Pepperell Planning Board grants Lowell Road permits, continues marijuana retail decision to December 21

PEPPERELL — November 30, 2020 — Pepperell Planning Board unanimously approved three special permits for residential lots at 91, 93, and 95 Lowell Road and recommended two appointments to fill board vacancies during a virtual meeting that ran past 11:30 p.m. on November 30. The board reconsider an earlier failed vote on 91 Lowell Road after member Chuck Walkovich filed conflict-of-interest disclosure forms restoring a full five-member panel, then approved all three permits with conditions requiring recorded drainage easements and riprap infiltration stone at drainage outfalls. On a marijuana retail special permit for Uma Flowers on Tarbell Street, the board worked through draft decision language for roughly three hours before continuing the matter to December 21 — one day after the 90-day statutory deadline — after applicant attorney Valerio Romano agreed to a written extension; the lone unresolved issue was a proposed cross-easement between the applicant's property and town-owned rail trail land, which member Al called legally problematic and operationally unworkable, saying "the traffic that's going to be coming out of this facility is heavier and more often than what's going to come out of the parking area for the rail trail." The board also authorized Town Planner Lisa Davis to sign a $22,500 escrow agreement with developer Peter Montesanti for the Chamberlain Way cul-de-sac, and voted unanimously to recommend associate member Joyce Morrow for the open full-member seat and Jennifer Gingras, zoning administrator for the Town of Lexington, as the new associate member.