Pepperell Planning Board schedules two April 23 public hearings on major land petitions

PEPPERELL — March 26, 2018 — Pepperell Planning Board sets April 23 public hearings on Canal Street rezoning and South Street open-space housing. The board, meeting with only three of its required four voting members, handled both items as introductory sessions on March 26. Attorney Rob Ansell presented for Twin Brothers Rental, arguing that 15 Canal Street has hosted continuous commercial use since 1962 — through Chapman Auto Body, Ace Auto Supply, the Pepperell Water Department, a glass manufacturing company, and now a tent-and-party-rental operation — and that Town Counsel is "very much in support" of the rezoning as a path around an active Land Court challenge by an abutter. The board asked Ansell to submit written spot-zoning analysis backed by Attorney General guidance before the hearing, which must precede a May 7 Town Meeting vote. Engineer Larry Beals of Beals Associates introduced the South Street Open Space Residential Development, a long-planned project threading housing through a Blanding's turtle corridor along Robinson Brook, with Natural Heritage sign-off already in hand; the board flagged unresolved questions on trail-access easements, turtle-fence maintenance, and a six-foot-deep retention basin before scheduling the 7:30 p.m. hearing.