The Conservation Commission on Tuesday voted 4-0 to continue the hearing on a notice of intent for a proposed one-story office and retail building off Lumber Street in order to review further documentation.

Sophie Esdale, a wetland scientist from Goddard Consulting, represented applicant REC Hopkinton. She explained that the 3.46-acre site is fully vegetated and undeveloped. It is bordered by apartments to the northeast, Lumber Street to the west and Independence Place to the north.

The plan is to construct a 2,400-square-foot building with an access drive and parking area. Stormwater and utility infrastructure would need to be installed. Work includes an underground infiltration basin with a surrounding infiltration trench. A mulch/compost filter sock and silt fencing would be used as erosion control barriers, as recommended by conservation administrator Judy Day.

Portions of the building are proposed within the 100-foot buffer zone and would impact 13,461 square feet. Landscaping would be performed along the frontage, where a sidewalk extension would be located. Native plantings were proposed both within and outside of the 100-foot buffer zone. They include six red maple trees, five white spruce trees, seven serviceberry plants and 23 creeping juniper plants.

Esdale added that all of the proposed work would be outside the bordering vegetated wetland.

This map shows the location of the proposed office and retail building off Lumber Street.

Chair Melissa Recos said the project has not yet received a number from the Department of Environmental Protection. The commission didn’t receive a stormwater review, which prompted the hearing to be continued until the next meeting on Aug. 19.

Joe Orzell, the town’s wetlands consultant, said he visited the site the previous day to assess the wetland delineation. While most of the flags were appropriately placed, he questioned some flags at the site’s southwest portion. He also documented several invasive species and requested that a post-construction invasive species management plan be submitted.

Day said that this site is part of a previously commonly owned parcel that stretches from Lumber Street to the Chamberlain-Whalen development. She asked for a cumulative impact exhibit that would show how much of the buffer previously was disturbed as well as the proposed disturbance caused by this project. Tree removal along the street was a concern an abutter raised to Day.

Wood Street drainage project change approved

The commission approved a request by the Department of Public Works to alter its plan to improve drainage near its facility at 83 Wood Street in a 4-0 vote.

Day explained that the original proposal was approved late last year. It called for the addition of two deep sump catch basins and adding a hood to an existing catch basin.

“In digging for one of the catch basins, they ran into a gas line and sewer force main that they were not expecting in that area,” she said.

Because there is no suitable alternative location, DPW Director Kerry Reed requested that this catch basin near the DPW driveway be removed from the approved project’s scope.

She added that while this catch basin would have been helpful, “there is still an overall improvement to water quality at this area.”

Recos noted that an issue like this is not uncommon with this type of project. It also would be extremely challenging to locate another site for the catch basin.

Hearings continued

Before the meeting, several applicants requested that their hearings be continued. The most significant of these was the proposed UniBank/Starbucks parking lot modification proposed for 85-89 West Main Street. The most recent proposal reviewed by the Planning Board the previous evening reduced the number of proposed new parking spaces from three to two.

Two other ongoing project hearings were continued. One was for a request for an Abbreviated Notice of Resource Area Delineation (ANRAD) for property off Wood Street going up to Interstate 495. The other one was for an area of resource delineation request by Wall Street Development for 12 North Mill Street.