Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Chris, you hear me? Yes. Thank you.

Uh good evening everybody. Welcome to the January 12th, 2026 uh Franklin Planning Board. Uh this meeting is audio and video recorded as well as on Zoom. in the Zoom call-in number is 312-626-66799 with a meeting number of 8357963 01. [snorts] Um I'll take our first item of business. This would be a public hearing definitive subdivision for 47 Patrick Street Dunovan Estates. If I could go to Amy, I believe they're looking for continuation.

Yes. So, we did receive today, just as an update, um the planning board had a 90-day decision for this, which would expire at the end of the month. They did give us an extension until March 31st, 2026. Uh and that's been filed with the town clerk and I'm not looking for an extension and I would recommend February 9th. Okay. I hear a second to continue Dunovan estates till February 9th. Second. All in favor? I um I just like to make a point. Uh, Eric is on Zoom, but he is in attendance. Roll call vote. Yep. Eric. Eric. Yes. J Melo. Yes. Mark Mutron. Yes. Craig Rhonda. Yes.

Chris Stikney. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Next item of business. This would be a uh private subdivision. This is an initial hearing for Tango Estates 2 uh Symphony Drive. Make a motion to wave the reading. Second. All in favor? Roll call. Yep. Uh, Eric Steltzer, yes. Mark Mutron, yes. Jay Melo, yes. Greg Rondo, yes. Chris Tiknney. Yes. Okay. Before I go to the applicant, if I could go to Amy, uh, Department of Plan, please, if you give us a review. Sure.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, just a thing to know. So, it's a two uh a private definitive subdivision plan to create two buildable lots at the end of Symphony Drive. Um I just want to note the property does but town owned land on the north side. However, we do have access via Charles Drive. Um there is an existing culde-sac at the end of Symphony Drive which seems that that would remain. Um they have requested a waiver for curbing but need to comply um with the granite curving at the entrance of the roadway.

The fire department has noted a dead end street. Um however talking with the building commissioner it appears that since the street really makes a loop it would start really where the loop is not from Lennox or Symphony. Um, so I know that we did this with Kimberly, um, and they allowed it. The the roadway really being proposed more as a driveway than it is an actual roadway. It remain private. Um, and DDW has noted that has a condition if it were approved in the future, um, that it would be completely responsible by the homeowners for, um, roadway maintenance. Um, BEA is currently reviewing the project, so I don't have a review for you tonight. And then I just I did list um they did request nine waivers for the roadway which are similar to the ones from Kimberly Drive.

Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um is is Mike with us tonight? Yes, he is. Okay. Um he is on Zoom. Okay. Before I go to Mike, can I and Matt, you're up there? Um they have not beta has not reviewed it yet. Yeah. Yeah. I just want to make sure just so we can hear. That's all. Okay. But I think he I just wanted to let you know that uh Steven Lee from Beta is here. Okay. Thank you, Steve. Sorry to cut you off. No, no worries. Before I go to the the rest of the board and and uh the rest of the department, if I could just go to the applicant and um have you introduce yourself for the record, please. Uh

good evening, Mr. Chairman. My name is Bill Buckley. I work for Bay Colony Group and I'm here representing the applicant which is Cypress Real Estate Development LLC. Okay. Um do you want to give us a brief review of what we're looking at if you don't mind?

I will Mr. Chair. So um I can point you toward the uh rendering. I I gave out copies to you and to many of the people here yesterday. So this is a a 7 acre parcel of land located at the end of Symphony Drive. As Amy pointed out, it's located in the rural residential one zoning district and it's boarded by residential properties to the um you're looking at the kind of excuse me here. It's boarded by residential properties to the east, to the west, to the south, and to the north. This is the town of land that um that we just talked about. So, Stephanie Drive ends right here. It's in a culde-sac and Wix drive loops through here and actually meets back up with Symphony Drive quite a ways down uh past the roadway. So, what we're um let me just continue on. So, this site is currently vacant. There's two pieces of wetland. This light green on either end I'm pointing out um on there. This is a border vegetative wetland. This is a isolated wetland. We're going to see conservation later this week. [snorts] The um the site has quite an elevation differential from approximately this point here to approximately this point here. It's 90 foot [clears throat] drop. So it's on the side of a hill. We've done soil testing on the site um with the board of health. Um at the time we thought we were going to be putting in septic systems but uh subsequent to that we petitioned the town council to allow connection into the uh sewer municipal sewer system and municipal water system and they have granted that. So we will be tying into municipal water and store in this plate in this case if the board um approves the subdivision. Um one of the things that our client uh volunteered to do as a mitigation excuse me as mitigation um is to uh fund a rehab of a sore pump station in the

neighborhood that had to go I think it's an approximately $30,000 upgrade. Um we talked to Mike about that and so that was part of the u when the petition is we we said we would do that. So again if if the board chooses to approve this we will um we will be paying that. So, as as you look at this here, um we and we I talked to Amy about this at the beginning and um she recommended I take a look at Balsam Estates Kimberly A, which the board looked at about I think about 18 months ago thereabouts and to see she thought this might be a good uh project to fit into the criteria where the board granted um that private subdivision. So, what you have here is this is a two lot subdivision. It's in the rural residential one. So, it's um 40,000 square feet, but as you can see on your plans in front of you, this lot is 180,000 square ft. This lot's about 110,000 square feet. So, we're only looking at two lots on the site. So, in order to um spare the town the the requirement to maintain a new roadway with a new culde-sac, which is what the subdivision regulations would require. What we're proposing is a it's if you're looking at it on a plan view, it's an extension of the roadway. It's it's about 420 ft from Lennox right here till the end of the uh layout. So, it's that's actually significantly less than a 600 or 650 foot dead end maximum in the bylaw. And um what we're proposing is a roadway that's 20 ft wide. 20 feet typically is what the National Fire Code requires for access. It's waverable by the uh fire department down to 18, but we're we're not asking for that. But the roadway

would only be 20 feet wide. It would not have sidewalks. It would not have curving. would not have um street trees or anything like that. It's it's basically a glorified common driveway that would be shared by both of these lots. The uh what we're proposing, what we're showing is if you look at the plan, we call that parcel A. So, we're calling the roadway parcel A. And our intent at this point is, you know, you can usually do it one of two ways. is when the road remains private, you can either um have one lot own it and then they're responsible for it and then the other lot would have an easement right over it or what's also common is it would become a homeowners association. So the homeowners would would um there would be a homeowners association would own that possible a and then the two homeowners would be responsible excuse me for paying into that um association and in order to do maintenance [snorts] the um what we're showing here is we're showing the road we're showing the the houses and showing the roadway so that the board can see how it would fit. You know, a lot of times I think when you see a subdivision, you know, at least we do, we just show the houses on there how they could go. We have no idea who's going to buy that house, what it's going to look like. But in this particular case, because of this the steep topography and the fact that we're going to be putting the storm water management on each of the individual lots, we wanted to show the board um how we think this could go. So the um the roadway would be extended. Each of the homes would have their normal 12- foot driveway off the end of it and then they would go up to each of the houses. This house as you're coming in would be higher than the existing roadway. So the existing road or the proposed roadway would be around uh 384ish and then that house would be I'm sorry

326 and 305. can't see. So that's about 25 feet above the road. And then this home right here, this would probably be about 10 feet below the road. So this drive would be go up. This driver would be going back. And what we're thinking is we would have two separate storm water basins, very small, very shallow, very gentle, similar to what was done on Balsam Estates there, Kimberly. Um, one for this lot and one for this lot. And both of these basins would take the runoff from the new roadway and driveway and we've graded them such that that runoff goes into the basement basins either through you know through the way we've graded it or the roof drains would be tied in and would be um would drain into those one of the two basins. The [snorts] basins would this basin would be here. The overflow for it would go over across the street into the basin for this one. And it would be through a culvert. And then this one has an overflow which is a more typical overflow you see on a basin. You know, the the cut and the um in the burm with the rip wrap and then it would overflow down into this low area here. That's our design point is this low area at the bottom of the at the bottom of the lot. And we've designed it in order to maintain the rate and volume of runoff. So it does increase um off the side. This is the only possible location [clears throat] it could go off the side. This is going down and this is up. So everything's flowing in this direction from left to right. [snorts] As you're looking at the drawing, um there are a lot of waiverss that we'd be asking for in order to um to uh permit the subdivision and and so it will remain private. Um, we asked that and

again we modeled this on the other one to wave the requirement for a street plan and profile to wave the requirement that the width be 26 feet instead 20 feet to wave the requirement the culde-sac be paved and instead we're requesting this this can act as a T turnaround. So it's not like a a fire truck or anything would have to back all the way out. They could pull in, back in, pull out or any other direction. And that's why we set the driveways up across from each other. Um to wave the requirement that Den Street be no longer than 600 feet. That's what Amy I think was just talking about. It really is not more than 600 feet from here to here. And then um and then Lennox actually loops through the we're asking to wave the requirement for the use of reinforced concrete pipe. by asking for ads pipe and that would be in this area here between the basins and again because this is going to be owned by a private entity. Um reinforced concrete pipe we're just asking for that waiver. Um we're we're waving the require street lights along the roadway. We're requesting no street lights and we wave the requirement for sidewalks. We're requesting no sidewalks and wave the requirement for shade trees along the the roadway. Again, we're requesting no shade trees. I think that about wraps it up, Mr. Chairman.

Okay. Thank you very much. Um before I go to the board, um Amy, I just want to make sure we make note from letter from fire from Joe as well. And we also have um Mike Magro is also on Zoom. Yeah, I'm going to I'm going to ask in for Mike actually. Um Mike, are you there? Yep. Anyway, good evening, Mr. J.

Hi, Mike. How are you tonight? Um, Mike, you don't have to get into the real thick of it, but couple uh quick uh bullet points from your side. Um if you're take a chance to to take the opportunity to uh review the plan and um and submission and just had about a half dozen comments um minor nature, most of the things that were already previously mentioned. Um the town council did already vote to approve a water and sewer u map amendments. So both homes can tie into the water and sewer that are um existing out on uh Symphony Drive right now. Extend them down the uh the proposed roadway which for all intents and purposes will be a glorified driveway uh intended to remain private. Um and then um and really just a couple comments on the um drainage design. just uh some clarification on the uh infiltration rates and just a recommendation that they use um uh the higher uh Noah Atlas 14 rainfall amounts which most uh which was been standard practice over the past several years. So just a couple of minor things there but for all intents and purposes very similar to the the Kimberly uh subdivision.

Okay, good. Thank you. Um Matt, uh you there was Steve. Steve. [clears throat] Yes, I am here. Hi. Hi, Steve. I I know you just started looking at it. Uh any real serious concerns to uh give us a heads up on by any chance? Um not not as of yet. Okay. I didn't mean to put you on the spot. I know you just started looking at it. That's all. But I just figured if we can get

That's okay. Get a couple. It's something we can track. That's all. Yep. Okay. Um I understand. Okay. No, that's good. I appreciate it. Um before I go to the audience, um I'll go to the rest of the board. Uh comments or questions? Chris, start with you first. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the presentation. Um the one question I had in is the uh the connection from the existing cul this act to the private driveway. It appears to be that there is a portion that is going to be on the nonprivately owned land. That'll be that connection point. Uh who would be responsible for that?

Um good question. That that lies within the public way, but I guess we can make that part of our responsibility to deal with that. [snorts] Yeah. I don't I don't know what the town's perspective would be on it, but since it is on town owned land, but I'd be immutable. Okay. Can make that a condition of approval and that would be fine. Yep. Okay. That was my only comment, Mr. Chairman. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Jay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, uh, I took a look at the property surrounding yours because I was interested when I saw the trail and I was like, "Oh, there's people walking through there." Um, and I noticed that above you is town property and then like off below you is town property and it's cuz this really weird zigzag thing going on here.

Just these things. It's like a little easement type thing it looks like going around the property line. So, I'm going to sit here and guess what their intent was. And it was most likely to guarantee some sort of connectivity between those parcels, the town one that's north of yours than that town parcel there because then there's a whole bunch of them. They connect down to some roads much further down. So I was curious if you would entertain the idea of an easement along the back of the parcel um to allow for connection between the two. I understand it's a wet area for the most part back there. Um but uh this would be the time to ask because we're discussing it. Um because it would leave the parcel that's up by Skyline Drive and accessible from Skyline and and Brandy Wine and Charles um still accessible to the other open space below it. So that's really the only observation I had there.

I I'm not sure I'm not positive the area. Are we bottom right? Yep. So, see that? Yeah. Right there. See that like zigzaggy thing? So, right in Yep. Right where your cursor is now. Yep. And if you look at that that property line, it goes down and then jogs up again and like almost a check mark type right here. Uh the other way. So, the other way. Keep going down. Right. That right there. Like when you look at the actual Yeah. Uh you know map for the No. I see what I'm looking at it now. I understand. Oh, so you're talking about creating an easement along this line here. Yeah. In order to access the accessibility I

for like a foot path, like a five foot or four wide foot path. Sure. Let me talk to my um client. I I I certainly don't see a problem with that. Yeah. I don't want a parking area or any of that other type stuff here. Just just a connection point. Just a connection. So if people are like, you know, taking a hike with their kids, they could still instead of an easement, which nobody wants an ement on their property. We just conveyed it. We just conveyed it to the town so it would connect. So from this I mean you could do that as well. I just did I'm not going to go and ask you for your sure for your I'm just asking I mean I I'll talk to my clients. The conveyance would be much cleaner and easier and it would be you're open to that. That's

I'm sure the town wouldn't hate it. Um but yeah, no, I just appreciate the consideration on it. So that the connection though, just so I don't know if anybody's been out there, but I mean I mean I do this I do this I've been doing this a long time. So I've been out there and you look at it if you go out there during like a a summer period dry it doesn't Yeah. you would not know it's a wetland and then it gets wet, you know, but it is it is a wetland because we had our biologists go out there and and flag it. So, we could certainly do that. But you, as you can see, you can

No, we're going to have to go through some wetlands. I mean, it's So, back when I had a life and I wasn't so engrossed in work and and a a dad of a big family, I actually did a lot of the trail work in town. Um, and we went right through a bunch of wetlands and we work with conservation to do it in a way that was responsible. Um, so there are ways around it if if there there is the will and the means. [clears throat] Um, so I'm not too worried about that, but yeah, if you if you would check with a client if they entertain it, it' be wonderful. Yep. Appreciate it. All good. Yeah. No, thank you. Okay, good. Mark, no. I Chris and um Jay asked pretty much what I was looking at. So now I have no questions. Thank you.

Good Eric. Yeah, thanks so much. I I had similar thoughts on both of those and two things I wanted to clarify in those points and a couple other ones. Number one, does the town's right of way extend beyond like is I'm worried about frontage in that easement between the private parcel and Symphony Drive there and whether it extends further or whether there's going to be additional easements needed by the neighbors in order to have some sort of access to the lot.

I don't think so. So the um I think what you're talking about I hope you can see this is symphony design where where the end of the culdeac connects into that layout that that there is a layout there. Whoever designed it um the board or them must have figured that that was going to be a potential expansion someday. So it's extended and actually there's construction easements on both sides. Um what we're showing though is right there at the end. We we're ending it there um short. So it's not intended for for us to have people walking down there accessing the the town land. And it looks like it's about roughly 56 feet separation in that area there right there. And and [snorts] I think you can understand that if it's going to remain a private way, a driveway, you you don't want people don't want people walking down their driveways. So So that's not our intent is to create an area where that can be further extended or or would be accessible to the town own land.

Great. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not so worried about the end of the new driveway that would be created. It's more of that interconnectivity from Symphony Drive into the parcels that you're looking to subdivide. And I think you've answered that point, which is that there is some sort of legal ownership or access to this parcel via Symphony Drive. Yes, it's a public way. It's part [clears throat] of the public way. [snorts]

Okay, great. Thank you. Um, regarding the the axis of the zigzagging line that um, Jay was referencing, Jay, it wasn't clear whether you were also going to Lennox Drive because that's where I noticed the six foot footpath and and whether there would be some sort of conveyance uh, for that portion of the foot path uh, to the high side of the lot on the left hand side. if you're looking at it.

Bear with me one second. Yep. So, that foot path unfortunately uh is out of play that's running. If you're looking at the rendering and unfortunately you don't [snorts] have the opportunity to have that because you're at home. Um but uh that foot path for all intents and purposes has a home right through it. Oh, thank you. I appreciate you. So, uh Eric, can you see the the screen here in the cursor? I can. Yep. So the foot path that I think you're referring to is the one that goes this way and then accesses the town property. That's correct.

Yep. So that's a bit trickier, right? Because you got a hill on this side that's really not conducive to putting a trail on due to, you know, topographic [snorts] um issues, right? You'd kind of be going up and down and doing all sorts of weird stuff. And it's really not only through the center of the lot, but through the center of the post home layout. So it doesn't really work to great. um you know before and if I'm reading this correctly there was not really a legal means of entry down here. They were people were already trespassing unless there was an easement I'm unaware of. So that's why I think this is kind of the best way to guarantee future access to that parcel because you can access it kind of like up here and then it allows access from down here. So um that's kind of the way I considered it.

Yeah. I' I'd love I'd love to know more from the neighbors about how they're using that footpath there on the lot to the north or if um you know I think we could to your point you know you can come up with some creative ways in how to get the foot path through there and if there is uh if this house would then be right in the middle of the foot path if there's some sort of option to go to the north. You know, one of the things that we're looking at from the master [clears throat] plan that we're working on is to maintain connectivity from uh residential areas into uh natural lands that we have. Um so this would be uh potentially taking away from that. That that'd just be something I' I'd love to uh to to better understand and whether there's some sort option to uh maintain that access if the residents there are using it. I'll go Eric.

Uh la two more points for me. One is on the ear the drainage basin that's on the property on the right. And just curious about any sort of screening or how visible that's going to be to number 25 on Symphony Drive. Um it's going to be visible because it's low. You know, it's it's significantly lower. Um, it's probably going to be eight feet lower than the home on Symphony Drive. So, yeah, you're going to see it.

Is there any way that you might be able to leave leave some of the vegetation there to provide some natural screening uh for number 25 Symphony Drive? Unfortunately, most of the natural vegetation on our property has been removed. um in the past by not us. So um as you can look on the plan, you can see that kind of the green squiggly line show there. That's that's the tree line. So there there really is no way to re um to to leave anything there along there. Um unfortunately

yeah that that that squiggly line is what I was looking at and wanting to better understand you know what sort of um screening might be there. Uh in the absence of having some sort of natural screening there um would you be open to having any sort of uh plantings there in order to provide some screening to that property? [snorts] I mean, we could probably put some arbor vites along there, but again, you're you're you're standing in a lot that's eight feet above it, and then if you're in your house, you're a couple more feet above it. So, you're not going to get a lot of screening from it. But I think we can certainly do that.

Great. Thank you. And then the last question I have is just regarding the steepness of this slope. Do you have any is it how much of it is going to be fill that you're bringing in any what's how much soil is coming off the site and how you're managing that.

Um I I doubt there's going to be any fill being brought into this site except for um the road. A lot of it as you can see on like lot well that's not fair lot one parcel one it looks like it's probably going to be an an export and then that export will probably be moved over to parcel A and the roadway um in order to do it. So [snorts] yeah, ideally we'll be maintaining it on site except for that portion of it that is going to be under like a roadway and that will have to be um the proper type of class B gravel that the town requires. And so I don't I don't see a lot of it coming in on here. I think you're going to see it's a pretty balanced site with the material moving from left to right as you're looking at the drawing.

Okay. Thanks. Yeah, what I was more thinking of is just the construction vehicles coming in and out of the lot there, whether it's bringing fill in or taking soil out. Um, and it's if it's balanced, um, that that's that's a good direction. Those are my questions. Thank you, chair. Thank you. Uh, will questions? No, I got nothing. Okay, good. Thank you. Um, I just had a couple quick ones. Um what's the distance from the end of the culdeac to the tail end of the um hamm ahead? What was it? Maybe 200 feet of private drive. Was it the distance from the culdeac to the

Yeah. The overall extension of the road The overall extension of the road is about 420 ft. 420. Okay. And that's from from the the end of the layout of Lennox um where Lennox hits it to the end of the Oh yeah, I was looking from the end of the culdeac at Symphony. Okay. Oh, the end of the culdeac. That is approximately uh 150 ft to the end of the pavement to the the back end of the driveway. Okay, good. Um uh did you guys encounter any ledge up there? doing test holes, you know, I don't think so. We certainly encountered some very odd soils. Um, high ground water. Yeah.

Really high ground water. Yeah. To the point where we had to [clears throat] put in um test wells and go back in later to to um to do park tests, which we didn't end up doing because we're going to do soar. But no, I didn't I don't think we hit well. We hit some really odd clay. It looked like clay, you know. And I was talking to the conser uh the border of health agent and he was talking about that ridge over there to the left as a kind that all goes up and um he said that he'd s hit it on some other projects than in the general area. I don't know exactly what he was talking about but no no there was no ledge that I recall

because I know there's ledge off of Daniel Street and whatnot. There's certain pieces down there. Okay. Um, another quick question was, um, on sheet six, basin two, uh, which is lot the lot two, pretty substantial, uh, drop off from the top of the basin to the base, about a good what, 10, 12 feet. And you look at your detail, it drops off sharply after the after your outlet at trap rock. Yeah, it's about 8 feet. 293 to 285. Yeah,

that's the back end of it where you're looking at it dropping off toward the wetland. Yeah, I'm I'm just looking um for safety purposes, maybe a fence in the top section of that just before the drop off protection if there's kids in that particular house. [snorts] Uh, it was a Yeah, it was a pretty good drop. If you could just take a peek at it. No, that's fine.

Okay. Um, the pump station. We have um [snorts] how about there was there was going to be another one. Um once you clear cut these, what you're going to have to come up with a pretty good soil erosion uh Yes. control because that's just going to fly down that hill. Yeah. All right. So, I would take that into consideration. Yeah. If you look on sheet seven, we we put together a SWIP. You did have the SWIP on that. It shows a limited clearing. Shows where we'll have a stabilized construction entrance. Okay.

Shows we'll have the silt sock along the bottom there. which is it's it's pretty heavy. Yeah. Um and in that particular case um you know we might have to um back that up with a a silk fence too. Okay. We'll take a look at that. I just want to make sure [clears throat] you you took into consideration. I didn't see that in any detail. Sorry about that. Um okay. So I guess that's I I think everybody's had a fair shake at it at the beginning. I'll go to the audience if the audience just if you want to just address the mic and give your name and address please. Sure.

And there will be this is going to be a continuation. So this isn't the first and the end of it either. Okay. Sure. My my name is Cheryl Hanley. Can you hear me? All right. Sure.

Um I'm a resident. My husband and I reside at 129 Brandy Wine Road, parcel 2186. Um and we are immediate abutters to the parcel in question. We're we're down the bottom of that hill. Um, and to I think it was Eric who had the question about the walking trails. I can't speak to the legality of, you know, obviously this is private property, but there are walking trails. People do in fact use them um when weather allows. We actually have a neighbor um who maintains them. Uh he kind of clears them. He does trail riding and lots of families go through there and a lot of people come down through the trail through um down our hill. technically trespassing, but we don't mind. So, people absolutely do use it. Just to answer that question, I I can't speak to, you know, obviously the trails are going to change if there's a house going right through um the middle of one of the um houses. But at any rate, um we're not opposed to the project itself. Our concerns are specific and limited to storm water runoff and ground disturbance during and after construction. Um, so as mentioned, our property is at the bottom of a very substantial hill and we already experience significant drainage flowing onto our land during heavy rain events as well as during winter and spring thaw. Um, over time we've taken steps to address these conditions, including excavation to improve drainage. We planted trees and have implemented other mitigation measures. And these have helped to provide a dry backyard. And we haven't had any damage to our home since 2007. So we had moved in in 2007. There was substantial ledge to your point. They blasted to de, you know, to create our homes and Brandy Wine, at least our side of the street. And our first kind of spring thaw was a nightmare. Uh so we put on those measures and we've been mostly dry. Uh it's never really come

near the house because we had um some grading done to the backyard. Um, sometimes when it's a particularly icy or wet winter, our backyard might take a little bit to dry out, but we've never had any uh close calls coming to the house, and it's it's um it's been okay. Um, so we do believe our situation remains sensitive. However, and because this project involves e excavation, grading, and the addition of imperous surf surfaces uphill from our property, we are concerned that changes to existing drainage patterns could increase the volume and or velocity of runoff reaching our land. This could potentially result in flooding or other damage to our yard or property. We're here this evening to request assurance on the record that the project will be designed and constructed in a manner that ensures drainage impacts to downhill abutters do not worsen as a result of this development. Specifically, we respectfully ask that the board consider making it a condition of approval that post-development drainage conditions for abuing properties do not exceed pre-development conditions and that appropriate mitigation measures be required should any drainage issues arise. We would also appreciate clarification on how the ton town could monitor drainage impact during and after construction and notify us what recourse a butters may have if problems emerge once the site has been disturbed. Our goal is simply to protect our property from unintended consequences of work occurring uphill. We appreciate the board's time and consideration and we thank the applicant for their attention to these concerns.

Okay. And going to your point, that's why I asked about the conditions and that's why he has a swip program also has to go to conservation commission which I'm sure they're going to ask the same questions. So um and you're correct he can't there can't be any more water discharge on the property after the project that is now. So the pre and post is um something that they'll uh meet. And this actually by him containing some of this may help your property too because the water is just not sheet flowing as it is now. So sometimes when you do work like this, it actually helps downhill gradient uh because it contains it and and funnels it to where it should go. Okay. Um, anybody else? If just approach the mic, name and address, please. [clears throat] [snorts] [cough]

Hi, thank you. Uh, so my name is Joe Amonte. My wife and I actually were neighbors of Cheryl and Ronin. We live at 133 Brandy Wine at parcel 218085. So we're also downhill of this on that drawing. We're just to the left of of Cheryl and Ronin. Um, again, we're also not opposed to the project, but again, because we sit below, we're very worried about storm water issues. I had some other comments in here, so I'm going to skip some of this stuff because I think you might have addressed a few of these. Um, but I have some specific concerns that I went as I read through the reports that I was wondering if either you might have comments or could be considered as we move forward. Uh, one is as the road is not going to be a town road and there won't be any curbing uh, and there's going to be trenching along the roads. Uh, and this kind of goes for the basins as well. A little bit of a concern of if there's no maintenance and the town's not maintaining, can those get clogged? Can those get, you know, dead leaves, silt stuff trapped in them and then over time really not function as intended? So maybe not initially, but over time. So hopefully, I don't know if there's things that can be done, but maybe thought to how does that get maintained and what can be done either in the design up front that low maintenance still works or if there's something that can be done uh to continue to maintain it. Regarding the infiltration basin and maintenance there on design, are there better ways to capture the water? I know you mentioned and I looked in the drawings, it's very shallow. I know it's what's below the surface, maybe that matters, but it's only maybe a foot, foot foot and a half that those basins, especially the the larger second basin. Um, and so if dead leaves and things pile up there and that water just sheets off to that [snorts] that exit, you know, that's going to come straight down the hill. So, I'm a little bit worried about that. Um, so that's on the design. And then accountability since it's going

to be a private structure protecting basically everything that's downhill. I don't know if there's ever such a thing as maybe putting money into escrow funds or something that can help with maintaining this in perpetuity. And then the last thing in the soil conditions, this I didn't totally follow, but I think the way I read it was the soil conditions in the area in general are soil group C, which drains pretty slowly. And then I think the basins will will drain much faster as you were mentioning, Mr. Chairperson, that um this could actually help when you do projects like this. So that would be great if that's the case. Similar to the trenches, given it's so shallow, could debris pile up or basically collect over time so that water cannot actually seep down into the ground as intended. Um, so with that, I'm wondering if there's something that the town will be looking at to explicitly confirm those designs. Maybe it's on the Thursday meeting that they're going to be asking some of those questions. Those are the few specific issues in addition to what Cheryl mentioned there. And

and just just so you know, our independent uh third party review engineering beta will be looking at okay the whole thing. They just got the hands on it. They haven't done a full-blown assessment. Okay. So they'll take into some of the questions and considerations. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks for your time. Hi, I'm Jane Garner and short. Um, uh, I live at 67 Lennox, so I'm just one plot off of the map here. Um, next to 71, next to Gail and Steve Ratui. So, as Lennox bends around, I'm one lot over from them. Um, so I wanted to echo uh what you shared about the nature walkers. They are prevalent and and popular. Um, and I love that actually hugely utilized space in the back through there that goes through the town land. So, if that can be preserved, I think that's a that's an enormous benefit to the town. I have two questions specifically um about my my lot. One is as I understand it from the previous owner when the homes were built on Birkshere and there was blasting done. So, I know you asked about the ledge. There was blasting done for the ledge there that did damage to the foundation of my home, which is sort of on that sort of downs slope. So, I'm curious. I know they don't believe that there's ledge on these parcels, but that's an enormous amount of grade. It's hard to believe that they're not going to find um any need. So, I'm curious what similar to other comments, what protections I have if blasting does occur to myself, to my neighbors who might be affected by that. Um, and then the other is these are this is seven acres of land with two houses, which is lovely, but I'm curious from the petitioners whether or not there are plans to clearcut all of that land. So, aesthetically, both in the neighborhood that we live in in Lennox and Symphony, there was a lot of preservation of the vegetation done, which is a pride of the neighborhood. It's beautiful. There's very mature trees. I can't imagine going through the extension and then two lots and clear cutting all of the beautiful

vegetation in that space. Um, so I'm trying to understand using this map how much of that is is clearcut versus for the construction versus how much will be preserved of the aesthetic of the area.

Mr. So the um if you look at the drawing that we have over there, you know, the heavy green is trees, lighter green is the wetlands. There's limitations around the wetlands. In the town, you have a local bylaw that you have a 25 foot no disturb, then it's a 50- foot buffer, and then there's a 100 foot buffer. So most of the activity um we're taking place for example on lot two is outside most of it is outside the 50-foot buffer zone and [snorts] and then there's a lot of it out most of it is actually most of it's outside the 100 foot buffer zone on parcel A um lot parcel A is the road and you know that most of that will be cleared [snorts] except the very end um lot one you can see where the the basin and the house are. And if you want to just kind of get an idea of it, if you see the areas where there's the purple lines, that's grading. And that's pretty much our limit of work. And if you go to sheet, I think it's sheet seven is the swift storm, thank you, storm water pollution prevention plan, we have on that a limit of work. Now, I don't, like I said, I don't know what the houses are going to be built here. I don't really know. So, this isn't gospel. Um, which, you know, it's not under the subdivision control bylaw to decide where people put their houses as long as it complies with zoning. But, I think this is a pretty good um guesstimate of it. And, and I'm looking at it now, I would say less than half of law two is being cleared. And I would say maybe a third of lot one is being cleared. That's just a guess looking at those drawings there. So no, the intent is not to go in and clear cut the lots.

Okay. Is are these customuilt homes, sir? I'm sorry. I didn't Yeah, customuilt. Okay. Okay. Those are my questions. Uh any response on the ledge possibility? The p the I mean I can answer that in a general manner. Ledge blasting falls under the fire department. fire department has a state code that they follow. And again, I'm talking a little bit out of turn here because I don't do this, but I believe that's like 500 ft. If your property is within or structure is within 500 ft of the the lot line where you're working, you will get a pre-blast survey. Correct.

These guys are all insured. They have to um their blasts are calibrated to what's around them. So if you were out, you know, a mile away from anything, you could go to town. But if you're, you know, 200 feet away from like some of these houses, you're going to have much smaller blasts. So that's that's the best I can give you. It's a it's a fire department issue. They have to deal with it and they will. Y Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else question, comment?

Good evening. My name is Nick Moulders. I'm a resident of 16 Berkshire Drive uh up on the Berkshire uh circle. I had some question around the infrastructure. Uh so you commented on uh the sewer tie in which is great. Uh what about incoming uh electricity, water supply? Um I noticed some of my neighbors complain about low water pressure. So I'm just like to understand a little bit more in terms of how you're intending to handle that. So, the town will be um the project will be tied into the municipal water supply. There's a 10-in water line on Symphony Drive. It will not be extended. Um there's a hydrant at the end there. We'll just be tying into that with with just regular services like you have at your house. So, there'll be a service run and it'll be according to the regulations and it's according to whatever the pressure is. Probably a run this long. you might have a two-inch line, but again, that's going to be something that's decided by the water department. Um, at that point when the wheelhouse locations and elevations are are determined, [snorts] um, electric is underground. I'm pretty sure electric's underground up there. So, it will continue to be underground. Um, we don't have those drawings yet. you know, the electric company won't do a design until you you approve it. And at that point they will give us a plan that shows how they want the underground conduit to be um brought in and and any um I imagine there might be one uh transformer

in and in terms of uh water pressure do since the water department is responsible for the the the work will they do a survey in terms of or do we have any recourse in uh in terms of if the water pressure is insufficient after the construction is complete? I there's I I would be absolutely shocked. I I just can't even You might ask M Mike this. Um the water servicing to homes is just not going to affect the pressure in that neighborhood, especially not up on Birkshshire Drive. So, um that's probably the best answer I can give you right now.

Okay. Uh then a follow on in terms of the actual execution of the project. Um, can you tell us a little bit about what the working schedules will be? Uh, is it a Monday to Friday, 8 to5? Is it over the weekend? Um, you know, uh, traffic, things of that nature. I don't know off the top of my head what the regulations are in Franklin.

I I can Yeah, I can answer that. That'll be through the building commissioner, Gus Brown. Um, our our Monday through Friday is um 7:00 a.m. to 900 p. p.m. Saturday is the same and Sunday follows the blue the blue law. Yeah, the blue laws. Um so that's through the building commissioner because he'll be the one issuing the building permits. Um it's up to the planning board for that and that's those are typically the hours they give the builders. Okay. [snorts] And uh does the public have any any influence on those those times? You can you you can address it with the building commissioner. Okay.

Yeah, you can you can talk with him on those times. And and uh last one, I promise. Uh what about in uh driving in into the neighborhood like heavy vehicles? I think somebody mentioned earlier on about moving sole in and out. So that won't happen. So, so that's the the time frame that that the vehicles shouldn't be arriving until 7 a.m. They shouldn't be and they can leave up until 900 p.m. Um, they shouldn't be showing up at 6:30 a.m. Um, and if there's complaints, um, we do a pre-construction meeting when this happens, and a lot of those hours are addressed with the um, general contractor or the builder on that. So, um, if there's compl if if someone comes in and at 6:30 in the morning, he'll get a complaint. He won't be happy. So,

okay. Um, he he addresses those issues. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Everybody good? Anybody online? I'm sorry, didn't see you.

Sorry. I'm Jennifer Shaw. I live at 27 Linux Drive. Um I do use [clears throat] the trails also along with um a lot of other people. So maintaining the access would be good. I know they have a parking lot that was developed so that people could go and use those trails. So hopefully we can keep that going. But I also have a concern over the water pressure. We have a pump house currently that's not been mentioned and there's currently issues with water pressure. So, I know you say two houses isn't going to make a difference, but I think it certainly could. So, I hope someone would look into that

and make sure that the pump house that's there can accommodate adding two more to what's already seems to be a strange problem. Okay, good. Thank you. Thanks, Mike. Mike, are you there?

Yes, Mr. Chairman. Mike, could you weigh in? Could you weigh in on the water? Uh sure. Sure. I I don't have the specifics on that uh on the water booster station that's in the neighborhood, but when they um got the approval from the town council to tie into the water system, um I believe Bill mentioned this earlier, one of the uh conditions of that approval is that the developer is contributing over $30,000 to improve the uh the pumps at that u pump station. So, that's one thing. The specifics in the water pressure, I'd have to check in with the water superintendent. I don't know um the specifics of it but we were planning on making some upgrades there and the um developer is uh covering the cost of those upgrades.

Okay, thank you Mike. Okay, anybody else? No. Okay, so make a motion to continue. Um you doing conservation this week? You said yes we are. Okay. What do you think the time? probably February 9th time for Beta to get the review in and then the applicant has time to address any of Beta's issues for the next meeting. I think Okay, I think that's fair. February 9th work.

Sure. Okay. Make a motion to continue um Symphony Drive uh private subdivision division subdivision till February 9th. Do I have a second? Second. Roll call. Uh Eric Steltzer. [clears throat] Yes. Jello, yes. Mark Meron, yes. Greg Rondo, yes. Chris Stikney, yes. Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Have a good night.

[clears throat]

All right. These two, right? That's it. Yeah. Last um couple items of business will be general business. Um this will be for an endorsement for lot 2 uh Forge Parkway. If I could go to Amy, please. Department of Planning. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um they've submitted the um the plan was approved back on November 3rd, 2025. They've submitted for endorsement. Uh, and they have included the certificate vote on the front page.

Okay, good. Uh, any questions or comments? Just an endorsement. All set. So, I make a motion to endorse Slot Two Forge Parkway. Do I have a second with the roll call? Second. Roll call. Eric Steltzer. Yes. Mark Meron, yes. J Melo, yes. Craig Rondo, yes. Chris Sticky, yes. Okay, good. Thank you, Amy. And then our last item of business would be this is for a partial form H for Anka extension. Um if I could go to Amy first. Uh Department of Planning.

Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um this project um was approved several years ago. They came in in April 2024 to increase the units. They were duplexes to triplexes because we had made a change in our zoning bylaw. Um they're looking to get occupancy for all the units um with a partial form H. There is currently um a bond in place for $335,12 for the roadway to be completed. Um so the roadway still it's in place. Uh I know there were some improvements they needed to do with the drainage. um they still need sidewalks and curbing and other other items. So, they're looking for um a partial form each approval so that they can sell some of the units.

Okay, good. Thank you. Um I guess I'll go to Mike. Uh Mike, are you there? Yes, Mr. Chairman. Um, Mike, um, I did see that they were looking for a release for all the lots. I'm I'm a little I'm going to question that myself, but are you comfortable with the condition of the road? Uh, I believe the first three buildings in the foundation and the Calders Act. There's quite a bit quite a bit of work still needs to be done up there.

Yeah, the the road the binder was of the uh roadway was put in uh years ago. It sat dormant for um a number of years and there's going to be some work needing to be done to the existing pavements that's out there. Um I know Beta is doing the construction inspections out there. Um and we will look at everything before they do the final paving. Um I I think everything seems to be working out there, but as far as uh sidewalks, curbing, um if it's a matter of just a lot lease for the first, you know, three buildings that they've done, I don't see an issue with that. Um it may be something if it's for all of them. You might want to consider something where it's um um I mean the drainage is working up there. There's been no issues over the years since it's been put in. Um but sidewalk to leave that up to the board if that's something the you know the board wants to see in before they do all the uh block releases.

Okay, good. Thank you, Mike. Uh I'll go to Matt. Matt, you there? Steve? Yes, I am. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. members. Uh Matt, if you could give us a overview if you don't mind, please.

Sure. So, uh we were recently out there, Mr. Chairman, uh last week to perform an overall, uh conformance observation on the state of construction after a period of inactivity on the roadway work. Um we were previously out there back in 2023 when they were wrapping up the the sewer testing on the site. And uh prior to that we had been out there for the drainage, sewer, water installation and uh the construction of the roadway up to the binder course which was actually done back in 2015. Uh so since we were out there in 2023 uh you know they made pretty good uh quite a bit of progress out there mostly on the residential lots. Uh looks like they have substantial completion on lots one to four. Um but as kind of alluded to by others um not much additional work has been done on the roadway itself. Um you know some of the work items include top course pavement, concrete sidewalks, the curbing Cape Cod BM, the gravel access road down at the stormwater basin, street lights and you know other uh minor work items like bounds and landscaping signage, things of that nature. Um as Mike, he's aware that there will need to be some repairs to the binder course before they do top course pavement. Um, and we also note the last time that we did a bond estimate that was back in 2022. Uh, so considering prices have gone up, um, we would expect that, you know, the bond would have not come down at this stage. Um, be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Okay. Good. Thank you, Matt. Um, before I go, I'll go to the rest of the board. Comments, questions, go to Jay. Uh, I would just like to echo that I think that road looks like crap. Um, [clears throat] and might need to have a substantial amount done to it because I don't care how long binders, you know, binder can sit for five years and not do this. So, I'm not really too stoked on how that room looks. Okay.

So, I'm not sure what has to be done up there. They might have to, you know, either completely mill that off or something because [clears throat] that's even the material looks like crap from the picture. I know it's got like, you know, salt and snow on it, but the binder looks like junk. So, now I'm now going to take a ride out there in the daytime and just kind of take a look at it because I'm really Yeah. So, Mike, hold them to that one. Chris.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I [clears throat] think I'm in agreement with you in regards to Mike's comment as well about not releasing the entire uh development at this point, just the ones that have been constructed in the foundation. Um, because I think we let the cat out of the bag, it's tough to put it back in. Uh, so that would be my position on that. I agree. Um, before I go, Mark, you have to abstain. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Um, Eric, comments, questions? Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What's the status of the sidewalks there? There isn't any.

Nothing. No. Okay. Um, could we just regarding the bond amount, is that sufficient to cover the remaining portion of the road that needs to get fixed there? I'm going to ask for an updated one. Okay. Yeah. because 2022 pricing as we all know is a long time ago. Um everything's gone up. Correct. Um I'd echo this same sentiment as uh the other members of the board as far as not releasing the occupancy for the full lots but only a portion of the lots that are constructed.

Okay, good. Thank you. Well, excuse me. Um it's rough and that's all I got. Okay. So, um there's a few things I would like to see if we could have an updated bond established um that will help cover the town. God forbid anything happens up there um to today's standards as well. It's been I mean, this project's been going on for Are you looking for a bond reduction or just a lot? He's looking for bond. He's looking for what releases, but I want to I want to make a point. No reduction. Yeah. I just think no reduction.

No. Right. No, but I want to update. I want an update. We need to do another assessment. Can we do that? The rest. Yep. We can do that. Yeah. Agree. We need to know if it's more. Well, I didn't know if we had the power to do that. Typically, you know, [clears throat] I want to see sometimes we have I just want to see where we are to what it will take to put it back together. You know, if we can if we can update the bond, it' be

great. I want I'd like I'd like to see that. Um I'm going to make a recommendation that we re at least release the first I think it's three buildings on the right with the with the foundation and the culdeac. Um this will give them some seed money to finish if need be. Um whatever it may be. Um I'd like to see the road cleaned up. Silt sacks in the catch basins. I'm not sure. I went in there actually. Some of the catch basins look like they're still raised. So, I'm not even sure if the whole system's functioning properly. Um, it looks like they put in a binder and they meant to put top down and didn't

and it didn't. There's one section on the right on the way in. It looks like that's taking all the water. So, I don't know if that basin's full of silt, sand, or whatever it is. It seems like everything's just funneling that way. Um, so I'd also like to see a completion schedule as well. Considering this thing's been going on for a while, we don't want to kick this one down the road for another 8 to 10 years. Um, so updated bond completion schedule with dates, uh, the road cleaned up. We're going to make it safe for for kids, uh, for for adults, anybody in there. There's no there's no curbing, there's no sidewalks, there's no street lights, there's nothing. So, I think, um, this is kind of a Christmas present getting a release at this point. The road should have been in much better condition uh, in terms of a partial release from what we've released in the past. So, um I think um Beta going out there and um Mike and reporting back to us um in the future and I don't need you know months maybe within a month come back with some good numbers and some uh estimates um and then we go from there. Everybody agree with that? Eric, you agree? [snorts]

Agreed. Thank you. Okay. So, make a motion on those comments. Um, and I guess do we uh roll call? Uh, second. Yep. Yep. Second. Uh, roll call. Um, Eric Stelter. Yes. Mark Mutron. I am. Yep. Jay Melo. Yes. Greg Rondo. Yes. Chris Stikney. Yes. Okay.

Thank you everyone. Any general I I know you had a quick question, Chris. Uh yeah, Amy, I was just hoping to bring up um in bringing kids to and fro to various things. Um the self- storage facility we approved on Grove Street, 151 Grove, I believe is the address. They've started sight clearing and all that, which is fine. Uh however, I've noticed on several occasions vehicles parked in the trail head and trail access even further down.

Okay. um which uh in looking at some plans, it may or may not be on private land or town land, but it's not on their site. So, they shouldn't be there and that's an issue because we did take some heat on uh the trail access being so close to the new building and proposal. So, we just want to make sure that we're maintaining that for the town. Great. Thank you. I will bring that to the building commissioner's attention. I have pictures if you need. Okay. You want to email them to me, you can. [laughter] No, email them to me.

Okay. email to me and I want that's actually that's helpful when we address you know we if we get a [snorts] lot of verbal complaints then we could go out there and not actually see it ourselves because maybe it wasn't happening that day. So um pictures are very helpful. Um so feel free to email them to me and I'll share them with the um building commissioner. Excellent. We'll do. Thank you Amy. Thank you [clears throat] Chris. Go ahead. Anybody else question? Eric, you all set? Questions? All set. Thank you. Make a motion to adjurnn. We second. Second. Eric Steltzer, yes. Mark, you abstaining from this one or you? [laughter] Yes. J Melo, yes. Greg Rondo, yes. Chris Sticky, yes. Great. Thank you everybody.