WESTBOROUGH – Plans that would allow for the restoration of wetlands that were cleared and stripped of their topsoil were presented to the Planning Board on Aug 23.
Now, the applicant is requesting an earth moving permit.
I would prefer to focus on the remedy rather than the activity that got us here,” said Chair Mark Silverberg. “But it’s frustrating for me. Everybody in town has the same rules, and as much as I want the landowner to maximize value from their property, I find it hard to believe that this kind of activity got this far. I’m a little disappointed in that.”
What happened
The Planning Board first met informally with the applicants on June 28.
The property is located at 25 Gleason Street and is about 55 acres. It sits near the Westborough and Shrewsbury town line and abuts the Westborough Village and the Boroughs Family Branch YMCA.
Specifically, the Planning Board was looking at work that had been done in the northwest corner of the property.
According to Land Design Collaborative’s Mike Scott, the Ward family had long used the lower portion of the site near Gleason and a portion in the back of the property to process, remove and sell earthen materials.
About two years ago, a portion of the property had been cleared without permits from the Planning Board or Conservation Commission.
During the informal meeting with the Planning Board, Scott said crews picked rocks off a slope and stockpiled them at the bottom of the hill.
“Eventually, there was a determination made that they didn’t have permission to do that from this board, and they didn’t obviously have permission from the Conservation Commission,” Scott said.
In June, Planning Board member Peter Bouchard asked how this occurred.
Brian Ward responded that while crews were clear cutting, they were using large machines.
“There were machines in there that could probably cut three to four acres in a day,” Ward said.
He continued, “I should have probably been there. We made a mistake, and we want to correct it. Going forward, I’m going to make sure that I’m there and something like this doesn’t happen again.”
In August, Scott said an enforcement order was issued.
They began developing plans to restore the wetlands, which Scott said was approved by the Conservation Commission.
Now, they were seeking an earth moving permit to remove the rocks and earth that had been stockpiled on the western edge of the wetland system.
Once the rock is removed, Scott said there would be a temporary sediment basin to run stormwater runoff around the site and a second basin to capture any sediment that makes its way through the wetland system.
As part of their plans, Scott said the 50 feet outside of the wetland would be reforested.
“The groundwater’s there that the wetlands should revegetate itself provided that it doesn’t continue to see a lot of stormwater flowing through it from the north,” Scott said in June.
In August, Scott said once the buffer and the wetland systems were stabilized, the basins would be removed to allow water to flow naturally through the site.
Silverberg said he would lean toward recommendations from the Conservation Commission and engineering department.
The hearing was continued until Sept. 20.
RELATED CONTENT
BJ’s redevelopment project green lit by Westborough Planning Board
