The Rochester Conservation Commission met on the evening of Tuesday, August 16 for their regularly scheduled meeting. The first hearing of the night was in regard to a Notice of Intent filed by Timothy Perry for property located at 99 Wolf Island. Perry seeks approval to construct an enclosed three-season room over an existing deck area. According to the proposal, several sonotubes will be required for support and erosion control measures will be implemented.
“We will be digging the sonotubes by hand so there’s no machinery and no disturbance,” Perry said. “The erosion control would only go on the side of the first wetland. I’d assume we would wrap it around the deck.”
Laurell Farinon, Rochester’s conservation agent, said that the plan was brought before the Commission due to past additions to the property that were constructed without permits.
“This project can easily be done without any agitation of the wetland area,” Farinon said. She added that she was not sure that erosion control would be necessary.
The Commission voted to approve the plans as presented.
A hearing for Robert Ferreira of Infinity Landscape Construction Co. was scheduled, but nobody involved with the project was able to come to the meeting and the Commission granted a request for a continuance to the meeting on September 4.
The Commission then held a meeting regarding a Request of Determination of Applicability filed by the City of New Bedford Water Department for property located on North Avenue on the Freetown town line. The city is proposing to install approximately 15,000 solar panels configured in strings to be located on an approximate 30-acre site, according to the filing.
Sam Moffett of TRC Environmental was present on behalf of the City of New Bedford and its partner, Con Ed, and Real Goods Solar, the company who would construct the solar panel array.
The array would serve to provide electricity for the municipal water systems of New Bedford and is designed to be able to provide enough electricity for the future projected growth of the energy needs of the water department. The city would not sell any of the electricity generated by the array.
“We’ve advanced the design significantly since last time the folks in the neighborhood saw it,” Moffett said. “We have gone out of our way to design the project in a way that stays entirely outside of resources areas and buffer zones. We felt that was a very important thing for us to do, to stay completely out of areas that were sensitive.”
He explained the property near Little Quitticas Pond is owned by New Bedford. The total scope of the site is now 28.5 acres due to the redesign.
“One of the characteristics of this site is that there are quite a few red pine trees that are diseased and are in need of removal,” he said, referring to it as the Dead Pine Site.
The project would generate about four megawatts using ground-mounted panels. There would be some regarding to smooth out the terrain and provide better drainage contours.
“All precipitation that falls on the site will stay on the site,” he said. He added that the whole site will be planted with grass.
“That’s intentional for several reasons. One is to hold the soil and another is to help retain the precipitation,” said Moffett.
They have included a sandy firebreak around the entire perimeter to keep fires from spreading to or from the site.
There are also two resources areas on the site, with a wetlands area in the northern section and a certified vernal pool in the southeast quadrant.
“We’ve maintained more than 200-foot separation from that so there’s no risk of interacting with that resource area,” Moffett said.
“Obvious concerns of this Commission with a project of this scope is storm water run-off,” said Farinon. “We’re also going to be looking very closely at the vernal pool.”
They scheduled a site visit for 6:00 pm on Tuesday, August 28.
The Commission then voted to continue the hearing until their next meeting on Tuesday, September 4.
Moffett, meanwhile, will make another presentation on the project to the Rochester Planning Board on Tuesday, August 28 at 7:00 pm.
In other business, the Commission discussed a request for Certificate of Compliance filed by Brenda Wolk for work done at 95 Mendell Road, including the re-grading of a foot area and the construction of a 10-foot by 20-foot horse barn and corral. In addition, the paved driveway was extended and a shed was moved farther away from the house.
Farinon concurred that the work performed was in compliance and the Commission voted unanimously to approve the certificate.
The next meeting of the Rochester Conservation Commission will be on Tuesday, September 4 at 7:00 pm at the Town Hall.
By Eric Tripoli