Pepperell Planning Board votes to send enforcement letter on troubled Chamberlain Way subdivision

PEPPERELL — May 2, 2022 — Pepperell Planning Board escalates scrutiny of a stalled subdivision and fills two vacancies in a single meeting. The board voted unanimously on May 2 to recommend Tiffany James, a Commonwealth of Massachusetts employee and 14 Elm Street resident, for the associate member seat, and Joan Laddick, a 39-year Pepperell resident and assistant town clerk, for the full member seat left vacant by Chuck Walkovich's election to the Select Board; both appointments await a joint session with the Select Board following Town Meeting. In the meeting's most consequential action, the board voted 3-0 on a roll call to authorize Town Planner Jenny to draft an enforcement letter to Zoning Enforcement Officer Bentley Hergett over the Chamberlain Way subdivision, where Conservation Commission Agent Paula Terrazzi reported that the subdivision roadway was built 71 feet off its permitted alignment and outside its recorded easement, fill containing root matter, shredded wood, and metal was used in wetland buffer areas, and a fire truck turnaround for occupied homes was placed on a neighboring lot. Member Al Patnod called the situation one "that needs hand-holding now," arguing that a stop-work order and a third-party consulting engineer — at the developer's expense — were the only paths to resolving conditions he said were unsafe for current residents.