On March 4, Scott Snow’s proposed Eldridge Estates subdivision planned for parcels located off Prospect Road failed to supply all the details necessary for a thorough vetting by the Mattapoisett Planning Board.
Coming before the full board was G. deJesus of Prime Engineering. During previous informal meetings and hearings with the applicant’s representatives, Snow was directed to provide timely and complete documents that the board could study before the meeting opened. However, Chairman Tom Tucker stopped deJesus before he could begin, saying, “We just got the plans today – we are going to continue this plan. … There are major changes.” Mr. deJesus attempted to color the changes as “minor,” causing Tucker to react with, “Don’t even go there!”
Tucker said that he had instructed the applicant numerous times to submit a plan that was complete and filed with the Planning Board office at least a week before the meeting date.
“I told the applicant, but you keep doing this,” Tucker fired. “He (Snow) had the opportunity to return when he was ready. We would have continued it without prejudice – you either play by the rules or you don’t play.”
Snow’s first appearance before the Planning Board, at which time he floated a conceptual and very incomplete plan for a subdivision, was in June of 2018. Since that time, Prime Engineering has returned with at least two different lot division concepts, and changed roadway or driveway plans and stormwater systems, which all failed to satisfy essential questions raised by the Planning Board.
Before moving on to other business, board member Nathan Ketchel raised further technical questions. Ketchel had, during the February 4 hearing, taken Prime Engineering’s Richard Rheaume to task over stormwater systems and calculations, an exchange that lasted for more than an hour. Those documents still remained incomplete.
Planning Board member Janice Robbins told deJesus that Rheaume, during his presentation, “hadn’t taken any notes.”
Tucker read a letter into the minutes from a concerned abutter. The author, David Mee, 35 Pine Island Road, raised concerns over stormwater runoff, re-grading, drainage basins, and potential damage to existing stonewalls on his property. He also asked the Planning Board to mandate a “higher than usual completion of work bond … to ensure the applicant fulfills his contractual obligations.”
Abutter Bill Cantor asked about a peer review consultant. Tucker assured him that Bill Madden of G.A.F. Engineering would be providing that oversight. Cantor also questioned how frequently abutters were required to be notified of hearings. He was advised that after a filing, abutters were not subsequently notified of hearings except for the public notice found on the town hall billboard or within official published agendas. In this case, however, there had been two separate abutter notifications because the project scope had significantly changed from a three-lot subdivision to a five-lot subdivision.
Tucker said of the notification process, “This is a ploy some developers play.”
Once again, the project was debated and questions raised by the board members for an hour. Tucker finally said, “Let’s not do their work for them. Okay, so you guys weren’t ready for us tonight.” He also said that if an early version of the project had received approval by the Conservation Commission, a revised plan would have to go through that process again. The hearing was continued until March 18.
Earlier in the evening, the Planning Board granted a Form A: Approval Not Required to Gingras Construction for a single buildable lot subdivision located off Fairhaven Road, the site of a former gravel pit. Gingras’ plan noted a four-acre lot for the construction of a house with the possibility of gifting an unbuildable wetlands area to the Town.
Also approved was a Form A: Approval Not Required to Arthur Harris for property located off Aucoot Road for the construction of a single-family home on four acres.
Tree Warden Roland Cote received permission to cut down a tree located at 14 Linhares Avenue. He said the homeowner was requesting the tree be removed and would replace it with a specimen that would be less intrusive. Cote noted that the locust tree in question had a root system that was breaking up the homeowner’s driveway and shedding limbs and branches that might threaten the property further.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board is scheduled for March 18 at 7:00 pm in the Town Hall conference room.
Mattapoisett Planning Board
By Marilou Newell