Pepperell Conservation Commission Issues Two Wetland Permits, Rejects Pipeline Letter

PEPPERELL — February 21, 2017 — Pepperell Conservation Commission approves two wetland permits and declines to sign a statewide pipeline letter. At the February 21 meeting, the commission issued orders of conditions for a stormwater berm and sediment basin for R.H. Wilson at 44 North Street — a project driven by a federal Multi-Sector General Permit — and for a three-season porch and concrete slab for Robert Patton at 160 Jewel Street, 17 feet from a bordering vegetated wetland, with a required drip-line infiltration trench to manage rooftop runoff. The commission then voted roughly 5-to-1 to not sign a Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions letter asking Governor Baker to end support for new interstate gas pipelines, with members arguing the document exceeded a regulatory body's appropriate scope; one member said, "I think this letter gets off the rails." Planning Board representative Chuck Wachowicz attended to hear commission objections to a draft Open Space and Residential Development bylaw targeting spring town meeting, where commissioners flagged the removal of a 10-acre minimum lot size, a drop in frontage requirements to 40 feet, and open space ownership language that would allow private rather than publicly protected land.