The Conservation Commission on September 23 held public hearings on three properties within a wetlands buffer zone and approved all three.
The first two on the agenda received the most scrutiny: Mary Ann Hubbard Trust is seeking to build a single-family home on Front Street and Benjamin Dion is proposing a four-bedroom home on Cross Neck Road.
The Front Street property was a continued hearing and the applicant updated plans to apply erosion control and stormwater flood measures. The commission approved both as long as these steps are taken. Members also asked applicants to avoid disturbing nearby wildlife habitats.
Dion said he spoke with a state Department of Environmental Protection representative who ensured that the nearby wildlife would not be impacted by the project, which would also include a pool, a pool house and a barn.
For the third hearing, Thomas Gibbs met briefly with the board and explained that his 14-foot-by-18-foot home addition on County Road would be adjacent to the home and would require digging soil only three or four feet deep.
“It’s pretty straightforward,” he said.
The Conservation Commission did not require the applicant to conduct any more modifications to the project.
In other news, Conservation Agent Doug Guey-Lee said he fielded a complaint from a Seaside Lane resident, who said a neighbor was cutting areas on his property and possibly within the nearby wetlands,
Guey-Lee said he investigated the matter and said it appeared the individual was cutting brush and might have overstepped property boundaries. He described it as “marginal cutting.”
The area is near a town seawall.
Guey-Lee advised the board to visit with the “alleged cutter” about the area, which has small lots, and to caution against cutting brush outside property lines.
Guey-Lee also said he is working on the budget and re-categorizing budget line items for better organization. Guey-Lee, also a town planner, said he is doing similar work for the Planning Board.
Guey-Lee said there are no plans to increase the budget but to add more clarity and accuracy to line items.
“We never had a long, formal discussion about the budget, and I am trying to reevaluate the categories we use,” Guey-Lee said.
The Conservation Commission did not have a full board at its September 23 meeting but agreed to revisit the topic at its October meeting.
Marion Conservation Commission
By Jeffrey Wagner