was up here uh few weeks ago for the open hearing that we had on this uh particular issue I'm not once again I reiterating I not before you go any further I apologize could you just State your your name and address for I'm sorry Hugo rudo 265 rice Avenue thank you I am not opposed to this particular project mhm I am all for improvement the new water line and so on I am however opposed to the process as which the water line is coming across the river um the uh MW presented nine options seven out of the nine options do not make any sense uh there there's lines drawn all over the place one of them is up to the point uh there's even one line drawn to the new building that's there now uh the uh uh point the Gibson Point building there there's one line that leads to it uh the only two options that are really make any sense uh one of them is the option that they presented to me it does not make any sense uh and that option is coming across the river underneath the river they're drilling a 4ot hole pulling out 35,000 cubic feet of Earth under the water coming up onto the parking lot at the Y Club MH the other option that I thought would be much more plausible is the one underneath the bridge there is a new bridge going there the bridge is not an opening Bridge it is a much taller Bridge the line is just on the other side of the bridge and it's a this side of the bridge I think the MW could easily come across I read the report some of the uh reasons they gave they're concerned about environmental issues they put the environmental concern of the bridge okay at a much higher risk then really drilling through the ground and underneath the water m uh I just do not see that I just do not understand it um and I'm totally dumbfounded as to why they would want to go underneath in that direction we definitely thank you for your you know presenting your opposition and it will be noted in you know our decision- making and definitely the fact that you spoke you know obviously publicly of your opposition um it's something for us obviously to think about when we make that decision but that won't be until the final presentation I understand and so I I still have not heard from them w a good reason as to why that pipe cannot go underneath the bridge I just really haven't and uh that concerns me so when they when they're here next month for the final presentation um that'll be something that I'm sure they'll address I I certainly hope they do they're obviously listening so um I would just caution to uh them on zoom and them here uh to just make sure that that piece is covered so uh till uh until next month okay thank you thank you I I appreciate your time and and to to your point it is it is a necessary line we don't have a backup for that area agree and it's it's it's been too long since they've had a backup for that area and I and I appreciate your understanding of that needing to be the case um and considering the length of time I understand why they have chosen the path that they're choosing uh considering how long it's going to take to reconstruct the general Edwards Bridge or whatever they call it after that but um definitely a story for another time for sure uh but your consideration and your comments are greatly appreciated thank you appreciated thank you absolutely thank you absolutely if you could uh state your name and address I I respect the gentleman who just spoke very much and I understand okay and what I believe he doesn't understand can you say your name and address oh my name is Anthony cantino and I live at 240 suffk Avenue R like I said I respect the gentleman okay but today nothing is supposed to make any sense thank you you're very welcome thank you for your time I'm going to apologize for the Irish accent and if you don't understand me tell me to slow down that's all right um I'm D HED I live at 261 rice Avenue so I wanted to voice a concern more around the environmental impacts so I went and read the report of the environmental from 2023 2024 and they did find lead in the water they're blaming the houses which most of the houses around that area have sold in the last 10 years so actually they would have had a lead requirement anyway around their reports and in their mortgages so lead normally so I do work in environmental area so lead normally actually means pollution in that area now they did not find on the Lin side but they found it on the riv side which actually is representative of the wheelator up the road B they having them and then when you look at the Lin master plan they actually even quote in there that there would be dredging required but actually most lately that that waste material is polluted so you couldn't even dump bit in the ocean and now they're proposing in their environmental report that they're actually going to move whatever they dredge from the ocean and put it on top of land where you're now in open contamination zone so you're contaminating more soil underneath and you're contaminating the air all around they have no backup plan so from the borings that they took in that area the I from what I can recall I it's been a while since I read that that the contamination only was at a depth of 21 in or 22 in it's at some point so where they would be dredging or going underneath would be 4 feet 48 in underneath the the bed of this um and thereby basically when they take that dredging out and then it would be put on top they'd be capping that lead in place uh lead is a definitely a heavy metal that settles very quickly and it usually stays in place um I would be curious if they have I I didn't see a plan for them to maybe dredge because they haven't done any they haven't done any Works actually to drill any deeper to actually see if the environmental impacts actually even further down yeah they their borings weren't very as deep but they were doing their D due diligence to make sure that their pipe would be secure as they pulled it through but my fear isn't really in either side mostly it's in the middle so once you start to disrupt that soil underneath there's nothing to stop the contamination moving even further and actually spreading further into the soils cuz once you disrupt things they move a valid point the cavitation of pulling a pipe through 4T deep uh water dredging could potentially cause that lad to migrate yeah um it's like I said it's a very heavy metal and it will migrate when I I would just recommend to yet again the team that is here and on Zoom uh to listen to what you said in your concerns and when they give their presentation for after the noi to you know everything that's been mentioned today to just make sure that that's all covered no sir yeah yeah we can we have an LSP this is Jennifer Doyle brain from aeom we do have an LSP working on this project we don't have him with us here tonight so I'd like to be able to go back to him and um make sure that we're conveying the correct information possibly have them come to the next meeting um so yeah I would rather not misspeak so we will definitely address it at the next hearing can you and I don't know Pete did you want to make a comment about the option of putting the pipe on the bridge yes yes so this is p Grasso MW um so my recollection will start with the with the lead issue uh my recollection is it was a it was a boring that was done that's north of or I should say east of the yach club up by The Pump Station um and again it was at a shallow level and we kind of determined that that was probably uh there from Phil um Co Asheville that might have been put there but we're actually not going to be Excavating uh down in that area we're only going to about the entrance to the uh the yub so um but we're not going to be so you wouldn't be disturbing that area Pete correct correct we're not going to we're not going down that far so okay is is there any mitigation in place to prevent the lead from moving even though it's only going towards the entrance there I don't know that would be a question for Pete yeah do you guys have any mitigation in place or plan to have any mitigation in place to prevent that lead from moving well you know we we would do do dewatering in the excavation uh and we would be sampling uh the soil as we uh excavate uh to see if it has moved so we found it up again toward the The Pump Station we didn't find it in the boring that we did on either side so we we didn't see it migrating uh anywhere um it seemed to be influenced by the tide too which might have been ground ground water but um but we uh we will definitely be uh monitoring you know the excavation and the and the water that's being dewatered to see if it's uh there and we would you know if we found any contamination in it we'd have to dispose of it uh for regulations so we we would also be able to place in order conditions on this work that would State constant monitoring for to make sure that the lead does not migrate into the residential or towards the beach or anywhere for that matter um I think it would be a little bit of a lofty goal to excavate and dredge that entire area for a very small area of lead um but I I do understand your like he even mentioned there he said about the lead and possibly being in the ground rock and being like using with the tides that there's problems with brought in with the tides and that kind of comes back to the factor that there is potentially lead in the ground where they're actually going to be digging underneath the river and disrupting it and actually it pushes into the water and then we're in a contaminated water Zone and that's more where we actually comes which he kind of just said around up being in the Rock so next month this is when we're going to a lot of it's going to be covered so um I just want to say thank you to everybody that I have one other point actually absolutely go ahead is that okay um so the other point is I wasn't clear on where the clearing Zone actually was so I think in the environmental report right now they've said they're actually going to clear some of the dunes which and they're going to start the works in October so if they're going to start the works in October and potentially clear clear some of those Dunes there is flood issues as we all know in that area and so then if there's no protection with those floods as it comes into the winter because the dunes will take time to actually be replanted and actually grow to the level they're at now and you're causing more flood issues and potentially Insurance risk for actually all of those houses along there and legally they would have to disclose that that they have no more d and that where they all of this ongoing work in their insurance premiums and their insurance premiums would increase so right now I can't clearly properly see it but it does say that there will be clearing of DS and replanting which means that there could be issues do we just just to clarify there is no clearing proposed on the dunes in rev there is no clearing on the dunes so I'm not your environmental report in 2024 on 224 is that a page number no no in 2024 your environmental impact it's online oh you're talking about the meepa document yeah yes oh okay um on the well we did have a change at one point there was going to be some storage on the dunes that's been eliminated so that's not in our noi filing do you have an updated thing where it's online or something around your actual reporting and your new structures to what you're going to be using so I can look at it ahead of next month it it would be what's stated in the noi the noi clearly states there's no work on on the dunes and so they do so you're basically there's no Works coming up whatsoever on the dunes no clearing of the dunes and you're straight into the car park of the um the yach club yes okay in the pavement of the parking lot on the yach club mhm okay so it would just essentially be storage we just want to make sure that we're completely clear about this and the storage will be in the AR club though not on the dunes any no yeah not on the dunes um not on the dunes and that would be and that will be clearly laid out in the noi to make sure that the residents are aware that they are not going to be impacted by any additional flooding issues that that area always receives yes um especially in the winter and fall end of fall months in that area for sure uh as a lifelong resident and someone who worked that beach I can tell you that it's bad sometimes but um do you have anything else uh no I don't think so I'll go have a look at the noi the new one and I might have some things next month excellent thank you thank you for your time we appreciate your input appreciate it um okay do you want to make sure there's before you close it want to make sure there's no one else that has anything else they want to say um it's definitely opened anybody online that would like to speak about this anybody in the audience um yeah uh I would I'd just like to let you know Mr rudo know that you know we we understand he has concerns and you know we'll we'll be addressing them uh you know coming up for the next meeting thank you Pete um and thank you to those that uh joined through zoom and for everyone here that uh for the project obviously this a big undertaking and one that's well needed so um thank you to all the people that uh brought up good points to be able to have it that when they're discussing it next month and going over the noi that those things will be covered so thank you uh moving on with our agenda just to wrap this up uh we did have some site visits as we indicated 28 RAV 7 Franklin Street 7 was 17 Washington Street 241 RAV and 40 Arcadia Street um so we kind of covered that all today and uh at this time I'd like to open it up to any discussion with the Commissioners um I would like to say thank you to the mayor's office and the city council for appointing me to the commission however this is my last meeting unfortunately I am moving out of the city um so I therefore can't serve on the commission anymore but thank you to the city um really really appreciate it and thank you guys for all of the education that's come with being on the commission as well I really appreciate it thanks guys thank you you've definitely Samantha has definitely come and in a whirlwind fashion you know coming in quickly and and making her presence very well known and your contributions are greatly appreciated I just want to say thank you from the r Conservation Commission um anything else no all right I'd like to uh entertain a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn I'll second all in favor I excellent thank you e