Planning Board walks former power plant site proposed for video production studios

PEPPERELL — July 31, 2023 — Pepperell Planning Board walks 23 Mill Street site proposed for commercial video production facility. The board gathered Monday evening at the former power generation plant site on the Nashua River for a roughly 34-minute site visit led by Matt Hammer of Lamplex Engineering, the project engineer. The approximately 3.6-acre parcel, proposed for redevelopment as a commercial office and automobile video production studio, carries six to eight feet of mixed industrial fill — asphalt, brick, debris, and old pipes — across the entire site, based on geotechnical borings conducted by the applicant. The project's footprint has already been reduced from its original design after the Conservation Commission identified a natural drumlin in the upper corner of the site and required that work not disturb it. A proposed sidewalk would connect the site to town conservation land and a path toward the covered bridge, but no public riverfront walkway along Main Street is included in this application. No formal votes were taken; no minutes were recorded for the session.