Pepperell Planning Board Continues 98 Park Street Two-Family Permit to April

PEPPERELL — March 6, 2023 — Pepperell Planning Board unanimously continues Park Street two-family hearing over unresolved wetland questions. The board voted to push the public hearing on special permit application PBSD-22-5 — a request by Homes by Jeff and Sons Inc. to build a 104-foot-wide, two-unit condominium at 98 Park Street, site of the demolished 1822 Williams-Parker House — to April 18, after engineer Jack Basniewski of Jay Basniewski LLC disclosed at the meeting's outset that wetland flagging on the adjacent property is incomplete and that the proposed sewer easement likely falls within the 100-foot Conservation Commission buffer zone. More than a dozen abutters spoke against the project, describing the building as "putting lipstick on a pig" and raising concerns about traffic at the Park-Brookline intersection, loss of mature trees, stormwater runoff from a large paved driveway, and the elimination of informal access to the Keys-Parker Conservation Area. Developer Jeff Shibboa of Pepperell pledged to remove No Trespassing signs and to allow neighbors to walk along the property's edge to reach conservation land. The Historical Commission's written comment condemned the home's demolition as "needless" and questioned whether the colonial design meets the bylaw's requirement that two-family dwellings maintain a single-family external appearance.