Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Oh, really? Let me put it on stop. Okay. Uh, madame chair, we are live and

all right. I will open this meeting for the planning board for the town of Maynard. The date is May 12th, 2026 and the time is 7:03. This meeting is being held in hybrid format which means that members of the public, the board and the applicant can participate here in town hall or virtually using the Zoom link that is provided on the agenda. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. Um all of our members are in town hall tonight. Uh Chris is absent and um let's skip the minutes and move to item number two on the agenda which is the public hearing for 10 road the Everore substation.

Uh should I open do I need to open the hear time? Yes. Is it continued? Oh it's continued right from October 28th. Great. Um, would you like to just give me a little like me to just give a little background real quick? Huh? Bill, if you will remind us of what we're sure looking at here.

Um, Bill Ne, our planning director. Um, Eversource came before the uh board in October. Um and the purpose of their request uh is to do they're doing upgrades to the substation and uh while they are exempt from most permitting uh from zoning and planning standpoints uh they were required to uh obtain a uh soil removal special permit. The board went through their presentation uh and uh they answered most of the questions. Uh however there was a couple of outstanding questions which are detailed uh concerning times, truck routes uh and a one clarification um and um okay and um so uh there was a spring timeline uh that the uh team had uh requested um we continue until and so we're here. So, uh, what the board is looking for tonight to see if the criteria has been satisfied, um, for a special permit for soil removal. And we have, well, we've got a full house. I guess uh, Molly has been my my main contact and and and um, an email, but I I guess I'll start. Molly, I'll just turn it over to you and let you introduce the team. I'm sorry if I went out of order or anything. I'm not sure who's exactly who, but thank you all for coming. That's great, Bill. Thank you so much. Thank you for having us. Um like Bill said, I am the community relations specialist for Eversource um supporting Maynard. Um we're here tonight uh seeking approval for the earth um Eversourc's earth removal permit application for the Maynard um substation transformer replacement

project. And I'm joined by my colleagues uh Jeffy Ciserone who's the project manager, Macy Jones um who's project engagement, David Feinson and Matt Develin um from environmental u Michael Branley from engineering and Michael Martin from um TRC who is supporting the project. Um these folks will be presenting the details of the project, answering those um outstanding questions on times, trucking routes um and erosion controls that the board was looking for um back in October. Um, and we have our subject matter experts here who will be available to answer any questions um, at the end of the presentation. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Jeffy to start us off.

Jeff, you're on mute.

All right. Thank you. I just realized. Good afternoon, everyone. I guess that's the best way to start. here to present the Maynard uh upgrade station upgrade project. With uh the grid being one of the most important uh infrastructure in our region, Aeros is always looking to make our grid more robust and implement uh new system, new equipments to support the grid uh to that you know to bring infra to bring uh power from the plant to the trans transmission lines and to different areas within towns. And to that we're presenting the mayor substation upgrade project which will do just that. If we can go to the next slide please. So this project is basically uh an upgrade within the footprint of the existing substation. We're replacing the two existing transformers which are about 50 years old right now. We upgrading the fence line and we are upgrading the control house, installing a battery hut and all of this will be done within the station footprint and along with that before we get into the construction we'll do we'll be doing some demolition uh that would include the reclosers uh and some earth removal. Hence why we're presenting this today. Uh next one please. Uh as you can see the earthful removal would be basically happening in the Sbury side of the of the substation. The substation is divided between main road and Sbury and the goal is to present this earth removal in front of both Sbury and main. uh the earth removal

does not impede any area outside of the fence that would be within our fence line. Uh and the goal today is to continue our conversation on that earth removal permit that we seek for this project. Uh any question before we move to the next slide? I don't believe so. Thank you. Thank you. Next one, please. And I will pass it on to our environmental person.

Hi, this is uh Michael Martin with TRC. Uh so to support any excess soils or excess materials that would be generated during the project, we will be conducting a preconstruction characterization program that would uh determine where this materials could go. So that would include testing any concrete that's going to be proposed for demolition as part of the uh foundation replacements as well as any soils that's going to uh that will be generated for the new infrastructure whether it's going to be you know enlarging the foundations for that to accommodate the new transformers any underground utilities or the new battery uh huts. Uh once we have that data we will select a facility. The Eversource has a uh a standard program that allows us to look at the data and then select the appropriate facility that would uh the material could go to for ultimate disposition whether that is recycling or disposal. But that will be based on the characterization data uh that we uh we obtained during the pre-construction um activities. So is I don't anyone have any questions regarding that? I don't I don't believe so right now.

Okay, next slide.

David, I think are you presenting this slide?

Yes, I believe I am. Um yeah, so uh as uh Jeffy and Michael um mentioned, you know, uh the work being conducted in the substation is going to require um some foundation demolition and uh excavation work um to install new underground conduits and uh foundations for the transformers, which we anticipate will generate approximately 1,200 cubic yards of soil. Um so the removal actions will improve upon existing conditions. uh with regards to grading and storm water flow. Um we will be placing appropriate sediment controls uh around the area um under construction um prior to any excavation work um conducting dust management uh as measures as appropriate um and uh prevent uh tracking of material into any public way and street sweeping as necessary. Um once the excavation is complete, the ground surface is going to be graded um to improve storm water flow and it'll be finished with trap rock um to its uh basically similar to its current existing condition. Um and uh workplace uh the work is going to take place between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 pm Monday through Friday. Uh and we don't expect um to do any construction work uh on weekends or holidays unless we receive prior approval from the town. Next slide, please. Um, as I mentioned, um, we will be excavating up to about 1,200 cubic yards of soil, um, and, uh, preparing a soil and groundwater management plan, uh, to be followed during construction and by the contractors performing the excavation work. Um and uh as I think uh Michael already mentioned doing our testing uh to support the preparation of that plan uh to be used during

construction. Um soil will be excavated using methods including an excavator bucket or vac truck um depending on the location within the substation and accessibility. And soil we anticipate will be live loaded um so basically excavated and placed in a truck. Um, if we need to store soil um overnight uh on on the substation itself, our plan would be to use a covered roll off um for temporary on-site storage rather than um stock piles. Um truckloads will be removed either by triacle or a rolloff container or other suitable method. um covered during transportation uh on the way to the receiving facility and uh we plan to use um you know major roads um to uh to get the receiving facility. So um from the site uh depending on what receiving facility we're using, we'll be heading off to Route 2 or Route 495. Next slide, please. Is that you?

Yep. The next slide will be me. Uh, outrage is outreach has been ongoing right now and we'll be conducting that until the inservice date and even after in service to the town and other officials to make sure everything uh went well throughout the construction process. And engineering is ongoing right now. We've just completed our preliminary engineering. we'll be ramping into our detail design through IFC package will be uh until the end of uh 2026 and permitting process will be continuing until we'll be ready to begin construction and constru and that's in the Q1 Q2 of 2027 and construction will begin Q2 of 20 2027 to December of 2028 and service date will be in December of 2028. And to that we'll answer any questions for schedule uh construction schedule or the project schedule that the town may have.

Great. Thank you very much everyone. Um I want to say thank you for providing all the updates. I know last fall there were some things that were just still up in the air. So I appreciate the clarification. Um, I know I have a couple quick questions. Um, specifically, you provided the hours and the holiday, you know, the no holidays and less prior approval, which is great. Um, I know that, uh, and more clarification about the removal of soil. The only other thing that I wanted to talk about was the trucking routes. You said specifically, I know that you won't know exactly where they're going at this point, but Route 2 and Route 495, the reference to main roads in your document. Um, I'm assuming that that means that it it won't be basically we're just trying to make sure that nothing is going to be trucked like through downtown. That wouldn't make any sense with the trucks that we're talking about, but um I'm assuming that this means that it will be limited to probably Powder Mill Road, Parker Street, and Great Road, which is Route 117. Does that make sense?

Uh, yeah, I think that makes sense. Um, you know, our goal to be avoid the downtown area, but um, yes, uh, that's that was our intention, Powder Mill Road, cuz presumably wherever you end up taking it will be either on 495 or Route 2. Yes. Yeah.

Um, does anyone else have any questions or comments? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I guess um is, you know, I'm trying to look at the proximity of any residential area around around here. Um 7 to 6. You know, I understand you guys are trying to get a lot of work done, but you that can be kind of early and a little late for some people, I think. Um trying to start their day with with equipment and and things like that going on. Um, I just didn't know if if that's something that can be adjusted or um I mean I I think that more standard business hours might be a little more appropriate for, you know, dealing with noise mitigation and stuff like that for for people in the area. Um Jeffy, do you have any thoughts on the hours?

Well, as far as noise mitigation, we'll be working closely with the town here uh to make sure we're abiding by any requirement that you may have for noise mitigation. But the plan is to have uh noise mitigation with the contractors uh in terms of um sound uh mutining system that we can that can be used um during foundation installation. Uh but any suggestion from the town will be great and we'll be abiding by those. Does anyone else have any comments or concerns?

Good. All right. So, Bill, um, my only my only the only thing that I have a a thing about is maybe trying to actually the the I believe you met you referenced main roads leading to 495 and Route 2 on one of the pages of your document. I'm not sure which one. You don't need to bring it up again, but I do know that that that's the line that was referenced.

Yes. if there might be any way to specifically say um you know the main roads that go from Maynard to those routes like if we could specifically reference Powder Mill Parker and Great Roads that Yeah. Yeah. But but perhaps it would be if the goal is to keep heavy traffic vehicles or construction vehicles out of downtown. might be that the um the the routes shall not routes shall not include transit through downtown without I mean there could be an exception. So we do like it did with the other without prior permission. Yeah. Specific permission of the town. That would be fine if um I think that would be and that way

do that as part of the motion. What's that? I think we can make that clarification as part of the motion.

Yeah. I mean that that could be that if it because we do we know that's a and just forever sources. So I mean the board is trying to be um this is a problem that we have on our main street and um NASA street. We have more construction vehicles than are really we feel are appropriate for a walkable downtown area when there are alternate routes. That's why this conversation is coming up. Um, and like I said, it doesn't look like there would be any logical reason for that to happen, but you know, um, as Bill said, we've had other problems. So,

so I just that that could be and like Bill said, Bill Crownshaw said, you can just put the motion, but to what I would say that makes sense and you know, avoid downtown the downtown overlay district is easy. Makes it easy. Yeah. Yeah. Um,

are there any other comments from the board? Yeah, I guess I would just ask again, sorry to harp on the hours thing, but looking at the plans provided, your presentation said um work between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., but the plans show uh 7 7 to 7. So, it's kind of set opposite on the plan, but Earth moving should be prohibited from use every evening from 7:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. So, you're showing 7 to 7 instead of 7 to 6. Is that the old document or is that the uh this is dated 5126? Oh, okay.

And then you're showing prohibited work from 900 p.m. until 9:00 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. So, that has to be changed. We're showing that you can work till 9:00 p.m. on Fridays. I don't think that we really want to do that. Is it okay just to stick with the presentation of 7 to 6 weekdays and the other hours with permission by the select board? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe just straight up specific in the on the motion. I don't know if I saw the updated plans. Was this

only I the presentation is all that we have. I I circulated I guess I didn't zoom in that far on the plans. Um all right. So I guess in the motion or the decision we can reference the actual presentation. I would recommend that if if the board is is okay with as in the presentation

we uh we would say um conditioned uh with the trucking hours the work hours as contained in the applicant's presentation I'll put it on the decision as exhibit A and um that's probably the easiest way to do it as I have it. And to your point, Natalie, about the roads being used, they also had a note in the plan saying the contractor should submit a soil management and transport plan prior to work starting. So, we could probably put that in as a condition. Sure. In terms of uh the roots, right? I imagine the transport plan would have the route. Yeah. Who would that transport plan be submitted to, Bill?

Um, that would be our office. Oh, a mess. I would prefer we just put it in the motion and then it's part of the approval and it doesn't give a secondary person who wasn't paying attention to this. Do you want to put in the hours or do you want to reference the presentation? We can highlight the hours in the in the motion as well, especially since there's a conflict with the other document. That makes sense. Good. I think I can put together a little motion if you want. Um, I'm going to take a second real I'm going to We want to look for public comment, right? Yes, we we we

I'm going to open this up for public comment. I'm not sure if anyone online is here to comment. There's no one in the room here tonight. I don't know if everybody's ever sourced or not. I think everyone online is ever source. Okay, great. Um, in in light of the fact that there is no public here to comment. Um, yeah, Bill, if you have a motion, open and close public hearing. Oh, right. I'll I'll make a motion to close the public hearing. Second. All those in favor by hand in town hall. It's 50 to close the hearing.

Okay. Um, I'll make a motion that the criteria for a special permit as described in section 7.35 of the zoning bylaws is met and that we approve a special permit for earth removal consistent with the uh conditions presented in tonight. um specifically including uh work hours from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. weekdays with other hours as allowed by the select board and heavy truck restrictions limited to Powder Mill Road, Parker Street, and Grade Road within May. Second. Um, all those in favor of the motion. That's five voting for the motion as presented. Bill.

Okay. Thank you. And I'm just trying to get right to this. Okay. Um, frozen. Okay. All right. So, thank thank you all for your presentation and the information you presented.

Thank Thank you. I will um draft a decision. Um, it'll probably be ready in the next few days. Uh, at that point, um, we will register at the clerk's office where there's a 20-day appeal period. Uh, we'll send you a copy so you're aware of it. And the one thing, um, or I should say two things because they're larger, uh, company, we want to, u make sure I I I mention this. Um, you'll have to contact the clerk's office when you want to pick it up. Um, it'll be uh it's a 20-day appeal period, so somebody from your office should do that, but that it must be recorded at the registry of deeds. And then we need a copy of it after it's recorded from the registry of deeds. That's all contained on the decision itself as well. But sometimes when particularly we have a lot of people in it, it just is uh we don't want to get lost in the shuffle. Okay. Thank you all very much. We appreciate your time.

Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Okay, so there's that. Good. Okay. Can we get that? Okay. Good. All right. Let's go to item number one, the minutes from April 14th, 2026.

Okay. Does anyone have any comments about the minutes? You had nothing, Bill. Well, I think I think the intro to one of the public hearings said it will be held and it's actually Oh, yeah. I got it. I see that

is holding. Right. I'll make that change. Whoa, you guys are fast. Um, all right. Well, I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from April 14th, 2026 with the change provided by Mr. Cranshaw. Second. All those in favor? Five votes to approve the minutes. Bill. Thank you. Thank you.

And the planning update. Planning update is um well, we have town meeting as you know in uh a couple days. So, next Monday. Um I sent out the planning board's report today. um on our the two articles that we had commented on are um both the uh 141 Parker Street for the reasonzoning and medical marijuana and really that's that's all we have on on that. Um who's going

who's going? Yeah, we should have I post a quorum. you it's they moderator does ask that we have a quorum there. Um but if I think is is anybody not are you guys not planning on going anybody? I'm going be a little late. I'll be there. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You me and Chris are there. That's enough. Yeah. I that'll be you going to go maybe see how he's feeling the poor guy. I didn't know it was just out of the from the saw bones right to here. I know. Yeah, they wheeled him in here in a stretcher.

The other thing that's that um we're meeting next week, uh housing production plan. God, I'm mixed up. Mark, what did I I I said Monday at 3 o'clock. Monday. Okay. Okay. I got housing production plan Monday at 3:00 and powder mill we're still we're working on that still which won't be till next Tuesday but the housing production plan we're they're coming and it be really um we got a good team working on that too and it'll be that'll be enjoyable and the ADA plan is underway already.

That's great. Are you still involved in that even though you weren't supposed to be from the beginning? Good job. Good job. Way to support everybody. And um and I think that's all we got. Oh, we do. Um

Okay. Oh, and our next meeting the only we're going to have um we have our just the changes that we wanted to make for the um rules and regulations which we we advertised. So, they'll be in and I I we're going to set it up so you guys have a clean copy to look at and then we'll have the final copy to still have them both there and um we can talk about there wasn't like I said wasn't much but still and um I think that's it. Great. That's it.

Did we recently do changes with the subdivision rigs? No, that's the one they're being remember they're being um right now where that is. We did you and I and the board went through originally probably last summer. We uh and uh we we made changes based on the uh MS4 stuff and then we sent them back to public works who wanted to review them and they were we felt that there was a lot that public works had to do and we sent them and that they're underway now. So the anticipation is that we won't have them until the fall town meeting. Well, I know we don't have them at this town meeting, but we'll have them we'll have the hearings hopefully so we can have them at the fall town meeting. Uh,

those are town meeting actually. H, that's town meeting stuff. Sure. Yeah, remember we took it the one time about the alternates. Yeah, I just mentioned it just cuz there's a property on the market now that's being advertised as a subdivision option. Oh, it could be an option, but you got to do it. It's a um Yeah. Um, that's what we got. Okay. Anybody want to make a motion? I do. Let's close the meeting. All right, I'll second that. All those in favor? I have to be these.

I have a really good track record every time. Natalie, you're so good. Three nice.