Conservation Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome. Good evening. I'd like to go ahead and open Littleton Conservation Commission uh virtual meeting and it's May 27th, 2025. Um we're going to go ahead and start with 7:30 administrative discussions. Does anyone have anything they would like to add to the list that we have? Tim, you have one? Yep. Uh 15 powers. Okay, great. Anyone else have anything? Okay, so we're going to go ahead and jump right in. Request for minor modification 04 pond DP204-0988 boat house footprint modification. And is that um the letter that came in that was sent to us, Tim? Um, that one was actually on last meeting's agenda and Steve Marsh was supposed to be showing up to discuss it and I don't see him here again today. Okay. So, who's here to address 04 pond? Anyone? Nobody. Okay. Let's go ahead and jump down to discussion. Conservation parcel U7-208-0. What do we need to know on this? So, this was the uh um the parcel that Parks and Wreck floated the idea of having canoe and uh kayak storage on and and having the funding for that um that the members of the public pay a fee for um going towards Clean Lakes committee issues. And is that a discussion that we're facilitating or that they're going to come to us? Um, the only time we really talked about it was just kind of taking your guys' temperatures about how you feel for it. And where we left off was, um, the commissioners were going to drive by the parcel and see what they thought um, about it and we'd revisit it. Okay. What

would you all like to do? We're shy at least three commissioners at this moment. Do we want to have this discussion or put it forward at another time? We should probably table it. Okay. I feel like it's a hearty discussion, so we'll come back to that. Um, next is the assistant conservation agent updates. Um, I can certainly help with that. I've really had the pleasure of meeting quite a few individuals. We did a lot of um in the town hall interviews, first rounds, second rounds, few virtuals. We hope to bring forth good information by the next meeting. So hopefully with some offers in mind and in hand. So, we were very pleased with um the caliber and great questions that um both the men and women uh basically asked. So, Tim, anything to add on to that? Nope, you summed it up. Okay, great. Conservation signature authorization. Yep. Um so, this is the annual vote that the commission will need to do to designate the number of members and which members will be authorized to sign off of uh or sign off on or approve. Um, bills. Okay. Historically, you've had two or one? Uh, it's been two. It's been Kyle and Chase. Okay. Kyle, are you volunteering again? Sure. Yeah, I had no issue with that. Okay. Well, I don't want to put forth that to Chase. Is there anyone else that would like to do that in his absence? I'm happy to be the docky signer if you'd like. Thank you. So, um, everyone good with that? So, Kyle and Andrew going forward. Okay. Um, conservation commissioners term expirations and renewals. Sarah, can we get a vote? Can we get a vote on that? Okay. Yep. Okay. Sorry. Um, I

would like to make a motion that we appoint two current conservation commissioners, Andrew Samarco and Kyle Maxfield, to be the signators for conservation authorization. Do we have a second? I'll second. Right. Roll call vote. Uh, Michael. Michael Livingston. I Kyle Knoxfield. I Sarah. Sarah Seawward. I myself I. It's unanimous. We'll do signing proudly. Okay. Thank you. Next is Conservation Commissioner term expiration and renewals. So, this was just a reminder that uh Kyle and Andrew, your terms are set to expire at the end of of June. Time flies. Oh my gosh. Okay. Um and Andrew, would the process of um renewal would that require another a commission vote or is that as simple as going to the town clerk's office and getting reworn in? So, basically, this board can recommend candidates for the role, but ultimately the select board will gather the applications to the town administrator's office and then they'll uh make the appointment. Okay. And then yeah, once the appointments are done, there's a swearing in at the town clerk's office and bing bang boom. Perfect. Okay, next is CPC project updates. Yeah, I just had a quick little um thing on that. Um I don't know if you guys are aware, but uh at the town meeting a couple weeks ago, our um invasive plant control application and walkway for the frog pond were both approved uh pretty quickly. And uh so once we start hearing from uh Steve Yonley about um the dredging project and getting that permitting underway, we can tie that into uh tie those other projects to that and hopefully get those permitted and get some RFPs out and get that done. What do you think um Andrew might be the

kind of like the crystal ball of when that might happen? Initially we had heard later this summer. So hopefully we can keep with that timeline and uh maybe get some NOIs in and Yeah. Okay, great. Um all right, Tim, we're gonna come back to you. 15 powers. Yep. Um so this is just to update you guys that um I went by the property today and the uh the shipping container uh or storage container. It has been removed from the property from what I could see from from the road. Okay, great. All right, we are So, I'm sorry. It's gone from the property completely. It's not It has been relocated. Great question. There's There's certain I couldn't see some areas from the road. Um, but it's it's from what I can tell it's been from the property. Interesting. I think that would be hard to hide given how the layout is there. Yeah. Right. You should be able You can see down the driveway, right? I think it's a pretty straight shot, but yeah, it's it's Yeah, I guess you couldn't really see directly behind the house if there was something there. So, that's that's in a better spot than we're closed anyway, I guess. So, that's where it is. Tim, I know you have a lot on your plate. So, maybe in another month or whatever, we could reach back out to them and ask them just to kind of come in and give us an update. Or we can have Matt Morrow come in and give us an update. Yeah, I I think ideally they were going to start doing the the work cleaning out that fill within the next couple weeks. Oh, perfect. The next uh marker would be for them to contact me or a member of the commission to go out and to assess the quality of the fill before they they continue with the rest of the restoration work. Okay. So, our

next is not till 7:45. So, we have a few moments. Um, I did want to I listened to the last meeting and just kind of brought forth Kyle, I I appreciate your comments at the end about notifying if we can't make a meeting. Um, I think we've been really diligent. I think summer can be difficult and everything. So, if we can just kind of look forward to that so Tim doesn't have to chase us. And then the other is the reminder that if you are going to recuse yourself, you need to do it very as soon as the hearing opens to please recuse yourself there. So um that will make things go smoothly. Um and I think for later on for 8:45 we have there's only three of us right now. So as of right now if Chase Ed or Carl do not join us for 8:45, we will not be able to open that. So, we'll just kind of keep an keep an eye on that. Um, all right. We have I know this is rare. We actually have five [Music] minutes. Um, perhaps Tim, you could bring us up to date on some of those sitewalks that we had scheduled that got cancelled. So, where are we with that and trying to reschedule them? Yep. Um, we those have been rescheduled for tomorrow at 4:30 and 5:30. Um, 4:30 being the, let me think, the 64 Beaverbrook one and then the 530 is the um 97 mil road. Okay. Anyone able to make those? I'm not able to make them. I can go to the uh Beaverbrook one. Um I

won't be able to make Mill Road though. I can probably pop into the 430, but yeah, the later one might be a little tricky. Yeah, I won't be able to make either. I don't think I need to go to Milro. I'm pretty aware of what's there from the first time we went. It hasn't changed at all in the past four years. Are there speaking of that are there stakes or anything on either? And then perhaps Tim, we might ask if other commissioners could have permission to enter at their leisure. Yeah, I can definitely ask um about that. They had said at least Mill Road, they were all gung-ho and had said, "Yeah, everything's staked out. We're ready to go." So I was when you had said they asked to postpone, that made me a little nervous or I think that was just because we weren't able to get the sitewalk in before this meeting. Okay. All right. So, for the commissioners that aren't on tonight, it might be nice when you have time to just set a reminder that they do have an opportunity prior to the next meeting to go out on site. [Music] Um, anyone seen anything memorable from a conservation standpoint in Littleton or anywhere else in their travels the last couple weeks? Um, I guess speaking of sitewalks, Tim, did you get to go to to Hadawan that that new septic I forget the applicant's name, but they're full boore digging away and have stockpiles of material. Okay. I I wasn't notified that that work started over there. Um, I I wasn't I haven't got to that one. I've got I've gotten to quite a few within the last week. Um, and all sites generally speaking look pretty good. I just happened to drive by that one and saw that they were working. So, yeah.

Yeah, I was able to get out to uh the Trumblewell um 242 King. Uh, how does that How does that one look? Generally good. Yeah. I mean, a lot better than it than it had looked. They still have they're still getting a lot of uh runoff from the the highway that's uh going into the uh the retention basin there. Yeah. Um it's I guess it's I was talking to the uh one of the contractors there and he was saying it's can't remember the last time you saw that thing dry, right? Um, but yeah, they're they're making some serious progress over there as far as the uh the infrastructure goes. Okay, that's great. Thank you for doing all those. Yep. Okay, let's go ahead. 7:45. We'd like to open public hearing request for amended order of conditions, Foster Street Reconstruction, D 204-991. It's a relocation of leeching catch basins and use of herbicides to treat invasive species. I'm going to promote Aaron to talk to that. Oh, okay. I'm unmuted. Uh, good evening, commission. Uh, thank you for the, uh, time slot here. Um, this is a request for two amendments to the existing order of conditions to Foster Street Reconstruction, uh, D file number 2040991. My name is Aaron Keegan. I'm a project engineer for FOS O'Neal uh, representing the town of Littleton, who is the applicant uh, for this project uh, tonight. And um, I will just describe the the two requested

amendments. Um the first is for a change to the order to use a herbicidal treatment for invasive species within the project limits. And I want to start by saying that there is an ongoing discussion um between the contractor Onyx Corporation and uh Mass Mast Dot uh who is managing the project site. They have a landscaping section. They're actually discussing how much herbicide would be needed and if uh strictly non-erbicidal methods could be used. So I actually don't know the result of that discussion. Uh however I don't want to withdraw the request yet. Um and so the request is basically um we've provided a detailed document from a sub consultant named uh SWCA and they've described u the invasive species present within the the project limits. They've mapped them and they've given a um a schedule of potential herbicidal treatment specific to the species of of invasives that were found with um a proposed schedule of application of the herbicides. Um so and that that work would also come with um per mass DOT standard uh provisions would come with periodic um notices to the commission about uh when herbicides are being used, what herbicides are being used. Um so there's requirements for disclosing that information um keeping the commission informed should the work proceed. Um and then there's provisions for um the treatment to uh be checked um through the duration of the construction project to see if invasers have come back. Um and the the standard of um you know eradication is I believe

75% for mass um 75% uh not returning after application and so the um the the proponent would be responsible for relication to meet that standard um through the end of the through the end of the project which is anticipated at the end of uh the year 2026. Uh so that's that's the first part of the request. I can pause now for questions or I can go into the the second part. Erin, I think it would be helpful if you have a moment to screen share for the commissioners um to perhaps show target areas um that we're referencing. I believe that all the commissioners are familiar with the site um and I agree to carry on through this conversation. And if you do know target spots of which herbicide um application would be used. Okay. Um yes. Is there anything else you'd like to see from Aaron with those slide deck? Okay. Carry on. Okay. All right. So the consultant did identify um a number of areas with invasives and they actually kind of went above and beyond and show are showing areas that are beyond the authorized project work limits. Um so the uh the orange line is actually the established Would you excuse me? Would you like to screen share? Oh, okay. Did I not Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I thought it there's one last button. Sorry. Yeah, no worries. Here we go. Okay. Thank Okay. Um, so I'm showing the uh first page of the plant set. Um, we've got this uh red area uh shown in red is identified as having a Japanese knotweed. Um, so the the consultant has identified a larger

area of presence of the invasives than the project limits. The work would only be able to proceed within the massoc project limits. Um and so we the project would not be able to eradicate the entire population identified um beyond the project limits. Um it would only the work would only take place uh inside the orange boundary as shown. Um and so Japanese knotweed the recommended procedure for uh treatment would be uh a folure treatment uh glyphosate and the recommended time frame would be August to mid October. Now I do I do recall that the the consultants also saying that um Japanese nonweed can be managed through non herbicide methods. In fact they they describe a combination of the two methods. Um in some cases removing mechanically with hand tools or power tools burying or or removing the site and then other cases uh treatment. So, and so they would work with um the consultant would basically do a combination of the two, you know, minimizing the uh use of the herbicides. But in this case, it looks like they are asking for permission to use glyphosate during this time frame, always in October for that particular invasive. And so, let me just go to some other parts of the project where there's Japanese knotweed. This is on Taylor Street, um kind of, uh just west of the intersection of Foster Street. If we move through the project, um, we can see another Oh, let's see. That's That's Bittersweet. Um, Japanese notweed again on Foster Street. A small 3x3 area here as we're

moving east on Foster Street. Let me just continue. Um, it's like another patch uh in this area. We're we're now at uh 300 Foster Street. Two patches of Japanese notweed. Um, see, keep going. Looks like this area where at 295 Frost Street, there's some mixed uh density of of Japanese notweed mixed in with some other invasives. Continuing on so quite a bit um as as you can see um in the peripheral of the project. Um, see this area? I don't see any flags there. We're moving towards um, Grimes Lane. Okay, I don't see any flags near Grimes Lane. Moving on, uh, we have a large patch just east of the MBTA station on the north side of Foster Street. Uh this area it looks like a smaller area across from the MBK station on Foster Street. And I guess one more patch uh before we get to uh screen froze here. Hold on just a sec. Oh boy. Okay. So then uh moving to Balsam

Lane, kind of the end of the project. Um let's see if we have any Japanese. Yes. So one more patch here on the south side of Frost Street. Uh move towards Bossam Lane. So those are the major areas of the Japanese knotweed. Um any questions about the Japanese knotweed before we move on to the other species? I think I'm wondering if Yeah, thank you. Um, so you're pointing out all these uh places are are they are you noting all the ones that are outside the limit of work or are they straddling the line? I I'm not quite sure. Well, each each that I mentioned, they they in fact um they overlap the line. So there's there's a portion inside the project limits and then in some cases um a significant portion outside of the project limits. Okay. Thank you. I that's what I was wondering. Mhm. And Erin, are you going to give us when you're done with this a um a treatment area square footage when you've noted these numerous sites a total number? We can certainly do that. Yes. Okay. Okay, thank you. Okay. All right. So, let me proceed to the next uh invasive species. Um apologize, there's a quite a few here. Uh Asiatic bittersweet. Um it looks like the uh treatment protocol recommended is a folure treatment small stems of tricklo. uh cut stems for the large stems of uh trickoper or glyphosate. So I believe the folure treatment is a a backpack unit that uh has a sprayer. Um and then the cut stem is a a method where they cut the uh stem

of the plant and they dab some of the uh herbicide on the uh actual individual plant uh stem. And so that asiatic bit treatment is recommended from June to October. Um and let me just point out the major areas where that's found. Um okay, so right here on Foster Street near the intersection of Taylor Street, we have a you know a fairly long area of low density bittersweet inside the project limits. Continuing on, we have medium density as a asiatic bittersweet. Um, it looks like at the frontage of 300 Foster Street, just inside the project limits, uh, south side of Foster Street, mixed as B suite, uh, just across from that location at the frontage of believe that's just a sec. Let me get the address. There that is. Um, oh, 305 Ros Street. Sorry. Yes, the frontage was 305. Uh, moving on. Um, Asia Bittersweet is also found. Continuing also on the next sheet. Uh that's still 305 Foster Street in the project area on just on the north side of Foster Street. Um another patch here. Uh same property that's quite a large frontage but a separate patch. Uh continuing on

east, another uh area where we find it. Um 295 Frost Street frontage that's on the north side of Frost Street and then across the street um looks like oh 284 Frost Street or the in the parcel adjacent to it. Is that 286 I believe? Um, another spot on 277 Frost Street, the frontage, um, where it meets the public road layout. Um, so quite a bit here. Um, so and again, uh, between Bulky Road and the Route 2 overpass on the south side, Asiatic Bittersweet. And again, um, we see some near the railroad track crossing on Grimes Lane. Um, uh, at the along Grimes Lane itself near Foster Street. Uh, looks like a little bit of the frontage of the MBTA lot. And finally, uh, just across from Boston Lane on Foster Street. So, uh, that's about the frontage of 245 Foster Street. So, that's the story with the Asian bittersweet, Asiatic bittersweet. Any questions about that species before we move on to the next? And I apologize it's fairly lengthy, but uh that's okay. Erin, if you could, can you go back to the list that of all the invasives at the part of your

presentation? Yes. So, I'm I'm curious because this is so vast and diverse, are if the commission were to go out, are all these species and areas noted through flagging um so that the commissioners could be able to walk down each road and see what has to happen for applications? Um not currently, but we we could certainly um make that happen. Um we could also commissioners I I pose that to you. What are your what are your thoughts? Because there there can be multiple invasives in certain areas. How would you like to handle the scope of this? And you're all on mute. I guess before we get too far into that, what what are the potential consequences of MDOT's conversation or whatever is going on is and I don't guess me I don't want to waste your time or our time if you know you have a conversation with your client this week and ultimately they decide to go a different route and this gets pulled completely. Do you have any sort of you kind of hinted that there's a conversation happening um but is there any sort of clarity on what that might mean for this? I mean, my best sense of it is that uh due to scheduling concerns, the contractor may proceed with many of the invasives using non-erbicidal methods, but there may be a few that the mass dot landscaping section determines can only be effectively treated with herbicides. Um, so I I have my gut feeling is that there may be a few left that we may still need to ask for even if it's reduced.

And at that point, Erin, we would still request to go out on site. Commissioners, do you agree with that where this is an amendment, Sarah? Um, if the commission wanted things uh areas flagged where there's invasive species, would you just be looking for areas within the 100 foot buffer zone or if there's riverfront 200 ft where there's invasives or do you want to see the whole whole stretch? Commissioners, what are your thoughts on that? I think any jurisdictional area would be helpful. Okay. So, Aaron, this way we keep the ball rolling for you. I don't think that we're in a position tonight to say yay or nay, although I defer to the commissioners here. Um, I think the scope of this does warrant, you know, a walk on those streets. Commissioners, what are your thoughts? Yeah, I agree with that. Um, I agree. I think we need some more some more clarity on what the scope is. And I appreciate that, you know, you've had somebody delineate them and they know what's there and what the potential treatments are, but I'm very hesitant to say, "Yep, yes," to all this and only use it if you think you need to. I I want a much more specific clear schedule on what's going to be done, right? And we haven't even had a discussion on dosing and proper methodology as well. So, um, Aaron, does that does that make sense? We we recognize that we want to hear you, but we also know this know this job site quite well. Um, and do want to keep this going forward. So, um, my proposal would be to if there's someone that is available to do a walk through with some of the commissioners and obviously the agent. Um, what are your thoughts,

Aaron, on that? Yeah, I mean I I think uh we we can certainly uh meet that request. Um you know, we certainly if if and especially if Masto is insistent upon herbicidal methods for certain uh for certain invasives and kind of narrow down what which ones uh can be treated with just mechanical means or must be in mass dots view treated with uh herbicides. So we yeah, we can certainly you know meet the requests. I've written them down. Um, and so but as far as the walkthrough goes, would you would you prefer to have them flagged and led or would you want them flagged so that you could perform your own walkthroughs or both? I think yeah, guide guided is always more beneficial. Um, and after listening to what MASDOT is going to say or not say, we're happy to wait until that conclusion has been put forward before you go out and flag as well because it may be that there's just targeted areas, but I could be speaking out of turn. Commissioners, what are your thoughts on that? Yeah. No, that was exactly my thoughts there. I I don't think we have them go through all of this. This is a very significant amount by the sounds of it. And if it comes down to most of it just being mechanically pulled and only a few select areas requiring herbicides, I just assume that we look at those. So Aaron, we meet again on June 10th. With your permission, we'd like to continue to the 10th and if you could have communication with Tim to see if you have any updates on that. Certainly. How do we feel about that? Maybe this is beyond the the scope of the conversation now, but but are we talking about

uh removing all of the invasive species even beyond the limit of work? No. That or having some provision to do that? I mean, it seems self-defeating to pull them out up to the line only to have them grow back. All right, Erin, I'll let you answer that. I I understand the concern. The proposal was not to uh provide treatment beyond the limits of work. Um and the main reason for that is that um the project has certain temporary easements on abiding properties and so forth. So, um we we would not be able to kind of re um renegotiate those property easements all along the uh frost tree corridor to in order to work on those adjacent properties to eradicate the uh the adjacent species. So, it that would be setting the bar really that would provide a really uh substantial um complication for the the project. Okay. Thank you for explaining that, Aaron. That was very helpful. Um, any commissioners have any questions? So, I think Aaron, with your permission, we'd like to go ahead and move this forward to June 10th. Okay. Aaron, want to talk about the second uh part of the the request, the uh the catch basins? If I may, that that'd be great. Um, the second request, and I'll I'll make this as quick as I can. We originally had um five proposed leeching catch basins in uh in the project area on Foster Street. Um these are 6ft deep structures that were attached to the back of a traditional catch basin and they um infiltrate water into the ground up to a point and then they flow uh they have a relief mechanism to flow back into the

storm water main after the ground is saturated around them. Uh however, those structures require uh 2 ft of dry area below the bottom of the 6ft structure. And what we found during the test pits when we started construction was that the five locations we had envisioned uh to provide this extra groundwater recharge and infiltration. They all of them had groundwater that was too high um to install these structures. We weren't able to do the test pits during design um because some of them would have been fairly disruptive to uh Foster Street and you know digging a big pit next to the road or in some cases in the existing road. Um so unfortunately we found out rather late that the um maximum stand practical that we were trying to meet uh was not as much as we had hoped. Um, so we have um we did find one location uh a new location. It's actually just west of Balsam Lane where the groundwater was something like 8 and 1/2 ft deep, deep enough for us to put at least one leeching catch basin um to infiltrate some uh some of the storm water runoff that goes into uh this catch basin. Briefly, the way it works, this is a traditional catch deep sump catch basin. This is going to flow to the drainage manhole. Um, this pipe is actually at an elevation where water is going to flow to this chamber. This is the infiltrating leeching catch basin and infiltrated into the ground up until a point when you know there's saturation. The water will then the storm water then will flow back to the drainage manhole and then out to the uh storm water main for overflow. And so this is the one spot where we got good test press results. Um it's 100 it's it's outside of the 100 foot buffer um

about 150 ft west of Grimes Lane on Foster Street. And so the request is to for uh permission to reduce the number of catch basins due to high groundwater from 5 to one in the one being in this location. Wow. Aarin, I don't know how long you've been on this project, but since concept and delivery for plans, we've always said this is a very, very wet site, and we took great precautions to try and make sure that this was going to be a successful project, and I'm I'm very fearful to go from five to one. I'm happy you have one, but I would like to hear the other commissioners. That's a big change. What what so what were you going to do to alleviate um the places you took away the catch basins? Well, you know, unfortunately that with the high groundwater, there isn't um a a practical way for us to infiltrate additional water into the ground. Um you know, that when the groundwater is already that high. I I would add that it was noted during the the permitting process that these leeching catch basins were not they're not a solution. They're not effective at the high uh rain events. That's not really what they're effective at. So, it doesn't change the project's ability to uh handle storm water runoff during the high events. This isn't this was never really a a solution for that. It was really just to get a you know you know meet the storm water standards at a maximum 10 practical provide some more groundwater recharge but with the groundwater as high as it is at the site um it seems that groundwater recharge might be um you know something that's not lacking in this area um and so you know

unfortunately this looks like the maximum extent practical that we can provide for this redevelopment project. So, do you meet the standards now or you do not meet the standards now? We we did not. We met to the maximum extent practical for a redevelopment project. You'd have to refresh my memory on the peer review for the storm water that went through if we went through these areas. We did uh we did in response to commission comments, we did model uh the storm water particularly in this area um and showed that there was a minimal uh increase um of storm water runoff uh due to the project um and minimal impact on the wetland that was that's uh here near 242 Foster Street uh the intersection of Grimes Lane and Foster Street. Um, I don't believe we I don't believe we had a peer review at that time, but we did do some extra analysis on behalf of commission questioning. Thank you for I couldn't remember. Commissioner's thoughts, questions for Aaron. Yeah, I I hate to say kind of it is what it is. Um, I I almost wish that these hadn't been presented to us in the first place because it kind of got those expectations that we were going to receive some additional infiltration um prior to doing any sort of explorations out there. And then how do we know along that point, Kyle? How do we know that if they found this one

fairly, you know, advantageous that has extra cover? How do we know that they've done their due diligence to look for other areas? Yeah. I mean I to some extent we have to have to take their word for it. Yeah. And I mean in just common generality of the landscape there is the highest point of the project right up by Blossom Lane. So it makes sense the groundwater will be deeper here and it is going to be more shallow as you work your way towards the MBTA station and into those resource areas. I I don't know that I'm questioning the the truthfulness of of what was found. It makes sense to me. And like you said, Sarah, we we knew this area had issues with water in the first place, right? And so maybe even if you had said if we thought a little bit harder when they first said this and said, "Oh, these structures are 8t tall." It would have been somebody should have kind of been like, "Wait a minute. We have these resource areas here that are always wet and we want to dig 8t. How close to the groundwater are you? How much more room did you need? Well, in in this location, the groundwater is deeper than 8 and 1/2 ft. But the other places though Oh, they were they varied between um you know, as shallow as as 4T. So, you know, four to four to, you know, between four and 8 ft. So, I was wondering if you couldn't build up the the the grade, if you will, to make essentially like some homeowners do for their septic. They, you know, you won't it wouldn't be a big mount because you could spread it out over a bigger space, but can you build up somewhere else in order to fit the drainage? I guess my question is, is it better to have something that's smaller even though it's not as effective versus zero? Yeah. Well, I mean, unfortunately, we we don't

have um shallower structures for for this purpose um that I'm aware of. And the other issue with building up is that we would have to um right now this this is a gravity system. So, we um I'm just seeing a complication with getting the water up in elevation from the from the street in from the uh traditional catch basin. I'm not talking this spot. I'm talking at one of the other spots that you found won't work. Is there one borderline that if you built up the grade now it's no longer unfeasible, but it's still the same. You're still having to work with gravity, right? You can use this as the example, but it's the same the same premise at all. It's the same premise, but if you're building up the the grade and you grade it in such a fashion that you're you're the required distance over the groundwater and you made everything point toward it, I'm asking trying to find a creative solution. Oh, no, I appreciate the thought. I I just I have a feeling that's that's going to make um you know, for example, we we wouldn't be able to change the profile elevation of the road uh at this point or you know, raise the road um and just getting water to flow up to a new elevation at a different I understand not this location, but yeah. Um, it's gonna prevent Yes, I was I was suggesting raising the elevation of the road at one or two spots if there was if you only needed another foot or two feet, that's not much of an elevation increase. I think Aaron, when you come back on the tent, I think you're you're hearing some questions here to just kind of set some worry aside that you've done some alternative analysis on these other inferior locations. So, okay. Okay. We're going to go ahead and keep moving on for we've got a lot of meetings tonight. Commissioners have

any other questions for Aaron? Yeah. Erin, real quick, just to clarify only because Ed kind of asked this, although you're asking to remove these infiltration catch basins, there's still traditional catch basins at those locations, correct? Yes. Yes. Okay, great. Okay, thank you. Have a good evening. Okay. Thank you. Bye. It's now 8:16. We're going to open up the 8:00 public meeting. Request for determination of applicability. 8 Cricut Lane, removal of six trees. Tim? Yep. I'm promoting Deborah. Does she have a plan or pictures or locusts of where we are on cricket? If not, I will pull one up. And have you been out to this site, Tim? I have not. Good evening. I think you might be muted. I've never been to one of these meetings, so me. That'd be helpful. I'll do my job and try to stay on the screen. Okay. Thank you. Uh, if you could just introduce yourself to the commission with your name and where you live, that would be fantastic. Okay. My name is Deborah Stevens. I live at 8 lane in Littleton. And I'm Linda Turner and I live at Cricket Land in Okay. Just so you know, you're you have to speak up sometimes when you're on Zoom so we can all hear you. Um do you want to tell us why you're why you're here joining us this evening? Yeah, we

have um I mean we have several hundred trees on the property, but there are um six that we're talking about that are making us feel uncomfortable. One's been damaged by lightning. They're all old growth and ready, you know, virtually dying. But we had an arborist come out and um they're scaring us because it feels like they're going to fall on the house at any time. I don't know when that's going to be. I can't do that, but we're looking to have them professionally uh removed. Did I speak loud enough? Yep, that was perfect. Okay. Um do you happen to have pictures that you'd like to share with us or Tim, do you have pictures on file? I can uh I can share my screen of the plan. Okay, great. Oh, I didn't know you're going to show my uh artwork. It's terrible. It is. It is appreciated. Thank Thank you. So, the two um I don't know if you want me to explain, but Sure. the the two in the front facing Spectacle Pond um are two pine trees. I've listed we measured best we could around the trees out back. There are four well there's hundreds like I said of trees, but there are four we're looking to uh bring down as well that are either listing. We lost a few this year further out back, but um that's why we're trying to remove them and then uh we'll replant uh river birch to replace them. I don't want to talk too much. Let's see what else could I talk about. And you stated that you met with an arborist.

Yeah, from tree uh tree masters. We provided a letter. Tim, you have that correct? Yes. Thank you. And his conclusion was the same as yours. There's six trees. Yeah, there's six that were seeking to get taken down. Commissioners, um Tim, you have not been out on site. I have not. Nope. Okay. So, historically, what we would do is we would have the agent go out on site or commissioners. We can do a sitewalk or um one or two can converse with you to set up a time just to basically validate what the arborist has said based on our experience that that's accurate. I see in your notes that um you're not going to grind the stumps down. You're just going to cut them flush. Yeah, cut them flush or a little bit up just to maintain. I don't want any erosion, right? Because the tree has to go. Yep. That's a that's a great concern for us. So, you've done that. Um commissioners questions for applicants. What size of river birch are you? You're you're taking out some fairly hefty trees, I assume. Uh the ones I purchased that I have waiting on the porch are I don't know four feet. I think they're four feet. Fast growing. That's why I selected them. Mhm. So typically what we do is we would ask that these be monitored for a minimum of two years. It's usually three years. So

sadly not all of them make it. So then we would ask you to do a replanting as well. Commission biggest concern is the beavers I think taking them out. Yeah that is a concern. Okay. Tim, what would you like to do? Um I could definitely I could I could probably get out there and take a look if you'd like. Um, if you guys want, we could coordinate something where uh some commissioners come out with me. I I don't mind. I uh Yep. Or if you just bring back photos for us, too. Just let commissioners know when you're going out. So, typically we would have someone go and look at these. We do meet again on June 10th. So, at that point, we can give you more specific feedback, but this sounds as though um it's in order with with hazards um based on the communication that you've given us. All right. Thank you. I appreciate it. We're just looking to do the right thing and be safe. Yep. Any other commissioners have questions? Yeah, Tim, if you do like a midday, if you're doing that during the workday, that tends to be better for my schedule. So, okay. whenever if you want some company to have a commissioner look at it with you just let me know when you're head over there see available sure yeah I can do that as well any times work better for you guys like specifically just need to know ahead of time okay perfect makes it easier same thing with home motor too I guess if there's a better time for you yeah I mean we can we're pretty flexible we can res we can reschedu some things so okay I'll work with you Jim to to sort it out sure Great. Thank you. Have a nice evening. Thank you for joining us. Okay, it's 8:24. We're going to go ahead

to the 8:15 notice of intent 76. Hartwell A parcel ID R17-7-D expansion of a garage and widening of driveway. All right, Bruce and Jonas, I'm promoting you. Good evening. Good evening, Bruce. All right, folks. You all set for us, sir? Yep. Okay. Good evening. Bruce Ringwall from GPR Goldmith Preston Ringwall. Also, Jonas Bellini is with me this evening. We are representing uh the homeowners at 76 Hartwell A. Um this is a Can I share my screen? Yes, please. Okay, thank you. Okay, this is uh just under an acre property, 42,000 square ft. Um the front half of the property is developed. The rear half of the property is woodland and slopes uphill. Um creating a little valley in the backyard. Um there is a um an existing house with a couple existing sheds in the back, a pool, a fenced in yard for their dog. Um and then the edge of the

wetlands. There's a swale that runs on down through here um across the back and eventually becomes a a wetland further south on the property or further south along Hartwell A. Um the applicant would like to expand their garage um and their driveway. Much of this work is all within all of this work is in existing disturbed area. Much of it is already impervious area. This addition would add 420 square ft of imperous area within the outer 50 ft of the 100 foot buffer zone. Um, it would allow them to enlarge their garage and some living space overhead. Uh, there is an existing Allen block retaining wall or ideal block retaining wall along the side of the drive that would be transferred over to the edge over here. Um, we would also, uh, be moving the existing walkway over as well, um, into the side yard and then tie back into the existing walkway that currently comes into the side, tying it back into goes into the pool deck area in the back of the house. There are planters that exist, the existing planter along the edge of the garage right now, which you can only see portions of underneath here. where it looks just like this would be transported out to the edge of the extension of the garage so that there would be additional planting in that area there. The plantings in these areas would be done with native plants and um it's really in a nutshell. We're proposed erosion control starting at the edge of the fence here and bringing it up along the side so that there's no

erosion down into the um the back or into the 50ft buffer zone. And that's it in a nutshell. I turn it over to you folks for any questions and get you back on schedule here. Quick question on the flagging. Bruce, are those recent wetlands flags? Yes, they are. They were flagged by Matt Marorrow in um I think early spring, late winter. Okay. And Tim, you've not been out on site, correct? Uh I have been out on site, albeit when I was out on site, um there was a different project idea. Um so it was going to be in a different uh location of the property. Um so my evaluation of the the wetlands was more so towards the uh if this plan is pointing north uh towards the the north uh northwestern side of the the site. If I may, Madam Chair, the uh the sheds here, this this is actually two sheds adjacent to one another. This shed was going to be replaced in kind with a shed that opened on the end and they wanted to build the driveway on the plan north side here back into this shed. And after having some conversation with him and all, um I he said, "Well, one other idea we had was to expand the house." And I said, "That'd be much better. You're all in man an area that's disturbed and a lot of it's impervious already." and we're staying further away and we're not going into roughly 50 foot buffer line in that area as well. Um, this channel area here is piped across the neighbor's property and piped across this first portion and then picks up and runs from here on down as open. And then a couple lots down further, it's piped

again and then much further down the road it opens up into wetlands. and wetlands flags too. That is that an elevation or is that a distance? I can't see what that one says. To the right of Yeah, right there. This is 56 ft going from here to the erosion control is 56 ft. Is there any drainage coming off the proposed addition coming down into that swale or wet area? No, we're going to try and collect it in drip edge along the edge here. We're going to try Well, it's going to come down and I don't know if the architect's going to put a gutter on or if it's just going to be a drip edge. If it's a drip edge, you go in. If it's a gutter, we can put it into a drywall. Okay. One of the two will be used to be a dry well we would want it on the plan. Okay. Commissioners questions. Did you say this was already impervious? Meaning where the garage is going right now is already hot tub. Um not hot tub. There's a brick walkway that comes down through here. Uh and this portion right in here is a a wider brick drive than the garage area. Uh this is a retaining wall that comes down along the edge. Um this walkway through here. So in the process of doing this and moving this all over, there's an additional 420 square ft in the buffer zone of imperous area. When we've had other projects, water ret

um water off the off the roof has been a very uh noted conversation. Uh so I would assume that you'd need to address that here somewhere somehow. So like I said, we can you can make it a condition that we either put a dry put it into a dry well that we think outside the 500 ft zone or we put it into a drip edge. Again, I don't know if the current house has gutters or if it's just drip edge. Um, and I don't know what the architect has planned. Okay. Bruce, do you actually have any photos that you'd like to share with us of the current site? Sure, we could definitely do that. Thank you. You bet. See if I can do this without While you're doing that, Bruce, I'll ask a question. Um, what's the foundation going to be for this edition? I'm sorry. The foundation. Is there a new foundation? There there's an existing foundation now and it will have just a frost wall foundation go in. There be slab on grade. So, excavation excavation will be taking place to to put that frost wall in. That's correct. Okay. Going to be outside the buffer area. Did this uh photo come up on the screen? Not yet. It did not. Did not. Okay, I got to stop sharing and reshare. There we go. Okay, so this is the driveway. As you can see, it's wider than the garage in this area in here. So, it's really not widening in the driveway by much on this side. all but a couple feet in front of the garage are outside the buffer zone. Um, this, as you can see, has a a salt

box roof right now. It looks like there's a gutter in the front over here and in this area. Um, so I would assume that they would be adding another gutter on that side. Given that, we'll just put a drip edge. I put a recharge chamber underneath the planter. Um, let's see if I can change photos. already have a garage. What are they going to what are they doing to it? They're they're widening it. It's very small garage and they have another vehicle that they need to store. Um and so rather than having it a whole driveway going down the other side of the yard further back, they're adding to the garage on this side. Okay. Um, I'm going to try and change photos here. Did I never know with uh the the webinar whether that comes up. Did that come up or did I have to stop and share again? It did not. Seeing the original photo. Okay, I'm going to stop and share again. It'll be a process. We'll get through it. So, here is there is a gutter on this side. Comes down and it discharges here. Um, like I said, we have no problem taking that roof and putting it into a recharge underneath the planter. I'm going to stop and share one more time to get us to the next photo. This is the existing planter on the side of the garage. We'd be moving it over on the side of uh the next piece. It hasn't shared proof. Ah, man. Oh, man. I thank you for that. Got to have it right there. Got it. There we go. This is the existing planter on the side of the garage. Um, this all would be just kind

of picked up and moved over. Well, dismantled and reinstalled. Stop. We're going to get better at this, I promise. So most of the work you're doing is between 50 and 100 ft from the wetlands. That it sounds like all of it's between 56 and 100. That is correct. And this is the walkway stone rather than mulch in this area cuz they're getting some better recharge out of it apparently. This photo did come through, right? Yes. Okay. Um, this area here, this will all be behind the garage. And then the walkway will come in on this side and then turn a 90 and go through the existing entrance into the the gate around the pool area. Let me just take again here. I think I got in that first photo, it looked close to the adjacent property. Are variances required for any setbacks? Nope. Nope. Um, it's uh none whatsoever. We meet the uh 15 ft plus setback on the side. And this next photo I stop and share again one more time. Is there any concern about the the water? I mean there's going to be more water going down toward that toward the neighbor than there is today. I assume unless maybe I'm wrong on that. Um I'm thinking that there is. No. Uh especially if we have um we have gutters right now and that gutter in the front discharges out onto this area and recharges into the stone. We put it into a leeching chamber underneath this whole area. Uh then we're going to be eliminating that that issue alto together. So, um, you know,

as I said, there's there's a max of 420 square ft of additional, um, impervious area. Do you have thoughts of what you have for soils underneath that for that recharge? Um, I don't I I don't have the soils map up on this site right now. Um, but uh I know across the street uh and there was good sandy soils in a couple areas, so I have a feeling that it should be pretty decent. Um, and we would have a popup admitter to the thing. So, we'd get a fair amount of of storage as well as recharge in and then pop up been uh you know in the stone landscaping you know outside the 56 area because this fence is at 56 ft um you know we'd be popping up Bruce I don't know the last time you were out on site is there I'm just curious with all the rain that we've had is there standing water in that swale I do not know okay I doubt it because there's a fair amount of topography change going along there. It's been a long time since I've been out on site. Okay. Yeah. Commissioners, what would you like to do? Wetlands Flags needs to be verified. And then if people would like to see the site. Yeah, I think so. Okay. You want to throw some dates out there for site visit? Don't know. Like I said before, I just need to know ahead of time. All right. Who would like to throw a date out? We have nice light evenings these days, provided it's not raining.

Okay. Ed, do you want to throw a date out? I know you're my my calendar is such that I I needed to be after work but I work from home so that makes it a little easier. Um yeah we already have a couple tomorrow so next week looks like would be okay. Um most any day next week I would say. Um, yeah, as long as it's, you know, if we can make it 5:00, that would be great. But all depends on what everybody else needs. Right. Anyone want to throw in a date for next week as we start the month of June? Don't remind me. I could do the uh 2nd or the 5th. So, why don't I do June 5th at 5:00? Does that work for anyone? I might be able to make that, too. So, okay. And then that might be Well, I can make as well. Andrew, I mean, um, Tim, can you send out a reminder? Bruce, I'm assuming that would work right now. I think it does. Okay, fantastic. Um, Bruce, it looks like that's somewhat straightforward. If you're not able to make it, if you could ask the owner if we could have permission to walk that line. You bet. Okay, great. We meet again on June 4th. I mean June 10th, sorry. Excuse me. We will see you on June 10th and before that on the sitewalk on June 5th. Sounds awesome. Okay, great. As of very early this morning, we did get a D number for this project. So, do you want to share that with us? Uh, I'll send it over to Tim in the morning. Yeah, I I got it. They they did not have any comments. Okay, great. I won't send it to Tim in

the morning. All right. Thank you very much. All right, guys. Have a great week. We'll talk see you on uh next Thursday evening. Good night. Now, 8:41, let's open the 8:30 public meeting. Request for determination of applicability. MBTA, Cless Vegetation Management Plan. Hey guys, sorry I'm so late. Carl here. Hi Carl. Hey Carl. Um I'm um I'm I'm on Hean Island and the internet is awful. Oh no. All right. The view is beautiful. But the but the view is worth it. Yes. Okay. Tim, who's here to pres who to talk about this? Yep. We have Matt Donovan here to to talk to us. Hello everyone. My name is Matt Donovan from Benes here to represent Kolis. Can you hear me? Yep. Great. Perfect. Um, so we submit this um RDA to your commission to confirm the accuracy of the maps used for vegetation management along the right ofway. The RDA is submitted to your commission every 5 years required by CMR1 and it's required to get these determinations before submitting the 5-year vegetation management plan to Mass Department of Agricultural Resources. The vegetation management plan is designed to manage and control vegetation necessary to keep the railroad and operation safe. Uh and there are regulations in place to keep the sensitive areas protected throughout the duration of this plan. These can be found in CMR1 as well as our vegetation management plan. The maps we provide you with are mainly made for the chemical portion of the plan but often dictate where mechanical methods will be used due to chemical restrictions. There are two main chemical applications each year. one in the May to June time frame that targets the roaded and one in the August September time frame that targets the brush in the areas adjacent to the roaded. The sensitive areas that are marked with blue and yellow on the maps are restricted from the brush program and will only receive the roaded application. Um, so that's what I'll focus on as it's the only chemical

program taking place in the sensitive areas of your jurisdiction. However, if there are questions about the brush program, I'd be happy to answer those as well. Do you want to go ahead and share your screen so you can go through those areas and the different hues of blue? Yes. Sorry about that. Meant to do that right off. But uh yeah, so here are the maps. I can scroll through them towards the end um if there's any areas. Take a take a second just to acclimate the um commissioners where you're referencing. Yeah. So, this is the rail commuter rail right ofway. Um, that's marked with the railroad tracks here going through your town. Um, and the blue and yellow zones as I'm about to go over um signify different um areas for spraying and levels of vegetation management due to the restrictions that I just um mentioned in CMR1. Where's the train station itself? way farther away. Okay. Um I'm not sure. Do you see it anywhere? That's okay. Oh, I didn't see Foster Street anywhere. So, um All right. I don't I didn't mean to to distract from here. Okay. So So the road application is performed by a spray track that drives on the track um and is equipped with nozzles on the back side that are located about 18 in above the ground. It sprays a solution directly down onto the track. The truck has arms that have nozzles on the arms that target the shoulders of the road up to 12 ft from the center line of track. The

certified applicator is always accompanied by an environmental monitor familiar with site conditions and equipped with these maps instructing the operator as necessary. The applicator has the ability to turn off all the nozzles or in many cases just the side nozzles where it's targeting the shoulders where it may be getting close to the buffer zone of a sensitive area. It can do that with the flip of a switch. Um the yellow zones will never receive any treatment to the shoulders. Um however may still receive treatment directly down onto the ties. Um, and that's done at the environmental monitor and um, and applicator's discretion to stay in conformance with the regulations. The light blue zones typically represent being between 10 and 100 ft of a sensitive area and these will typically receive the full roaded treatment. Um, that will be done at a one-year minimum interval based um, in conformance with the regulations. The dark blue zones are more so DP and um water supply areas. These will receive the road bed treatment every 2 years. Um in these blue and yellow zones due to the limited spray zone um limited chemicals, more effort is put into controlling the vegetation with physical and mechanical measures. Um especially in the areas adjacent to the track that will that won't receive the brush program. Um each the chemicals each year will always be coming from the right of way approved sensitive area material list provided by Mass Department of Agricultural Resources and we do include that mixture in the yearly operational plan that we send to your commission um every year. So we are seeking a positive two-way determination um to confirm the maps as well as a negative determination for the work that's included in the vegetation management plan. Um, so I'd be happy to uh to look at any spots in particular or answer any questions that the commission may have.

So, it's been a long time and I would say the majority of these commissioners have never gone on those tracks to kind of look at this. Um this particular act started in 1987 but can you tell us changes from either last year to this year or from when this permit started what was it five years ago? Yes. So are there certain areas that either treatment is not working and so the area has expanded? No. No. It's uh it's been effective. um they have this down where it's a they do have to manage um in these the yellow and dark blue zones where they're not able to to do the um brush spray. They do they do have to actively um fight the encroaching um vegetation on the areas adjacent to the track um with mechanical measures. it's always easier without having to deal with the sensitive areas um where they can where they can just do the annual spray in those areas. So I would say that's the biggest challenge in these areas. Um but nothing none of the markings have changed since 5 years ago and none of the work itself has changed either. Um can you remind you what are the wind parameters so that you don't have the float? What is the what is the wind when it gets to be too high they can't spray? I don't know exactly what the speed is, but there definitely are regulations that the the applicator needs to um stay in conformance with and that is a licensed applicator in the state of Massachusetts. Um there's rain they won't be spraying in the rain. There's um weather restrictions that they they need to stay in conformance with. And what Kilus does is they'll they'll schedule so many extra days. Um, so if it's if they're planning on it taking 8 days to do the entire system,

they'll maybe schedule um 12 or 15 days to to account for um having to skip a few days due to the weather. How are the average homeowners notified? What was that? How are the average homeowners that are in proximity to the tracks notified? That would just be we we send certified mail to the board of health conservation commission um and select board's office every year and the Mass Department of Agricultural Resources um via certified mail before any uh application takes place. And there also is a um legal ad placed in uh the newspaper. Okay. So the average doesn't know about it. You don't actually tell the homeowners. No. No. Unless they happen to be reading the paper you happen to put it in. Yeah. Or if they go to their local kind of cold, don't you think? Or dangerous. Yeah. Well, that's what Yeah. I mean, that's why we're we're staying in conformance with these regulations is to for to offer as much protection as possible. And has the chemicals or the dosage changed in your experience in the last couple years? How would we know what areas are receiving higher dosages? Um the for the actual roaded and brush program that's it's always the same dosage. Um, as far as if they go back to a area again, if it needs a touch-up program, that would just be happening in the the non-sensitive areas because in these blue and yellow zones, it is only allowed to to receive that one treatment. Um, as far as if the chemicals have changed or if the doses

have changed, not significantly. the the right of way approved sensor material list by Mass Department of Mass Department of Agricultural Resources has changed slightly um as they've added or subtracted a chemical here and there. Um and is that filing? So from the last 5 years we know what the change has been. Yeah. Well, the link is in the filing um where it links you to the the MD um specific to our tracks or just random throughout the Commonwealth. We use the same mixture for the entire um system, all 103 towns. It will receive the same the same roaded treatment and the same brush treatment. Okay. Thank you. Commissioners questions. Sorry, I've been hogging all the questions. This sounds like something they're going to do with or without us. So, well, that's the railroad. That is true. Commissioners, any questions? This is your time to if you want to go out and see anything or review it. This is your opportunity. Yeah, I remember getting out to see this was not the easiest task. I Well, CO didn't help. That was when this whole process happened. But I know we tried to get Amy out there. Um, and I don't know that she was ever able to because of those restrictions and needing to be on a rail and you know certain certifications or whatnot who she had to be accompanied with and what she was allowed to do. Um, I've been You're lucky. Oh, frightening. The only part of this that feels iffy is the 12ft wings that you talked about. The stuff on the track itself on the gravel of the track, I don't have a big issue with that, but

having the booms out 12 ft on each side um seems disconcerting. You know, um there's no way for you to control where that is going to go. Um, you didn't say you don't do it near homes the the the the width. I mean, I got I got the sense and maybe I'm wrong that this is pretty much you put the 12T booms out on each side. You you spray the outsides and you spray the track all as it's driving along. And if the for some reason he has to shut it off, he can. But the goal I hear is drive along and get it done. Am I accurate? You're accurate. Um the 12 ft is is the road bed itself is um 12 ft wide the actual structure of the track. So I guess 12 ft might sound like a lot but that is the ballasted area. Um whereas the brush program they'll be spraying and that's always going to be sprayed straight down from 18 in above the ground. Um the brush program is where they're spraying um more so like 20 and 30 feet off into the distance adjacent to the track. Um okay. So that the 12 ft that's just the the the structure of the track itself width. So how are you protecting the homeowners from the 20 to 30 feet spray of the brush program? Well, this is all in a the road the right ofway property itself is is 100 ft wide in most areas. So, it's not getting to the the yards, but they would never spray off their property. And that's where you said the wind could they couldn't do the brush program if it was too windy because then that spray could go beyond where you expect it to go.

Yeah. To limit the drift. um that that's the yeah there are regulations for um I guess as long as you're within your right away and don't bother the homeowners then I any other questions commissioners feedback I've ridden the train often enough and it seems like it's it's all in bounds So they're looking for a positive 2A and then adding a negative five with exemptions. Is that correct, Matt? Yes, that's correct. Sound ignorant here. I have no idea what you just said. Um Matt, do you want to explain that what you're seeking? Yeah, we would be seeking a positive 2A determination to confirm the maps as well as a negative five determination with exemptions um for the work included in the vegetation management plan to uh be exempt from an NOI. Okay. Thank you. Anyone like to make such a motion? [Music] I move that we approve the request for ter termination of applicability for MBTA kololis vegetarian not vegetarian vegetation management plan. So and they would be asking for a positive 2a to confirm the maps and then also a negative five with exemptions um supporting their vegetation management plan and not requiring to do a notice of intent. Is that correct Matt? Correct. Okay. So, what you just said? Okay. Do we have a second? Second. Second.

All right. Roll call votes. Um, Michael Michael Livingston. I Ed Ed. Carl Carl. I Kyle Kyle Knoxfield. I Sarah Sarah Seward. I myself. It's unanimous. Thanks everyone. Have a good night. Thank you. Thanks Matt. 8:57. We're going to open the 8:45 continued public hearing. Request for amended order of conditions forge pond DP 204-0872 inclusive herbicides use and diver assisted suction harvesting also referred to as dash to treat aquatic invasions invasive species plants. Okay. And I will note that I have to recuse myself as a butter. Okay. Thank you Tim. Who's is Dave here? Dave is here. He has muted. So Tim, I'm going to ask you to go ahead in uh the essence of time to do if you feel comfortable doing just an update of where we are at the moment. There was some uh discussion at the last meeting. um quorum was not uh available at that time and so we're back um seeking uh amended order of conditions. Yep. So, uh if you remember at the the hybrid meeting we had a couple meetings ago, um Dave Bar came in front of you guys um basically seeking approval of whether that whether or not this can go ahead as a request for uh amended order conditions or an entirely new filing. and it was voted uh by the commission

that this would go ahead as a request for an amended order of conditions. So, I know we didn't have um form at that that last meeting. I listened to the hearing. Um questions on on what is being requested? Go ahead, Andrew. Yeah, I I was just um remembering back in April, did we already vote this by chance um to grant the the herbicides? I thought we had already voted on this. Not on the herbicides, I believe. Tim, if you want I'm trying to remember. Um you said back in April, Andrew. Yeah, would have been late March, early April. I I seem to recall that we voted to I know we talked about herbicides at some point. Dave did give a presentation of the uh of of what he what he's asking for and and I'm not sure if if that was the vote that you're talking about. I was at the hybrid meeting, Andrew, do you know? Well, and we know that we can't do dredging anymore and dash falls within the dredging. Yes. Say what was what was discussed at the April meeting? Yep. Go ahead, Dave. So on April 8th, we came with the question that Tim referred to as to whether uh this request uh needed to be a new notice of intent or if it could be an amended order of conditions for the existing conditions and there was a vote that it could go ahead as an amended order of conditions. Um, that was the discussion. That was a vote. I uh presented what we are confronted with and what we're asking for as a result of

what we're confronted with. Um, we two weeks later we were scheduled to have a meeting, but there was no quorum. Uh, two weeks ago, uh, we started the discussion. I made another short presentation again. Uh there was um a bit of a discussion but then the hearing got ended because um there was a recusement and there were only three members available. So, um 7 weeks ago we you voted to um allow this to come as an amended order of conditions and um we had a presentation then a short presentation two weeks ago but this is the first actual full hearing on it. I see. Okay. So, that vote was essentially just to allow it as an amended order abduction but not to grant the amended order. Yeah. April 8th It's all coming back to me. Sorry, you're muted. So Dave, you specifically have some questions on algae blooms and that would be the source of using this particular application method. So, uh, we're asking for approval, uh, for the, uh, all but three of the herbicides that are approved in Massachusetts, and those herbicides are also can be used as algicides. Um, we mostly have an issue with uh, the uh, uh, rooted plants. uh but uh once in a while there have been algae blooms. So it seemed to make sense since it's the same uh chemicals that

are used um that are approved uh for for for both that we're asking for uh for use as both herbicides and algicides. Um if uh the condition comes up where algae blooms are about to happen uh it's necessary to move quickly and if we have to come and do a whole process to get approval for the algicides um it would be too late to use it. Okay. So, we're asking for the same uh herbicides that are approved by the mass uh uh D to be approved for either one. And commissioners, you can amend this for a shorter period of time if you prefer as well. So, to kind of come back to this a year from now based on success of the of the application if it's needed. questions. Yep. Go ahead, Dave. So, I'll just point out that uh Spectacle Pond and Long Lake have had these orders of conditions in place for decades. They've been using them for a long long time and uh they are they just got reapproved for their they just got their orders extended uh last year. But you're asking for an amendment. Yeah, I was just pointing out that's why I'm just throwing it out to see if that helps make it a little bit more palatable for the commissioners. You certainly don't have to do that. So yeah, I mean I would have expected that we're going to see similar to what they've already been providing, you know, an annual summary report of of something of some kind, right, at a minimum. So but I I I see what you're

getting and I think I agree that we should have some flexibility on um on if we agree this is the right path after x years if it's a year and say nope this is not working you got to come up with a alternative solution um I think that seems reasonable for us we've listened to everything's still changing in terms of and permitting and it seems like a moving target yeah having said that I've I've been to a couple of those meetings and listening to mass deer and the agricultural um they are very pro these applications right now. They're you know they have they've presented a lot of a lot of data a lot of case studies that have been going on for multiple years now um that seem to be benefiting their their areas. So I would have been a lot more skeptical had I not sat in on those meetings for sure because you know you hear these things sat in on I sat in on the first one and I thought I was very well informed. But having if I wouldn't have done that I would have I would have stepped back right away say we're talking chemicals right you hear these things and putting in water you say no right away. So I think if you if anybody else has time and hasn't listened in on those it it is very um beneficial much more comfortable. Right. And um Kyle, that's that's thoughtful. As a reminder, Tim, it might be nice to send along to the commissioners some of those audio recordings. Yeah, I can recirculate that the the first meeting. I'm not sure. I went back to see if I could find the second meeting. Um and I I don't believe it was recorded, but I can do another I'll double check that. Okay. Commissioners, where would we like to go with this? So, they're circling back. They're looking for an amended order. There's is it so it's amending to use

herbicides algicides. Is there a second part to the amendment? Was there some sort of mechanical removing that's being included as well? Now, Dave, it's not allowed right now. That's why I'm asking because I thought there was a two-part it. It is said herbicide use and dash but dash is not allowed at the moment. So the request was to approve it. We wouldn't be using it until we have uh the um dredging permit and is that something that's happening in the near future? Is there a permit? It's under It's underway. The uh clean lakes committee is uh working on getting uh a dredging permits for uh Spectacle Pond, Long Lake uh and uh Lake Malawani. And this what we call dash diver assisted suction harvesting falls under that same category. Dave, correct? Uh Tim checked with D and they said that they consider it to be uh yes falling under the same um so you're just trying to do this preemptively that if you can get a dash permit you already have our support correct? Okay commissioners what are your thoughts? I think that works. maybe make it subject to getting uh you know approval for that and yeah and so I don't want to keep laboring this but this was something that we had already approved in our order of conditions with the condition that if and when they decide to use that they needed to present it to us correct come back again Yes.

Okay. So, I guess what we're looking for is a motion to amend. I will I will add that uh National Heritage did uh get back to Dave and that they um their stance was that it will not have any adverse effects. Okay, perfect. And Dave, I did read through through everything you said, but and I don't remember now. I read earlier in the week, but or last week. Um, was there do you have like a dosing schedule, a time schedule, and when this would take place, that seems to be one of the things that we're trying to be more aware of and controlled. Uh you asking about uh the herbicides that we would be doing this summer, correct? Uh we have funding that's good until the end of June. So we would be planning to do it next month. And you and you're still going to notify the commission when you're doing that? Sure. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Commissioners, I'll make a motion. I'll make a motion to uh issue an order of condition, sorry, an amended order of conditions for Forge Pond DL number 204-872 uh to include the um use of herbicides and the diver assisted suction harvesting uh subject to the reporting um as outlined uh previously. How long do you want to make that for? One year or three years? I'll make that for uh one year. Okay. Do we have a second? Second.

All right. Roll call vote. Ed, question. Oh, sure. Uh I'm just wondering why this lake is being treated differently than the others. We haven't had applications from others to my knowledge. Sorry. Have we had applications from others yet that have asked that have asked for amendment? Spectacle Pond. Uh so in terms of the use of herbicides, Spectacle Pond and Long Lake both have used herbicides for decades. Like I said, they have already have existing orders of conditions for this that have no reporting, no no restrictions. It's a great question. And they came through the commission. Yeah. I believe those orders originated back in the early 2000. I could be wrong. I believe they've originated back in the early 2000s and they have been extended since. Right. But I think Dave makes a good Dave makes a good point that, you know, the next time that they're due for extension, we need maybe we need to be taking a a little closer look at that and Right. Yeah. No, because I want to be 100% consistent for Exactly. Yeah. So I totally agree and that's so unfortunately yeah Dave you guys are first of mine to have stepped up to have to present to us and I think it's yeah it's very fair that they should be held to the same standards as well now all the rest will be with you at some point right it just might not be until their orders are due to be extended again and that's something I know Tim doesn't have time to do that now but it is that would be a healthy exercise for if we ever get an assistant to kind pull those um OC's and see when they come up and flag them to let the let whoever the applicant know that there's you know new rules they were renewed last uh spring. Okay, thank you. Have we taken a roll call

vote, Andrew? Not yet. Uh so we can go ahead and do that now. Um Ed Edi Kyle Kyle Maxfield I K I Sarah Sarah Seward I and Michael is a recusal and myself I so that is one two three four five Hold on one second one two three four five I's and one recusal. Okay, great. Thank you. Good luck, Dave. Good luck, Dave. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. It's 9:13. We're going to open up the 9:00 continued public hearing. Notice of intent, Blood Road, Mass E 204-1920, installation of underground electrical lines, including under a stream. Yeah, I'm promoting Brian and and Josh to speak to this. Brian Marcetti here, McCarti engine. Uh Josh Duterra with Lunberg Electric Light is also uh attending the meeting here tonight. Um so at the last hearing um we close with a few questions requesting a couple modifications to the plans. Um, and I can uh if I can share my screen with you, I'll go over the specifics. All right. So, we can see the screen here. Yep. Um, so the revisions were were minor. I just added note number seven here and number eight. Um, so the first question that came up was for the utility poles that we're demoing here that are within

the wooded area and wetland area. So it's utility pole six, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Um, really 6, 7, 8, and nine are the ones that are within the the wetland area and the wooded area. Um, what's going to happen when they remove them? So, as we discussed, the utility poles are going to be cut at grade. uh they're not going to be pulled out of the ground. So they'll be saw cut at grade and then dragged out of the woods with a cable. So we added a note here that any disturbed areas resulting from the removal of the utility poles shall be seated with New England roadside matrix upland seed mix by New England wetland plants incate one pound per 1200 square ft provides a broad spectrum of grasses, wildflower and shrubs blended together as a native matrix seed mix. Um, so we're not really anticipating much disturbance, but if there is anything from dragging the utility poles, which again is much less invasive than if we had to drive excavators out there to remove um these sections of poles. Um there's now a note in the plan that says how that disturbed area would be repaired. Um the second comment was uh if the excavated material from the utility trench is not suitable to back fill, what are we going to do with the material? Um so we discussed that it would be removed from the site. So, we've memorialized that on the plan. And note number eight, all excess trench spoils that are not suitable for reuse within the utility trench shall be exported offsite and stored at the Littleton Electric Light and Water Department's utility yard or shall be temporarily stockpiled on site at the location shown on this plan. All stock piles must be protected from storm water run off and run on using temporary perimeter sediment barriers such as straw water or silk pens. You can see here the green area, the circle I located here in the

plan is the temporary stockpile area. Uh it's located outside of the 100 foot buffer zone. Um and it is also within a the existing uh power easement out there. So it's not within an area that's used by the farmer uh you know as as valuable real estate for his his hang and farming operations. So, so that was the second item that was addressed and added to the plan. And then on sheet two, uh we had discussed originally that there were 14 trees being removed. Um we proposed putting 14 back. Uh the commission didn't think a 1:1 replication was adequate because of the size of the trees being removed versus what was being planted. So um you know without further guidance from your bylaws we proposed basically a 3:1 replication. Uh we'll we'll plant the same 14 trees that were proposed previously the 2in diameter. Um what we'll also propose an additional 28 shrubs. Uh that was discussed doing shrubs in lie of trees just because the property that the work is occurring on is not owned by the Littleton um electric light and water department. Uh it's it's farm property. So we don't want to put trees back in, you know, on the farmer's land that he uses for for his agriculture production. Um, so we're proposing additional 28 shrubs and we propose 14 high bush blueberry and 14 witch hazel, which are species that are uh on the property and within the area of uh the edge of the wetlands and within the wooded area that's adjacent to where we're performing the work. Um, so again, we're proposing an additional

28 shrubs um on the site. So that was the the gist of what was requested after the end of last meeting. Uh a waiver request was also prepared initially but it was never submitted. So I did submit the waiver request that we put together and again this was for work that's occurring within the 50oot no disturbance zone in the tree room. So this was provided um to Tim last week. Sorry. I'm assuming I haven't read the narrative on that. That's just in meeting the public interest for utility. It is. Yeah. So So the reason we're here is these utilities that are located within the wetland area. They're inaccessible. It's within an area where there's been disturbances before and it's it's really hard for the Littleton Electric Light Department to get in there and actually perform uh the repairs to keep power uh to the residents out here. So the plan here is is in addition to that uh the national grid has also requested and uh they they've asked or demanded that Littleton Electric removes the utilities that cross uh the the poles that here run underneath their existing utility easement. So utility pole 9, 10, and 11 are are actually within underneath the high tension wire easement. So they've been asked to remove those poles. So the the only alternative is to put it underground and uh the land owners allowed uh Littleton Electric Plate and Water Department to uh locate the utility here on the northern side of their of Blood Road which is outside of his his agriculture area. So commissioners, I know some of you were here for the last meeting um to go through some of the narrative. Does anyone have any questions?

Sarah, I don't think the uh the 28 shrubs are appropriate personally for the replacement of the trees, especially like the witch hazel. I'm wondering we're putting in shrubs. Why don't we make like it's on top of the 14 trees, too. So, they presented 14 trees initially at the last meeting. Yeah. And so that's on top of the so still we're still we're getting 14 trees but it it's goes back to the real estate issues you know not yeah because they don't the light department doesn't own the land and so with the farmers shrubs would be less kind of in the way so they're replacing some of the trees. So minimum is the trees and then they've added in based on our request to put in more and that's where the shrubs and the witch hazel came in. That's where we're getting to the three to one, which is I guess I'm just wondering like why would you choose witch hazels is if you're putting in shrubs, why wouldn't you make them like good pollinators? At least we'll get some benefit. I'm sure Brian will take any of your suggestions. We'll we'll as long as we can stick to those numbers, I'll give you anything you want. We we propose. All right, there you go, Carl. That's the best all day. He'll give you whatever you want species because they're native species here that are on the property. Yep. I would just I would just choose I would just choose better pollinators. I'll leave that up to you. Okay. If if you want to make that a condition of approval, we could certainly, you know, provide him with an updated list, you know, before the plantings are done that he could he could review. That's great. It was a blessing. Okay. Anybody else have any questions? Nope. If not, do we have someone that would like to make a motion for this notice of intent for Blood Road? I move

that we approve the notice of intent for Blood Road Mass D 20410 with the condition that they change out the witch hazel with better pollinators and let Tim know once that uh is identified. I'll second Thank you, Michael. All right, roll call votes. Uh Sarah Sarah Seawward. I Ed Fultai. Michael Michael I. Carl Carl Melberg I Kyle Maxfield I myself I it's unanimous. Thank you. Brian, can you just let the office know when you're going to start? Certainly. Um, what's what's uh I guess from here, what's the timing of when you you'd be able to order issue the order so we can get that recorded and get it under under uh you know, your thoughts? A week. They're kind of swamped right now, but yeah, I would I would say somewhere around uh a week towards the uh beginning of next week, I can I can give you an update on on where we stand. Oh, yeah. I think within a couple of weeks, we'll have it back. Oh, yeah. Uh I'd say probably closer around a week. Okay, great. Thank you. Someone can always come in and pick that up, too, if they don't want to have receive it certified mail. Yeah, we we'll do that. We'll do that. Great. All right. Thank you. Yep. Thank you all. Have a good one. Okay. It's 9:23. We're going to open the 9:15 continued public hearing notice 1065 Bruce Street, DP 204-1016, construction of an addition and installation of a septic system. Who would like to speak to that? Tim, I think you've been out on site, correct? I have. Yep. I went out um last week to uh confirm the wetland flags and

actually met out with um I can't remember his name, the wetland scientist over at places to confirm soils. Um um is the applicant joining us this evening? Yes, we have Randy Miller and John Bordman here to to speak to this. Okay. Yep. Good evening. This is John Borman. Can you hear me? Appreciate that. Uh I see we've got a short time on the schedule, but I wanted to give everybody an update and see if we can uh get any questions that are outstanding. Um since the last meeting, we've made some significant changes to the plans. Uh our original submission not to interrupt you, but with that, do you have a plan that you would like to share with the commissioners? I know there's a few that are here that didn't attend the last meeting. So, just kind of backtrack and show them your plan. Sure. Thank you. Let me see how I do. Is that showing up on your screens? It is. Awesome. All right. So, we're at 65 First Street. Um the application is for the installation of a septic system. uh that septic system has been reviewed and approved by the board of health. That's located here at the bottom of the plan. See if I can scroll down. Um can you highlight the old system that's being removed? Your other plan highlighted that. Yeah, you shrank the picture. Thank you. There you go. So, the yellow is the existing older septic that's being disabled. Correct. Um I think it's original to the house. So, it's over 30 years old, I believe. Uh it's tired and

it's not sized properly. So, we're looking to install a system that's in full compliance with the state and local regulations that will provide better treatment. Uh and in addition, it is out fully outside the uh 50- FFT no disturb buffer zone of the commission. Uh so we feel that we've done the best we can on that to meet all of the requirements. Uh the second part of this project is the property owner is looking to add an addition. Um when we came in front of you last time, uh we were proposing that addition to be located uh in an area that is currently parking and was within the 50ft buffer zone. It was discussed with the commission and the the uh interpretation we got after that meeting was that that was not really an acceptable approach. Uh the client went back to the drawing boards and has since uh proposing the that addition may be moved to the front. It is located here. Pardon my sort of rough sketching. Uh outside that 50-ft buffer zone. um so that we feel that we now fully comply with your local conservation regulations. Uh in addition, it was questioned by the I think he was the chair or the assistant chair, I apologize, uh about adding uh drainage uh storm water mitigation. Uh so we have added two additional two drywalls that were not part of the original plan. uh again to try and comply with the storm water management regulations to the maximum extent feasible which I believe is uh the last regulation in your in your list um and requirement for sites that have a certain amount of impervious area added to the site. So I think we've done a lot here to try and make sure that we're meeting all of your requirements. We'd like to hear back input from the commission in terms of thoughts and feelings as how this may play out. Uh in addition, uh the

property owner has submitted to uh the commission a tree replanting plan uh that identifies some of the trees that have been will be removed as part of the construction of the septic system. Uh this area here is wooded. those trees will need to be removed to construct that septic system. Um, so he's provided a a plan to try and re replant along the street uh and in other areas of the property. I would note that the whole property is pretty much um already forested. Uh so that uh there's not a whole lot of space for additional tree plantings, but I think he's made a strong effort here to try and meet your requests. Um, and we'd like to like to move forward if possible. John, I just have two quick questions. What are we doing with the old system? Is that staying in place or are we taking that out? So, typically what will happen is the old system will be pumped out. Uh, and in this case, um, let me go to a different color here because I've been drawing all in one color. Um, typically it would be pumped down and left in place. Uh in this particular case, uh we're going to be installing a new septic tank and a new pump chamber. So areas where that excavation will occur will end up being removed and trucked off site. Um but the portion that's under the lawn here will simply be allowed to stay. Over time, any material that's in it will simply degrade. Um and and if you were to dig it up in 10 or 15 years, it would look like soil with with some stone associated. And that's standard procedure for uh septic repairs. Thank you. And then my additional question is the erosion controls on the left side of your plan on both um can you tell me why they're so far away from the 50 I'd like

to have them tighter to the actual construction work because yeah so on the the north side of the the property basically I've followed the wall um to provide a limit of work and area for equipment u the area of interest for me is the one that's closest to your orange line, which I think is denoted as your 50. Yep. So then I bring that uh that line over to where there's an existing retaining wall. Um and I'll zoom in, see if this looks a little better. You can see right here there's an existing retaining wall and this area is gravel parking. Again, I followed the top of that gravel, that retaining wall and enclosed the parking so that this level area um is probably going to be disturbed during the construction. Um and that that again, you need some room around your your proposal to work. Um and that is area that is already being utilized, already having cars parked on it. It's it's gravel driveway. Uh it's not a resource area that needs to be protected in my mind, and it's not buffer zone that needs to be protected. What we're concerned about would be the wetland area down here at the back of the site. And that seemed like the most logical place to provide erosion control that would prevent any sediment from washing down the slope. And then that's where you had it previously, right? No, on the previous submission, I believe it it followed the wall down uh and then followed the tree line and tied back into the back corner of the house. Okay. Because in that particular situation, we were putting the addition here. So there would be a substantial more substantially more work in that area. So we've pulled the erosion control forward and again moved that addition out of the 50ft buffer zone and then your erosion control further down.

In this case, um, it simply follows the the 50-ft close to the 50ft buffer zone and the retaining wall associated with the septic system. Once it gets to where the existing lawn is, I simply followed the top of the slope at the edge of the lawn, wrapped it around again back into the corner of the house uh, to contain any activity that was involved. This area here is is all existing lawn area and being used currently. So it's not again it's not native um or undisturbed. There would have to be some method to denote for contractors that they cannot go past the yellow line. So the commissioners could suggest snow fencing something if you're going to keep the erosion controls so far out. Commissioners, what would you like to do? they can bring the erosion controls in or make some other means so that someone doesn't stockpile out there. Yeah, that doesn't it seems like the easiest thing would just to be to move the erosion controls to stuck to the 50, right? You understand what Sarah's saying, right? If we if you leave that existing lawn open, then you're going to have contractors, your machine, they're just going to go willy-nilly and tear up. Even though I even though it's lawn, we don't want it getting torn up or there's no need for it to be getting torn up and accessing anything within the 50ft buffer. Isn't that going to be really close to where his new um where he's going to be adding the uh uh chambers over the uh previous? So, put it just outside the 50. That's there's I'm sure 50 ft 20 ft away from pull the pull the the erosion controls closer to where you're going to put the new u distribution box right right where you're cursed. Exactly. Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. Right at the porch and then tie nothing earth shattering. Yeah. No, I have no problem with that. We can certainly choke down

the limit and prevent any as you said spoils or piles being being tossed around inadvertently. Um, and speaking I'm happy to do that and if I can provide a revised plan or if you simply want to uh condition if you were interested in improving you can provide a condition that says the erosion control should be adjusted to follow the 50ft buffer zone. Where are you putting all of your materials and dirt that gets dug out and dirt that's going in and all that stuff? Uh we did talk about that a little bit. I just don't remember what we said in the uh it has to be construction schedule. Yeah. Um either offsite or out of the 100. Yep. Remove trees and stumps to be removed from the site. Um there's really, as you said, there really is no location that's outside the buffer zone except a very thin strip up at the street. Um so that's where everything will go then? Yeah. So, in my mind, they would cut the trees, remove the stumps, remove the stumps from the site. I don't anticipate any significant material coming off the site other than the stumps. This will be like most septic repairs and import. Uh so, in this case, they would end up building that retaining wall, probably backing in off the street with a 10-wheeler, delivering the new soils that would be needed to uh create that septic system. Um, and then once it was done, they'd import lom and spread it over the top, provide seed and and wrap it up. So, I don't really see the need to be stockpiling stockpiling materials on site. Again, if the commission wanted to make have a condition in the notice of intent in the order of conditions that uh required any materials to be removed from site or outside the 100 foot buffer zone, we'd be more than comfortable with that.

That's that's boiler plate for us. So that that will be in there. We usually like to have it noted on the plan for your contractors. So if you'd like to add that on just as a sequence, that's fine. Any other commissioners have any questions? The only other one I had was why did you put the drywall inside the 100 when you were already right there at the 100? Anyway, um I'll be honest with you, I was mostly focused on making sure I was the 10-ft requirement off of the foundation. Okay. Um, and I figured I was upstream or uphill of of any uh activity and I didn't see it as something that would cause an issue with the with the wetlands. Right. Right. Okay. Fair enough. So, this is a notice of intent. Would someone like to make a motion? Sarah, did you want to see the replanting plan? Just going to jump in on that. We haven't talked about the replantings at all. Yeah, for sure. Thank you. I can I can share that. Yep. Great. Sorry about that. Everybody see that? Mhm. So, uh, Randy, I don't know if you're on the line, um, and want to chime in, but, uh, we staked out or or marked out the area within the 100 foot buffer zone, um, and outside of the the limit of work. Um, Randy, I believe, had an arborist out there and and marked up the trees, uh, that are listed on there. U, he's proposing replanting trees along the street. Uh, and then I think Tim, if you scroll up, there was some information proposing some additional plantings. Uh, yeah, I'm on, John, if you want. Oh, yep. Ry's here. So, um, I'll be honest with a quick quick

question for you. I looked for a tree removal bylaw in the in the town e-code and didn't see one. And I looked in the conservation regulations in terms of trying to make sure we were meeting some set of standards and I was unable to find them. So, I'm not sure if I miss something or if if this is uh not not part of the bylaws. We're we're actively working on um on a policy to go along with our bylaw. So, there's nothing in writing, but this is always um one of our biggest biggest sticking points. Um and hence that's why we're trying to come up with a new policy to to hold applicants a little bit more accountable. Appreciate that. It's helpful to know coming in what what you guys are looking for and then we can meet it. So I see there's 14 removed. What are we what's the number for replanting? So replanting uh if you look at the the Red Sun Valley maples uh looking at replantings uh six of those. Um, in addition to that, along the southern or the western portion of the retaining wall, I like to plant uh basically native blueberry bushes, cranberry, uh, winter berry holly, and northern and arrowwood. Um, and then if you look at the southern portion of the property, um, where you see the the oval dark green, I'm looking at planting more or less a, um, a bush garden um with native bushes for uh low bush blueberry, chokeberry, uh hydrangeia, and also dogwood. And then Randy, it looks like you got some some black spruces here as well. I do. Yes. Uh looking at some of uh published material uh not only for Littleton, but also other areas uh

adjacent to Littleton. Um, a lot was published in consideration for uh plantings um within the wetlands area. Um, and black spruce was one of those varieties. So, I chose black spruce as well to to plant uh in that area. Would you estimate that your plantings are north of 14, which is the number of your removal? So again, this is very arbitrary. Um I would also like to highlight in the uh the to write with the tree removal um many of the pines that are being removed um are either dead or very likely to split and fall uh in the near future. So, um I I took in consideration what I could plant within the 150 uh buffer area um with what's being uh put in for the septic system. and I developed a plan that would be able to um introduce as much as I can uh within that area to help with um basically native species um and also to maintain uh a adequate system that's not going to get affected by tree planting. Uh again, this whole area is wooded. Um, if you're looking to do a a a ratio, um, we're looking at the likelihood of 40 to 45 trees. Um, if that's the case, I can smash them in. Um, but I I I don't think that's what the the intent is with this. Um, I'm I'm looking at something that um is going to um help with the the uh the species, the birds and everything else in my area.

Um again, there there is nothing published. So like I developed this plan according to uh my area and what I believe is going to be the most effective way. And we appreciate that, Randy. What we try and do is to have some method to um self-evaluate cuz we have a growing period of like 3 years. So it's nice that it's diverse, but we just want to see a number in front of perhaps how many blueberries. So that way once you have it planted, we know what to follow up on as well. So with the blueberry bushes that I've researched, I mean one bush can spread as wide as 10 to 15 feet. Um, so, uh, we're looking at the retaining wall. The retaining wall is about 75 feet. Um, I'm probably looking at about anywhere from 5 to 10 bushes along that retaining wall. And that's going to be you don't have to kind of like sus this out right now. That can be um, submitted to Tim or um, John can help you with that. We just want to know have a scope of how many you're thinking of. Commissioners, do you have any thoughts on this on the planting plan? I have a question on the the trees being removed. Can you provide some more details on number 13 and 14? So 13 well outside of the limit of work. They are uh arburs came in and identified those as hazardous trees. They are 13 isn't so much hazardous. Um it basically once we remove 14 and a bunch of the other trees that are there, uh the arborist said that with 13 being as high as it is, uh basically about 100 or so feet, um that if it were to break, it could be uh in the area of the house, u itself. So, um he designated that as a hazardous tree. Thank you. I didn't realize you had an arburst out there. That's a that's

that's good to hear. Um I wasn't aware of that. Did your arborist give you a report by chance? Uh not yet, but uh when he came in site, he will have it. Okay. So, it is being developed. Um all the pine trees um that have been mentioned um he will have that in the plan. So, the only challenge I see is that those trees 134 your erosion control is going to be to the right of them. Correct. But they were stumping them again with that. There's a crane coming in. So all they're doing is cutting it. The train the the crane itself is going to pluck it and pull it out of the area. There's going to be no disturbance to the ground. Right. So that was where I was going next. So 13 14 the stumps will remain in place. Correct. Okay. Great. Is everything else all the rest obviously by your septic will need to be stumped and removed by the Exactly. Okay. No, that's that's good to go. Thank you. So the big thing then is how many of the bushes high and low bushes as uh Sarah suggested. Uh again if you wanted to talk about this uh later on uh I have no problem with developing how many you want. Um this is a proposal. It's going to be a very expensive proposal. um bushes themselves, especially with these blueberries, chokeberries, and dogwoods, we're looking at at about uh $30 per plant. And we're talking about very, very small plants to put in place. How do we proceed? You have any thoughts, plantings? Is Carl still here? Yeah, he's muted.

Yeah. Hi. Can you hear me now? Yes. Carl, thoughts on the planting plan? Um, well, I don't think it's enough plants to start with. Um, are there any tree replacements? Just the shrubs. So, if you want to, again, I can go and plant 40 of the the white pines, but I'm going to be cutting down saplings in order to make these uh these small plants, these small trees that you're requesting, I'm going to be cutting down saplings. So I mean to to the left of the property to the west of the property in order to put those into the 50 to 100 foot area uh for the buffer zone I will be cutting down saplings in order to make sure that the 40 to 50 trees that you would like to have put in place are going to survive. Uh might be helpful for a sidewalk. What do you guys think? I would note that uh we do have the the six maples along the front. So that if you were asking how many trees there there are those trees proposed along the stone wall. So be aware of that. Yep. And a black spruce. Yep. So 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. We're at we're at nine trees right off the bat shown on the plan additional shrub plantings. Um, if the commission felt it had it needed to be 14 to meet the standard, I I'm sure we could find the room to slide a couple more in. I think with Kyle and the trees, but looking at the at the location and the property and what have you and the fact that we're we've said also that bushes are also uh if there as long as there's enough of them are also uh um and and um I don't know what the right word is

I'm looking for, but um I think as long as there's enough bushes, the high and low bushes that are going to provide for the wildlife and what have you that maybe we have sufficiently addressed without artificially putting trees out in the wetlands. Yeah, that makes sense in the order of conditions. So, we just have to come up with what we're referring to as diameter uh or growth of these trees. So, um Randy, do you have thoughts on what size? Let's take for instance the um your red maples. What diameter you're looking at? Uh so for replanting those uh the research right now if you're looking at 2 and a half inch diameter uh trees to to to replant uh I'm looking at $800 per tree on that. Um I mean realistically if that's what you're you want uh sure. I mean, realistically for me, I ideally I'm looking at a $1 to $100 $120 per tree for um you know, basically a newer growth. Um again, this is something that is very new. Um I'm trying to make the commission happy, but at the same time, I don't want to go broke planting trees for a bunch of other things I need to do for my project. So just so you know, we'll monitor and I apologize if I'm repeating myself. We'll monitor the trees for success for three years. So there is kind of industry standard about 30% loss. So understood, but at the same time, I just don't know if you want me to plant two and a half inch diameter tree or if you're okay with me planting

uh like a twoft tree that's basically like uh an inch in diameter. I don't think we want little baby trees that are going to take 20 to 50 years to get to any size of any consequence. This this is the this is the problem that we always face. So I guess my question $800 a tree but at the same time a whole bunch of stuff and and at the same time historically we've looked for 2 in and above diameters. I could be wrong. I'm um I think you're right, Sarah, but I I don't know that I've ever heard the justification of that other than that they have a better chance of survival. Right. Exactly. So, if the if the applicant's willing to take the risk, you know, knowing what you just said that you be have your you have a three-year monory period and you have to re reach a percent survival percentage. If they're willing to take that risk with the understanding that if that percentage isn't met, then they have to procure more plants and more trees and all and start all over, then I'm okay with that. We're talking saplings versus 2 in. That's not 10 years to great to gain that size, right? Those saplings grow to 2 in pretty quickly. That's not a a decade worth of growth that we're losing out on. Okay, let's keep moving. So, um, basically we have modifications to the plan with the erosion control. Um, perhaps modifications to the replanting plan that has approximate numbers. Um, is there anything else that we would need to have this go forward? Anyone else have any other concerns? I guess we'll get the report from the arburst when that comes in. Yes, it'll be in. I also noted that we're going to add a note to the plan. No stock piles within

the 100 foot buffer zone. So, that that's on my to-do list. Okay. Commissioners, what would you like to do? That sounds like there's some information and modifications that are significant on the plan that you could hold till June 10th is when we meet again. What would you like to do? Sounds like that will tie things up. Yeah. So, John, the modifications to the plans, also your arborous notes, and you're just planting a little bit more detail for June 10th. Is that doable? I can certainly provide that information. Yes. And I would the only request I would have is that uh if there are any other questions or concerns we are made aware of them tonight so that uh as the commission mentioned hopefully we can tie this up on the 10th. I think that that looks doable. Okay. All right. So with your permission we will continue you um and Randy to June 10th. Thank you. I appreciate your time tonight. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Um our 920 has um continued. They will not be heard. And then we have our 925. So it's 9 10 of 10. So continue discussion enforcement order zero IPS switch lot U15-16-0. Plantings required by May 15, 2025. Um Tim, I believe you're going to give us an update. Yep. Uh Mark Gallagher could not make it tonight. He had yet another concom meeting to be at. Um but I I went out to the property and uh confirmed all the plantings are in.

Excellent. Okay, great. Anyone else have anything else for this meeting? Leo, what's what's the next step with that? Sorry. I'll have to go back and check, but I I would imagine you guys either I believe you've already talked about a a monitoring period, definitely. And they're going to have to go out and water those because there's no water out there. Yeah. So, but they we talked about that. They know it. So, so it's just the holding period. We're just waiting for them to to monitor that this enforcement where everything's staying in place. Correct. Yeah, I would say until we know it starts to take a little bit. Ed, did you have something? Do we have an update on P's Road? He was supposed to by now got the original facility off of the uh property. We uh we we did talk about that uh in the beginning of the meeting at um Sorry, that was fine. Um I went by today and and as far as I could tell from the road, the ship the container is is has been removed from the property from what I could see. And the trailer The trailer is now in the location where the uh container was pretty close to the house outside of the 50 foot buffer. Right. And now they start with the um cleaning the the fill and getting that debris out of there and they will notify me uh and I'll go out and and maybe a commissioner to confirm the the fill has been is now clean before they do the rest of the restoration work. Okay. Sorry to make you go through it again. Oh, that's fine. No worries. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion. Second. All right. Final roll call. Sarah

Seawward. I Michael. Michael Livingston. I Carl. Carl Mel. Kyle. Kyle. Maxwell. I Ed Fultai. And myself. I. It's unanimous. We're journed.