Conservation Commission — 2020-06-18
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE CONSERVATION COMMISSION City Hall, 562 Main Street Melrose, Massachusetts 02176 Telephone - (781) 979-4312 Fax - (781) 979-4290 Melrose Conservation Commission Minutes for June 18, 2020 Present: Susan Murphy, Aaron Weieneth, Richard Doucette, Paul Moore Ryan Sloan and Mike Paiewonsky Absent:Kate Hickey Staff present: Eric Devlin Ms. Murphy opened the Remote public meeting at 7:30pm and read the Remote meeting statement below. Pursuant to Governor Baker’s March 12, 2020 Order Suspending Certain Provisions of the Open Meeting Law, G.L. c. 30A, §18, and the Governor’s March 15, 2020 Order imposing strict limitation on the number of people that may gather in one place, this meeting of the Melrose Conservation Commission will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible. Specific information and the general guidelines for remote participation by members of the public and/or parties with a right and/or requirement to attend this meeting can be found on the City of Melrose’s website, at www.cityofmelrose.org. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time, or in the event that we are unable to do so, we will post on the mmtv3.org website an audio or video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting. All Votes will be recorded via roll call votes. Extension to permitting deadlines applicable to Commission proceedings pursuant to Chapter 53 of the Acts of 2020. Deadlines extended out 45 days after conclusion of the State of Emergency. Minutes- Motion by Mr. Weieneth to approve the minutes from May 21, 2020, as amended. Ms. Murphy seconded the motion. Roll Call vote: Richard Doucette – yes, Paul Moore – yes, Susan Murphy – yes, Michael Paiewonsky – yes , J. Ryan Sloan – yes, Aaron Weieneth – yes 6-0 in favor. Discussion: Order of Conditions 217-0208 Notice of Intent 0 Swains Pond Ave/Hillside Park - Richard Williams (Engineer) and Sean Szekely (Applicant) present. Ms. Murphy explained that the Order of Conditions was voted to be issued at the previous hearing. Discussion tonight was to confirm that the special conditions to be issued matches the discussion from the previous hearing. Staff circulated around a draft of the special conditions to the commission members for review. Ms. Murphy-2 edits to be made under the construction sequence section of the special conditions, revised items below: Test pits in each of the stormwater infiltration areas shall be excavated to ensure the 2 foot ground water separation prior to construction of those areas and a copy of the results shall be provided to the Commission. Test pits shall be excavated in the area of the roof drains prior to the application for a building permit and a copy of the results shall be provided to the Commission. Mr. Williams-Planning board decision also has similar condition on test pit results. Engineering and Planning will also be getting copies of test pit results. Expect some sort of acknowledgment and agreement from Planning that test pit results meet standard. Staff will follow up with Planning when they receive the test pit results for review. No formal Commission vote necessary, staff will be responsible for review. Ms. Murphy suggested an edit for the erosion and sediment controls section. Discussion on whether something specific for stream crossing work and bad weather preparation. Staff had previously included a line for storm prep, An adequate stockpile of additional erosion/sedimentation control materials shall be on site for emergency installation prior to storms. -consensus that this is sufficient, no edit necessary. Mr. Williams-Procedure for bad weather during stream crossing work. Extra erosion control materials will be on site. They will set up erosion controls assuming there will be a storm and prepare for it. Plan to pick a period of good weather, no storms predicted. Ms. Murphy- Condition on elevation of ledge on the downstream side of the culvert replacement for the impermeable barrier. Mr. Williams-ledge elevation not determined yet in that area, test hole needs to be done early on in the project. Condition of the Planning board decision. It is a test pit to determine if an impermeable barrier is required/needed at the culvert replacement. Additional condition suggested – Copies of all correspondence with the Melrose Department of Public Works regarding the impermeable barrier adjacent to the roadway shall be submitted to the Commission. Ms. Murphy- Order was already voted on at previous meeting, tonight was just to confirm that Special Conditions were in agreement with the vote from the previous hearing. No further comments from Commissioners, Staff will need to coordinate with one of the quorum members for physical signature that was not present for electronic signature authorization. Trail signs/printing budget – Staff updated Commission members on remaining budget for printing items this fiscal year. Suggested trail markers/signs would be possible. Ms. Murphy will follow up with the Ped/Bike Committee for sign coordination, identify areas that need additional markers/updates. 55 Summit ave tree watering- Staff suggested an email schedule for the summer/fall to coordinate weekly watering. Staff watered the trees the day before the meeting and spoke with property owner. House has not been sold yet, not sure if house is on the market currently. Ms. Murphy agreed to water the trees next week and will assign a week to the next person. New/Old Business- The next scheduled meeting will be Thursday, July 16, 2020 at 7:30 PM. Motion by Ms. Murphy to adjourn. Mr. Weieneth seconded the motion and it was voted 6-0 in favor. Adjourn 8:00PM adjourn ____________________________ _________________ Approved Date. Pursuant to the ‘Open Meeting Law, ‘ G.L. 39, 23B, the approval of these minutes by the Commission constitutes a certification of the date, time and place of the meeting, the members present and absent, and the actions taken at the meeting. Any other description of statements made by any person, or the summary of the discussion of any matter, is included for the purpose of context only, and no certification, express or implied, is made by the Commission as to the completeness or accuracy of such statements.
Transcript
▶ 0:00 All right. All right. So, call to order the June 18th, 2020 meeting of the Melrose Conservation Commission. As per the requirements, I have to read this statement, pursuing to Governor Baker's March 12th, 2020 order, suspending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law, General Law Chapter 38, Section 18, and the Governor's March 15th, 2020 order imposing strict limitation on the number of people that may gather in one place this meeting of the melrose conservation commission will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible specific information and general guidelines for remote participation by members of the public and or parties with the right and or requirement
▶ 0:54 to attend this meeting can be found on the city of melrose's website at www.cityofmelrose.org No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real-time or in the event that we are unable to do so, we will post on the MMTV3.org website an audio or video recording, transcripts, or other comprehensive record of proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting, and all votes will be recorded via roll call vote. There's an extension of permitting deadlines applicable to commission proceedings pursuant to Chapter 53 of the Acts of 2020. And I think that's it. The first item on the agenda is to approve the minutes from the May 21st, 2020 meeting. I did review them. I didn't have any edits. Does anyone else have a chance to look at them?
▶ 1:52 Hi, Susan, this is I reviewed them. I passed along some minor edits to Eric. So. Unless anyone else has any comments or edits, I move to approve them. Motion to approve as amended and we have a 2nd, all in favor and we need a roll call vote. Eric. Take it away Richard. Yes, yes. Susan yes Mike yes yes yes okay the next item on our agenda discussion item the order of conditions for 217-2080 Swains Pond Avenue Realty Trust we voted to issue the order of conditions at the last meeting and there was a discussion of the special conditions that would be included, so we're just going to go ahead and make sure what we have here matches what we voted on at the last meeting and then we'll be able to issue
▶ 3:23 this order of conditions. Eric did send out a draft of the special conditions. So I had a couple of things I just wanted to make sure we were clear on so i will start on the first uh in section two construction sequence the presentation that says test pits in each of the stormwater infiltration areas shall be excavated to ensure the two-foot groundwater separation prior to construction and what um what i recall and was indicated in the minutes was that i think there was an issue at sort of accessing one of the areas prior to the start of construction so i don't know if this is intended to just be prior to construction of those structures or or should we clarify that and then i also thought we might want to separate out the um a separate requirement for the roof
▶ 4:29 drain systems because that will probably be in connection with issuance of the building permit for the individual houses does that make sense i just took myself off me that that makes sense to make the addition and change as you suggested to me okay so if we say prior to construction of those areas add that to the sentence and then have a separate sentence um test pitch shall be excavated for the in the area of the roof drains prior to application for a building permit that sound good is that eric it shall be excavated prior to this building permit prior to application for a building permit and the results provided to the commission all right should all of those say the results should be provided to the commission
▶ 5:39 and then what susan do we have do they have to wait until we have our next meeting to approve them or can eric do it or you yourself do it um i guess i wasn't envisioning that they would need the pre-approval they need to demonstrate that it shows the two-foot groundwater separation and provide it to us um it seems that they don't show that then they'd have to come back in with a different with an alternative can i just chime in for a second um we we do have to provide them to the planning board as well in dpw and they will be checking that so um there will be multiple eyes on that because that's a condition in the planning board decision as well are you waiting for a like a statement of approval from them and under the planning board document well we're going to submit
▶ 6:52 it and show that we made it and i suppose the um there would there should be some acknowledgement that they received it and agree that's what we're expecting so michael do you have a suggestion on how to word it then that's kind of what we have in mind that's not coming before a meeting i would say that you know that eric can confirm the two-foot separation and uh maybe check in with the planning department you know you're in the same office i think that would be fine i don't i definitely don't think they have to wait for for us as a group all right so you think it's okay with you leaving it with the language that it is and but eric will do that as a matter of procedure yep okay thank you thanks then I think what I saw in the minute so
▶ 8:19 there was a requirement for the culvert replacement and construction to be scheduled for low flow periods but also a suggestion in terms of having extra materials on hand for storms and addressing the possibility of storms during that work and I don't know Eric if there's something you put in erosion and sediment control that was aimed at that and I just didn't catch it there was something on there I mean the adequate stockpile of additional erosion sedimentation control material shall be on site for emergency installation prior to storms is that something you added regarding that uh the part about the storm so i uh tacked on an extra sentence to that line that had been on there about just keeping additional stuff
▶ 9:19 you're sitting here to repair the things as they broke right usually that's the thing i remember that being in there so do we do we want a specific requirement with respect to this stream crossing work in the event of a storm? We think this captures it. Rich, what is your procedure when you're doing a stream crossing if you have bad weather during it? We will have extra materials on site. Before we do that, we're going to set up erosion controls assuming that there would be a storm um and be prepared for that we're expecting that that stream will be intact and that the work is going to take take place over the course of a day or two um we're not going to have it open we need to to keep access open for the uh residents so it's not something that's going to be
▶ 10:33 open for a long period it's going to be very quick so we will have those materials on site and we're going to pick um a a span of weather where there's not storms i mean that's really our attention okay all right are we satisfied that the language we have covers that then it does say scheduled for low flow periods and conditions yeah i saw that reasonable i think it covers it and then i think the only other thing that i was questioning is that there was a reference to getting elevation of ledge at the downstream side of the edge of existing pavement to report back something about the impermeable barrier impermeable barrier under the roadway and that this would be a condition is that a condition you included eric
▶ 11:36 i didn't put one into that okay all right is that something we need is has that been done rich or is that something we still need to incorporate into the conditions um that needs to be done that will be a test hole that's done um early on in the project um so that's it is a condition of the planning board's um approval i do think it's outside the buffer zone but um we still need to do it that is a test to determine the elevation of the imperial impermeable barrier how would we phrase it it's a test pit to determine if we need the impermeable barrier i say because you're trying to find where the ledge is to see if you need the improvement okay um and we're going to have we're going to we're going to dig that and we're going
▶ 12:42 going to have a discussion with the public works department. We can just communicate that with you guys, how that went. That's fine. OK, so that requirement would be to? I think you could copy the commission on our correspondence with the DPW. So commissioned to be copied on correspondence with DPW regarding permeable barrier under the roadway. Adjacent to the roadway. Yes. Adjacent to the roadway. Satisfactory to everybody. So that's all I had for suggestions. Anybody else make any amendments to this? This is Aaron. I provided some more just editorial type comments to Eric, to Eric just to clean it up a little bit. Nothing substantial, no big changes. I don't have any... Could use some editing.
▶ 14:09 Yeah, I'm not going to say I made it ready to go to print per se, but provided that feedback a little bit. But I don't have any other substantive comments or issues that I thought were missed that you didn't cover. How about you, Michael? As far as you're concerned, did we cover everything that we agreed was going to be in it yes Susan you captured everything that I was looking for all right so I think we're ready to issue this we have already voted to issue it so this was just to make sure it conforms to what we had agreed and voted on so and then I think so we had the one issue was that Michael was going to have to sign it actually is that correct because we don't have the present for that so so
▶ 15:12 you'll work that out with Mike okay I didn't know that you can be in touch we'll figure it out this is your present for the vote that you know authorized me to do the electronic signatures so we're gonna have to actually try to work out a day where I could get you to sign the paper. No problem. We'll figure it out. Just the first meeting we voted on like five different things and and so Eric we had given Eric authorization to sign for us but that's all right that had to go through a whole registry of deeds process that we're not going to repeat for an additional person. Sorry I missed that meeting. Yeah but yeah you'll just deal with some work it out it'll be fine. All right so that's it for
▶ 15:56 for that item any questions rich no not for us thank you very much all right thanks guys appreciate it and then that's pretty much it for this meeting I think we still have the open space kind of lingering on our agenda and I don't know I don't know if this now's the time to be taking that up one thing I realized that i guess we had some money that got carried over i thought we lost it but they they rolled it into the account from printing so we had double the printing money and i don't know if you saw that email that i had sent to you saying yes we i just told the auditor's office that we were in the process of spending that money on something you know i was thinking Either the trip worker stuff or some sort of signage thing, you know, I would. Yeah, there is a bunch of things that we could use it for.
▶ 17:14 It's not sure exactly when we might want to think about signs the, I got a call from the mayor's deputy, like, a couple hours before the budget hearing warning me. they were going to ask me about all sorts of stuff that they didn't ask me about. One of them was signage. It has to do with, I think, some people who went out to do some of that cleanup work found that they couldn't find the various conservation lands and were looking for signage. And then there's this whole way finding grant that they got that people, there was a move by ped bike committee to try and like get that to be more pedestrian focused and directing people to walking paths and stuff and so it was kind of getting hijacked
▶ 18:14 so the mayor's deputy wanted me to say that we didn't need any money for for additional science but i wasn't even asked um but i think that ellen pats had sent a couple emails saying that she couldn't find stuff so so we might want to talk to pet bike i don't know if anyone is interested in being a liaison or i'll follow up with ellen at some point but if they kind of want to give us their thoughts on what they thought i think would be useful in terms of signage and we actually have that money that we could spend then maybe that would be a useful thing to do do. Any volunteers? No? I'll talk to Ellen. Anything else? The other thing was the trees over at 55 Summit Ave that we had. Every once in a while I'm like, oh, should I go water those? And then I forget to ask
▶ 19:15 you what's up with them. I've gone out there a few times this summer. I've been keeping an eye, well, the beginning of the summer here now, keeping an eye on them over there actually yesterday when i was out there i hasn't sold the house yet so we don't have to deal with the problem about trying to secure you know the okay to continue to go through there is it on the market uh i don't think he hasn't listed yet he told me to finish the work inside there like it's pretty much ready to go but i think for whatever reason they haven't actually put it up. I got a question about that because I guess he has a couple of lots and so people are worried about what's going to get built up there. And I think though the people down downhill from him since the trees went out are getting more
▶ 20:10 water. Yeah they're upset but yes one of them definitely had a whole big problem. Yeah I I believe they worked out something though. Yeah, the only other thing I would say is that we kind of are sort of below everyone's radar. So we, the other, if you saw that whole thing with the mayor and the departments and looking at your inclusivity and the sort of approach to the Black Lives Matter stuff, which I feel like doesn't like not apply to us, especially with that hurting in New York issue, But I don't know if anyone wants to do some thinking about it, but I think we're low. We're kind of below everyone's radar and they probably won't ask us about it. I know I put together, like, a little staff report thing. Okay. So you can do something that got included with the planning stuff. Okay. All right. So that's good. So we're covered technically.
▶ 21:09 If anyone has any thoughts on it, I'm open to trying to do something. At some point, if we worked out some sort of a schedule, it would be great if two of us went to try to water the trees, we could waste the time. So, if we try to figure out, you know, just, I don't know, like, maybe an email thing, if somebody wants to, you know, pick one week to say, you know, hey, I'm going to water the trees this week, we'll all know. We just have to do it until the fall to handle that. All right. All right. I will try and do that next week and then then kick it to somebody and I'll let someone else to do it next. See how it works. I've been keeping an eye on the grass over on the Linfels Parkway house too. The grass does look like it's doing better. It looks like they are watering it.
▶ 22:23 Which was worried about no one has anything else. I think we can adjourn this meeting. That's good. All right. Thanks everyone. I seen y'all. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Have a good week.