Marion Conservation Commission Chairman Jeff Doubrava explained the public hearing process on October 9 to several residents gathered with concerns over the potential impacts of a home construction and boulder embankment plan proposed at 68 West Avenue.
Laura and Frank Utano’s Notice of Intent calls for the demolition a single-family house to construct a new single-family with garage and a walkout basement in the back. A sloped boulder embankment is also proposed as an extension of the existing retaining wall, which calls for some minor filling and grading.
The new home will need to comply with FEMA regulations for structures built within a flood zone and velocity zone. The house is limited to the same footprint as the original house, except for a massive deck system designed for the west side of the house.
An existing one-bedroom cottage on the property will remain.
Conservation Commission member Shaun Walsh steered the focus toward the thick overgrowth of vegetation slated for removal from the existing retaining wall. Although Davignon stated that only 10 feet of overgrowth would be removed, nothing was noted on the plan of record.
“That would be helpful for future commissions going forward,” said Walsh.
Walsh then turned his attention to the proposed wall extension at the seaside edge of the lawn.
“Any time you construct a hard structure like that, it’s going to act like a vertical buffer to storm waves, so it’s going to displace that flooding,” said Walsh. “It’s either going to undermine that structure or it’s going to displace it to adjacent properties, so I’m a little concerned.”
Davignon said the surface of the boulders would be positioned at an angle between the flat surface of the bottom and flat surface of the lawn at top with a gradual slope. Waves that come up would flow with the topography, he said.
“It’s really a boulder embankment,” said Davignon. “I wouldn’t call it a wall. It’ll be sloped at a 45-degree angle, and we are taking out some of the fill on the downhill side. So, we thought it was a fair cut and fill balance.”
Walsh asked Davignon to revise the plan to indicate the 45-degree gradual slope.
The Island Associates of Marion has its own concerns about the project, especially with the removal of shrubs between the house and the water. The associates’ request was for a clear delineation of the 10-foot limit of the area to be cut, so that the workers cutting the vegetation don’t accidentally cut too far in to the beach border and an adjacent path that leads to the beach. This vegetation acts as a buffer during storms, mitigating the storm flow before it reaches any houses.
Davignon said a siltation fence would mark the boundary of the work area, but Doubrava wanted the line to be staked as well. He shared the concern that contractors could overstep.
“And then they say, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t know we weren’t supposed to go all the way,’” said Doubrava.
“Absolutely,” said Davignon, agreeing to the stakes.
Walsh had another concern about the direction of the slope of the proposed driveway toward West Avenue and how stormwater runoff would flow in the wrong direction. Davignon said he would redirect the stormwater flow to run parallel to the south side of the house and cascade over the retaining wall into the water with assistance from a shallow trench five to six feet from the driveway and pipe it toward the wall.
The hearing was continued until October 23 to allow Davignon to make the requested updates to the plan.
Also during the meeting, the commission issued an Order of Conditions to Elizabeth and William Weber, Jr. of 21 East Avenue for a Notice of Intent to remove and reconstruct 155 feet of a stone riprap boulder seawall.
Engineer David Davignon said that because the hearing was last continued on September 25, he has made the required updates to the plan to specify that the wall will be built in increments to avoid the release of silt and sediment into the resource area.
The commission issued a Negative 2 determination (no NOI filing required because work will not alter the resource area) for the Request for Determination of Applicability filed by 96 Moorings Road Nominee Trust for a 1,500-gallon septic tank, 1,000-gallon pump chamber, and associated pipes to connect to a garage/guesthouse into the existing leaching field. This proposal is in lieu of the installations of previously approved connections to the main house. A secondary garage was also removed from the plan.
In other business, the commission issued a partial Certificate of Compliance to Debora Mihaley-Sobelman, 100 Bullivant Farm Road, for an Order of Conditions dating back to 1984 for a subdivision road construction.
The public hearing for the Notice of Intent filed by Kathleen Welch, 82 West Avenue, was continued until October 23.
The next meeting of the Marion Conservation Commission is scheduled for October 23 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.
Marion Conservation Commission
By Jean Perry