It’s a waiting game for several Marion residents, as members of the Marion Conservation Commission chose to continue their appointments until January of 2020.
Dale and Laura Briggs, 23 Dexter Road, filed a Notice of Intent with the commission to demolish an existing ground-level cottage and replace it with a one-story, two-bedroom house. Engineer David Davignon noted that the biggest difficulty with the lot is that it sits on an island in the middle of the Weweantic River.
A boardwalk to the mainland was completed in summer 2019, Dale Briggs noted. The boardwalk is constructed to hold the weight of small construction vehicles. In fact, Briggs added, “It could hold a fire truck if it was wide enough.”
According to the Briggses, the boardwalk was the linchpin to further developing the property. The new house will be on stilts, and Davignon added that, according to the plans, there will be a two-story climb just to get to the first floor. The site has water and sewer line access already, as well as access to electricity.
“This site is challenging, but less challenging than if you didn’t already have utilities,” said Conservation Commission member Shaun Walsh. “I’d like to continue this just to review any questions we might have and fully understand your answers. It’s always tricky,” he said, “and we want to give this more consideration.”
The hearing was continued until January 8.
Davignon also represented Henry and Judith DeJesus, who filed a Notice of Intent to construct a detached garage at 25 Holly Road. Construction of the planned garage will alter 476 square feet of wetlands. To offset the damage, Davignon proposed replicating 500 square feet of wetlands on the same lot.
“I really want to see this lot re-tagged,” said Conservation Commission Chairman Jeff Doubrava. “The area you’re trying to replicate wetlands on looks exactly the same to us.”
“To clarify,” added Walsh, “we need to re-evaluate the land you want to turn into wetlands, because to us that land already looks like wetlands.”
“The company that tagged it originally is very reputable,” Davignon said, which board members did not dispute. “Plus, with the weather this year, everything looks like wetlands. But if that’s what you want, we’ll have it retagged.”
The commission voted to continue the hearing until the next meeting in order to visit the retagged property.
The next meeting of the Marion Conservation Commission will be held on January 8 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.
Marion Conservation Commission
By Andrea Ray