Rochester’s Planning Board Tuesday agreed to join the Conservation Commission in its protest of what a recent regional Conservation Restriction agreement will do to the town’s water rights on 13 acres of Rochester land.
The board approved sending its own letter to the Select Board to take further action against the 241-acre regional Conservation Restriction plan that includes 13 acres at Red Brick Farm East but gives Rochester no rights to the water there.
The regional Conservation Restriction agreement that became reality over the ConCom’s objections proposed giving Mattapoisett the water rights to the Rochester parcel, including possibly digging up to four new wells under a co-ownership agreement with the Mattapoisett Water and Sewer Authority. The ConCom prodded the authority to agree in writing that it would “make every effort” to transfer the conservation land in Rochester to the town, but Town Counsel recently told the ConCom that the promise of making “every effort” is not a legally enforceable one.
That led the ConCom last week to approve sending a letter to the Select Board urging its members to press Town Counsel to do more to protect the town’s water rights to that land.
This week, Planning Board and Conservation Commission member Ben Bailey reiterated his point from last week that he has learned from researching state law and contacting other attorneys that the correspondence from the Mattapoisett Water and Sewer Authority stating a “make every effort” promise is legally enforceable. He said that according to his research, “Saying you will make every effort means you are not allowed to do nothing.”
Planning Board Chairman Arnold Johnson motioned that his panel should also send a letter urging the Select Board and Town Counsel to do more, and the Planning Board unanimously agreed.
The Tuesday meeting began with an informal discussion regarding National Storage’s plan on County Road Extension for a 750-to-800-unit, self-storage facility.
Technical consultant Phil Cordeiro explained the marijuana retail store Megan’s Organic Market was originally to be built in that spot until the store decided to change its location on the lot. He said the petitioner will be asking for site-plan-review waivers and will have a more specific plan in time for its next meeting with the board.
Next, the board voted to sign an Approval Not Required application for property transfer at 338 Vaughan Hill Road and another related to a plan to build a 15-acre, self-storage facility off of Cranberry Highway at Route 28 and Kings Highway.
The latter was the more specific one, to combine four large lots to build a facility with 180 small, self-storage units and 64 smaller units. Petitioner JPF Development’s engineer, Bill Madden, told the board he will return with modified plans now that the lot combination has been approved.
The board then approved writing a draft decision for the Special Permit and Approval Not Required application for the proposed subdivision of a 22.6-acre lot at 572 Snipatuit Road.
In its previous meeting on the proposal, the board said it could not act on the Special Permit to develop the two lots because the person whose name was on the application was not the current property owner. This week, Johnson acknowledged the board did receive an affidavit signed by the property owner stating she was aware of and OK with the petitioner’s plan.
The board also approved writing a draft decision for the long-delayed, site-plan-review application for a tree and perennials nursery on 2.5 acres at 157 Vaughan Hill Road filed by Jennifer and Chuck Anderson of Tree Talk Natives, LLC.
Close to one year after the Andersons filed the application, their technical consultant, Brad Holmes, presented completed plans for the business’s parking lot, which will be 2,600 square feet and include a two-component, stormwater-runoff-treatment system.
Both draft decisions will be reviewed and signed at the board’s next meeting.
The Rochester Planning Board will meet next on Tuesday, October 24, at 7:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester’s Planning Board
By Michael J. DeCicco