Good evening everyone. Today is February 19th. The time is 6 p.m. and this is the accishna planning board. This meeting is being recorded for future viewing on the town's YouTube page. local cable channel
and we are live via teams tonight. Uh can I get a motion to open the planning board meeting? Motion to open the meeting. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> We have a quum tonight. Can we introduce ourselves, please? >> Victoria Alaro, Tom Planner. >> Peter G, a member. Peter, member.
>> Mark Swark, chairman. >> Brian Dishamps, member. >> Okay. Uh, Victoria sent out um the minutes from December 4th. Everybody was in attendance.
Um, if anybody had a chance to look them over, take any questions, comments, concerns. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes both for uh February 5th and fourth
>> fourth rather. >> No, February 5th and December >> fourth. >> All right. >> I'll second that. >> We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor? >> I.
>> Fabulous. >> All right. Moving right along. We have a public hearing tonight. Can I get a motion to open a public hearing? >> Motion to open a public hearing. >> Second. >> Second. All in favor? >> I. >> This is site plan review for Zero Middle
Road, Map 23, lot 1B. Applicant owner is Chris Ciano uh at Meet in the Middle LLC. Uh representative Chris Vandenberg uh at Sitec Engineering and Consultant, Inc.
Scope of the work is proposed construction of a singlestory commercial storage building with office space and a contractor's yard for material and supply storage. Is there a representative here from site? >> Uh yes, there is. Uh good evening. Uh
for the record, my name is Steve Giosa. I am filling in for Chris this evening. Chris was the project manager on this particular project, but um I've been asked to uh make the presentation to the board this evening. Uh the owner owners,
Cristiano and his wife Janelle, it's school vacation week. Uh obviously, they would like to have been here in person, but are not able to be. I don't know if they're coming in on their team's meeting or not. Um what I would like to do is give you a brief overview of the
project. Um, this is a 26 acre parcel of land. We are located on Middle Road, Middle Road, running along this edge of the property and Mors' Lane, right opposite what you'll see will be the proposed entrance to this particular
site. There is the main power transmission line that runs through a section of the property on the opposite end of where this development is proposed. And there's actually an old uh city and vapid water easement that actually runs through probably about 2/ird of the way into the property uh
but not near any of the proposed uh activity that we have uh to present to you this evening. So looking at the plans, same orientation as the aerial photograph. Here's Middle Road, Morses Lane. The property is this parcel. It actually
from this point which is the property line of the site extends about 800 feet 900 feet of frontage on middle road all the way down to the power line. So we're basically at the far norththeast corner
of the site is what we're proposing. And when we evaluated this site we looked at this area for two reasons. Number one, we have mapped out uh a wetland area that exists in this area and actually quite a bit of dry land to
the back and then there's another pocket of dry land as we go further uh to the west on the site. But this area set up well for a couple of reasons. Number one, it's an existing cleared field for the most part. Uh you may or may not
know that this site has a forest management plan in place um with the town for the majority of the site. There's actually about 6 acres of the site that were excluded from the um forest plan that included the piece of
property where the power lines go. I think that was about 2 and 1/2 acres. And there was about a five or six a five or six acre piece in this area surrounding this house. This house was originally part of this overall parcel
and was subdivided out probably about a year or so ago and that coincided with the open field area that we are proposing to do our work in at this time. Um so the forest plan actually expires in July of this year and they
are working with a consultant to uh modify that and go forward. But the plan before you tonight, and I think I'm just going to go right to the great plan, it shows a little bit more detail,
is to create a contractor yard and storage facility for Chris's business. Chris owns JC Excavation. Um, wants to locate his business here. And I know there was a little confusion uh early on on this uh
with some of the information that Chris Vandenberg had put together that referred to a plan that Chris was Cristiano and Meet in the Middle were going to propose which originally was going to be a building generally in this location here on the site. He
contemplated a multi-tenant commercial storage uh facility and we did present that to the zoning board of appeals last summer. Uh the zoning board wasn't comfortable with that particular approach because of the multi-tenant uh approach and being
able to control what people did in the particular tenant spaces. So the applicants withdrew that petition, filed a new one, went to the zoning board to get a special permit to allow the use before you. What we have presented to
the board is exactly the layout that the zoning board of appeals considered last summer and actually granted the special permit for which is limited to a single tenant or a single user. That user being Cristiano and his business. So the land
owner is going to be obviously in this case the applicant and if approved the operator of this facility for his business and we definitely are not looking to change that or any of the other conditions that the zoning board imposed
uh on that but we know that that did um there was some confusion with the application. We just wanted to clarify that right at the beginning of the presentation. So the plan is to have an access way coming in at this edge of the property. So the far northeast corner of the site
be a paved access which would lead back to the rear area where we would now construct the building. And we're looking to have about 1,000 square ft set aside for the business office. Just paperwork. This is not a business that there are customers coming here. Uh it
really is just for Chris to do his paperwork, billings, uh estimating projects, and then we'd have a four bay uh garage for storage of materials and also to bring his equipment inside. So we can store some of his equipment in a
controlled environment and also uh be able to do any minor maintenance that he needs to do in a controlled environment inside the structure. We've set it up with a handicap ADA compliant parking stall, van accessible,
seven parking spaces. The seven spaces meet the zoning requirements based on the size of the building. Um the idea is that his employees may come here, leave their vehicles here, take a company truck, go to a job site, then come back, and obviously the owner
um and uh any of the other staff would have on-site parking set back from the main road uh on the site. In addition to the access and the garage and office space here, uh we're looking
to create a material storage area with bins in this location here. So having some crushed stone, some mulch, other items that um screen lom that may be uh stockpiled in small bin areas here,
access off the driveway coming in, able to circulate through and then return out to Middle Road. When we presented this to the uh zoning board, we came in with a plan that we wanted to set this storage bin area
back off the road. And so we did set it back quite a ways from the sideline of Middle Road. Um we're also proposing to build an earthen burm between this storage area and uh the middle road area. And that
would allow a visual break and that burm is about 2 or 3 ft high. And then we have a proposal to plant leelen cyprress trees on the top of the burm and they grow very rapidly. And so immediately we're going to have an evergreen buffer and that's shown on the landscaping plan
that would buffer this area and this activity from the public way and we thought that was an important element. When we went to the zoning board they did mention that we should add some additional evergreen plantings along this border separating us from the
butter that Chris originally bought the property from. >> So we have added some evergreen plantings here and here. opposite where their house is. So that would provide an immediate screen as well. And the site is a little bit depressed in this area. So they're sitting up a little higher.
So we'll be planting on this little bit of slope that would be created. Um finally, there's a storage area that's being created here for any of the excess uh equipment that he might have. We could store that in a flat area, a
relatively flat area here to the rear of the site. Yeah. >> So, no storage in this front section here. This will be preserved and as a buffer zone to the street. We've got a storm water detention basin being proposed. So, the flow is all away from
Middle Road. So, we have no runoff being directed into the public way. All the runoff comes into the site, will flow down to a water quality unit, then drain into a detention pond, then discharge into the wetlands where the flow naturally wants to go. with the audio. I
want they need to be >> We've done percolation tests for a septic system right in this area here in front of the office. So, there'll be a small office, small septic system. Um, septic system meets the town regulations
as well as title 5. It's under review by the board of health. Uh, and that would be located in this area here. And then we're proposing there is town water available in Middle Road. who would be looking to bring the water in to serve the domestic water use for the building.
Operationally, the zoning board set hours of operation for Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. And then Saturday, I believe it's 7:00 a.m. to I think 3:00 p.m. Uh, we put that in a letter to you as well. Um, and
obviously the applicant would have no operation on Sunday. Most of the time a job will come in. Chris will send his equipment out to a job site. The equipment will stay there for the duration of the job. So, this isn't a facility that's going to get a lot of traffic in and out of here over
the course of the day or even during the course of the week. It's typically he'll go to the job site. He has jobs that go on months on end or some that may last a week, but the equipment's not brought back here every day. So, it's very
infrequent traffic uh utilizing this facility. So, we think that's a plus uh in terms of impact to the neighborhood. We've got a large wooded buffer as we head down in this westerly direction. So, we did not propose any screening on
this side because this will obviously it's a wellin system. It'll remain natural. provides a nice buffer heading down the road uh in this this uh westerly direction from the proposed activity. Um
I think that's an overview. Now I think the board may know Merrill Associates was retained by the town or at the applicant's expense to review the project for both I think planning purposes and conservation. They have issued a a report on that. We've gone
through their report. There are a number of items we'll have to address. Nothing major. We have no problem agreeing to address all of those particular issues. So, we'll be submitting to you a revised plan and a response to Merryill's uh
comment letter. I would think again the board is probably going to want to see that response and and be comfortable that we have in fact addressed those concerns. And so tonight we'd be looking for the board's input, any public input and then um look for probably a
continuence to your next meeting and that'll give Chris in the office enough time to make the necessary changes, work with Merrill. And we do have a conservation, we have not met with conservation yet. Our hearing with them is next week and then they're going to schedule a sitewalk for I think they
were saying first week in March. So that'll give time for conservation to also get us some input and that any changes we need to make that might affect them. But we have maintained the 25 ft no touch zone that they like to see uh adjacent to the wetland system.
The septic system is well over 100 ft from the wetland resource area. We think we meet all of their performance standards for storm water control. And I think Merrill's report asked us to look at a couple of drainage items a little bit differently, but we don't see that impacting the uh the design in any way.
They wanted us to widen the burm for long-term uh maintenance of the drainage. So, I think in general, I think we're in pretty good shape with Merryill's review and uh try and answer any questions you may have. >> What is that 100 ft buffalo line
represent? The one that goes through the building. This is the limit of jurisdiction technically of the conservation commission. So there's a wetland offsite uh to the east and then this is the wetland. So it's 100 ft from this line here. And all that does is it
demonstrates if we had been able to keep all the work out here, we wouldn't have to go to conservation. But the fact that we have to do some grading, the drainage system, this area of storage, this area here is in the buffer zone, they're all allowed activities under the wetlands
protection act and under the conservation regulations, but it does require us to get their concurrence that we are in compliance. So I got one question just the nature of the beast that this type of um work what
this project going to be used for. Um is um I know you we've got asphalt pavement going down. Um and I think that's just you know I think that's before any operations have that have to go in place because um there's you don't
have a track pad. They don't have anything down over here to grab anything that could be leaving the site. Basically, leaving this property, heading out on the middle road, tracking gravel, anything else that's could be fallen from the truck or stuck in the truck's wheels from whatever from
loading everything else. Cuz this area here is gravel. I'm assuming they're going to put something that's good gravel. >> Exactly. Yeah, we want we need it to be stable to work on and and like there will be an anti-tracking
pad during the construction period. Yes. >> So, the only part the only part that's going to be paved is the entrance and the front parking area. >> The front parking where we're going to see the most traffic or the most activity with the vehicles coming in and out going to the garage space and then
also to obviously the parking stalls uh in front of the building. Well, your front page is uh got a good um little plot here of uh what is required for setbacks and what you have provided.
So, as far as what's concerned, you fit all the setbacks for front, side, rear, uh depths, you fit all of those. Um, like you said, there is an issue with a letter that came from the abuter, which
I did read the owner's uh letter, which doesn't seem to be an issue. Uh, but we still as a board, we need to hear from the uh building department that he's okay with everything. I think he might have even sent it out to town council just to get their thumbs up. So, as soon
as we hear from them, that would be good for us. Uh you're out. You're you're right also that we need to hear from conservation. You'll see them in a week. Um we should plan our next meeting uh once you're basically done with them and
with uh and then we should have an answer from that as well. >> Yeah. And that makes sense. And again, we did send our letter to the attorney who's representing the letter and and he thanked me in an email back. >> I don't think there'd be an issue. I mean, it just seems like there was it
was, you know, an oversight in the way the zoning board wrote it up. >> Um, but nonetheless, I we still need to get a letter from from the building department that he's thumbs up on on zoning, >> of course.
>> And um Yep. Uh is there anybody out in the audience or here that has any out on Zoom? Is this thing working? So, um, the board's
not working. The laptop is here. Um, so they can hear, but unfortunately, we won't have the screen tonight. >> Okay. Uh, is there anybody out in Zoom that would like to ask any questions or
comment on anything? I think that has enough. Uh, and I don't think there's anybody here that is here regarding that. Um, gentlemen, any more questions? Uh, how long do you need? >> Well, we're going to meet with conservation next week and their
sidewalks the 1 of March. I don't know when your next meetings are or if you have a schedule set yet. >> Mhm. Yep. So, we have March 5th and March 19th. I think the fifth may be too soon because I don't think the planning the conservation is scheduling the sidewalk
till the 7th. I believe they emailed us today on that. Let me just double check. Yes. So, they're not going to go out to the site until March 7th. So, we should go to this the 19th meeting. Um I think that'll be safer. That'll give the
commission time to to obviously have a hearing and view the site >> and we can come back on the 19th and hopefully have everybody else on board. >> Do we do we have a sequence of construction for this project uh as far as developing the
property itself. Um, I just want to ensure that basically this thing is really not um does not have a um permit to operate until that asphalt's in because again it's you're going to be dragging >> gravel off into the street. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.
>> No, I I would think we we would have to meet that requirement before we could operate the facility. Yeah, absolutely. And we do have a heavy duty pavement spec uh >> I saw was on there was pretty heavy handled trucks. >> Okay. Yeah, I saw that portion, but it was it's more about I just want to make
sure it's in place and it's not getting before you they go into operation. >> Sure. >> Absolutely. >> Victoria, can you hear me on that? >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Uh if I may, can I comment on that? The asphalt in the schedule.
>> Please just please introduce yourself for the record, please. >> Chrisiano. I'm the owner. My wife and I are the owner of the property and project. >> Okay. Go ahead, please. Um we we've been uh working on this for quite some time. So we we really don't have
the schedule um in place. Uh but once we start, we'd like to do the project start to finish. Um assuming we can work through uh the town and the um the permitting process in the next few months. Um, I would think it would be
start to finish a 8 to 12 month project at which time we'd be more than happy to put some binder down or uh uh heavy construction entrance. But we could put some binder down say the first 100 ft off of Middle Road to um you know to
keep the dust and and gravel and traffic and anything on the property um during construction. >> Okay. Yeah. Uh that would be good with us. I think you know the building inspector would be the one that would you know in
monitor that. But uh yeah that sounds good. It sounds like a good idea. >> I mean we we obviously we have pavement scheduled for the project anyway. So we need to have some type of uh access during construction. So we could just start with that and and you know get it
to a binder point. um you know something the town's satisfactory with and and go from there. >> Sounds good. >> So this if I understood you earlier this um in your early part of this presentation this construction probably
wouldn't happen till after July, right? The way >> it depends on how the permits and then the appeal periods and everything else, >> right? And you got to release that property for from the uh what it land whatever. >> Well, we forest protection. >> Yeah. when we we read the forest management plan. I have a copy of it
here. Um and it actually excludes from the forest man it says excluded area description mode field around the house 3.9 acres which basically covers the 1.4 acres we have here for this this portion of house and this field running through
here. So this has already been excluded from the forest plan. Um and then obviously there's a second call out for 2.52 acres which is the power lines which is all the way on this edge of the property. So but yeah that'll be worked out um in that same time period and
Chris is already working with a forest management person to uh take care of that. >> So none of that property is actually in that developed area. >> Correct. >> That is correct. It is anything we're
the the area we're developing is in um residential or the the area that is now permitted from the ZBA. It is not in forestry. >> Okay. Any more questions, gentlemen? I'll entertain a motion to continue this
public hearing until March 19th. >> Second. >> Got a second. All in favor? >> I I >> I thank you very much. >> Very good. Thank you. >> Uh if by some chance you don't think you're going to hit the march, just reach out to Victoria's.
>> Yeah, we'll give you enough heads up notice so you're not wasting We're not wasting the boys time. >> Appreciate it. Absolutely. >> Thank you very much. >> Thanks. You guys could hear that. >> Yeah, you guys could hear that. >> You couldn't hear that. >> I didn't hear that.
>> Computer. >> Yeah, that I'm in front of equipment all day. >> I've left easels in town. >> All right. >> I've done that, but also
houses. You guys need to >> Oh, I can drop it off at the house later. >> Good night. Now, >> good night. Thank you. >> Good luck, guys. Thanks. >> All right, moving right along. Uh, next is discussions.
This is a request for minor modification uh 50 Main Street, map 7, lot 24, applicant of Cushion Solar LLC/Nex AMP. Representative is Evan Connley of Bales
and Thomas, Inc. Scope of the work is proposed modifications relating to a storm water and emergency access. Is there somebody here representing Bales and Thomas? Yes. Please introduce yourself for the
record. >> Uh my name is Evan Conway from Gilson Thomas >> and I'm John Marky from New Bedford Mass. Uh because in case there are any legal questions that arise, I'm here I've been both of us have been dealing with Victoria recently and uh just to
basically highlight the reason we're talking about it as a minor modification. There was an issue with the functioning of the detention pond. Beals and Thomas came in and revised it. It does not radically change the layout of what's existing, but it now makes it
functional. It has been peer- reviewed is my understanding. Conservation is good with it. The peer review was good with it. But rather than restarting this entire process with something that in essence this board was good with when it was originally presented, but there was some minor things that needed to be
modified, we're looking to try to pursue this through that avenue. Um, unrelated to that particular component, there has been discussion on and off over the years, both in this forum and with the concom that there was one particular neighbor across the street who didn't
like the ponding that existed um that existed back. And you'll see from the presentation in the 1990s when he probably was in elementary school and I was not. Um but uh and the fact that you know there and he Evan will be able to
speak to it but that his involvement in trying to engage DPW over the time candidly in retrospect and I just learned this through Victoria DBW never talked to you guys about those conversations. We didn't give it to you ourselves. So, shame on us. But we had kind of thought when you talk to the
town, you talk to the town. And you know, and I know that, but uh Evan's younger cuz in the 1990s, he was still in elementary school. So, he probably didn't know that. But in any case, we're here to try to say tonight, I don't think we anticipate we would love to get a vote, but I think we anticipate that
you may have some questions and we may want to have a little bit of a dialogue on it. But, uh, we're hoping that that may perhaps the March 19th date that you were discussing earlier or if the questions are more narrow and easier to answer the March 5th date, we might be able to come back with a request. But for now, it's really anformational
session on a on the second date that didn't happen for a dialogue, you know, some time ago. But I'm I'm available to answer questions, but the smart guy who has the the real knowledge is going to be presented. Let's go right ahead. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um so I think the easiest thing to start with is the plan
modifications. Um so my name's Evan Connley here on behalf of um Efficient Solar. Um so we originally presented some modifications to this project to the conservation commission earlier this year. Um they asked us to have it peer
reviewed which we complete which we had done. Um Mel Engineering Deb Keller uh did a great job. We worked collaboratively to um find a solution to get this basin to function um as
designed. Um so essentially the problem was the basin was not dewatering within 72 hours because it was pitched slightly off. um the outlet control structure was not designed to to work in in the real
world. Um so we as I said we completed um peer review and with um Miss Keller's suggestion the conservation commission voted unan unanimously to approve the revisions um
on their part. So these modifications include grading uh regrading to the detention basin to include additional capacity. The outlet has been revised from a typical outlet control structure to a concrete weir. The emergency spillway
elevation has been revised and elevated. Um the trap rock crossing, which I'll point out in a second, uh that was adjacent to the basin was removed um in order to keep water from staying in the basin and not leading to the
wetland on the um southern side of the site. And at the request of the fire department um we have included a pvious paver system around the site um for
fire access. So essentially emergency spillway slightly raised up. We have a different type of um outlet control here. Uh we have the pvious pavers going around um the solar array for fire access. Um,
and there was a small trap rock crossing here which would during like large storms would cause water to go on over the road into this wetland which was not how it was supposed to be designed. Um, so in general the limit of work hasn't
changed. The, you know, the idea of the basin, the general footprint of it hasn't changed. Um and it functions more it functions better than what was previously designed. Um so that is pretty much the
summary of the modifications to the site. Um I don't know if we want to discuss that and then we can talk about the ponding in the front of the site or move into that. the modifications. Um, unless the board disagrees, I don't
think is a major modification. Um, I'm I'm glad you got it to work. I was out on the site visit. It was in the summertime and that thing was full of water. >> So, uh, again, not our area. I'm glad that conservation and peer review have
resolved that issue. Mhm. >> Um, and in my opinion, again, if the board disagrees, I don't think this is a major modification. Uh, so as far as that's concerned, I'm okay with it. Uh, quick question. The width of the access
road and does the access road go around 360 on both solar arrays? >> Um, so 360 on this side, um, we have a turnaround here. There's a very steep slope, um, right here. And I believe the
width is maybe 14 ft on this on the fire access road, 18 ft on the um gravel access road. >> And this this has been presented to the fire chief and he's approved. >> It was Yes. A few years ago.
>> Few years ago. So it's a different chief. >> Yeah. >> Oh, is it? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, so I'm going to need this to go back to this chief and and see get his opinion on it. >> Um,
we normally require access around the entire array. >> Mhm. >> Uh, we usually require at least 16 ft. Uh, so I'm going to need a letter from this chief saying that this passes his
approval. >> Okay. >> Um, gentlemen, any questions regarding what he just put through? >> No, I agree with what you had to say. >> Now move on to why we're here. Okay. >> Okay.
>> Um, all right. All right. So, um, as you are aware, there is storm water ponding in the front of the site. Um, it's been kind of a sticking point the entire time, uh, this project has
been going on. Um, in our ex in our observations, it appears that it's an existing condition. it was um a problem before the project had started. Um we were asked at one point I think
before my time to do an evaluation um to determine some sort of just to see what what was going on. Um we issued a drainage evaluation memo to the planning board in November of 2023.
um which are uh which outlined our findings regarding the storm water ponding. Um which to summarize based off of the topography our site 1050 Main Street is the low point um of approximately 2 and 1/2 miles up Main
Street that all drains down that hill. It all kind of uh goes to that one point at the bottom of the hill at the currently there's no municipal drainage along uh main street. Uh so therefore the storm water runs down the road, runs
off the side um goes into ditches, goes into you know low points off the side of the road. Um, I will note that the project was approved by the planning board in 2021 based off a storm water hydraology
calculations completed by Scitec. Um, which redu which which reduced the runoff rates that went to this area. Um, the approved plan set included a crush stone filter strip along the northern
edge of the road here, which is meant to collect storm water that comes down the hill um and infiltrate into into the ground. Um, so I have some images that I will
just share with you. Um, so on the first page we have the first picture is the pretty much day one when construction started. Um the contractor
had dug maybe a foot out of soil so that they could install the um stabilized construction entrance for the vehicle tracking going on site. Um that was January 19th and if you can see in that picture they stockpile the soil off to
the side. Um about 5 days later after maybe I think 2 and 1/2 to 3 in of rain over the course of multiple storms. Um those pictures you can see uh the whole site is the front of the site is ponded
up. Um now this was before the road was elevated. Um this was before the actual road was put in. Um, all they did was do maybe 50 to 100 ft of that crushed stone
for the tracking pad. Um, so this was really before kind of anything happened on the site. Um now the next few pages if you look on aerial imagery um
going back to 1990 there are indications of water staining on the in this property exactly where the ponding occurs today. Um, so I think that
that's kind of our that's kind of that's kind of our point like there's it's an existing condition. We raised the road in an effort to allow the water to travel naturally. Um, I think they're
the a budding property. They built a wall at one point. they raised their property up so it kind of stops the flow onto our site. Um I think that's kind of all I have on the images um regarding our meeting with the
Department of Public Works. Um we met with Dan Manard in February of 2025 to discuss this. Um the main uh focus of that site visit was to talk about some sort of solution for the
neighbor. There's one neighbor across the street who has indicated that his basement has been flooded since this project started. Um so the basis of that site visit was to kind of maybe determine some sort of solution for
that. Um Mr. Manard completed his own internal review of the topography and concluded that the elevation of our site was lower than the property across the street. Um so the water wouldn't go over
the road into his property. Um or it's highly unlikely. Um you know, never know what could happen. But Mr. Manard had proposed a collector pipe system that the neighbors could that the town would install that the neighbors could pipe in
um their sump pumps to connect their sump pumps to. Uh the system would run south along Main Street, west along Leonard Street to outlet onto town property. Um and he said that there were other areas in the town that had this
installed. Um, so this proposed piping system would address concerns with the neighbor across the street, but I think it's sort of a bigger picture dealing with the ponding on the storm water
ponding on the actual site. I think it um would kind of lead to the town installing a a full drainage system because as of right now there isn't one um on the site. So I think that's the
general summary of it. If you guys have any questions >> anyone I I haven't se Have you seen any from Mr. that stuff. I haven't Victoria >> Jennifer Dukette, who's the applicant
for the project, she has her hand raised on. >> Okay, we'll get to her in a second. >> Okay. >> Um, >> yeah. What Steve just said is we haven't seen anything from DBW >> or from you from DBW. So, as far as I'm
concerned, that's null and void. Okay. >> I don't that that doesn't exist. here. >> Um, so I do I mean it was more so um kind of a casual sort of um site visit. I do have what he had given us which
again it's just handwritten um if you guys want the copy of it. Yeah. So kind of a sketch on site. Um and just so everyone's aware, our site would be right here. This is Main Street and then the neighbors across there. It was Main
Street and then Lid Street. >> Yeah, I'm sure Dan can understand all this. I can't. >> Um this is this has been an issue for years. Uh
the last time we spoke about this, he said that there was going to be a resolution to the water issue. Um since 2023, obviously nothing's been done. >> Mhm. Um
I will agree that this issue was an issue prior to you getting here without a doubt. Everybody in town that lives in town knows that that that yard fills up with water. >> But when you have an area that's this big that fills up with water and then
all of a sudden you cut that area in half, that water doesn't have the same area to sit in. That is where you come in where you have now changed what was okay at the time cuz water at the time was not
flowing over. you came in and you put in a 3-ft high road, which by the way, if I'm not mistaken, that's a modification to the plans, which still hasn't been presented to the board. Any modification to that road. >> I I again, I'm I apologize. That was
before my time. I think that was it was in our the most recent um plan set from 2023, but I can I can check on that >> and I could be wrong as well. when I look in we'll have that looked into. And as far as you saying that the the
property across the street is lower than the profit, it could be. But I visually drove my truck through the river that went across the street. So to say h it's unlikely, no, it's likely I saw it. I drove through it. Um and if I'm not
mistaken, which I'm not 100% sure somebody hydroplaned, and there was from what I'm told, an accident. I don't have definite proof on that, but so I'm told. Um, again, if you had never been there, then maybe the water would continue to
pull up in that yard like all the pictures that you showed us. >> Mhm. >> Probably. But now that you've come in and taken a taken a good portion of that pro that pooling area out, now the pooling area is much smaller and the water is going across the street. I had
asked and we had multiple um internal meetings. We had a meeting with the board of health uh agent conservation. We even sent Mr. Duket options on how to solve this issue. We're not engineers.
We just sat around saying, "Hey, what can we do here? What can we do there?" Crickets. Uh and to this day still not we could possibly do this, we could possibly do that. You know, we've
thought of this or we've thought of that. Not one. You just come back here two years later with the exact same information you had two years ago with no resolution to the issue.
Now >> I think it's open for discussion and >> then let's discuss what are we going to do to fix the issue. >> Chen still has her hand raised. >> Miss Duket.
>> Hi. Good evening. Um I actually had something I wanted to reference a while back from the um the fire chief approval of the fire lane. Um I do actually have that approval. Um, it was sent to me in
January of 2025. Um, and Mark Lance, while you're also on that email, I'm happy to brief forward it to you um for your records. >> Thank you. And that's good that it has gone to the chief and this chief has approved it. As long as he's okay with
it, it's his uh domain. It's his area. If he's okay with it, then I'm good with it. >> Okay. Thank you. So now we cannot
I actually rewatched the meeting that and this was I think back in 21 uh before I was even on the board where the gentleman that lived across the street came into the planning board meeting and was complaining about the
water going over into this property. again. I can't as a board, we can't approve this. You guys go in, do what you got to do. You're gone. And now we get, you know, these big rains that we've been getting more and more of lately.
>> And now in in in four months in the spring or two months in the spring, we're going to have a butters coming knocking on our door, yelling at us that they're getting issues. We had a major issue as I'm sure you're well aware right here on Main Street from another solar company. Again, all the water, the
storm water was a disaster. Wells were being polluted. It was a disaster. >> Mhm. >> It's our job to look out for that. Even if it's just the one guy across the street. >> Mhm. I was really hoping that you were going
to come in and you were going to say, "Well, we might be able to do this and we thinking about doing that, but you haven't. >> We try to I do I do recall having at least one meeting with with you, Mark, and I recall uh Mr. Chairman, I recall
meeting, you know, meeting with uh the town administrator saying we want to try to address it." when I left the town administrator with meeting the message I received and again I know this is going to say this is just like your conversation was try to address the issue with the neighbor that should be
the focus that's that's what that's how I left because that's the person who came and was heard so when we were trying to address it and I think when the DPW conversation happened was what's the solutions we can try to do for him we had talked about if the town is going
to do a broader project to try to solve more that over that overall all area. We would be willing to contribute money towards buying pipes so that DPW could install things. Did DPW have an idea of what they wanted to do? I was a part of discussions through to see if that was going to be explored. It didn't seem
that there was a some there was an appetite in DPW that we could do something that would address this property without having it become much bigger problem. We then turned to say how would we solve the problem for the neighbor and there was some discussions about well rather than contributing money to the town or pipe to the town to
help them solve the problem because obviously if you guys go out to bid to buy pipe if you guys go out to bid for an outside contractor it's going to cost a lot more money to solve a bigger problem. So we said maybe we could take that money and give it to to the neighbor and enter into an agreement or arrangement with him to help solve his
problem. Even though I guess theoretically and I I understand exactly what you said, we contend this is a pre-existing problem. You have said so that that's those were the two angles that we played. It seems to me that since you said that there's been kind of
some general spitballing on your end that with all the players with Jen being involved with Chris as the the owner of the project being here, me different engineers, this is the second set of engineers on the project and we're trying to be as responsive in a sense as we can with all these players. The next
best logical thing it seems to me would be for us to have a meeting with DPW and a representative from your team to say spitball these ideas. Does DPW think it will work? Does our engineer think it will work? And to give us enough time so when we come back on March 19th, we say there was a meaningful meeting. You
presented some ideas. This is what DPW thought about it. This is what we thought about it. Is it feasible? Is it not feasible? that that that would be what I would suggest if that's it. I don't know if you've >> I mean if if if we can get a meeting with Dan Manard and you and your
engineers and you can you guys can come up with and Dan Manard is an agreeance. Um, then I would probably also with whatever you guys decide, I'd probably also want to
send this off to a third party engineering firm for peer review. Uh, none of neither none of us are engineers up here to say yes, that's going to work or not going to work. Uh, but to cover our behind, I think uh whatever comes
whatever we come up with uh would need to be peer reviewed. But what's disappointing is that at the moment you guys came in front of us but nothing. I mean absolutely nothing which I I'll tell you is disappointing. Uh I was hoping to say yeah sounds good. Let's
send it to peer review and let's see what an engineer would say about this. But in the past 2 years since November 20 November 14, 2023 and now and no disrespect Mr. Marky, you know, now you come in after two
years of saying you worked on it, but you got nothing to show for it. Now you're going to say, "Oh, let's get this done by the 19th of next month." I I don't, you know, I understood I I do this obviously has been fits and spurts. when there were
meetings and we tried to come up with a solution that we thought everybody could be on board with it didn't seem that there was a practical solution because it is it is not a the resolution is not is not going to be resolved on this site there's a broader topography thing that
relates to a much bigger area so I think that became the problem we said well if we buy the pipe how long would you have to go and DBW saying it's going to be a half mile down the road and it's going to be a number of bigger problems that how does he want to take that on as a project or you know because
>> that that that became what happened. So it's kind of I I I own the responsibility for not really pushing it but once I kind of got the message that that it wasn't going to be something that was very feasible that they had an appetite for but now that we've heard from you that this is something that you need to know with the memo the DPW has
signed off on that these things have all been explored. I think that's >> the best thing >> I just feel that something needs to get done. uh the water needs. We had spoken, Victoria and I had spoken with um
the border health agent at the time uh and he came up with Victoria. Do you recall the name of of that system that he was talking about >> like a swale? Well, it was kind of like adding a retention pond into the
property up along your easement to give again more space for the water to go on your property and not onto the road. If if if the area was this big, now you cut it in half. Take that area and dig into
the yard property and make it back to that size. So there's a bigger area like it was if you follow I'm not an engineer but you follow what I'm saying. >> Um that was one option and which I don't
know if it's possible or not but >> we definitely you had cut the containment area of the water down >> considerably not just a little a lot. It wasn't just you know oh we took 10 feet.
No, you took almost 40 ft of that away. Somewhere that water's going to go. I would recommend um unless the board has anything else to say. I would recommend that you guys talk to DBW,
put your put your engineering caps on and come to us with something. Anything that will help you aviate this water, please. >> Okay. Understood. >> All right.
>> Thank you, Arma. Thank you for your time. >> All right. >> You want to just do a motion? >> Yeah, let's do a motion to continue. Do we have to set it on a particular date?
notice the status report on the 19th and if we if it turns out something gets positive, is that okay with you? >> Let's do that. Let's um I'll entertain a motion to continue this um request for minor modification until March 19th.
>> So move second. All in favor? I >> just the last question. If we do have a meeting with DPW, should we just run through Victoria to see if any one of you would like to attend? >> Absolutely. >> Yeah, please keep me on the email. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Somebody's from this board should be there. >> That's what we'd like to have.
>> And if we can't for whatever reason, then Victoria would attend, but somebody from this board should be in in attendance. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Have a good night. >> You too. >> Okay, moving right along. Um request for
minor modification uh 1094 Main Street, Clem's Way 7, Lot 15, applicant, Clemway Solar LLC, Rewind Renewables, Representative Bales and Thomas, Inc.
Excuse me. Scope of the work is proposed relocation of emergency spillways and payment in lie of tree planting. Uh I don't think there's Is there anybody on Zoom for this? >> He did come. >> He did.
>> Yes. >> Is uh anybody out there from Bills and Thomas for 1094 Main Street? >> Zach's here on Zoom in case you guys have any questions, but I kind of outlined things for Victoria and email prior to this meeting.
>> You did, Zach. Um, I'm just going to Hold on a second. Let me break up the plans so I can take a look. >> I was going to screen share those. >> Oh, absolutely. >> But I >> But you can't. >> I think I can.
>> Okay. >> Just if you want to give me one second. >> Didn't we go through this last night? >> There's a new wire. So hopefully Oh, >> maybe
>> you got it. >> Hey, look at that. >> There you go. There you go. >> Fabulous. >> Oh, do you want me to speak to it? >> Just if you could just point out on the plan. So, just for a little bit of remembrance of background, gentlemen. >> One of the before we approved this is
Clem's Way. Before we approved it, we were I forgot exactly which member uh was a little kind of concerned regarding the spillways of the retention ponds. They went directly onto the property.
>> We asked uh Bills and Thomas to try to redirect as best possible so the water kind of stayed on their own property. They said they did that in Victoria. >> So there's one right here. This is the northern emergency spillway. So you can
see it's away from the property line and then also norththeast. >> So basically they backed it up a little bit >> to the extent possible. So >> w should cascade north from the first
basin to the second basement basin and then west into the third basin and then drain onto the wetland on our property. We kind of created a cascading effect with the basins so that in the event we reached a rain event where emergency spillways were utilized all that water
would cascade onto our property and not the neighbors. So that was the kind of special request that the planning report prior to your approval um if you recall about a week later conservation commission approved this design. I'm just coming back to make sure you guys
have this full design set of record that incorporates your kind of final request. Yeah, I I've spoken to um I've spoken to conservation and um hold on Victoria, we can see everything.
>> Oh. >> Um >> my bad. I forgot. >> We uh we did speak to conservation and they were I did ask them to keep an eye on that and I appreciate you uh doing what you could to uh move those as best
you could. Um, I know it's not uh without changing the entire plan set. It's not an easy task. So, I appreciate you doing what you could. Um, and uh if conservation's happy, um, let's see if
the board has any issues. >> I'm happy with the efforts compared to what we were what we were looking at in the beginning. We brought it up. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, so yeah, that's good. Uh I think we're all in agreeance with that. And then their second was the
>> the payment in lie of the tree planting >> payment in lie of the tree. So we asked them if they were able to replant some of the trees that they're going to remove on that back site and there really isn't very many options uh to
replant the trees. Uh and we didn't also offer them very many options to replant trees. So their um remedy was to uh give the town a sum of money, >> $7,500,
>> $7,500 to go towards uh a fund um in lie of replanting the trees. Um we are in the process of um
organizing a fund for this uh particular um situation. We have spoken to the town accountant and we are going to temporarily open a I think it's called like a gift fund uh to
where we can accept these funds and then when we do open up a let's call it a tree fund we will transfer that money that gift fund over to the tree fund. Um
so that's kind of the scope of that. Would you just one question basically for Zach? I know he had mentioned it last time. The uh estimated amount of trees that were coming out >> 75. >> There was 75
>> for the over uh I believe it's 12 in. Yeah. Okay. There was 75, right? Yeah. And then >> yeah, it was a small number. It's only about four three and a half acres of clearing. There's not a lot of mature trees there, but um as I kind of
summarized in the email, we use the exact same value methodology as we've been using in Rochester um with that planning board for years where we take value of saw, timber, firewood, pulp wood from the entire site. And so we got something right around 6,000. I just
kind of rounded it up to uh 7,500. Um, not a huge number, but obviously not a large number of trees that are coming down on this site. >> Right. Right. No, I uh I agree. Um, gentlemen, any questions?
>> No, I think it's seems like they address what we asked them to address. I mean, I'd entertain a motion to um that we um accept a uh the payment of $7,500 in lie of um I don't know if it's either in lie
of transplanting um trees uh based on our current bylaw. >> Um I don't know if you call that some I I don't know what you call it. I don't know if it's a waiver or whatever it is. Um that was appropriate because it was a condition of their uh site plan approval
to provide the board a tree planting plan to replant those. So that was appropriate. >> That was a good motion. >> So we have a motion on the trees. >> I'll second it. >> We got a second. All in favor?
>> I. And now, can we get a motion to uh um approve the minor modification with the spillways? I'll make a motion to approve the minor modification of the spillways at the northeast side of Indian.
>> I'll second that. >> We got a motion. We got a second. All in favor? Okay. All right. Hi. So, let's set with them. They're free and clear. >> I'll write up a letter just so they have
it for their record and I'll get the check for the the trees and try to get that set up. >> Very good, >> Zach. I appreciate um the effort to do what you did to move the spillways and uh for the tree replanting.
>> All right. Thank you guys. Have a great evening. >> Thanks. Thank you. >> All right. Um I'm going to table uh this next one uh the continued discussion on amending the business village district. I'm going to
say I am guilty of not doing my homework because we were supposed to uh highlight the for use >> uh for this and I I haven't had time. So, we're going to
table this next one until the next meeting and then uh I know that Victoria's already been prepared with some maps and with other things that we can move forward with with a discussion on amending the business village district.
Um, nothing else has come in within the last 48 hours. Our next meeting is Thursday, March 5th. Is there anything else anybody would like to discuss? >> I'll entertain a motion. >> Motion to close.
>> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you. Good night.