The Rindge Planning Board approved an application by Lock’d Up Storage in Rindge to expand its facilities, after the applicant made some minor adjustments.
During its meeting Tuesday, the Planning Board reviewed final plans for the expansion of the Lock’d Up self-storage facility on 29 Commercial Lane. The business is proposing to build five additional storage buildings on the property.
Following a site walk and review by the Conservation Commission, the Commission discovered one wetland area and possible vernal pool that was not notated on the original plans. The applicant revised the plan to reduce the size of one of the buildings and adjust the location to provide the required 50-foot setback from the new wetlands areas. Richard Mellor, a member of the Conservation Commission who attended Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting, indicated the Commission was satisfied with the changes.
“This is fine as far as I can tell. It allows for a significant expansion, without impacting the wetlands, and we have no problem with that,” Mellor said.
The Planning Board unanimously approved the site plans for the expansion.
In a separate case, the Planning Board also reviewed an application by King’s Way LLC for a 20-lot subdivision located off Route 119, with an entrance near Carol’s Ice Cream. The majority of the lots planned are about two acres, with three much larger parcels, along a half-mile roadway that would be built for the subdivision.
Though the plan included a wildlife study and review by a wetlands scientist, the Conservation Commission requested time for a third party review of the wetlands on the property. About 20% of the 95-acre property is wetlands area. Mellor told the board the Conservation Commission has already contracted with a wetlands scientist to do a comprehensive wetlands survey of the town, and would use that contractor to review the information provided by the applicant, and pay for it themselves.
The Planning Board acknowledged the need to continue the meeting to allow all members to review a wildlife report, which was about 60 pages long, that had only been received the day of the hearing by the Planning Board. Chair Jonah Ketola said the board would consider any information provided by the Conservation Commission’s contractor by its next meeting, scheduled for Aug. 2, but said the board would not continue the hearing again to await that review, and the board did not require the applicant to allow the contractor access to the property, though Ketola said it might be in the applicant’s “best interest.”