Pepperell Planning Board Continues Solar, Contractor Yard Hearings to August 19

PEPPERELL — July 15, 2024 — Pepperell Planning Board delays action on solar array and contractor's yard, both near town water supply wells. The board voted unanimously July 15 to continue both hearings to August 19, citing an overdue stormwater peer review for the 33-acre NextGrid solar project at 29 Lorden Lane and 40 Bemis Road, and a lengthy punch list of unresolved site and operational issues for a proposed masonry contractor's yard at 147 National Road. DPW Business Manager Paul Franklin told the board that the solar project's design channels "a hundred percent of the stormwater" to a single basin immediately upgradient of the town's Bemis Road Well No. 1, and requested monitoring wells between the discharge point and the municipal supply. On the contractor's yard, board member David catalogued more than a dozen required revisions for applicant Kenneth Lanier of Cornerstone Land Associates — including oil-water separation sizing, exterior bathroom access for tenants, snow-storage restrictions, Quonset hut height controls, and a corrected photometric plan — before the board would be in a position to issue the special permit required under the town's Water Resource Protection Overlay District Zone 2 designation.