Pepperell Conservation Commission Continues 148 South Road Hearing, Demands Design Revisions

PEPPERELL — September 11, 2018 — Pepperell Conservation Commission sends 148 South Road house proposal back for redesign after finding multiple wetland and access problems. The commission continued its public hearing on a Notice of Intent filed by applicant Eric Heider for a single-family house, garage, and driveway at 148 South Road, asking engineer Neil Gorman of David Ross Associates to return October 9 with a revised plan addressing at least three issues: a proposed wetland replication area whose narrow, detached shape members said "is not viable at all" and would not function as wetland; a driveway alignment that runs within the 50-foot no-disturb buffer zone beyond what the limited-project wetland-crossing exception allows; and the absence of documentation showing the Pepperell Fire Department's required minimum six emergency parking spaces and truck turnaround near the house. The project proposes to fill approximately 2,900 square feet of vegetated wetland — an area that had been isolated dry pockets when the lot was originally permitted in 2006 — with the expansion attributed largely to beaver activity. Massachusetts DEP has not yet issued a file number or comments, leaving the hearing open regardless of design revisions.