Pepperell Commission Advances Scaled-Back Mill Street Office Plan to August Hearing

PEPPERELL — July 11, 2023 — Pepperell Conservation Commission continues Mill Street redevelopment review after engineer scales back parking near sensitive drumlin. At the July 11 meeting, engineer Matt Hammer of Lamplex Engineering presented a revised site plan for the proposed 1A Auto office and video production facility at 23 Mill Street, removing 11 parking spaces and cutting total land disturbance by 7,450 square feet and impervious area by 5,130 square feet in response to commission concerns from a site walk conducted the previous day. Commission members offered qualified approval — "it's a great improvement," said member Pat — but left unresolved the trail design, updated 100-year floodplain mapping, and a historic mill exemption area calculation that attorney Melissa Robbins of Farrell and Robbins PC clarified must be measured as of 1996, when state DEP riverfront regulations took effect. Conservation agent Paula separately reported the discovery of invasive water chestnuts in Heald Pond, where volunteers removed a truckload of plants before seeds could drop to the pond bottom. The commission also approved $765 in bills payable and continued the hearing to August 1.