ORDER-2019-79 : Acceptance of Revised Easements at 360 and 366 Swains Pond Ave

Transcript (~12 min @ 28:20)

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▶ 28:19 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: is order 2 0 1 9 79 acceptance of revised easements at 360 and 366 Swains

▶ 28:36 Speaker 2: Pond Avenue and I think we're still under suspension of rules if the

▶ 28:39 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Director Schnell wants to stick with us for a minute just to explain this one a little bit these two easements on Swayne's pond

▶ 28:47 Speaker 4: sure late last summer of 18 Sanofsky family at 360 Swayne's pond approached us about the possibility of Relocating an existing easement in the rear of their property so that they could facilitate a rare addition to their home We started speaking about in some of the general conditions that we would require they went out and they engineered a Upgraded drainage system Which impacts both their property and their neighbor 366 the Roach family The plan that you have dated April 8th is our most updated plan And they have worked very closely with our engineering group To make sure technically this was possible and feasible. This has all been done at their own expense They'll be constructing this and managing this at their own expense and their own oversight at the end of the project they're required to provide The city with an as-built and they will record that as-built and the new easement with the registry of deeds Our city solicitor has worked with both families and creating easement documents and they were both attached to the order as well to execute once that as-built is done the existing easement information easement documents that we gave as part of the order have an exhibit fee well we will trade this out once we have a true as-built this way the document refers to what's actually in the ground again this is being done whole fully in their expense entirely in their expense at their expense and it's being done to the conditions that our engineering group

▶ 30:47 Peter D. Mortimer: required motion motion to amend the order to include the plan submitted on April 8th to our clerk of committees second okay there's a motion to amend

▶ 30:53 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: the order to include those plans made by alderman Mortimer seconded by alderman forbes all in favor aye aye opposed okay we have a amended order before us alderman forbes

▶ 31:04 Scott M. Forbes: uh well you did answer my question thank you for being here tonight um about the as far as the expense that is being paid by the resident and excuse me uh as a result it'll it result in an improved and upgraded infrastructure uh for the city so um you answered my question as far as uh this once this passes i assume that the homeowner can start the work uh in a in a reasonable time

▶ 31:30 Speaker 4: frame yeah i believe they've they're ready to go yeah i know that i think monday the contractor was in this past monday met with our city engineer and their personal engineer coordinate connections and sequence of work so i do believe that once this order passes they will be ready to go and

▶ 31:51 Scott M. Forbes: they're good to go on our end yeah very much a collaborative effort with a lot of moving parts so we appreciate your involvement in that as well so thank you thank you thank you alderman Bewtra

▶ 32:00 Manisha Bewtra: thank you um so generally this is a pretty environmentally sensitive area is that correct um prone to flooding i i'm saying this because i know i think of a friend who lived further along on Swains Pond Avenue and experienced a big flood on their property so I'm just curious if this is the type of thing that's that that area of the city is particularly prone to and if a lot of the properties in that area have similar

▶ 32:30 Speaker 4: easements there are a stretch of properties on Swains Pond on that side of Swains Pond that have a drain pipe behind their property eventually it comes back on to Swains Pond Ave and outlets into Towers Pond and Swains Pond makes its way out to that watershed we're not increasing the size of the pipe as part of this project we're just replacing it so we won't we shouldn't be impacting downstream flooding of the sort and if there are any blockages we've probably going to be helping people upstream from these two properties we we did a similar project in this easement run I think three four years ago but it was collapsed pipe and this type of pipe is cast iron it's old cast iron and it tends to rot in the bottom and all the time that will settle and when the pipe starts to settle the pipe gets blocked so anytime we can replace this type of pipe and put in plastic pipe it's a big it's a win so

▶ 33:33 Manisha Bewtra: great understanding that this is at the expense of the homeowners homeowner is there are what kinds of requirements is the city what are your requirements with regards to materials used and obviously it sounds like there was a lot of

▶ 33:51 Speaker 4: back-and-forth which is great but just okay thank you those are my questions

▶ 33:58 Speaker 2: Alderman Mortimer.

▶ 33:59 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you very much, and I'd just like to make a comment that, yes, that culvert is, that underground pipe is there. But fortunately, the town is, and Swains Pond watershed has an enormous capacity. Even during the midst of the Mother's Day storm, I had been down there looking at it, and the water was still flowing to the Saugus River without a problem. So we're very fortunate for all the drainage areas in that area that it can go. And I would just like to add that I have recently conferred with the city solicitor. And he indicated to me that everything regarding this easement change and any adjustments are completely appropriate and within the confines of all legal requirements. Thank you very much.

▶ 34:48 Speaker 2: Thank you, Alderman Medeiros.

▶ 34:50 Monica C. Medeiros: Thank you. you and I do see we have attorney Van Camp and the state solicitor here with us I was wondering if he might be able to to come up for a minute too but I did

▶ 35:05 Monica C. Medeiros: want to ask has the did the Conservation Commission take a look at this at all by

▶ 35:12 Speaker 4: any chance it's not we don't feel that's pertinent our engineers don't feel that

▶ 35:22 Monica C. Medeiros: and so that's that wouldn't be a normal part of this only in a floodplain or

▶ 35:29 Speaker 5: wetland you're not in the buffer zone where the drain line is going as I understand it so you wouldn't be required to have concom exercise any

▶ 35:37 Monica C. Medeiros: jurisdiction okay and it looks like from this is not my area of expertise but it looks like we're kind of going from a somewhat rounded culvert that goes through the backyard in the area where the proposed addition would be and

▶ 35:57 Monica C. Medeiros: changing it to more of a straight line and so this is going from one existing easement or two existing easements to a slightly different easement is that

▶ 36:06 Speaker 4: correct if you look at the if you look at the plan there the easement follows the pipe and the pipe takes a somewhat curvature approach through these two properties what the project will do is use an existing manhole upstream and install a new manhole on the other end of the proposed improvement and then put pipe straight in between them which is typical construction these days in the past especially here in Melrose these curvature culverts once open bodies and people just put the pipe and backfilled it it may end is through downtown in the same way today's today we like to go with straight pipe and manholes at the change in angles to better access it better clean it in in the future and so

▶ 36:58 Monica C. Medeiros: there is an existing with the what happens to that once this is done will we will they will we grant essentially becomes abandoned the pipe would I

▶ 37:10 Speaker 5: believe the pipe will probably abandon it in place okay so the pipe would stay

▶ 37:21 Speaker 5: in the ground the easement itself would be abandoned and what would be showing at the registry of deeds would be a new easement with a new plan showing where that active pipe and that active easement are located is there from from

▶ 37:36 Monica C. Medeiros: your perspective is there any legal detriment to the city for doing this I

▶ 37:44 Speaker 5: don't I don't see when I think the end result is the easement documents would would read more clearly than the current do and I believe from an engineering standpoint and not my expertise I believe the engineering of this new line

▶ 38:02 Speaker 6: makes that system more efficient so perhaps a benefit thank you very much

▶ 38:07 Speaker 2: appreciate that thank you alderman's work oh thank you madam chair i just have two quick questions

▶ 38:10 Michael P. Zwirko: so we've noted a couple times this evening that the property owners will be paying for this work how how often does that occur that the owner agrees to pay for all the work is it rare or

▶ 38:22 Speaker 4: residential property is rare but it's not rare in developments happens all the time land are

▶ 38:33 Speaker 4: transformed whether it's um you know a single family how two single family house lots become one large property or a larger scale development these type of improvements to our infrastructure happen all the time and we've seen that on Dexter Road

▶ 38:46 Speaker 4: recently with the Regan's Way Dexter Road we've seen it on almost every large scale development where they're upgrading infrastructure or our roadway network as part of their project and this is a smaller residential scale where the where the homeowners have requested an opportunity to improve our it for us to give us authorization to improve our infrastructure at their cost and it's really I'd see nothing wrong with it so I'll just make one more

▶ 39:15 Michael P. Zwirko: comment that will note that the property not only the homeowners is being improved and upgraded but so is the infrastructure and at no cost to the city other than some time on reviewing some plans so it sounds like a pretty

▶ 39:31 Speaker 2: good plan to me thank you madam chair thank you for your time can i just ask one question so i assume that the building inspector or somebody will take a will also sign off on this once it's installed just to confirm that it meets the expectations our our city engineer will work

▶ 39:43 Speaker 4: with their certified engineer okay for the pipe when that's done the building any addition to building inspector would take over at that point got it okay thank you so well the committee motion

▶ 40:00 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: to recommend as amended second a motion to recommend as amended by made by alderman forbes and seconded by alderman mortimer all in favor any opposed that motion passes will be recommended to