The Mattapoisett Planning Board’s October 17 meeting was about 17 minutes long, a far cry from previous meetings lasting hours and chalk-a-block full of technical details. But the town’s business, whether massive or small, is noteworthy.

            Coming before the board on Tuesday night was developer Scott Snow to finalize a surety agreement for the Eldridge Estates subdivision off Prospect Road. Snow sought and received a waiver to change the planned underground electrical service to overhead wiring. Snow also received confirmation of an updated surety agreement from lot holding to cash totaling $48,000.

            Caroline Booth of the engineering firm Beals and Thomas, Inc., came before the board remotely for their client, Randall Lane Solar, which requested an extension for an approved solar site. A reason was not given during the meeting, but in a follow-up, Booth said a letter outlining the need for the extension has been submitted to the board on behalf of the client.

            In a follow-up with Town Administrator Mike Lorenco, he said that the request was due to Eversource’s need to study the grid and interconnection considerations. “These large solar projects take time and have to go before the Department of Public Works, a time-consuming process,” said Lorenco. The Randall Lane Solar project received a two-year extension.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board is tentatively scheduled for Monday, November 20, at 7:00 pm.

Mattapoisett Planning Board

By Marilou Newell

            Rochester’s Conservation Commission Tuesday approved the next step for a plan that will place a 15-acre, self-storage facility at Kings Highway and Route 28. The panel approved an Abbreviated Notice of Resource Area Delineation that reflagged the parcel’s 2,700 linear feet of bordering vegetated wetlands.

            The Concom approved the site’s first wetlands delineation in 2015, the petitioner’s engineer Robert Rogers explained at a previous meeting. Then a commercial development plan that did not survive long was approved in 2017. Now, eight years later, the flags marking the wetlands are hard to find and just plain missing.

            Rogers reported Tuesday that the delineation flags have been successfully rehung, and Conservation Agent Merilee Kelly endorsed the work. “It looked good to me,” she said. Rogers said next he will want to seek approval of a new Notice of Intent on the project itself. The commission promptly approved the delineation unanimously.

            Next, the commission asked for more information before it can approve a Notice of Intent for a plan to expand the backyard and level the area with additional fill at 31 Hiller Road, for a yard that will extend no closer than 25 feet to the wetlands.

            Homeowner Nathaniel Reece told the board he simply wishes to extend his backyard and flatten it “closer to level” for more space that his family and pets can play on. Already, he has placed a silt fence and boulders where he wants his work to start, he said. He explained he is a mechanical engineer by trade, and his starting point for his wetlands distance measurements are old wetlands flags on the property.

            The commission responded that it needs a precise delineation of where the wetlands begin and that Reece should hire an engineer for the job. Commission member Ben Bailey cautioned Reece that it will take at least two commission meetings before the actual approval can be given.

            The commission then had a similar request of Walter Farias regarding his property at 532 Snipatuit Road, where an Enforcement Order was recently issued to stop work after the property was the site of a fire near a houseboat on the pond.

            Faria and his consulting engineer Rick Charon explained to the board their specific plan to carefully clean up the area. The commission said what needs to be done first is to file the Notice of Intent paperwork to include a wetlands delineation.

            Charon said the houseboat has a fiberglass hull and a wooden frame and is sinking into the pond. The plan is to surround it with a vinyl containment boom and silt controls and be ready for anything beyond that with oil-absorption pillows. A small excavator will then clean out the hull, cut the hull up and haul it away, then take out the remainder of the dock and clean the burnt debris from the hangar building.

            Bailey asked why a wetlands delineation has not been done. “It depends on how fast you want us to move on this cleanup,” Charon said.

            “We just want to make sure you do the work correctly,” member Mike Gifford said.

The board instructed Charon to file a Notice of Intent, including a wetlands delineation before any work begins.

            Next, the board learned the Mattapoisett Select Board cannot help the town with the much-debated, 241-acre regional Conservation Restriction that includes 13 acres at Red Brick Farm East but gives Rochester no rights to the water there. The agreement gives 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.

            Kelly on Tuesday read aloud a recent letter from the Mattapoisett Select Board in which the panel said the issue is outside its jurisdiction.

            Moments later, Kelly had better news, that Rochester Town Administrator Glenn Cannon recently told her he is working to schedule a meeting of Mattapoisett Water Authority and Rochester officials for the November 6 Select Board meeting to discuss the issue. This led Conservation Commission Chairman Christopher Gerrior to move that the commission post notice of a public meeting that night to join that discussion.

            The commission decided at its meeting two weeks ago to take its appeal to keep the town’s rights to that water local directly to the Select Board, and the Planning Board agreed to join this strategy last week. When they first heard of the CR plan months ago, commission members complained that Rochester has lost the right to use its own water resources too many times over the decades.

            The commission eventually prodded the Mattapoisett Water Authority to agree in writing it would “make every effort” to transfer the conservation land in Rochester to the town for $1. But Town Counsel recently told the commission that the promise of making “every effort” is not a legally enforceable one.

            The Conservation Commission scheduled its next meeting for Tuesday, November 7, at 7:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.

Rochester Conservation Commission

By Michael J. DeCicco