Both applicant Christopher Kuppens and the Kittansett Club came away from public hearings with the March 9 Marion Conservation Commission able to proceed with their plans.
The commission voted to issue an Order of Conditions to Kuppens for his Notice of Intent to construct a driveway, install utilities and perform site grading within the buffer zone to a vegetated wetland at Deer Run. Commission members conducted a site visit on March 5.
Project representative Brady Grady of G.A.F. Engineering explained while sharing his computer screen displaying site-plan images that the jurisdictional work for the project is the driveway, the utility installation and associated grading to access the site.
A cul-de-sac at the end of Deer Run accesses an existing pathway that will be substantially eclipsed by the driveway that will run to a house to be located at the rear of the lot in an upland area.
Walsh said that the wetlands flags that were delineated by Brad Holmes were in a report received by the commission. Conservation Agent Doug Guey-Lee said he reviewed the flags and was comfortable with the soil information. Walsh said there will be no work on the erosion side of the erosion-control barrier.
Vice Chair Jeff Doubrava, who was not able to make the official site visit but walked the site on the day of the public hearing, said he had received the soils analysis but did not see on the site plan where the soils were taken. Grady said that the wetland delineation was not indicated on the plan being viewed, but he identified the critical area on the site plan and said he can add that information.
Doubrava also asked about the paved road in the southeast portion of the property. Grady identified it as a private road with no frontage so the only access to the construction site is off Deer Run.
Doubrava pointed out that the driveway comes close to the wetland boundary and the significant distance to the abutting house. Grady said the reason the driveway is not planned to be placed more east is installations like the water surface that must be sunk 5 feet into the ground and even the electric and cable 2 feet into the ground would sever the roots to the trees on the abutting property or straddling the property line.
“My concern is that we don’t come back here in two years’ time and find out that a bulldozer inadvertently clear-cut the site,” said Doubrava.
Grady said he has discussed the matter several times with the applicant and made it clear that he cannot do any extra work outside the buffer zone without an additional filing with the commission.
ConCom Chairman Shaun Walsh authored a special condition that any work in the wetlands and/or the buffer zone not specifically authorized in the Order of Conditions voted upon by the commission be subject to an additional filing with the commission.
The commission voted the Kittansett Club a Negative (Boxes 2 and 3) determination of applicability in answer to the RDA application filed by the golf club and Steve Mann, 11 Point Road for the addition of stone and loam, seed and/or sod to regrade and maintain the existing overflow parking area within land subject to coastal storm flowage and the buffer zone to a coastal bank.
The commissioners visited the site on March 12 and requested and received some spot elevations to get the picture on what the site will look like when completed, including the proposed parking area.
The existing overflow parking area is within the 100-foot buffer zone. Proposed minor grading is intended to mitigate puddling that traditionally occurs after rain.
Two continued public hearings were opened only to be continued at the applicant’s request.
John and Pamela Lees’ NOI for reconstruction of a single-family house, an inground swimming pool, along with repair of a seawall with associated work at 49 Water Street was continued to the commission’s March 23 public meeting, and the NOI filed by the Marion Trust #1, Michael Craffey trustee, to repair an existing seawall and pier and remove invasive phragmites at 522 Point Road was continued to the commission’s April 13 public meeting.
Requested for comment to the Zoning Board of Appeals regarding Heron Cove Estates waiver requests, Walsh said the project is proposed in the “highest and driest” part of the property, away from any resource areas jurisdictional to the commission. Based on an ANRAD filed in the past, Doubrava said there have been several iterations of the proposed development and wanted to be certain that none of the lots in the current proposal are not in jurisdictional areas.
In other business, the commission voted to approve a three-year extension to the Piney Point Beach Club’s order of conditions that for the past three years has allowed beach nourishment and work around the clubhouse.
The commission received notice from Eversource that herbicides will be spread along the company’s major power lines that run from Washburn Park to the intersection of Point and Delano roads and to the Wareham town line.
The next meeting of the Marion Conservation Commission is scheduled for Wednesday, March 23, at 7:00 pm.
Marion Conservation Commission
By Mick Colageo