Pepperell Conservation Commission Continues Babin Landscaping Hearing to December Over Stormwater Concerns

PEPPERELL — October 18, 2022 — Pepperell Conservation Commission continues Babin Landscaping buffer-zone hearing to December 13, citing stormwater and bank-stability concerns. The commission heard civil engineer Jack Visniewski of J.A. Visniewski LLC present a new notice of intent for 23 Hollis Street — replacing an earthen berm with a stone wall, swapping a strip drain for a double-catch-basin leaching system, and removing trees identified by a professional arborist as dying from decades of fill deposited by prior tenants Conway and Lion Chevrolet. Members pushed back on the lack of 44 percent pretreatment required for Class A soils under the Massachusetts Stormwater Handbook, with one commissioner stating flatly, "You don't have any treatment. That's the problem." The commission cannot close the hearing until it receives comments from MassDEP and the Pepperell Planning Board, which is set to review the project November 21. Separately, the commission voted unanimously to issue an order of resource area delineation for a 44- to 45-acre parcel at 24 Bancroft Street, owned by Dr. Ted and Amanda Philandrianos, after consultant Matt Waterman of Land Tech Consultants confirmed through detailed survey that none of three isolated vegetated wetlands on the property meet the volume or depth thresholds for isolated land subject to flooding.