Conservation Commission Approves Edgestone Birch Drive Lots on Split Votes

PEPPERELL — September 29, 2020 — Pepperell Conservation Commission approves Edgestone Properties lots on split votes. The commission voted five to two to issue a negative three determination for lot 18 at 20 Birch Drive and four to three for lot 16 at 24 Birch Drive, finding that proposed buffer-zone grading would not alter protected wetland resource areas and does not require a Notice of Intent. Joe Pesnola of Hancock Associates told the commission that Edgestone had resolved a Massachusetts DEP Stormwater Handbook setback conflict by lowering the subdivision's infiltration basin overflow weir from elevation 99 to 98, allowing basement floors to be set at elevation 98 consistent with neighboring lots already under order of conditions. The commission conditioned both approvals on erosion control placement between the infiltration basin and the houses if grading follows basin installation, and on certified plot plans showing basement elevations. After the applicant left, two dissenting members explained their votes: "I'm against this development in general, so I would find it ironic that I'd be voting for these individual things," one said. The commission also declined, without a formal vote, to allow a neighbor to tap maple trees on town conservation land at Kai's Farm, citing drought tree-health risks from U.S. Forest Service guidance, non-exclusive-use policy, and the absence of tapping from the list of permitted conservation land activities.