Pepperell Planning Board Closes Public Comment on 40R Affordable Housing Overlay District

PEPPERELL — July 27, 2022 — Pepperell Planning Board closes public comment on a five-site Chapter 40R smart growth overlay district and continues deliberation to August 1. Acting Chair David Ganong presided over roughly two hours of testimony at the July 27 meeting, where the board heard formal objections from the Conservation Commission warning that three of the five proposed sites — Layton Street, the Peter Fitzpatrick School parcel, and the former paper mill — sit in floodplains, cold-water fishery riverfront areas, and, in the case of Layton Street, entirely within Zone 3 of the town's Water Resource Protection Overlay District. Town Planner Jenny Gingras confirmed Pepperell's subsidized housing inventory stands at approximately 3 percent against the state's 10 percent mandate, a gap of roughly 304 units under 2010 Census figures. Affordable Housing Committee Chair Brian Keating read a formal statement supporting adoption, while committee member Renee Dargento, the panel's lone dissenting vote, cited a current level-three drought and a town engineer's letter showing summer water usage already at 0.8 to 0.9 million gallons per day against a permitted 1.2 million gallons per day withdrawal limit. Chris Hayes of NMCOG confirmed the minimum allowable maximum density on the Layton Street parcels is approximately 164 units at 20 units per gross buildable acre — close to the 180 units the landowner has stated he will seek whether under 40R or 40B.