The Mattapoisett Conservation Commission met on Wednesday night, May 23, for their final meeting of the month. They heard from Dave Davignon of Schneider & Associates, who was representing Daniel and Laurie DaRosa, who filed a Notice of Intent to install sand-filled coconut fiber envelopes along a coastal bank on their property, and to plant salt tolerant grasses and shrubs. Geologist Stanley M. Humphries, from LEC Environmental Consultants, Inc. was on hand to explain how the plan would mitigate coastal erosion.
“This is a bank stabilization project, using biodegradable materials that will absorb energy from wave attacks,” he said. “We want to protect this fairly low-lying bank that lies in a velocity zone, knowing full well that a hurricane is inevitable,” he said. “The proposal is a minimum of one foot of sand cover.”
Conservation Commission member Tom Kopps seemed supportive of the plan but worried about it becoming a trend.
“If it was an open beach, I’d be worried about down-earth erosion. These things tend to multiply quickly. If you build one here, next to it you get some erosion, people will build another and another,” Kopps said.
The hearing was continued until the next meeting of the Commission because the item does not yet have a file number, and the specifics of the plan have not yet been finalized for presentation to the Commission.
In other business, the Conservation Commission approved an RDA for the Desnoyers family to build an elevated deck on property at 17 Bay Road. They also approved an RDA for the installation of an in-ground pool with cement apron and perimeter fence at 4 Seabreeze Lane. An abutter to the property was present and declared that she took no issue with the plans for the pool.
They also discussed possible plans for what to do with the 840 cubic yards of material removed during the upcoming dredging of the Eel Pond East Channel. Commission Chairman Peter Newton was in favor of redistributing the material on land to replenish beach area over an alternative of trucking the material to the land fill.
“We could also distribute it around the West Breach. The Town owns the land down on that end,” said Town Administrator Mike Gagne. The Commission decided that was the best plan and approved the project.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission will be on Monday, June 11, at 6:30 pm at the Town Hall.
By Eric Tripoli
