Meeting Minutes
Minutes of March 15, 2001
[Approved 4/19/01]
Present: Robert Boisselle, Paul Locke, Nancy Naslas, Bruce Rider, David Valade
The minutes will be transcribed by the secretary at home while she is on medical leave.
Budget for the year 2001
We still have about $17,929, but we have some expenses coming in April, May and June, so that should bring that down a bit. The upcoming budget year will be occurring probably late April/early May and the conservation is submitting a budget approximately $51,000 and will include a lot of hydro raking which will depend on the amount of weed that is brought up during the May and June period.
David: On the budget request, do you know what the Mayor has submitted yet?
Bob: No, that has not occurred yet. It will occur in late April or early May. The Mayor submits the budget and the Board of Alderman can cut it, but they cannot increase it.
Correspondence
Mass Wildlife News: Susan Langlois assumes the Hunter Education Post. Bill Woytek is named Deer Project Leader. Tom Ricardi retires from law enforcement after 39 years and the Spring 2001 Trout allocations set. The handout year contains a number of stories about these people and what their duties are going to be and what Mr. Ricardi is going to do for retirement. Turkey permit applications are due today with $5 permit fee. Next permit licensing is July 16 for deer permit applications.
Department of Housing Community Development:
"Dear Local Official:
The Department of Housing and Community Development believes that the comprehensive permit approval process before the local board of appeals is more efficient and productive when town officials are well informed about the law. Though the Department provides training about the law on an on-going basis, it also believes that it is helpful for local officials to receive information about the law when specific new housing proposals are anticipated. To do so, the Department must have early notice of such proposals.
The Housing Appeals Committee's regulations have been changed to accomplish this. As you know, any developer intending to apply for a comprehensive permit must first apply to a state or federal housing program for preliminary approval of its proposal and must receive a "project eligibility" or "site approval" letter from the program. The new regulation requires that any such developer must also provide notice to the Department of Housing and Community Development within 10 days of filing its application to the housing program. For programs such as the New England Fund, in which a local bank acts as the "agent" for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, notice must be provided within 10 days of filing the application to the "agent". Also, a second notice must be provided when the developer actually receives the project eligibility or site approval letter.
If you have any questions about how this requirement will be administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development, please contact Toni Coyne Hall at 617-727-7001, extension 428.
Sincerely, Robert J. Ebersole, Deputy Director"
Enclosed: Mass General Laws 40B, Sections 20-23
12th Fairway - Mt. Hood Enforcement Order 2nd Status Report
The following letter, dated 3/15/01, was received from Joseph W. Lynch, Acting Supt. and City Engineer, City of Melrose
"Dear Commissioners:
In accordance with the special conditions imposed upon this permitted project under and enforcement action initiated by the Melrose Conservation Commission (dated February 7, 2001), I respectfully file this (2nd) bi-weekly summary report. Attached please also find copies of daily inspection reports filed by the Park Department staff.
1.Cease & desist all material import and filling operations as follows..
(2/28/01) STATUS - Fill continues to be stockpiled on the upper, flat ground area
away from the slope and away from the 12th fairway.
(3/15/01) Import operations are about to cease as the contract between Modern-
Continental and Gator is near its end. The city requests that the Con Comm
conduct an inspection of the retaining wall progress so that grading operations
upon the 12th fairway can commence and then be completed.
2. Fortify the erosion controls along the existing haul road (adjacent to the Jersey
Barriers)...
(2/28/01) STATUS - Completed. Silt-migration from the haul road, slide slopes,
and surrounding areas towards the ILSF has been controlled by additional hay
bales, creation of check dams, and the creation of diversion dams so that silt-laden
runoff from the road is directed away from resource area. This condition is
checked daily and continues to function as intended.
(3/15/01) This condition is checked daily and continues to function as intended
3. Cease & desist all construction activities associated with the new drainage piping
system upon the 12th fairway.
(2/28/01) STATUS-C&D conditionally lifted to allow drain pipe to be installed so
that silt-laden runoff from the slope is intercepted and directed away from
resource area. This condition is checked daily and continues to function as
intended and approved.
(3/15/01) - This condition is checked daily and continues to function as intended
and approved.
4. Immediately remove (defeat) the piped connection to "Wetland 3" of the recently
discovered buried perforated pipe beneath the 12th fairway.
(2/28/01) STATUS - Work Complete! The defeated connection and dug sump in
the fairway has implemented a Best Management Practice and collects runoff
water and silt and allows the silt and other suspended solids to settle out as
intended. This condition is checked daily and continued to function as intended.
(3/15/01) This condition is checked daily and continues to function as intended
and approved.
5. Immediately fortify the erosion controls adjacent to "Wetland 2" to eliminate the
migration of silt that has breached the existing erosion controls.
(2/28/01) STATUS - Work Complete! Hay bales and a stone, earth, and filter-
fabric berm was installed to filter out silt that is borne in the flowing water. BMP
functions as intended. This condition is checked daily and continues to function
as intended.
(3/15/01) This condition is checked daily and continues to function as intended
and approved.
6. Notify an authorized representative of the Melrose Conservation Commission upon the completion of Orders 1 through 5 above. Not fewer than two members of the Melrose Conservation shall conduct a compliance inspection as to the satisfactory completeness of Orders 1 through 5. The inspecting party shall then render a decision as to the continued or suspended status of the Case & Desist aspect of this Enforcement Order
STATUS - Complete! Inspection made by David Valade and Paul Locke at an
open site walk held at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday 2/17/01.
7. Install Rock Retaining wall not to function as a filter safety berm at Wetland 2.
(2/28/01) STATUS - Work ongoing with an anticipated completion date of Saturday 3/3/01. The project team will notify the MCC upon completion and request an inspection. It is the hope that the MCC will then authorize commencement to transport of fill onto the fairway area.
(3/15/01) Retaining wall work was interrupted for over a week given the severe winter storm and its impact on carrying out the intended work in snow covered conditions. Work recommenced on Tuesday, March 13th. One of the two retaining walls is complete. The second is nearing completion. The city requests that the Con Comm conduct an inspection of the retaining wall progress so that grading operations upon the 12th fairway can commence and then be completed.
8. The Superintendent of Parks shall appear before the Melrose Commission as its next
scheduled Commission meeting (February 15th, 2001). The Superintendent shall be
prepared to discuss fully all aspects of the environmental character of the project (or
various projects) as they relate to the various jurisdictions of the Wetlands Protection
Act, including but not limited to...
STATUS - Complete! Mr. Amirault & I appeared before the MCC at its
February 15th public hearing.
9. Secure the services of a professional wetland scientist to conduct an environmental
assessment on all resource areas abutting the project(s) (ILSF #1, ILSF #2 on project 1) (Wetland 1, Wetland 2, and Wetland 3 on project 2)...
(2/28/010 STATUS - No Action, seasonal dependent. Project team will advance
this item along when ground and soil conditions allow an effective field
evaluation to take place. Said assessment and restoration plan shall be submitted
to the MCC at a public meeting and shall be reviewed.
(3/15/01) The project team has contacted two professional environmental science
firms to request an initial inspection and proposal submittal. The heavy snow
cover has prevent the item to move beyond the discussion phase.
10. The applicant shall undertake and complete the approved restoration plan under the
stipulated timetable established jointly by the wetland scientist and the Commission.
(2/28/01) STATUS - No Action, seasonal dependent. Project team will advance
this item along when ground and soil conditions allow an effective field
evaluation to take place. Said assessment and restoration plan shall be submitted
to the MCC at a public meeting and shall be reviewed.
(3/15/01) The project team has contacted two professional environmental science
firms to request an initial inspection and proposal submittal. The heavy snow
cover has prevented this item to move beyond the discussion phase.
We appreciate your continued assistance and cooperation in this difficult project. We continue to look forward to working with you.
Very truly yours,
Joseph W. Lynch, Acting Supt. and City Engineer"
Voted: to take a 5 minute recess before the first public hearing.
Public Hearing - 36 Slayton Road - DEP # 2170119
"In accordance with the provisions of Mass General Law, Chapter 39, Section 23B, the Melrose Conservation Commission will hold a public hearing Thursday, March 15, 2001 at 7:45 p.m. in the Mayor's Conference Room, 2nd floor, City Hall. The purpose of this hearing is to discuss the Notice of Intent submitted by Hayes Engineering for the proposed construction of four single family homes, driveways and associated grading at 36 Slayton Rd. In Melrose. Any interested persons wishing to be heard in the discussion should appear at the time and place designated. Melrose Conservation Commission"
Bob: The DEP has assigned a number to this project - #2170119.
Just for some ground rules here, if you are wishing to speak at this particular hearing, there is a yellow sheet up front on the table, please sign in. We will be asking you when you do speak to raise your hand and identify yourself at that time with your name, address and we will start with the Hayes Engineering giving us an overview of the project and any other comments they wish to make, and then we will open up for those who are in favor of the project and those who are opposed to the project.
Ted Regnante, Attorney with offices at 401 Edgewater Place, representing the applicant: I would like to say a few words before turning it over to Ed Stearns from Hayes Engineering, who will review the plans that have been filed and the proposal. I would just like to give the Conservation Commission some background, even though it really isn't directly relevant to the issues that you are deciding, but I would like to just tell you why we are here and what has happened in the past. What happened initially, this came as a result of a law suit that was brought by Mr. Confalone against the City of Melrose in which Mr. Confalone in his complaint that damage has been done to his property as a result of the negligence of the City of Melrose in maintaining drainage in that area, and as a result therefore, this property was flooded and in addition to doing damage to the property, wetlands were expanded that would not normally have been developed. After the instigation of the law suit, the parties entered into what I consider to be a friendly settlement of the matter, and there was a settlement agreement that was filed with the Superior Court, which I have a copy of and I will give to the Chairman at the end of my presentation for whatever reference you would like to make of it. Basically, what the settle agreement said is that Mr. Confalone withdraw all action against the city for damages and that he would pursue, with the various agencies in the City of Melrose, a four lot subdivision of his property so that he could develop four individual single family residences on the property. The city made no representation, and could not of course, as to whether or not this could be accomplished. It was left up to Mr. Confalone to go through the necessary regulatory process. As a part of the litigation, the City of Melrose had hired Hayes Engineering to represent them in the litigation and Wetlands Preservation, Mr. Curt Young. In preparation for that litigation, Wetlands Preservation had actually flagged the wetlands, so what everyone agreed to was that Mr. Confalone would accept the delineation of the wetlands line as flagged by the city's expert, Wetlands Preservation. Part and partial of the settlement allowed Mr. Confalone to use the services of Hayes Engineering to attempt to get whatever approvals were necessary for the development of the four houses, even though Hayes Engineering had, in fact, represented the city and so had Wetlands Preservation, because I described it was "a friendly settlement". What happened after that is that Mr. Confalone appeared before the Planning Board and received an A&R endorsement for a four lot subdivision of the property in the configuration that you see on the plans that have been filed with you. After that was accomplished, it was necessary for Mr. Confalone to file before this commission in order to: 1) construct the dwellings; and 2) there is a driveway going to the 4th lot in the rear and because that driveway crosses a resource area and requires the filling of 1360 ft. of bordering vegetated wetland, that naturally was an issue for the Conservation Commission, as well as activity in the buffer zone. The bottom line is that we are appearing before you to ask your consideration in the fulfillment of this settlement and the only thing I do want to stress is that the wetland lines that have been shown on here were the wetland lines by Wetlands Preservation acting on behalf of the city. One of the things that we will talk about later on in the hearing, and I assume that we will want to make a site visit and I am not sure all the flags are up, but we will have Wetlands or Hayes reflag that area so you folks will have an opportunity to look at it. That is basically an overview of why we are here. Now I would like to turn it over to Ed Stearns to tell you something about the project as it relates to your wetland issues.
Edward Stearns, Hayes Engineering: We prepared the land and protoview, and we surveyed the land relative to the property line, and also surveyed in the wetlands flags. First of all, this is Slayton Road, this is the driveway that was spoken of that goes to the rear lot. There is an old house out here that is burned down, just the foundation and a few charred timbers left, and we will be putting the new house right where the old house was. Mount Hood Terrace is right across the street here, and Sycamore Road is right here. The drainage in the area goes off in this direction towards the drainage structures that were the subject basically of the law suit that was filed and the maintenance thereof, cleaning, etc. The green line highlights the wetlands line which is on this side of the green line. I shaded the wetlands. It crosses the road here. This portion of the existing driveway has actually been covered with wetlands plants and reverted to a wetlands from the flooding over the years. Then the wetlands line comes down this way, and there is a finger that goes off this way, and the whole thing goes down in that direction. The blue lines are existing drainage ditches that go through here. All of this area here now is wetlands. As it is right now, with all of the snow and water we have had, there is quite a bit of standing water in the area. I don't know how often that occurs, but I would say it is probably in one of its worse stages now, because of the wetland. Another feature on the property that is there now, there is an old foundation right in this area here which we will be removing before construction of the houses. What we are proposing is three houses shown thus with driveways entering straight out onto Slayton Road. The lots are all 80 ft. wide, which the zoning requires. This one is 11,000 ft. This one is 11,000 ft. This one is 15,000 ft. This one is 3 ½ to 4 acres, 153,000 sq. ft. That encompasses all the remaining land. There is about ½ acre here of upland, which we would be constructing the house on. About 7,000 ft. of this lot is uplands, 5700 of this lot is uplands, and 9,000 sq. ft. of this lot is uplands. So there is a considerable amount of uplands on each lot to construct the houses. Obviously, all of these houses will be in the buffer zone. We will be doing a fairly minimal amount of filling. The area is already upland. We will just be filling around the houses to regrade, etc. Sewer and water services are out to the street. There is existing sewer in the street, new water service and new sewer service for this house back here. The sewer service would be pumped by a forced main, out to manhole, out to the street because we can't obviously drain by gravity because it goes down and then back up again. What we are proposing to do with the improvement of the driveway here is just to fill it, probably around a foot or less, just to get it up above the wetland. We dig out the wetland soil and replace it with crushed stone or bank run gravel in constructing a new driveway across there. There is a culvert across the driveway here which allows this section to flow out to that way. Both ends of it are kind of buried and obstructed and covered over and hard to get at. We would replace, repair, extend, whatever was necessary for that culvert right there. I would guess by the time we would finish we would just put in new head walls.
Bob: Are you submitting those plans also, the piping and the head walls for that?
Mr. Stearns: We have not included those details with it yet. Frankly, it is pretty difficult to see what is out there the last few weeks. I wasn't even sure what that looked like. One of the considerations of the agreement that Mr. Regnante spoke of is that the city will be making improvements to the drainage ditches and the drainage downstream will hopefully improve the flooding conditions on the property that happened over the last few years. As Mr. Regnante said a lot of the flags are gone now, some of them are still in there. We would go out and replace any that you wanted before you schedule a site visit after you give us ample notice. If necessary, we can retain Curt Young to come to the site visit and tend the flags if necessary. He was responsible for hanging them all. Another aspect of the plan is right over in this pond here and is our replacement area. It is 1360 sq. ft. We are replacing it with slightly more, 1400+ sq. ft. to replace that area. I know many commissions require to replace more than your fill. If that is the commission's wish, we can certainly increase the replacement area. Some like to see it 2 to 1, just because sometimes replacement areas don't come in as good as the original wetlands. In this case here, I think considering the fact that the wetlands that we are removing is something that grew up over an old roadway is probably not that valuable as far as wetlands go.
Bob: I have one question I should have asked at the beginning. Do you have the green cards sent to the abutters that were notified?
Ed Stearns: Yes I do, I usually give you those ahead of time. On the notice we received from the state, like the file no. that you referred to at the beginning of the hearing, they did ask for some more information which I am sure you are probably interested in too, detailed plan of the replication area showing elevations which is something that we would have to work on. Then they asked "where is the original driveway or access way to the building on Lot 2. We know it is right there. Also, they want the wetlands data sheets and soil information which we have got from Wetlands Preservation.
Bob: Any questions from the commission?
Nancy: Where is the 100 yr. flood plain elevation?
Mr. Stearns: That is not shown on the map, by the looks of it we are assuming it is within the wetlands line. I know that a lot of drainage studies were done in connection with the forecase. If need be, I can go back and go through those and see if they come up with something in there. There were other studies involved so there is quite a lengthy pile.
Paul: I think it is something that needs to be indicated.
Mr. Stearns: I was hoping to get some first hand information which I think is always better than a study, but sometimes it is not what we want to hear.
Nancy: That would be done like a compensatory flood storage.
Mr. Stearns: This area would also provide compensatory flood storage, and we'll provide the necessary information.
Nancy: So when we get the elevation and information for that, then we will know this can be worked out.
Mr. Stearns: What is shown on the flood plain maps, this is fairly rough. This is not part of the area of detailed study. They don't give elevations, but it appears to come in something like this. I don't know how accurate that is. We can certainly look into it more.
Nancy: For similar projects I believe we based photographs and observations of the big storm, and we used the October 1998 storm to determine what the elevation was for the 100 yr. flood in that particular area. If we had that information, which is what we would probably choose to base the 100 yr. flood level for this one.
David: It provided quite a bit of an example for it because there was a road and ILSF, and there was a question did it ever flood and go up over the road, and it during that storm.
Mr. Stearns: In some ways I think that was greater than the statistic 100 yr. flood, but who knows how accurate the statistic 100 yr. flood is.
David: I have a question in terms of the road. I can't tell because you only have spot elevations in the wetland area.
Mr. Stearns: In the driveway, you mean?
David: Yes, in the driveway. How the impact will be, in essence if you are raising it, you are creating sort of a dam going across that should push all the water down to the culvert, the east side I guess.
Mr. Stearns: That is why I wanted to stress that we intend to replace that.
David: The question I have is two fold. Which way does the water flow and will putting that causing more of a backup upgradient from it, and if it would I think we would probably want you to look at some kind of culvert in the area that you are filling as well.
Mr. Stearns: I couldn't agree more. Generally, the water flows this way, but top or flat, and your concern I think is real. We have one method we can do and when we do this we use Versalock-it retaining walls, those blocks that lock together, and we lay two courses along each side and they have loose joints and we put holes in them and then we fill inside with crushed stone, rather than gravel, and water can bleed right through there. We use that successfully. It seems to be a good job without creating another channel.
Bob: You mentioned the replication area, you are putting in 1420 sq. ft., at elevation 104, and you are coming from what elevation?
Mr. Stearns: That is the current elevation. That is one of the things DEPS want too, the proposed elevation in that area.
Bob: Okay. So you are going to have a profile of what it is going to look like?
Mr. Stearns: Especially if it turns out to be flood storage too, which I suspect it is going to by the time we are through with that.
Paul: It is indicated there that it is starting about 102, almost up to 103, whereas the road is about 2 ft. lower than that, so you are already 2 ft. above this section.
Mr. Stearns: It would be hard to replace this flood storage with something that is higher than that. The problem is I don't think there are any places that would be more appropriate. If there is, we will find it though.
David: Just as a quick look, I don't know if it would work, but just above where the driveway comes up, Slayton Rd., where that point is there. That looks like it is about at the same elevation.
Mr. Stearns: That just went through my mind. I don't know if that is a solution, but it is a good suggestion.
David: As part of the plan for how you are going to do the replication, would you include maintenance and inspection. I know sometimes it is 2 to 3 years down the road before you have a good idea whether or not it has been effective.
Mr. Stearns: We usually include it, I don't know if it is included in the notice, I did not make up this notice. I apologize, but we were busy tonight.
Paul: Is there currently a waterline out to the asphalt on the road?
Mr. Stearns: I don't know. It very well could be on a well.
Bob: Their house is on well, and also on septic, I believe. That is the reason for new lines going in.
Mr. Stearns: There is a power line going in there, a couple of poles here and about here that go out to that area. I would assume we would attempt to use the same power lines.
David: It might be worth looking into water levels in the soil there, because if you are digging down under, I don't know how far you put the sewer and the water line. I don't know if it is 3-4 ft., but it might be below the water table, so if you are going to be digging below the water table, we would be interested in dealing with how you are pumping it out and cleaning it etc.
Mr. Stearns: I am sure we will be and that is a good point, we don't want to be pumping the silt right out into the wetlands. We will need some kind of an diversion basin.
Bob: Are you going to give to me some sort of construction schedule on this?
Mr. Stearns: It looks like it. Are you taking notes Ted?
Peter Mortimer: The WPA form for the Notice of Intent, 3B says was the lot for the activity as proposed created prior to August 1, 1996. There is a box for yes, or a box for no. Neither one is checked on page 6 of 8.
Paul: That is part of the riverfront issues.
Mr. Stearns: The answer would be no. Our plans, as Mr. Regnante pointed out, were just started recently. The whole lot was there, but we propose an activity on four different lots and they were not related.
Paul: There are certain things that are grand fathered.
Mr. Stearns: Right, and I am wondering with the size of the whole lot, if anything, is grand fathered.
Paul: I don't think it matters for the Wetlands Protection Act. It is only for riverfront.
Peter: The other question I have is regarding the Notification to the Abutters. The name of the applicant is City of Melrose.
Mr. Regnante: It is not the City of Melrose. In the actual filing itself, it is correct. In paragraph 81, it says the applicant is James Confalone, c/o of our office. That is incorrect. The applicant is not the city.
Peter: Is this the notice that was sent to the abutters though?
Mr. Stearns: It is my understanding that a second corrected notice was sent out.
Mr. Regnante: The confusion was a communication problem. Under the court settlement, it was up to Mr. Confalone on his own to get all of this, but as part of the settlement, and it specifically said it would not be the city who was going to petition this, but it did say that the city would support its own wetland line as part of the settlement.
Mr. Stearns: I think actually where the confusion might have arose and was when we started this project we were working for the City of Melrose, and somebody looked up who is the client, the City of Melrose, and put it in there without double checking, but I believe it was corrected.
Mr. Regnante: The whole concept behind that is usually the engineers and the wetland scientist that the city had used to establish credibility in terms of the application, rather than coming in with the applicant's own scientist who might have a different opinion of where the line was. As Mr. Stearns indicted, we would invite the commission to go out there. We would have Curt Young reflag whatever flags on this end, and then actually the Conservation Commission is going to make that determination on its own.
Bob: What is the status of the bridge way at this point? Is it still under a lot of snow?
Mr. Stearns: Yes. It is going fast. I was out there today and there is probably 8 inches to a foot.
Bob: So you are saying that within 1-2 weeks at the most.
Mr. Stearns: In two weeks I would say it would be gone. Who knows, we might get another snowstorm?
Bruce: In the past when we have had a development come in and it had any effect inside the buffer zone or adjacent to a wetland, we have asked for plans, a firm definition of where the house footprints will be, the grading plans, etc., so we would need that for all four houses.
Mr. Stearns: I think that information is presented here. I can't guarantee he is going to find somebody that wants to build this size house, naturally at that point we would have to come back to you. What we would attempt to do is fit houses in that footprint so nothing would be bigger, but like I say we would have to come back to you to determine how significant.
Paul: So exactly what is the Notice of Intent trying to cover. Is it construction on the one house on Lot 2?
Mr. Stearns: No, it would involve all houses. All I am saying is if the proposed construction varies from the plan that is presented to you, they would have to bring it back to you to review whether or not it is significant.
David: Has the Planning Board reviewed this and approved this layout for the subdivision?
Mr. Stearns: For the lots they have.
Mr. Regnante: That was the approval from the Planning Board, but that is strictly an A & R endorsement.
David: The reason I asked the question is it going to change, because in the past we have had changes and we had to look at it again.
Mr. Stearns: If it changed it would be because of issues that you people had for some reason.
Paul: What is an A & R endorsement?
Mr. Regnante: An A & R endorsement is the plan that was signed by the Planning Board, showing the subdivision of the four lots.
Mr. Stearns: What it means is approval not required. The lots have frontage on an existing street at a legal size, and the Planning Board just looks at it, and if they agree they sign it. It is not a sub-division. We are not creating any streets.
Bob: This is going to be a gravel roadway all the way up of crushed stone, or is this going to be hardtop or asphalt?
Mr. Regnante: The Board has gone both ways. When we were looking it had a hardtop, but if that is a consideration of the Conservation Commission and we need to come with an alternative, we would look at that.
Mr. Stearns: Gravel appears to be more environmentally friendly, but when you try to plow it you end up dumping the gravel into the wetlands and create more of a mess than you would if it was paved. I prefer paving, even though it is impervious.
Bob: Is the roadway going to have any guardrails of any sort to prevent what you were just saying, driving into the wetland with a snowplow or vehicles.
Mr. Stearns: I would propose being more than a foot, and I don't think a guardrail would be appropriate, maybe a fence just to give the visual affect. If you are going to drive off it, you are going to drive off it. Hopefully it is straight so the snowplow knows where to plow. Obviously we are going to be done at 12 ft. wide, but it might end up a little narrower than that.
Bob: I was out at the site last summer. The area of the proposed house, Lot #2, in the rear of the property is a burned out structure. I was there with the Fire Department at that time. You had to actually use a machete to get through the area, there was so much undergrowth to the property. The pipe going under the roadway is shattered in a number of places. You could actually look down into the culvert type pipe from the roadway. That has been damaged at that point. The area was under water, what you see here pretty well. My only question is how are we going to get some of the heavy equipment in? Is it going to be over that roadway?
Mr. Stearns: The roadway would be the first to be constructed. I can't tell you at this time because we don't have the final plans for the replication and probably the first suggestion is the construction of the replication first before any construction begins anywhere else. That would be probably one of the goals that we would be looking at.
Bob: Right now I would like to turn this over to the public. I am looking for anyone who is in favor of this project?
Michael D'Ampolo, 12 Cricklewood Lane: I am in favor because I want to buy the back lot, Lot #2. I have been researching it for years. I grew up in that neighborhood and when I was a kid there wasn't any floods in there. There were a couple of creeks, and that was it. The rest of the property was dry. I used to play Hide & Seek in those fields and the only water that was in there was the water in the creeks. It didn't flood like it is flooding now.
Rick Buzzangor, 60 Olympic Ave.: I am in favor, but I do have a couple of questions for the board. What is the setback requirement for a house lot from the wetlands?
Bob: They are not building in the wetland itself. They are building in the buffer zone - 100 ft. area.
Mr. D'Ampolo: Is there a setback requirement for a residence or home or structure?
Bob: Usually we recommend anywhere from 10 to 20 ft.
Paul: The legal answer is there is no specific requirement in the regulations for a minimum distance.
Mr. Stearns: If I might point out, we have one that is about 5 ½ ft. That would be very tight by most people's standards and we will have to be very careful of erosion control and other things.
Mr. D'Ampolo: So that could be an acceptable setback?
Bob: It could be acceptable.
David: In prior cases we have asked to have it moved a little bit further and that is
something we will look at.
Bob: At this point, is there anyone opposed to this project?
No comment.
Bob: Is there anyone that wishes to talk about the project itself?
Ralph Delorie, 39 Slayton Rd.: I live directly across the street from those two houses on the front lot there. Mike D'Ampolo was correct. When I moved there in 1970, that land was all farm land, except for the water in the ditches, and in the late 70's and early 80's, I was standing down in that back pond with Mr. Joseph Confalone with a city man named Mr. Henry Combare, who was in charge of DPW type work, and we could observe the water coming back into that property through that pipe, and Mr. Confalone, Sr. kept telling the city to fix that pipe, and it never got fixed. Later on, back where that bridge section is, that land from there all the way out to the street on both sides had a little bit of water like a creek. The last couple of years we have been breeding ducks in there. We have ducks in there every spring now. The two houses out on the front, the single house down at the front there, when I moved there the sidewalk along that street was straight and level. That sidewalk now probably dips down about 8 or 10 inches, and now 3 ft. up from the curb, the street is starting to roll down in there. The only thing that is holding that lot where that single house is, in the late 1973 or 1974 one of the neighbors cut down a willow tree and Mr. Confalone told him to dump is in the hole where that water is behind that house because there is a creek down there also, and that willow tree now is probably 80 ft. high with about eight trunks on it and that is what is holding most of that land up. Just above the single house, between the single house and the driveway, the city was doing some work and Mr. Joseph Confalone allowed the city to bring in huge slabs of concrete and they are buried under the lawn between the driveway and the first house, right in that area, there are huge concrete slabs in there.
Mr. Stearns: This is where the existing driveway is, so we are going to have to dig those up for the house.
Mr. Buzzangor: There are other problems. I live across the street. I put a pool in there in 1983, I went down 3 ft., nice gravel fine, perfect, from 3 ft. to 13 ft. was nothing but black solid peat. I took out 7 truckloads of peat, put in 5 loads of boulders to put a gunite pool in. Now when you get across the street, no one has done a test warrant on that lot I bet you, but especially that single house, I don't know who is going to build a house there. They definitely are going to need pilings, because if you come down the street further where the Mikalowski property is, his house is on pilings. The other thing is, that driveway, even in the summertime now I still mow that sidewalk. Mr. Confalone told me I could park a truck in there and I have kept the people from driving down in there, because in the winter time we have had kids go down and they get stuck with a car, and in the summer time they go down there they are stuck in the bog because they go off the road and they are in the mud. That driveway had more than a foot of water on it, now the water is under the slab in my sump and I live across the street. You didn't mention a lot about storm draining, but I know that whole area drains not just around that property, that drains from the top of Mt. Hood. It comes from Angela Circle and everything else. There is a lot of storm water going through there and that is why it is flooding because it is has no drain outlet over here. I don't know what the result is of the city going in and fixing it. They tried that once on the corner of the golf course and apparently it is not right because the land is still flooded. The back house, the single house where the fire was, that is probably the only solid piece of ground on the property and it is because there is an outcrop because at one time Long Pond was down on the golf course and around the back side, and this probably at one time was fenced, but there is an outcrop of a berm or something there, and that is why it is solid. It is all overgrown now, but when I first moved there my kids used to go down and pick the vegetables with Mr. Confalone, and because they used to mow the driveway and the street, sometimes I would find a bag of vegetables on my porch in the summertime. I am not opposed to the project, but there are a lot of engineering problems that are going to crop up with it. You talked about putting a gravel driveway, you talked about a stone driveway. The problem is right where that driveway is, there is probably about 25 ft. of peat under it, and that is going to be a problem. You are talking about a stone bridge. Whoever is going to put that bridge in there I am sure they are going to have problems maintaining it, because it is going to sink. There is nothing solid probably from 10 or 15 ft. back of the curb until you get down beyond that bridge. The reason the bridge is caved in is the fire truck went down there and went through it. It started cracking and punched a hole in it, now the fire truck was banned from going down when the house got on fire. The barn burned first, then they had to pump the water down. They had to put the pumper at the end of the driveway and pump all the water in. I don't know if I can answer any questions. I knew Mr. Confalone, I know Jim Confalone. I have tried to take care of it a little bit and dress it up for them while they are not around there.
Mr. Regnante: May I just say something, Mr. Chairman. We are hoping, and this is a cooperative effort, to work with the city, and as a result of the things we know the Conservation Commission is going to do to protect the wetlands and working cooperatively with the DEP, we are hoping to solve all of the issues, not only on this piece of property, but problems I think other folks are concerned with down stream, and perhaps at some point the commission might want to hear from the Public Works, but we are going to work cooperatively with them.
Mr. Delorie: There is another side to that also. I mentioned that heavy, heavy storm we had in the summer of 1998. Mr. Heartland, two of my other neighbors, Joe Hickey and the Hinchey family and myself were the people who had all the water from Pond 2 go across the parking lot, come down Slayton Rd. and flood our cellars, flood our pools and put fish in our yards. I received a letter from the city, which I have a copy of here, that they were going to take care of that culvert up there, and that was in August 1998 and that is not fixed yet. They were also going to take a part of that curb out as an emergency in case that pond did overflow again, would cut through the parking lot and go into pond 1, that has never been done. The piping that is down in that corner, that was 1980 when they were talking about fixing it, and this is 2001. Now I don't know what the plan is for changing that pipe, but if it doesn't start at the golf course side and go all the way down to the deadman's curb drainage to go to the Saugus River, this is going to continue to be flood.
Paul Guzzo, 21 Cricklewood Lane: I am an abutter, living down the end of Laurel, the last house on Cricklewood. I have been there for 3 years now. Whenever it rains it is a very big concern for me. Mr. Adelman is behind me. He is directly on the first fairway. Several times, not only in 1998, I have had to go over and help him pump out his driveway just to keep the water out of his home, and I don't know if it has to do with those storm drains that are on the next page, if you could flip back please. In the lower left corner, all those blue storm drains or ditches, if I am not mistaken he is proposing that is where the runoff is going to go? Right now that runoff goes nowhere. Right now it builds up right there and there is a major problem there now. The water doesn't drain and it doesn't go anywhere. It builds up in his yard. It builds up in the back of my yard and when it rains you can see that whole area is completely full of water. I am very concerned if they are going to start building up these areas, building up the grading, separating the road, it is just going to create more of a runoff and more of a bottle neck down where we are, and from what I can see and what I have heard, I don't think there is proper planning for this.
Nancy: How high up does the water go say on the Slayton Road side of the area?
Mr. Guzzo: On the Slayton Rd. side, I am not that familiar, but it comes right up to the end of Laurel St. where the street ends. It also comes onto the street.
Bob: It is coming off the property, going onto Laurel St. before it gets into this area, is that what you are saying?
Mr. Guzzo: Off the property, right onto the end of Laurel. It is flooding there, absolutely.
Mr. Stearns: The drainage system goes the other way. That is the way the water should be going.
Mr. Guzzo: Well, it doesn't. The first fairway floods, abutting that whole section of property.
Mr. Stearns: In this area? That is all about the same elevation that we are.
Mr. Guzzo: So it is my contention, if you are going to build up those lots on Slayton Rd. and separate that property with a bridge, you are going to have to build up quite a bit to propose that new driveway, and it is preposterous to say you are going to have a gravel driveway, nobody knows that is going to happen. There has to be a tar driveway. I just don't see the planning that has gone deep enough for this project.
Mr. Stearns: The only work that we are going to be doing in the flood plain or the wetlands, is the driveway itself.
Mr. Guzzo: And I think you have underestimated the depth of the peat in there. I have lived in Melrose all of my life.
Bob: Right now, that is what we are requesting, the DEP is requesting, test borings of the soil to see what is there.
Mr. Guzzo: You need some test borings, because I am convinced that the peat is much deeper than anybody has anticipated, and you start test boring down there, any kind of driver you build there is probably going to sink, along with those houses on Slayton Rd.
Bob: We won't need that, Sir, until we get those test borings.
Mr. Guzzo: Well, these are my concerns. If you start digging for those houses on Slayton Rd., like Ralph said, that property is probably is going to fall into the peat, and you are going to be faced with a humungous problem that you never anticipated.
Peter Mortimer: In light of the members of the public who spoke, Mr. Delorie mentioned the pilings and that they were under the Mikalosky property. Would you happen to know how deep the pilings go?
Mr. Don Adelman, 318 Laurel Street: I am not sure. I believe they are on wood pilings and wood pilings normally go down 30 - 35 ft. You drive them down and then place a pile cap and then you usually build a gray beam foundation.
Mr. Mortimer: They are not concrete?
Mr. Adelman: Now they can drive steel piles, concrete piles, etc.
Mr. Mortimer: But the ones there are wood?
Mr. Adelman: They probably are because of the time it was built. His house hasn't moved, but his backyard totally floods also. He has an above ground pool and sometimes he has had 1 ½ ft. of water there.
Mr. Mortimer: The project that happened on the first hole, the culvert, was supposed to drain the water across, out from beside your property, Mr. Adelman, and from behind your property, Mr. Guzzo, and take it across to Altamont and bring it eventually down to the Saugus River. That is not occurring?
Mr. Adelman: No, absolutely not. That is why we are concerned about the filling of this land for the houses, which may create a change and worsen the situation that we have now. I have been there for over 30 years now and I have always had my yard flood when we normally have a little access rain. In fact, when we had that terrific rain/flooding, my place got flooded out.
David Valade: If I could respond to one of your concerns, one of the things that we have asked for and we are going to look at, is to level it floods to, and if there is filling in that flood zone, then there needs to be compensatory storage taken out somewhere in it, so it doesn't increase. Ultimately it probably won't improve it, but our job is to make sure in a flood zone that it doesn't get worse as a result of the changes.
Peter Mortimer: In light of that could I finish my line of question. In view of what we have heard, Mr. Stearns, have you contemplated pilings in your construction plans and is there any thought that these may be just slab houses, houses that don't have a basement, because that has happened in other wetland areas in Melrose, where people build a house on a slab and I am mainly thinking of Burnett St.
David: Call it bordering areas, because they didn't build on a wetland.
Peter: Right, thank you for your correction.
Mr. Stearns: We are proposing houses with full basements and the basements are 2- ft. above the wetlands elevation. Hopefully, before this process is over we will have a good handle on whether or not that is high enough.
Bob: Have you contemplated putting piles beneath the basements? We can make a final decision once we get the test borings on the project.
Mr. Guzzo: Bob, you said you were out there last summer. Did you walk down the road and was the road wet?
Bob: The road was not wet at that point. The areas below the road were wet. This was some time in July when I went out.
Mr. Guzzo: I also have an in ground pool in my yard and last summer I had to have a liner put in, and as soon as we took out that liner, the guy that I hired to do the job was flabbergasted at the water that was underneath that liner. He had quite a job keeping up pumping out the water to put the new liner in.
Bob: I believe you sir, in the point that any area that you have standing water or wetlands area, you go down 2 or 3 ft., you will find water and there are no ifs or buts about it, and the question is that we are going to be looking at this when they come back with their test borings concerning these houses. If there is 15, 20 or 30 ft. of peat in that particular area that you are talking about, but Burnett St. and all that area was all in peat area, and you have to take out 5 or 6 truck loads, like the gentleman before you was saying, to put in the gravel to compensate for that much water there. So we are going to wait until then, we are going to give someone else a chance to say anything. Is there anyone else that wishes to say anything in general against or for the project.
Kelly Hinchey, 1 Mt. Hood Terrace: If everything gets approved, is the company that you are with sir, getting the land ready, and everyone when they buy the property will be building the house? Are you going to prepare everything to have someone just go ahead and build it, meaning tear down trees, etc
Bob: He is not representing the construction who will be coming into to do this. He is presenting a lot size for the construction company to follow. If the new owners want a bigger house, they are going to have to come before us again. He is only preparing the plans with preliminary information and specifics for the construction company to look at, then there will be bids on that particular project. Some companies run that together where the consultant and the construction are working together, but this is not the same.
Mr. Stearns: I have to work on the assumption that we are probably going to sell the individual lots to individuals. I don't know that for a fact, but that is usually what happens when I say otherwise.
David: What is worth noting now is that when we reach to the point where everything is all set and we approve it, we do conditions on each of the individual lots so that when they come in and build on it, they have to meet our conditions and if they vary from that they have to come back and justify why, if we still comply.
Mr. Stearns: We don't maintain jurisdiction on it forever.
Mr. Adelman: When I first bought my house 30 years ago in that wetland area, in that field area there was an open culvert there, and we used to get a lot of mosquitoes in there because the water used to run off, and it still used to pile up when we had excessive rain, and we were bothered by mosquitoes. The neighbors all got together and went to the city and they closed the open culvert with corrugated pipe, about 2 or 3 ft. in diameter and covered up and put manhole covers all the way through there. At the time I was talking to the city men that were working on the project and I said "now is this going to solve my problem now with the water in my yard all the time". They said "no, just covering over makes it solve the mosquito problem, but your problem is out in the golf course. That pipe is not pitched the right way and they would have to dig that up and get it pitched the right way. He told me the same thing, all that water goes out to Essex Street and that is what would solve the problem, so it is a drainage problem. I am just concerned that it may get worse with the building of the houses.
Mike D'Ampolo, 12 Cricklewood Lane: I have one question about that driveway, a concern. You said earlier that they may build up the sides of the driveway with interlocking blocking. What is going to keep that from sinking 2 to 3 years from now, that interlocking block?
Mr. Stearns: They have developed methods of building roadways in swamps, using filter fabric. They lay over the peat, then put gravel on top of it. Basically it acts as a footing. It flexes a little bit, but it doesn't sink. They build interstate highways through swamps using that method. This would be an appropriate place to do something like that.
David: So to speak, the roadway would float on the peat.
Mr. Stearns: What it does, it just holds it all together.
Mr. D'Ampolo: If the board does decide to let the road be covered with asphalt, is that going to keep the asphalt from being disturbed, cracking, breaking, sinking?
Mr. Stearns: Asphalt flexes too. That would work. Concrete, cement pipery, I wouldn't be too confident about, but asphalt would give and take quite a bit.
Mr. D'Ampolo: Okay, I just have one more concern about that back corner of the lot, what is the commission going to do about the water being drained out of that area, at the end of Laurel St.?
Bob: I am trying to find out what the Public Works Dept. is saying about coming to assistance here, and I am not sure what that means. I have to contact the City Engineer to find out what is going on in this agreement between the applicant and the agency.
Paul: If we can clarify the commission's role right now. It is our role to review the work that is being proposed and to ensure that in terms of the flood storage it does not make things worse. The material that has filled an equal amount or more flood storage is created on the property so that no more water will go into the adjacent properties. It is not within the jurisdiction of the commission to require anything to improve the movement of the water in that down bottom left corner to move off the property. We can't require anything for that.
Mr. D'Ampolo: Are the agreements going to be public? Are we going to be able to know that something is going to be done about it? Would it be possible to have the City Engineer to come to a meeting?
Bob: That is what I was saying before. I have to talk to the City Engineer to see what the agreement was between the applicant and the city during this case. If there is something that is involved here that we are not aware of, but at the moment we are involved about flood storage on the property and in gaining more flood storage and not having more water go over into the neighbor's area, and preventing that.
Paul: If the city is proposing to do work in that area, then at least in theory the city would be coming to us for approval before they do that work.
Mr. D'Ampolo: What about the golf course at that fairway? That fills up with water also. If you ever walk along that area behind the back fence of the property, it is all like mush. You can't even walk in without sinking. With all the dirt they put on Mt. Hood right now from the Big Dig, you would think they could spare a little back there.
Bob: Well, if you are putting dirt in this area, you are going to back up water onto his property. At this point, filling is not the solution, it is the moving of the water out of the property and preventing the water from spilling over to Laurel St., and moving out water through the system as quickly as possible.
Mr. D'Ampolo: Will that also fix the fairway?
Bob: I would consider the fairway as a water hazard at this point. We have no jurisdiction on that and no one has complained about water on the golf course.
Mr. Delorie: Is this agreement that has been worked out between the city and the applicant, can the public look at it?
Bob: I have no idea. This gentleman is saying there is some sort of an agreement between the city and the property owners. I am not sure what the details are at this point.
Mr. Delorie: The taxpayers have a right to know if the city is involved.
Mr. Stearns: I am not trying to hide anything. I am going to give you a copy of it, but the agreement is very general. I think it contemplates sitting down and "what can we do" and "what can the city do". It is a working type of thing. It doesn't say the city does exactly this and you do that. The city wants to work to alleviate the problem.
Peter: Does the suit have a problem with Mr. Confalone and the city.
Mr. Stearns: This was a settlement of the suit.
Peter: What was the docket number? If there is a docket number, you can look it up.
Mr. Stearns: I am going to give you a copy.
Paul: Whatever these agreements may or may not be, the commission's rulings will be based upon what is presented in public meetings and not on any other documents or agreements.
Mr. Delorie: Was this meeting published?
Bob: It is on the board downstairs at City Hall. It is in the paper. It was posted on the board five days ago and this was in the newspaper this evening, and each abutter received a notification of the meeting itself from the City Assessor's office I believe. All of the abutters were identified and were sent the appropriate paper work.
Mr. Regnante: I do want to say this, Mr. Chairman, to the commission and to the abutters. We do want to try to work cooperatively. We understand your concerns and we think they are legitimate concerns, so we will work with you. All of these meetings of course are public. Everything that this commission does is public. I assume that sometime when the snow goes we are going to have a site walk if you folks want to be there.
Bob: If you sign the yellow sheet, put a star beside your name if you want to come on the site walk. Do you want to continue the hearing until we have a site walk or to the next meeting. When will you be getting the test borings?
Mr. Regnante: We would suggest, Mr. Chairman, that perhaps it might be appropriate for a little longer postponement of the hearing, we could actually agree to that, first of all to give the opportunity for Hayes Engineering, I would say two months. Do you want to do a site walk before we submit that information, or do you think it is helpful to do that the middle of April?
Mr. Stearns: The test boring the DEP asked for I am pretty sure is just a soil holes that is done to determine the wetland sign.
Paul: Not to go down into the peat, just to the wetlands determination.
Mr. Stearns: There have been borings done some place. I saw it in the file. We might have to get somebody in there to do borings in the driveway.
Bob: So two months, late May, is what we are talking about here, is the next meeting for this?
Mr. Regnante: Then if you want to do a site walk in mid April and go down there and we will put the flags back up that are down, so at least you have a feel for the property and determine how you feel about those flags and we will ask Curt Young to come to the site walk.
Paul: It would be helpful to have the site walk in April because if we get information from the neighbors about the flood levels, then you would have time to incorporate that.
Bob: Would we say April 14 or 15 as a possible site walk, that is a Saturday or Sunday.
Nancy: I would only be able to attend the 6th or after the 23rd, but I would be happy to go myself on another day if that is not going to work.
Bob: What are the wishes of the commission? Right now, we will schedule for the 14th or 15th, depending on my contacting the individuals on the list, and would one of you contact me if we are ready to go? We will continue this hearing the 17th of May.
Paul: We will be looking at their replication areas, the wetland replication and then potentially the flood storage, more construction details on the road and particularly how the water will flow through that potential dam, and dewatering issues with the construction where it is.
David: We will probably want construction sequences since the first area, as Bob has indicated, probably will be through the wetland.
Mr. Stearns: We are going to get the borings out here. Do we have the commission's permission to drive a board right into the wetlands in the driveway?
Bob: Yes, I have no problems with that. Also are you going to have the profile of the reclamation area?
Mr. Stearns: Yes, you can have that, but I would like to do it after the site visit.
Mr. Delorie: I live across the street from the driveway. I also have the key for the padlock on that chain if anybody wants that chain removed.
Bob: We aren't going to be taking any vehicles into the area.
Mr. Delorie: I mean about test boring. I wanted to let him know there is a red and black pick-up truck that is in there, so if at any time somebody has to get in there, my home office is right there. If anybody wants to visit the site, you can knock on my door and I will take you down, but I recommend you have hip boots and it is really overgrown so you have to wear something protective. There are a lot of briars down there and there is also a bush with those little spurs on them.
Voted: To move the public hearing to the May 17th meeting.
A 2 minute break was taken to reorganize.
8 Hemenway Avenue - Public Hearing
"Legal Notice - Public Hearing - City of Melrose Conservation Commission in accordance with the provisions of National Law, Chapter 39, Section 23B, the Melrose Conservation Commission will hold a public hearing Thursday, March 15, 2001 following the 36 Slayton Road hearing in the Mayor's Conference Room, 2nd floor, City Hall. The purpose of the hearing is to discuss the Notice of Intent submitted by George Z. Zambouras for the construction of a single family house with associated site work, utility and roadway, driveway and landscaping at 8 Hemenway Ave. in Melrose. Any interested person wishing to be heard in this discussion should appear at the time and place designated. Signed: Melrose Conservation Commission"
Bob: Do you have the green cards that went to the abutters? Did you get your list from the Assessor's office?
Steve Amero: Yes, I did, both Malden and Melrose.
Bob: Did you receive a DEP number?
Steve Amero: I haven't received it.
Bob: Who is presenting?
George Zambouras, engineer for the applicant: This is the plan of the existing conditions. What we are looking at is a vacant lot that is adjacent to Hemenway Ave., and right adjacent to the Melrose/Malden line, which is this line right here. There is an intermittent stream, which is highlighted here in pink, and there is a border and vegetated wetland. Across the street is another existing house right here. This yellow line highlighted here is the 100 ft. buffer zone from those two wet areas. The proposed project will be located entirely in the buffer zone in that existing vacant lot. Currently, the runoff from the site basically is almost perpendicular to the stream itself and also down the roadway in a northerly direction. This is a board of the lot itself showing the improvements. What we will be proposing to do is the existing roadway ends right here, be extending it approximately 70 ft. along the front of this line required in order to provide successful frontage for the water. The roadway will be 18 ft. wide, granite curving on each side. The post house being constructed is approximately 50 x 28 ft., similar to that. There will be a wooden deck in the rear, stairwell coming out the front, the concrete walk coming to a driveway, and a paved driveway leading to the roadway. The existing utilities end approximately right in this location. They will be installing a water line connecting into the existing main in the roadway, and a sewer line with a sewer pump station which will be buried in the driveway and a force main connecting to the existing 6 in. PVC sleeve. From this point a 2 in. PVC pipe will be pushed through the pipe into the existing sewer manholes, so there will be no physical construction or likely cross the intermittent stream. These utilities were installed when the roadway was extended previously at a digital filing. Because of the apology of the lot, their will be a series of walls that will have to be installed to basically establish a platform to construct the house. There will be a small wooden railroad tie retaining wall here and over here with the stairs going into the back yard, an additional railroad retaining wall along this side of the house to retain the slope and the small one by this driveway. In fact where it does, it terraces the lot right now. It is almost a 20% grade cutting across the entire lot. These grades are increased slightly to a 2 to 1, but it is basically as flat as possible through the house section. We will also be required to put a small retaining wall in order to limit the slopes and 2 to 1 adjacent to the proposed roadway, and this is just a small riff raff slope, mainly because the 2 to 1 grading would be required to go into the additional property and without permission to do that we are putting a small wall there too to eliminate going into the abutter's property. The roof runoff will be tied to two drywells, one in the front and one in the rear in order to mitigate some of the impervious. The entire impervious that is added as a result of the proposed improvements is just under 4100 sq. ft., which as far as the working area of the lot and the roadway itself, it is a 30% increase impervious area. The entire drainage area, which is contributory to this stream at Hemenway road is 39 acres. The amount of impervious that we are talking about within that 39 acres is 2/10 of a percent increase. The filing has runoff calculations in there for the walk itself without taking into effect the drywells for the roof drains. The increase in runoff that results in a 2 yr., 10 yr. and a 100 yr. storm is twelve-hundredths of a cubic foot and sixteen-hundredths of a cubic foot for the 10 and 100 year storm. With the addition of the drywells, those amounts are reduced to 8/100th of a cubic ft. in a 100 year storm, and 12/100th and 14/100th of a cubic foot in a 100 yr. storm. The calculations which I do have here with me tonight, they are not in the original package, which shows the effect of the increased impervious over the entire 39 acres, unfortunately the program didn't carry the decimal point far enough to really show the effect, the slight increase impervious comes up with the same cubic ft. It is partly because of using it, the TR55 method, to really show the thousands of a cubic ft. that would increase, you really have to use the rationale method, but I do have those calculations and I will provide them with you tonight. As a result of the change in topography in the lot, a lot of the runoff that is now coming perpendicular across the water and into the intermittent stream, the portion that is in the house will not be directed out into the roadway and down into the roadway draining system. The impervious area that is occupied by the roof during the two year storm, it is entirely taken into the leaching system, however there is a slight overflow that is necessary during the 10 and 100 year storms. The systems aren't sized completely to handle the volume that is coming off the roadway and I did not include any calculations for absorption into the ground because soil borings weren't taken and it is questionable how much ledger there may or may not be there in the area. The net result is the runoff that is currently going into the intermittent stream will be equal to or less than what it presently is today. The excess runoff is basically going down the roadway into the draining system.
Bob: When you say the drainage system, you are talking the existing catch basin?
Mr. Zambouras: Yes, the existing catch basin presently installed.
David: What is the net result to the wetland itself. Is it still going to stay approximately the same in terms of the amount of water? Right now the water flows off the property into the intermittent stream, then into the wetland behind Mr. Senier's property. It is basically the same. We are talking during the 100 yr. storm, 12/10th, 14/100th of a cubic ft. per second, which is not a tremendous amount of water. It is a very small amount of water actually that is going into the wetland.
Nancy: You couldn't even measure that.
David: It is not even ¼ of something, is it?
Mr. Zambouras: No, it is a very small amount. In addition, currently which is planned is the house is going to be fueled by propane and what the thinking is right now and what the intention is to bury a propane tank in the rear corner of the yard. They do have to be located 25 ft. from the current building, which this meets. I do have some information on the propane tank. There was a question of what happens if the propane did leak. The propane does evaporate, goes into the air and there is a statement that I got from National Propane Gas Association, which basically is a statement in there from EPA which states that it is non-toxic gas, so it is not harmful to water or soil, and as a result there is actually no EPA regulations for the installation of propane, whether they are above ground or in ground. In order to insure the integrity of this intermittent stream and the wetlands down stream, stability of the bank, make sure there is no erosion or sedimentation that goes in there, we plan on installing a hay bale and silt fence along the downstream side of the property. Again, as it is all in the buffer zone, we are not really disturbing any of the bank or the land under the water, so therefore the threshold limits for wildlife aren't exceeded and it is assumed that additional controls aren't needed, that you do meet the intent of the act as far as protection of our own wildlife.
Nancy: Is that an existing stonewall on that side of the property?
Mr. Zambouras: There is an existing stonewall on that side of the property.
Bob: Is that elevating or is that the top of the wall?
Mr. Zambouras: The ground is approximately the same on each side. The wall itself is just a regular fieldstone wall which is 8-10 inches high.
David: Looking at this, it looks like it would probably be best to put the hay bales as well on the west side, the far side of the street, because it looks like the water would flow from that direction towards the wetland. I assume the hay bales that go across the street, you pick them.
Mr. Zambouras: They pick them up when the equipment is coming by, and as they are working or during periods of non-work they will be put back in place.
Public Hearing/Comments:
Bob: Is there anyone at this time in favor of this project?
James Petrella, 3 Hemenway Ave.: My property abuts the Senier's and I would just like to say I don't have a problem with the house being built there. The plans look okay. I am not an engineer. I have walked the lot myself. I have checked for wildlife, etc. and didn't see anything living there, and I think it is a good project. I think it kind of adds to the tax base of the city and I don't think it is going to affect the neighborhood in any way.
Bob Senier, 5 Hemenway Ave.: I would like to say I am in favor of the project and if I can help out in any way, I would be glad to.
Bob: Is there anyone opposing the project?
Bob: Is there anyone who wants to say anything about the project?
Eric Doucette, 4 Hemenway Ave., Malden: My house is the house that is above the proposed site. My main concern is how many trees are proposed to be pulled out of there, and where my line meets the proposed site, exactly what kind of wall is going to be built. Is it just going to be coming straight down where my line lines up with him?
Mr. Zambouras: Your property line is right here. There is an existing slope right here. This grade really doesn't change. There is a slight change here. This railroad tie wall here, it is only a foot high here, at the maximum point is 3 ½ ft. high there, and then it is down to zero here again. This retaining wall up here, which is to be masonary stone, at the highest point is 3 ½ ft. high. They are not huge walls, they are fairly small.
Bob: From this property line to the wall, you have a slope.
Mr. Zambouras: The distance is about 10-12 ft. and it varies from 2 to 1 to 3 to 1.
Bob: Are you going to be leaving all the vegetation trees there? You are not going to strip the entire area?
Mr. Zambouras: There is a change in slope so there will be some vegetation that will be removed and replaced, yes.
Mr. Doucette: Whereabouts?
Mr. Zambouras: Basically, in this area here. Towards the rear of your property, from your house back. There is some in the front here, actually within the first 5 ft. there won't be anything touched.
Mr. Doucette: He is planning on replacing any of these trees with shrubs or anything like that, or is he just going to clear cut them out of there.
Mr. Zambouras: He is going to replace it with vegetation. I don't think it is really decided if it is going to be shrubbery or flower garden or anything like that yet.
Bob: So there will be some landscaping.
Mr. Doucette: The street is proposed to be extended would you say 70 more ft. into it?
Zambouras: 70 ft., yes.
Mr. Doucette: And at the end of that exactly what is going to be replaced?
Mr. Zambouras: The existing grade is going to be graded off at a 2 to 1 slope and there is this pink line here which is a masonary retaining wall, the maximum is 3 ½ ft. high.
Mr. Petrella: Is the city requiring the extension of the street, or is it something that you are doing?
Mr. Zambouras: This is something the city is requiring in order to provide and approve roadway for the proposed owner to take his frontage off of. Right now it is an undeveloped roadway, it is an existing lot of records that we have to construct that portion of the street the length of his property.
Mr. Petrella: Exactly as the street is now?
Mr. Zambouras: Yes.
David: So he needs the 80 ft. of frontage, so you are going to make the road long enough to get the 80 ft.
Mr. Doucette: Now is that possible that road is going to continue all the way through at one point?
Mr. Zambouras: I would say this too. There are two things that fight that: 1) the existing grade there, both Melrose and Malden have a limitation on the center grade of the roadways, and 2) the fact that you are going across corporate limits, I sincerely doubt the road will ever be extended. No one here can say it never will, but the regulations are against it.
William Rose, 4 Hemenway Ave.: My property directly abuts the property. First of all I would like to commend the new people coming into the neighborhood. This is the best plan I have ever seen of any development down in that area. I had an occasion to read this and it is a very good job. I just have a couple of questions. The dry well in the westerly part of the house, when that fills up with water how is that water going to mitigate out? The reason why I am asking is we have a garden right on the other side of that stone wall and I am just curious. I did look at the drainage cals and I do understand the impact, but I am looking at all that water being focused in that area. Is that going to cause any issues?
Mr. Zambouras: There is some that will reach out beyond the stone wall, but the majority of it will go over the curb and into the roadway with the natural grade that is that area, that is where we will put it.
Mr. Rose: The stonewall will remain in place.
Mr. Doucette: It was said earlier that this gentleman made a walk through and he didn't see much animal life going on in there. Well, I have been there for 3 years and I have security lights that go on and off as animals walk in and out of there constantly. If you do walk in there you do see huts already built, so there are numerous ground hogs, raccoons, skunks, a lot of bird nests up in trees.
Mr. Petrella: I have metal detected the whole land personally myself on a treasure hunter and I didn't see anything. I have been living there for six years.
Voted: to close public comments
David: Does anyone feel the need for a site walk?
Bob: I am familiar with the area. Did you want to look at the propane facts that came out?
Nancy: We all have a copy. Could I ask one more question to the engineer? The center of the 2 ft. wide intermittent stream is what you based your delineation on the buffer zone on?
Mr. Zambouras: Yes
Nancy: So there is no appreciable wetlands population on either side of that stream?
Mr. Zambouras: Yes
Bob: At this time do you wish to approve the project and hold the conditions until the next meeting?
Voted: to approve this Notice of Intent subject to the issuance of Order of Conditions.
Voted: to table this until the next meeting for the development of said Order of Conditions.
Bob: I am going to need the DEP number before I can do anything.
Mr. Zambouras: I will call them tomorrow.
Voted: to open the meeting for public comment.
Voted: to close the meeting to the public.
Voted: to adjourn.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Pritchard
Secretary