Pepperell Planning Board Closes Venus Estates Hearing After 14-Year Subdivision Battle

PEPPERELL — February 1, 2016 — Pepperell Planning Board closes Venus Estates subdivision hearing and grants four waivers, moving a 14-year-old application toward a final vote. Attorney Brian Levy of Beverage and Diamond PC and engineer Gary Shepard of David E. Ross Associates presented a revised plan for 21 lots on roughly 47 acres between Bemis Road and Lawrence Street, addressing comments from DPW Director Ken Kalinowski's January 28 memo; the board voted unanimously to approve waivers from subdivision regulations governing tree surveys, USGS elevation references, right-of-way rounding at Lawrence Street, and vertical curve sight-distance standards. A separate hearing on a Massachusetts Composting Group Inc. special permit was continued unanimously to March 7 after a late wave of resident letters — some running four to five pages — arrived within 36 hours of the meeting; Chair Anna J. McClellan said, "It wouldn't be fair to you people and it wouldn't be fair to the applicant." The board also approved a special permit modification for Chris Boyce of 2 Deerfield Drive, 3 ayes to 1 abstention, and continued an open space residential development application by L.W. Padnaw Jr. to February 8 for lack of a qualified quorum.