Rochester’s Conservation Commission Tuesday approved the Order of Conditions for Logging Swamp Solar’s plan to install a solar panel array on 49 acres in the area of 600 Snipatuit Road, a property located within a Residential-Agricultural District and partially within a Groundwater Protection District.
Project representative Sarah Sterns of Beals and Thomas Engineering reported she and her associate Jeff Murphy were back after several months of continuances with a comprehensive plan that has been modified based on the public’s and the town engineer’s comments. The proposed access road has been moved in a southwesterly direction away from abutters’ property lines, as these abutters had requested. “The access road has been shifted significantly,” Sterns said.
Murphy elaborated that an old logging path is being extended, and a culvert is being removed. A water channel will be connected, and a timber bridge will be built over it. Sterns added that test pits have been done. The data from these pits and Town Engineer Ken Motta’s comments were all incorporated into the new plan.
“I think you’ve addressed all our comments,” Member Mike Gifford said. The commission motioned the positive Order of Conditions after the abutters who have been attending the hearing since it began in the spring had no further comments.
The proposal includes work within bordering vegetated wetlands, the 200-foot riverfront area associated with an on-site perennial stream as well as within a local 25-foot No Disturb zone. Next, the project itself must be reviewed for approval by the Planning Board.
The Conservation Commission next reviewed a request for a negative Determination of Applicability to wetlands regulations for a proposal at 756 Snipatuit Road. This plan would relocate a drainpipe that currently runs under the house and level off the grading in a backyard within the 100-foot buffer zone of a vegetated wetland. Homeowner Cameron Pierce explained he simply wants to match the grading of his neighbor’s yard. This hearing was continued to the board’s next meeting so Pierce can return with engineered plans.
Next, the commission granted a negative Determination of Applicability to a proposal at 0 County Road to develop an agricultural water supply reservoir as a “normal improvement” of land in agricultural use as a cranberry bog. Saunders Family Cranberry Company engineer William Madden explained supplying water to the bog will be the reservoir’s only purpose.
In other action and onto continuances, the commission continued to its next meeting an Abbreviated Notice of Resource Area Delineation hearing for work at 0 Walnut Plain Road proposed by Botelho Custom Homes.
The commission also continued to its next meeting the Notice of Intent hearing for a plan to construct a single-family home within the 200-foot riparian zone at 0 Robinson Road.
The commission again continued to its next meeting the Notice of Intent hearing for the construction and installation of floating and ground-mounted solar arrays at 53 Dexter Lane, upon the petitioners’ requests.
The next meeting of the Rochester Conservation Commission will be October 21 at 7:00 pm at Town Hall, 1 Constitution Way.
Rochester Conservation Commission
By Michael J. DeCicco