The Rindge Planning Board accepted amended plans for a 20-lot subdivision off of Route 119, allowing changes that squash objections raised by the town Conservation Commission with the plan.
“I’m very happy the Conservation Commission, Planning Board and developer can get together and iron it out,” said Planning Board ex-officio and Selectman Bob Hamilton during Tuesday’s meeting.
The development is proposed to create 20 single-family homes over the next four years, and the construction of a 3,000-foot new road, with an entrance near the former gas station and Carol’s Ice Cream on Route 119.
The subdivision, planned to be built on a newly constructed roadway known as King’s Way, had already gone through Planning Board approval. But the town’s Conservation Commission had filed an appeal of the decision to the town’s Zoning Board of Adjustment, citing drainage, site work and tree cutting that was planned within the 50-foot wetland buffer along the planned road.
In a letter to the Planning Board by Conservation Commission Chair David Drouin, the conservation board expressed their support for the revised plan – even though the revisions didn’t remove 100 percent of the disruption within the buffer. Drouin acknowledged developers had removed the majority of site work and drainage out of the buffer, and said the commission was satisfied with the outcome.
“The revised plan has moved the stormwater runoff out of the wetland buffer and reduced the clearing of the trees in the buffer to more closely comply with the wetland’s ordinance,” the letter, read by Planning Board Chair Jonah Ketola during Tuesday’s hearing read. “This plan is more closely in line with goals and intent of the wetlands ordinance. The commission requests the Planning Board accept and approve the revised plan as presented to the commission, so the project may move forward. The commission would like to thank the developer and project’s engineer in their continued efforts in making this project more compliant with the ordinance.”
Last week, the Zoning Board of Adjustment agreed, at the request of the Conservation Commission, to continue the commission’s request to appeal the Planning Board’s approval of the King’s Way project for 90 days. Drouin told the board that if the Planning Board accepted the revised plans, the Conservation Commission intended to rescind the appeal and allow the project to move forward.
After only a brief review of the amended plans, and no feedback from the public, the Zoning Board approved the amended plans in a unanimous vote.
In his letter of support, Drouin also proposed the Conservation Commission and Planning Board come together on a subcommittee meant to review the town’s wetlands ordinance.
The King’s Way case is strikingly similar to another development on Route 119, proposed by Navian Development. The Navian Development case initially stumbled at the Zoning Board when seeking a special exception, on the basis of site work and drainage into the wetlands buffer.
The Navian Development project initially appealed the decision to the town, and then filed to pursue the case with the state housing authority, but ultimately reworked the plan to remove the drainage into the buffer, and went back before the Zoning Board for approval. The Zoning Board granted the special exception last week.
While both cases were able to be resolved with plan amendments coming back before local zoning, Drouin proposed the boards work together to clarify the ordinance and its intent.