Conservation Commission
Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes of April 18, 2002

Present: David Carpenter, Paul Locke, Bruce Moore, Susan Murphy, David Valade

The meeting minutes for 3-21-02 and 4-4-02 are still in progress and were not approved at this meeting.

Voted:   to pay Nancy Pritchard $217.86 for secretarial services for March.

Voted:  to pay Nancy Pritchard for corrected spreadsheet error on bills back to October 2001, total due $72.00.

Voted:  to pay Paul Locke $162.30 for handbooks and updates he purchased.

Paul:  The Olive Ave. Ext. site is represented here tonight for an informal presentation regarding a Notice of Intent.

195 Olive Ave. Ext.

Ben Smith , Civil Engineer registered in MA, with Allen & Major Associates in Woburn, MA.:  I am here tonight for the 195 Olive Ave. Ext. property.  Kevin Douglas is the property owner who has proposed to put up a single family residence.  There is an existing lot, sq. footage is something on the order of 56,000 sq. ft. and he is going to be subdividing it, to carve off a second lot.  There is already one existing structure on it.  I can say that, as part of this, that portion of the lot be not used by this proposed single-family residence.  The land falls predominantly in Melrose, but a good chunk in Malden as well, being over to the conservation commissions, or whoever would like to take over our traditional land.  It is as you pointed out, your city line; the views from the top of the site are real stunning.  Everything that I have given you is draft.  The Notice of Intent is stamped “draft” on all of it, and the plans are not stamped at all.  You can see from the contour the existing conditions plan, sort of a valley, up steeping on the sides what would be the northern side. There are problems of ledge going to both sides.  This plan does show the bordering vegetated wetlands, as well as the 100 ft. buffer zone.  The site is within the buffer zone.  Page 2 of the plan set is the proposed conditions and shows the proposed footprint of the house.  The actual design has not been determined yet, however that is the proposed footprint.  Once established, it certainly will not be changed, but the building will fall within that footprint.  It is all within the 100 ft. buffer zone.  During moderate to heavy rainstorms, the drainage coming off of the wet edge of the site right up in here flows over the land and, in fact there is decrepit little garage that does not show on the proposed conditions plan, but it does show on the existing conditions.  They had a paved drive and the drainage, in fact, flows across the lot over this paved drive and continues on its way, to the point where there is sort of a channel that has been formed down in the eastern portion of the lot, down near the eastern border and vegetated wetland.  What we are proposing to do is to actually give it the channel.  There have been a lot of concerns expressed about down stream flooding, and rather than culvert it and move the drains along quicker, we are proposing channelize it and in that way match the post construction flow rates for this drain basin which within the NOI package, there is a proposed water set plan.  The watershed is actually about 11 ½ acres large.  We are proposing to channelize this watercourse.  We have gone so far as to provide a pretty detailed drainage analysis within the NOI drain report.  To show that the increase in impervious area on the lot, which is about 2000 sq. ft. - 2500 sq. ft. in this water basin produces a change that is not even measurable to the TR65 method.  For those of you familiar with the method, it is contingent on your curve numbers, what they call it, and the change in curve numbers in the order of 0.2, which doesn’t reflect the outlets in this methodology.  I would love to answer any questions anyone has.

David:  The longest line of flags, is that just the channel of the water.  Is there wetland vegetation there?

Ben Smith:  A professional wetland scientist on our staff delineated this, and her reports are contained within the Notice of Intent.  It starts to get wet a little bit beyond this line, and I think down in here there may be a small pond.

David:  So this is the boundary of the vegetated wetland?

Ben Smith:  Correct.

Paul:  Is it basically going to be connecting to wetlands with the intermittent stream?

David V:  So you are grading a couple of feet of the wetland here, and the driveway looks like it is about 18-20 ft. away.  Is the proposed redirection starting at the edge of the wetland, are you going into the wetland at all?

Ben Smith:  We will not be going into the wetland at all.  The lines were shown extending into it.  We would welcome as a condition that we do not disturb it.  It is not our intent.  The contours are in 2 ft. increments, and they don’t really reflect how this channel actually forms around in here.  You can see from the contour.

David Carpenter:  The way the draft is filled out right now, the work only proposes being in the buffer zone.

Ben Smith:  Correct.

David V.:  What are you going to do for construction under the driveway.

Ben Smith:  We are proposing twin culverts underneath the drive only.

Dave V.:  12 inches, or 18 inches….?

Ben Smith:  I will have to look at the report to refresh myself.  I think, in fact, it might be 24.   Both the head side and the tail side are going to be a rip-rapped protected slope, and depending on the soil types that are found during site grading, we may in fact, rip-rap the channel, at least the bottom portion of the channel.

Dave V:  And the design is not going to cause the velocity of the water to increase where it enters the wetland?

Ben Smith:  It is not.  In fact we have studied and shown within the drainage reports that will be the case.

Bruce:  We would like to see no net runoff, especially since there is no flooding in the area, and have addressed that in your talk here.  Also, since there is a stream involved, we wanted to see no net increase in volume or speed.

Ben Smith:  If I may address that.  If is not actually being stream, it does not have any kind of defining channel.  On behalf of my client, I really have to stress that there is no defined channel.  In fact, on the existing condition sheet there is an existing shed on the lot, the caved apron of which is where this runoff goes during the event of a medium to larger storm.  We have no defined channel, the flow of sheet flow across the land, and we will be providing a channelized course for it, however we are going on the presumption that it is not a stream and certainly not subject to the Rivers Protection Act.  Lastly, being a single family residence, in fact, to be technical the project would be exempt from the Storm Water Management policy.  Despite this, we understand there are concerns downstream, which is why we provided a drainage report and why we made every effort to mitigate the flow, to keep them equal.  However, in regards to the same volume, we are going to have more impervious area.  There will be a slight increase in the volume.  Compared to the volume from the 11.6 paper shed, we feel negligible, and I don’t want to mislead you.

Bruce:  What is the increase in volume?

Ben Smith:  We haven’t calculated it.  It is an additional 2600 sq. ft. of impervious area, so off the top of my head I could tell you maybe 2,000 cubic ft., somewhere along those lines.

David Carpenter:  Is the hydro logic data in here just existing?

Ben Smith:  It is existing, and then as you go later on there is another section that is proposed.

David C:  But that doesn’t address flow velocity and rate?

Ben Smith:  Flow velocity it does.  I know in an ideal world no project would increase storm water volume.  Sometimes it is difficult to achieve that.

Paul:  So you will be leaving an NOI.  Do you know the time frame for that?

Ben Smith:  I guess my understanding right now, after speaking with Mr. Rider and a member of the Malden Conservation Commission, that we would present to a joint meeting on May 7.  There will be a public hearing.  We will provide notice to newspapers in both communities and all abutters.  The draft notice of intent that I have given you actually is going to be the same submittal to both towns and is all-inclusive. 

Paul   We have talked with the Environmental Protection and you are aware that two there are two filing fees.

Ben Smith:  Yes.

Paul:  We would like to set up for a time for a site visit before May 7.  Let’s first address the issue if the commissioners are free and available for a potential meeting on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 p.m. at Malden City Hall, 200 Pleasant St., 4^th floor?  George, do you think we would be able to schedule this particular hearing for 7:30 p.m., rather than right at the start of your meeting?  We will circle a couple of dates and coordinate the site visit date by Email.

George:  Yes

Ben Smith:  There is one last thing that occurred to me.  There are some issues at the site which I believe you may be familiar with.  It was the subject of a person who works in filling to immediately adjacent the wetlands and flung a little bit over the wetlands.  Mr. Douglas, the owner, had sewer service put in for the existing house pump, which you may be familiar with.   In doing so he had to run it up off the road and after filling with sand, was left with extra material.   He thought he would do Mr. Douglas a favor and even out the lot.  In doing so, it was all within the buffer zone and, in fact, he put some into the wetlands.  He worked with the Malden Conservation Commission to remove that material, return it to part of your site to the original condition, and since lifted the enforcement order, got the site stabilized, protected it with siltation barrier and I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of that.

Paul:  Could you point out where on the map the line is which I saw yesterday when I was there coming up from Olive Ave. Ext. from the paper street, 4A, moving up along the wetland and then cutting over to the barn a line of hay bale.

Ben Smith:  For some reason when they put it up, they ran it up to the barn.  It neither hurts nor helps.  Up in this region, on this side of the wetland, he went between the walls of the valley.

Paul:  And these grades are the original grades before the filling, and after?

Ben Smith:  Yes.  The contractor made it easy for us, when he spread it out he pushed it right over what was there, so we were able to scrape down, there’s your answer to it right there, so we brought it back down to that grade.

Paul:  We will get back to you by Email and you will send notification to all the abutters.  We will be looking forward to ours.

Ben Smith:  Thank you very much for your time.

38 Crescent Lane, Malden

Paul:  We have received a Notice of Intent for #38 Crescent Lane in Malden. 

David:  He called me and said he dropped it off and asked if he had to show up and I told him he talked about it before.  We will send in the advertisement for the public hearing and he will pay for it.

Bruce:  In this case, he has to submit to Malden also.

David:  Okay, I didn’t tell him that when I talked to him today.

Mr. Laskey:  Basically in that one there, most all of the wetlands are on the Melrose side.  I didn’t know how you wanted to handle that one.

Paul:  I talked with people in the DEP northeast region, and they said that it really doesn’t matter where the wetlands are actually located.  It is where the work is being conducted.  It looks like here most of the work here, that the building is going to be entirely on the Malden side.  If there is work being done, and there is going to be some slight regarding on the Melrose side, that would be enough to trigger hearings in both cities. 

Mr. Laskey:  Even if all the work was done in Malden, it is true that they can send recourse.  Even if all the work was done in Malden, in that case you would be the only commission that was looking at it, you would still be protecting our wetlands.  If that were the case, even though there are wetlands, the Melrose Conservation Commission wouldn’t have any right beyond the interested parties number of public in that situation.  They said they would hope that we would work together.  In this case it looks like work is going to be done slightly in Melrose, but enough to qualify for our oversight.

Paul:  George, would you like to take a copy of the NOI?

George:  Thank you.

Paul:  I will give Richard Arnone a call and let him know he has to file in Malden as well.  If he can do that quickly, then we can try to arrange it for the May 7 hearing as well and do both at the same time.  If you noticed, we have some of our land that abuts that property, and this can be a rare opportunity to walk through the conservation land.

George:  We are in the process, and we just approached the City Council last night, to take over a piece of land up in that same area.  It is going to be up next to your piece of property.

Paul:  I did get a couple of green cards that were sent out, must be to this or the unknown site, because it was sent to 45 Swains Pond Ave. and 5 Swains Pond Ave. which runs in back of that wetland.

Correspondence was circulated at the conclusion of this meeting.

We are in receipt of the printout for our year to date current budget which hasn’t changed much from our last meeting’s review.  We still have money available for maintenance of ponds which will come later this spring.

Soccer lights

Correspondence from John Gregorio, Building Inspector regarding soccer lights at the knoll.  It is his understanding that when the Conservation Commission approved the lights, they would be shut off at a specified time because of turtles breeding and hatching in the area.  Paul reviewed the files for the lights and could not locate a file.

David:  Nothing was specified about turtles.  We did suggest during bird breeding season that they not turn the lights on too late at night, but we had no power to enforce that.  We didn’t say anything about turtles.

Paul: The turtle issue came up partly because of an earlier Email today forwarded by Nancy Naslas from George Gregorio.  They apparently found a large 35 lb. turtle (probably a snapping turtle) that had been killed and somewhat mutilated.  The animal officer found it dead on a park bench at the Crystal St. light.  There was some concern that the carnival lights and the lights at the soccer fields may be disturbing the turtles and causing them to come out.  I wrote back to Mr. Gregorio.  He was concerned about the breeding, the potential hatching of the eggs.  Snapping turtles come out and lay their eggs in the beginning of June, the first 2 –3 weeks.  Because of the warm weather, they are probably coming out a little early, not laying their eggs, but just becoming more active earlier.  It is actually very impressive.  If in the 1^st or 2^nd week in July, you get up early in the morning, 5:30 or 6 a.m., walk around Ell Pond, and you will see big snapping turtles laying eggs.  You can see 3 or 4 a day just in that time period. 

16 Whitwell Street - Notice of Public Hearing

“ You are hereby notified that the Board of Appeals of the City of Melrose will hold a Public Hearing in the Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall, on Wednesday, April 24, 2002 at 7:45 p.m.  All parties interested for or against the appeal of Aaron Erin Crowley for a Variance from the requirements of Article VI Section 6.1 of the Zoning Ordinance for construction of a single family home on the property located at 16 Whitwell St., Melrose, MA on a lot of land containing 8,174 s.f. and shown on Assessor’s map D 4-038.”    We are probably an abutter to this property.  We don’t think there are any resource areas.  This street goes across from Sylvan St. from Wyoming Cemetery. 

Mosquito Control Program

This was advertised in the newspaper.  On Saturday they will be spraying 2 Bti for mosquito control in Pine Banks and Towners Pond/Penny Road area. 

Amtrak 2002 Vegetation Control Program

Correspondence from TEC Associates regarding Amtrak 2002 Vegetation Control Program.  We have our annual package, their yearly operational plan under the Rights-of-Way law.  They will be spraying for control of brush along the railroad right-of-way along the track that runs through Malden and Melrose.

Mt. Hood Arbor Day, May 11

Susan Murphy attended the April 9 meeting regarding plans for Arbor Day.  Paul will represent us on May 11 and provide trail maps which David Carpenter will reproduce for pass outs.

Order of Conditions/5 Hemenway Swimming Pool

The commission prepared the Order of Conditions for 5 Hemenway swimming pool/Mr. Senier, however the DEP# is not yet available and the OOC will be completed when we are notified of the #.

Voted:  to adjourn at 9 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Nancy Pritchard

Conservation Secretary