Pepperell Planning Board Continues Maker Farm Special Permit to March 2

PEPPERELL — February 24, 2020 — Pepperell Planning Board continues Maker Farm special permit hearing amid compliance concerns and neighbor traffic fears. The board voted unanimously to carry the public hearing for Maker Farm LLC's application to operate a commercial recreational camp at 12 Bancroft Street to a March 2 session, after nearly two and a half hours of testimony at the February 24 meeting. Building Inspector Robert Kelly's letters, read into the record, documented that applicant Emily Piper had conducted story times, art workshops, and at least one week of camp sessions without the required permit, accumulating $1,500 in fines at $300 per day. More than a dozen residents, most of them Bancroft Street abutters, cited traffic volume and pedestrian safety on the sidewalk-free rural road as their primary objection; abutter Irene Rivas presented website data she said showed camp enrollment figures "much bigger" than those in the applicant's business plan. Planning Assistant Lisa Davis recommended the board require specific attendance data broken down by activity type, day, and season before acting, and proposed conditions including no parking or idling on Bancroft Street and a restriction of all commercial activity to the uses named in the approved plan.