The Rochester Conservation Commission Tuesday night allowed the Village at Plumb Corner senior housing development to make a slight change in its stormwater drainage design after a debate over whether the move would require a more complicated amended Notice of Intent and a new hearing cycle.
The original plan was to clean out a drainage pipe there that empties into a vernal pool and cut the pipe back or replace it. Tuesday night, Repurpose Properties representative Brian Wallace proposed changing that plan to merely thoroughly cleaning the sediment from the pipe and placing riprap at the end of the pipe to catch the outflow.
“We would leave the pipe as it is,” Wallace said. “Clean out the nine inches of sediment instead. More stormwater will come through the pipe. The only difference is the water will get where it’s going faster.”
Commissioner Maggie Payne, attending the meeting on Zoom, wondered aloud if the new plan would require an amended Order of Conditions. “I’d like to see a description of what we’re agreeing to,” she said. “This pipe does put stormwater in wetlands.”
Commissioner Ben Bailey seemed concerned as well, asking whether the same area of the development is being drained in both design models.
Wallace said, yes, it was the same in both designs. He resisted the notion of needing an amended NOI. He emphasized that he hoped it could be considered only a minor change. He said he would be willing to submit a sketch of the new design as an approval requirement.
The commission averted resorting to a more time-consuming approval process by endorsing the new plan as a “minor field change” with the approval dependent on Conservation Agent Merilee Kelly receiving and endorsing a sketch of the redesign.
In other action, the commission revealed that a 6-acre parcel of land at 529 Snipatuit Road is being taken out of its 61A agricultural land designation due to a plan to build a solar farm there. The commission voted to recommend to the Select Board that the town not exercise its right to acquire the land itself.
The Rochester Conservation Commission scheduled its next meeting for Tuesday, June 7, at 7:00 pm, at Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School.
Rochester Conservation Commission
By Michael J. DeCicco