Pepperell Planning Board Votes to Circulate Draft OSRD Bylaw After Two-Year Delay

PEPPERELL — January 23, 2017 — Pepperell Planning Board accepts $50,904.75 bond, corrects subdivision plan, and moves OSRD bylaw toward departmental review. At its January 23 meeting, the board unanimously approved a performance bond of $50,904.75 from North Middlesex Savings Bank for the River Road Open Space Residential Development subdivision — a prerequisite for a lot release — and corrected a typographical acreage error on a previously signed Approval Not Required plan for a Barbara Gannon property at 15 Lawrence Street, changing Lot 1 from 4.85 acres to 3.94 acres. The board also authorized distribution of a draft revised OSRD bylaw to roughly 15 town departments, with comments due by noon February 3, after a member reported that consultant Mark Archambault had been directed by the town administrator to pause work pending a February meeting with Northern Middlesex Council of Governments Executive Director Elizabeth Ainsley-Campbell. "It's in our realm right now until we officially hand it off," one member said, as the board agreed to proceed independently. The draft, which raises the open-space minimum from 40 percent to 50 percent, has been ready for circulation since November 7, 2016. The board also continued a public hearing on a special permit for 63 Main Street to February 6 while the applicant awaits a traffic study, and conducted pre-application scoping sessions for two-family conversion proposals at 127 Chestnut Street and 7 Oakland Road.