Pepperell Planning Board Closes Nashua Road Warehouse Hearing, Sets February 20 Decision

PEPPERELL — February 5, 2024 — Pepperell Planning Board closes public hearing on Nashua Road warehouse project, advances zoning talks. The board voted unanimously February 5 to close the public hearing on Servenka Development Partners' proposed two-building, 250,000-square-foot industrial warehouse at 149-163 Nashua Road, with a final decision slated for the February 20 meeting. A mandatory bypass turning lane was dropped from the draft conditions after Director of Public Works Ken Kalinowski told the board the lane could create blind-spot hazards for vehicles exiting the site alongside 75- to 80-foot tractor-trailers traveling Route 111 at 45 miles per hour; in its place, the applicant agreed to fund a third-party pavement assessment and post a five-year road maintenance bond. The board also voted unanimously to release $95,936 in performance bond funds for the Chamberlain Way subdivision while withholding $89,519 pending spring inspection of plantings, a licensed-surveyor as-built plan, and a formal request to substitute boulders for required guardrails. A $50,000 Community Preservation Committee request to seed the town's Affordable Housing Trust won unanimous Planning Board support. On zoning revisions, Building Commissioner Bentley Hurget warned the board that Zoning Working Group members would disengage if the draft ADU and Town Center documents were not reworked, telling the board that proposed changes had been "steamrolled back in a different form — not what we talked about."