The Planning Board voted 8-0 Monday night to have the town’s engineering consultant come up with a dollar amount for damage to Wilson Street that the Department of Public Works believes was caused by stormwater runoff from The Trails housing development.
At the next meeting on Feb. 24, this amount will be presented to the Planning Board, DPW Director Kerry Reed and Vin Gately, the owner of The Trails. The board will vote on whether the bond amount should be increased from $75,000 to add the amount of the repair project. Also, it will decide if further construction at The Trails should be halted because the road damage would be considered a violation of its master plan special permit and related conditions if it is not fixed.
The town has had a long and complicated history with The Trails since 2021. The Conservation Commission imposed fines upon The Trails in 2023 that had been held in abeyance for nearly two years because of repeated violations. Stormwater ran off the property and impacted the Ashland reservoir as well as Wilson Street. Project engineer Peter Bemis and Gately insisted that the damage was caused by an intense rainfall period and worked to improve the stormwater management system. The Trails sued the Conservation Commission in early 2024.
Principal Planner John Gelcich explained that town and The Trails representatives met before the Planning Board meeting, but the parties reached an impasse. He noted that The Trails was “not really on board with doing any more work to try and solve the problem.”
Chair Rob Benson said the board had several options. It could increase The Trails’ bond amount. It also could pursue a violation against The Trails that would force construction to stop. The third option would be to “find an agreeable mutual solution,” but Benson didn’t see that happening.
Phil Paradis, the town’s engineering consultant from BETA Group, explained that BETA had been reviewing construction of The Trails for “a number of years” on behalf of the Planning Board and the Conservation Commission. He noted “the magnitude of the problem here” began several years before when The Trails clear cut the project area. Poor quality soil and the lack of a tree canopy allowed for “very little to no infiltration of runoff into the ground.” Water flowed off the property, which slopes downward into the street.
He added that there was a “fairly significant event in 2023” that caused water to flow down the street and in the gutters. The road damage was made worse with every subsequent storm.
Said Paradis: “Clearly there’s significant rot, and the edge of the pavement is undermined.”
He had been negotiating a solution with Bemis. It included installing a 400-foot berm and a swale and repairing the pavement to convey water down Wilson Street. But there was “an abrupt stop” to their most recent negotiations.
Gately contended that he spent more than $10,000 in engineering fees to work with BETA to come to an agreement.
“The scope was to repair and restore whatever erosion has happened [to Wilson Street] to preconstruction condition,” he said. “To me, it means before this so-called damage happened.”
He questioned the extent of the road damage allegedly caused by The Trails, arguing that the road was not in great shape before the construction began. Gately said its “country drainage” system was impacted by large trucks that drive down Wilson Street.
Gately’s perspective is that he is being asked not only to repair the road but also to improve it, which he said is not his responsibility. He noted that his property only abuts about 600 feet of the 2,400 feet of Wilson Street where the impact occurred.
The town’s improvement plan included construction of a stone channel of about 800 feet. Gately said The Trails has no frontage there. Because a channel “was never there to begin with,” he did not believe it was his responsibility to build one. He also questioned why he was being asked to construct a 4-foot road shoulder, because none existed before.
Stressed Gately: “I just think the scope had gone beyond — well beyond — what our original responsibility is.”
“Our perspective hasn’t changed,” Reed countered. “I believe that the runoff from The Trails property during construction caused damage to Wilson [Street].”
She added that she didn’t provide specifics when asking The Trails representatives to fix the road damage.
Paradis noted that Bemis came up with the repair plan that included a cross culvert at the bottom of the hill. Paradis said he shouldn’t do that, recommending a berm instead. He also corrected Gately on the shoulder width the town requested, saying it was 1 foot, not 4.
He added it would be less costly for Gately to work with the town than putting the project out to bid.
“We need corrective action,” said Benson. He requested that Paradis prepare an estimate of the work needed and present it at the next meeting. The board will render its decision then.
Board endorses Wilson Street, Winter Street ANR requests
The board voted 8-0 to endorse an Approval Not Required (ANR) plan that subdivides 9-11 Wilson Street into four lots. This would allow for the construction of a single-family home on one of the new lots.
John Nenart of D & L Design Group, Inc. represented the applicant, D&B Ventures. The property currently consists of two lots totaling more than 14 acres. The request was to cut a 2.1-acre lot around an existing house so that a proposed single-family house can be built on the remaining 12.25 acres.
Nenart explained that both lots have the required 200 feet of frontage on Wilson Street, with one lot having 322 feet. Both lots have direct access to this street.
Also endorsed in a 7-0 vote was an ANR proposal regarding 109-111 Winter Street. Consultant Joe Marquedant represented the landowners. He said that in January 2024, the parties agreed to a land swap that transferred parcels between the two properties.
He explained that when the 2024 plan was brought to the Land Court, which had jurisdiction over 111 Winter Street, the court rejected it because recorded land should not have been shown on the same plan as land under its jurisdiction.
Said Marquedant: “So in essence, they told us to split the plan that we prepared into two separate plans.”
While the basic concept of the original plan is the same, there is “a minor change” of “a couple of inches on a handful of spots.” Currently, 109 Winter Street, a rental property, is unoccupied.
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