Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Thank you everybody for coming. It is Thursday, November 13th. Uh the town of North Smithfield planning board is called to order. Uh for item, next item on the agenda is roll call. Dr. Roberts here. Miss Ramos here. And the chair is here. Item three, minutes, review and approval of the October 9th, 2025 meeting minutes. There are any comments? Otherwise, we'll look for a motion to approve. And don't jump don't fight each other for making motions tonight. I'll make a motion to approve.

All right, we have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Second. All right. All in favor? I I Perfect. Item four, disclosure. Planning board members shall disclose potential conflicts on matters before the planning board this evening. Any disclosures between the three of us? No. Okay. And then uh disclosure and notice. Planning board members shall disclose any exparte communications about any contested or material adjudicatory facts or opinions concerning the merits of any application before the planning board. Anything there?

No. Okay, declaration of voting members. What you see is what you get tonight, the three of us that are here. And then we'll move right into item number seven, public hearing for the unified development review of four Antea Drive. Mr. Cruel, you want to give us an introduction on that one?

Uh, Mr. Chairman, this is a uh an oversized lot in a residential RS zoning district. The lot is approximately 10,000 square feet short of two full-size lots. The applicant is here this evening and they are requesting to subdivide the lot to create two undersized lots. As you can see on the uh graphic, um the surrounding properties here on Antonia Drive are all undersized lots and the two proposed lots are about three times larger than the pre-existing lots there. So, uh, the planning offices determined that it is consistent with the surrounding area. While the lots are slightly short of the maximum requirement, um, it's they exceed the lots in the surrounding area. I think the applicant is here to make a presentation to the board. Um, this requires zoning relief for less than required lot area only. It meets all frontage, all setbacks, all other requirements uh in the zoning code.

Mr. Chair, uh members of the board, my name is Josh Huamaro and I'm with Insight Engineers um representing the applicant to discuss the uh subdivision. I don't really have much to add aside from that intro. I think um it's pretty straightforward. What we're applying for is um a subdivision, a two lot subdivision with an oversized lot. Um my only comment to add to his was um the existing lots two two and a half times greater than those on the road. Um so there is room um to subdivide that especially with regard to the neighborhood. zoning is RS. Um, and we are proposing 35,000 square feet and of 40,000 square foot minimum. And that's what we're applying for.

Questions? Does the board have any questions? I do not. Okay. That 20 foot wide uh drive that's over to the left on on our plan that we're looking at, is that uh pay paper street right now? I believe it is. Okay. Um, yeah. Is that paved? Oh, that just that just got paved. Okay, Mark, do we know what that connects to? What What What are we referring to here? Yeah, the the one that's running north south.

Oh, north south right there. That's a That's a paper street. So, it doesn't really connect anywhere. So coming off of Providence Pike, it's paved from Providence Pike all the way to um probably the end of where the you see the the extreme limit of the house. Yeah. Um

so there is frontage on Anttoya Drive for the existing house. And on the proposed lot, there's frontage along Province Pike and then coming up there, that paved area, I'm going to call that a an easement on Anttoya Drive. So, the corner lot has pavement on both corners and the pre-existing house lot has sufficient frontage on Anttoya Drive and and they're correct. That road was just paved within the last year. Okay, great. All right, then. If there are no comments from the board, I'll open it up. Open up the public hearing. So, I'll make a motion to open up the public hearing. Do I have a second? Second.

Second. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Anybody for the public hearing? Make a motion to close the public hearing. I'll make the motion to close the public hearing. All right. We have a motion to close the public hearing. I'll second. All in favor? I.

All right. So then for the purposes of this one, we for the uh first part of this application, uh I'll make a motion that we grant the requested zoning relief of section 340 attachment 3 residential and non-residential district regulations table to have less than the required lot area, 40,000 square feet required, and 35,08 square feet proposed. Do I have a second? Second. Okay, I have a second. Did you need to jump in? I just would want you to adopt the findings, okay, of the planning board's report as your findings.

Okay. In order to support that motion and vote. Okay. Then I will amend my motion to include the planning board department's uh the planning department's recommendations on that. And then I need a second from you again. Second. Okay. So, we have an amended motion with a an amended second. Roll call vote. Dr. Roberts, yes. Miss Ramos, yes.

And the chair votes yes. So, then we are on to item eight, the for the minor subdivision. So, I I will make a motion to let's see to approve the the to approve the subdivided uh existing lot with it with with the two undersized lots and also incorporate the plan planning offic's findings and recommendations. Second. We have a second. So, roll call vote for that. Dr. Roberts. Yes. Miss Ramos. Yes. And the chair votes yes. All right.

All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Now we are on to item nine. U public hearing unified development review for Eminem transport service.

Good evening. Uh Mr. Mr. Chairman, members of the zoning board, attorney or excuse me, planning board attorney Matthew Landry from the office of Bish and Kavanaaugh on behalf of the applicant. Uh I'm joined by Damen Demetri from Kico Engineering as well as uh Brian Klingler. Um I'm going to have them speak uh briefly on the um site improvements, uh the overall site plan and uh stormwater design. Uh Brian can comment briefly on the Envirro tank that's being proposed. I know there are some questions that came up during the pre-application uh back in August. Um there's a lot of history and background uh with this application. I know uh Damian and the board had heard some information, preliminary information at the preapp. Um just in short, the history here is that um it is a trucking motor freight uh facility that is a permitted use uh in the manufacturing zone. Um there was a lot of history and some zoning violations uh historic violations prior to and subject to when my client purchased the property. Um unbeknownst to him at the time he had acquired the property, there was a 1995 zoning board decision that had a number of conditions and stipulations of approval uh that related to impervious pavement uh in the rear of the building. Uh the building was constructed within the sideyard setback. Uh there were also some conditions that there be some landscaping and vegetative buffering um with the nearby properties. Um he proceeded after purchasing the property to construct a fueling accessory fueling facility uh to accommodate um the the trucking facility that was ongoing on site. Um there's also some maintenance activities there. Um because the fueling aspect of this is accessory to a principal use. uh it was deemed or in his estimation to be um acceptable as an accessory use um proceeding you know

unknowing with this 1995 the zoning restrictions that were in place. Um so there were a number of hearings before the zoning board well before my time that had proceeded. There were subsequent applications uh submitted in conjunction with um the development that took place on the property uh with that fueling facility. That includes the installation of some impervious pavement, some concrete fueling pads, and a 10,000galon envirro um tank above ground uh tank that is currently empty. Um, so we're here before you to ask for relief under the unified development review process to get relief from those 1995 zoning restrictions as to impervious pavement um and uh in order to install the um fueling tank. Uh this is in a watershed overlay protection uh district. So there is some additional provisions. I think at the time that this had initially been constructed, it wasn't within that district or it was exempted and now we're falling under a different purview. Um, and at the time it was constructed by the previous owner, at least some of the improvements. Uh, there was discussions with the then building official that they could proceed at their own risk. And I think some of that discussion took place um during the pre-application hearing. So, so that's why we're here. um he's proceeding u under the unified development um mechanism to get relief from the zoning and to get relief under the watershed protection district um development plan uh review. Um the main concerns that came up with the pre-application um that Damen had fielded were some redundancy systems for that tank. There are concerns over the um how to control spillage um in event of a of a catastrophe or if something happened what's the worst case scenario. Uh Damian has uh presented the board with some secondary and tertiary systems that will control you know worst possible case um for spillage. The

envirro tank specs have been included in the submission. Um as you can see these things are almost bombproof. They're doublewalled concrete. They're above ground, have spill leak detection features on them. So, in and of itself, these systems are designed to be well contained and control spillage. Uh, visual inspection obviously because they're above ground. So, there are some redundant systems there. Um, KICO has designed some positive limiting barriers to be installed uh within those concrete pads. Those are commonly seen at fueling stations. Those have the ability to control a lot of overflow if there is a spill um in and of itself. And then Damon can get into some of the other systems. There's a trench drain um around the perimeter of that to catch anything else um if it were to overflow um from those protective systems. Um and as Damian can um attest to, this is not subject to DEM regulation. There are three triggers um to DEM's review. We have received correspondence from them confirming that this is not subject to their jurisdiction because we're not within wetlands, not um disturbing more than an acre of land. Um and there's no underground infiltration systems proposed. So um I'll let Damian speak to that specifically, but um uh as for the tank specs, I'll have Brian come up after um there's some testimony as to the site improvement. So, uh, Damian, that might be a good segue if you could, um, come up and just present to the board as to what the proposed site improvements are going to be and some of the additional systems.

Do you mind just expanding the name so I can get the right just the column so that I can see all the name that the complete name? Just grab the bar next to date modified. Nope. Other side, right? So then you open up the stamps plans the capitalize. It's probably the fourth one down right there. Awesome. Thank you.

All righty. Thank you, Matt. Um restate Damian Demetri Kico Engineers and Scientists for First Street Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Um I'll have you scroll to sheet two. Um or actually sheet it'll be sheet. Yeah, sheet two. So again, as I had presented at the previous site, this is the previous site conditions. Um this is what the site looked like prior to any of the construction there. Um you know, current construction, existing building there, existing transportation use. Um you can scroll um to sheet three. This is what the current site looks like. Um it's a little um if you could zoom in just a little fuzzy. Here we go. Um again there was um some expansion of the pavement in the rear of the parcel. Um the fueling tanks, the concrete pads are all in the back. Same existing you know septic system was upgraded um and just generally uh a pavement was increased um to the site um from what the previous site conditions were. Um so next going into um the proposed design or what we're coming back with for you know the final uh component of the site. If you can go to sheet four. So what we're going to be doing um from the site pre from what the previous site conditions are is we're removing pavement, concrete, jersey barriers, other things that had approached across the property line. Um our client wasn't aware of that stuff at the time. This was all stuff that was presented at the preapp meeting as well. Um so just kind of reiterating given the revised submission, trying to run through it quickly. Um we'll be adding the positive limiting barriers. So she This is sheet four. Go down to the next one. I apologize. Sheet five here. Um you can see in here on the next sheet I have a zoom in of the tanks and what's around there. But we're adding positive landing barriers. Those are the grooves that are in the you know around gas stations. You see them there. Um you know their size

to catch any leak or runoff that comes from fueling operations. Um and then you know additionally the drainage plans. um where we added some additional components um that from the previous set we've added some additional things um to help with the drainage um and systems there. Previously we just had you know some catch basins, a little trench drain and some smaller stuff um there. What we're actually adding some more detail to that to make that system function more properly um is we're actually adding a trench drain that surrounds the entirety of the concrete pad. Zoom to sheet six right here. So this is a zoom in around the concrete pad, right? And what the actual fueling area will be. So um pausing living barriers are obviously easier to tell here. Um you know that's the grooves. Those are actually size based all done calculations. Those are supplied in the memo for to meet the requirements of the fueling. Um and what you can see around here uh the perimeter is this is actually an additional 8 in trench drain. um it surrounds the entirety of the um fueling tank and the fueling path. So that's an additional storm water control that any water that hits the surface around that tank, the fueling areas will be captured into that trench drain and then sent off the edge here to the drainage system which if we can go back to sheet five, collects at this corner right here and goes down to and again difficult to read on this plan a water quality unit. Storm Scepter 450i which is sized for this volume. Um we included the spec sheet or a cut sheet for that. The way that works it's an oil water grit separator. Water enters the system um isn't allowed to see you know oils gases flow to the top. Everything else settles to the bottom. Right? That's your initial component of separation and and treatment of the water quality. Uh from there it enters these are actually two proposed uh deep sump hooded catch basins. So the deep

sumps are, you know, four feet below the invert. Sediment has space to settle out there. And then we have the um hooded outlet on those, right? Obviously, same idea, same general concepts, right? We're we're preventing oils and greases from going out by the hood, the pipe that goes down and water flows out that way. So those are some additional features that we had uh from the previous um submission or the pre the pre-app meeting. Um, DP has supplied as the email um the written recommendation that as um uh Matt had stated that you know there is no storm water requirements for this site out of fresh water not disturbing a large amount of area and no underground infiltration. All of these components are surface components to treat the water contain any contaminants before it leaves the site. Um so those are the components associated with the storm water that we've um upgraded from the last submission. If we can actually go down back to the zoom in here. U there was a lot of concern at the last meeting in regards to protecting the actual tank and making sure that there isn't any way that you know it's driven into you know security measures all of those things. So what we've added to is we've put in jersey barriers around the entire perimeter at the property line. Right? So there's parking along this edge. you can see the signs. Um, they have to go through a jersey barrier, a set of ballards, and then hit a concrete tank. So, you know, there's a significant amount of protection of the tank in that fashion. Um, additionally, we'd add a jersey barrier in front of the tank as requested at the board at the last meeting, right? So, these are, you know, all physical things that will stop it. You know, there's also a lamp post in front. You know, there's a lot that someone's going to have to go through before they can make contact with this tank. Um so all of those components protecting the tank have really um added support to the

system. You know really ensure that there is no cause for um concern in regards to a major catastrophe in regards to spilling. Um if you could actually back to the list of sheets that I had there. The um folder. Awesome. And then we have the envirro vault. Um, it's the third one from the bottom. Nope. Awesome. Yeah. So, here's the spec sheet that was supplied to the board prior to this. Um, I think it's, you know, important. I'd like to highlight some of the components here. Scroll down. Um, that are stated in the specs, right? You know, it's fire resistant vehicle impact, integral in earthquake and hurricane tieowns in ballistic rated. This thing is a vault. It's an enviral vault. It's very difficult to get through. um you know meets all the requirements for secondary containment, leak monitoring, spill containment, overflow protection. You know, the the tank itself is just designed not to have leaks to contain the um runoff to protect it from that. You know, it's six inches of lightwe concrete that protect the inner and outer tanks, provide a minimum of two-hour fire rating. Um you know, steel support channel allow for visual inspection of the bottom of the tank, right? all of these tertiary components in above ground tank. If there is a spill, you're going to see it, right? It's not an underground tank where, you know, if if there's a leak or a spill, it goes unseen and leaking into it. It's an above ground tank. So, um, you know, I hope and believe, you know, with the board that all of these additional provisions, the components that we added with storm water, um, that we can allow this, you know, the the site to go as constructed and, um, you know, they can start filling their tanks and using it from there. So, um, with that, you know, end of kind of presentation of what we got, I'll turn it back over to the board or, um, if there was any more conversation you want to have.

Okay. Thank you. Any questions, comments from the board? U, no questions. But I do appreciate the extra efforts and and work that you've put into uh for the containment because I think that was definitely a a concern with the original plan. So, thank you for that. Okay. Um I have a question. Um um when you talked about and showed us the layers of protection, I remember Dr. Benoy had requested like um I don't know what it's called, but like an impervious almost like rubber under sort of.

Yeah. So, so he had mentioned a bladder system. Yeah. And unfortunately those don't necessarily work for above ground storage tanks. I think the application that he was referring to was for an underground storage tank where there would be that tertiary level needed. You don't see that. But to add a tertiary level of containment, like complete contain, we're basically building another tank around our two existing tanks, you know, cuz otherwise the storm water would collect in that other t in that tertiary containment, right? The bladder system doesn't work, right? Because any rain's going to hit. it's going to collect into that tertiary containment and then get collected and held in there. So then you have to empty that between each store and it it's just it's counterproductive. You know, I think our trench drain system that allows storm water to run off and it'll collect and prevent water and fuel from, you know, escaping into the environment uncontrolled in the event of a spill, right? It has to go into our storm water systems. It has to go into the water quality units through the catch basins. it, you know, that is another level of containment. It's not the complete 10,000galon tertiary bladder containment that uh Mr. Benet was mentioning at the last meeting, but I think it does, you know, represent kind of that third level um you know, in a system that, you know, would help make it more compliant um in that regard.

Um do we have a point where we discuss this as a board? cuz I don't think I have more questions related to that, but I would want to discuss that at some point. We can do that right now.

Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to say like um it's actually over an aquafer overlay district, not just waterheds. It's drinking water and uh residents are very concerned about our aquafer um district. And um uh like 10,000 gallons is like I think like a swimming pool. And so I'm just thinking I have been thinking about this since the last time you were here. Um and I was thinking of that the berm and the rubber, you know, thing that Doc was talking about. So, if there were a leak, um it sounds like there's a filtration system where some of it would go into, but what about if there were a significant leak that was not seen quickly enough? Like what happens to the o the oil or the gas that comes out?

Sure.

Yeah. Sure. I'm Brianler. I'm a um I'm a principal environmental at conical environmental engineers and scientists. Um, I'm a PG and an LSP. The the point of having an above ground storage tank and the biggest advantage of it being above ground versus historic releases with underground storage tanks is you can visually inspect it. This has steel channels underneath the tank itself so that the bottom of the tank can actually be inspected uh during the course of the use of the tank. So, it's not like it can be impervious and have releases to the aquifer that would go undetected. Everything above this is above ground. anything any any release you would have which under a secondary containment. This is a steel tank and then a concrete wall barrier and then a second steel tank and then an 18 mil polymer coating. So you have four layers of protection. You can see the bottom of the tank. Any spill that would occur at at the worst would be a pull away on that line and that has an automatic shut off protection. So you're dealing with a 10 gallon release at best if that were to ever to occur. And obviously there's contingencies upon that. But um there is no way for this tank to leak short of a ballistic. I mean it's ballistic proof. So we could go down scenarios where you could have a release of that large scale. But I don't see how that would happen because it has both um fire protections, impact protections, it's burned. It is really state-of-the-art. So you can go down so many levels and hypotheticals, but we did I did a study out there where we put three monitoring wells. So we have looked at the aquifer. It does it's non detect in terms of soil. It's not detect in terms of groundwater. You can drink the water underneath this tank in this facility. It is a maintenance facility. So it's a good stewardship currently right now with the ownership. They're take they take it very seriously. So we will be able to monitor the aquifer. And in terms of a cataclysmic release, I just don't see it occurring.

Thank you. It's helpful to hear your explanation. Also, I think you mentioned that um the catch basity if there was a catastrophic spill to to absorb the 10,000 gallons. Is that correct? Did I hear that right?

So, so the catch basin systems aren't sized for that. You know, there's a like they're for storm water. They're com, you know, the bottoms, the sumps within those are meant to collect and hold storm water and actually allow for sediment to settle out to the bottom. There is a component of the catch basins that will prevent oil during standard leaks and things like that from continuing into, you know, out the storm water flow paths. And those need to be cleaned and maintained and monitored. And if there is the event of the spill, again, as Brian, there's so many contingencies that, you know, the the on-site maintenance crew needs to perform to prevent that from getting into the catch basins. The catch basins will need to be cleaned in those cases, right? It's but they're not sized to hold the entire 10,000 gallons because if that was the scenario, that 10,000 gallons would just fill up with storm water,

right? And then that void space doesn't exist. So that's what you know we from a storm water perspective of how that works you know the tertiary system it doesn't work because storm water is going to fill up that void and prevent you know any containment in that event. Does that make more sense? Thank you. All right. If there's no other comments from the board at this time uh we'll open up the public hearing. So I'll make a motion to open up the public hearing. Do I have a second? Second. Have a second. All in favor? I

I. All right. So, we have the public hearing opened at know Gary likes to do the time 7:30. If there's any comments going once. All right. Make a motion to close the public hearing. Do I have a second? Got a second. All in favor? I I All right. So, first item that we have to do for this application is to request the zoning relief that's been outlined by the planning department in our packets. Are there any questions? Yeah.

In regards to that,

um, it's more of a comment and if now is not the right time to say it, let me know and I'll say it another time. Um, I just want it known for the record as a resident and a member of this board, um, that I'm I'm not happy that a previous employee of our town, um, encouraged the owner to proceed at their own risk. I think that's really bad business and it's not looking out for the well-being of our community and it's not in line, to my understanding, with how we should do business. and I realized it happened and then the um the the I don't want to say remediations but the approaches are attempting to be faithful to as well as we can expect but I'm just not happy that it happened in that order and I I'm saying it for the record because I don't want that to happen in the future and as residents I feel like we should make that be known that we're not happy that our the employees of our town acted that way and they're not here anymore so they can't even be accountable to that and so I just want to say that publicly. Okay.

All right.

So then if there's uh thank you for that Dr. Roberts. If there's no other comment at this point, I'll make a motion that we request the f the following zoning relief. The relief to the North Smfield zoning code, article, is that 15? I'm not good with Roman nor Roman numerals, so forgive me. Uh, water supply protection overlay district classifies a proposed proposal use as a special use permit. The water supply protection overlay section 340-4.463 limits the maximum lot coverage in the manufacturing zone to 40%. The zoning section 340 attachment 2 district use table use code G4A fueling facility accessory use classifies this use as a special use permit in the M zone. Zoning section 344.8A 8A states, "No accessory building or structure can be within 10 feet of any property line and relief from the 1995 zoning board decision to require including screening to and to prohibit impervious area to the rear of the building as well as the recommendations and findings by the planning department."

So that's a motion. Do I have a second? Second. We have a second. We'll call. Dr. Roberts, yes. Miss Ramos, yes. And the Troyer votes yes. Does that take care of the special use permit or do we need to do do this? Make a motion to accept the planning department's recommendation on special. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Roll call vote. Dr. Roberts. Yes. Miss Ramos. Yes. And

the chair votes yes. action with regard to the land development project as presented project to be constructed in accordance with the plan presented as well as adopting the planning department recommendation. All right, are there any further comments for that? I have a question. Mhm. Um this has to do with um I understand that those three triggers that would get DEM involved weren't are not present

and I assume that there is a um like a method of um regularly checking on this that it's not leaking etc. Is that a standard protocol that DEM puts out or like who who determines what the regular checking of this facility is to make sure it's not leaking? And

so um and these guys can jump in if um they want to add. Uh there is a registration process with DEM even for above ground storage tanks. So that's one checks and balance. Um there's also typically you could have um a maintenance manual that we could we could submit that ensures that there's m regular maintenance at specific intervals um for the trench drains um that's standard practice. It's not as intense as a storm water operation and maintenance manual, but we could certainly agree to a you know maintenance manual to make sure that those happen and and there's something on file with planning to make sure that that's enforceable. Yeah, that looks like it's Yeah, please for stipulation number two federal level the um the site is subject to a spill prevention counter control and countermeasure plan and that is um an annual

uh review process that we do we do at Kico and it needs to be updated. So there is an SPCC plan for the property and that's on a federal level what you do to to monitor the tank. Okay. Thank you Mark. Would it be worth adding that to as a stipulation that that report gets provided to the planning department? I would I would say that that would be a reasonable stipulation. If they're doing it anyway and providing that as a federal regulation, they could certainly provide that. So, I would amend uh well, I would add similar to stipulation number two with the storm water management that they also pro provide that annual reporting to the federal agency to the

Yep. Does the applicant have any objections to that? No objection. Okay. Um the I think the other related piece because I think it's different from the federal um plan is the maintenance manual that you were referring to that I think you said you would be willing to submit it to the planning office. Okay. Okay. Thank you. So I would I would ask that we could perhaps combine that stipulation to provide the maintenance manual as well as the annual reporting to the planning department.

Okay. All right. Any further discussions? All right. I'll make a motion to approve the land development project incorporating the planning office findings and the stipulations that and recommendations that are outlined in our uh memo here with the addition of the one the uh additional stipulation that was just mentioned with the federal requirements and maintenance plans. Second. Have a motion. We have a second. Roll call. Dr. Roberts. Yes. Miss Ramos.

Yes. And the chair votes yes. Thank you very much. All right. Item number 11. Any administrative subdivisions? Perfect. I'm a little disappointed that Doc's not here for his favorite part. All right. Uh item number 12, adjournment. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Do I have a second? Second. Second. All in favor? I I All right. Thank you very much, everyone. Good job. Have a good night.