Conservation Commission

TAUNTON CONSERVATION COMMISSION Minutes March 16, 2020 Physically Present: Steve Turner, Chair and Michele Restino, Conservation Agent On Conference Call: Commissioners Marla Isaac, Jan Rego, Matthew Haggerty Absent: Commissioners Debra Botellio, Rich Enos, Luis Freitas 6:30pm ST opened meeting explaining the setup and the commissioners calling in remotely. Had the commissioners on the phone to check in. There is a quorum. Motion to approve minutes of February 10, 2020: MI, second JR, so voted. Continued Violation: 1. 208, 218, 228 Berkley Street. This has been in front of us for some time. We were to have several people from the city offices here tonight to explain what has been going on there. Request a motion to continue to the April 13th meeting. MH, second MI, so voted. Certificate of Compliance: 1. Sydney’s Way. From the field report: “This filing was for the proposed construction of a 24’ x 28’ two-story garage with breezeway within the 100-foot buffer zone of a bordering vegetated wetland (BVW). No work was ever started on this project and the Applicant wishes to close the file. I recommend that the Taunton Conservation Commission issue a Certificate of Compliance B3, Invalid Order of Conditions: work regulated never commenced. Respectfully, Michele Restino, Conservation Agent.” ST: Do I have a motion? Motion to issue a Certificate of Compliance MI, second JR, so voted. 2. 450 Cohannet Street. From the field report: “This filing was for the construction of a single family home with utilities, driveway and associated grading as well as to construct a driveway for an existing home on an adjacent lot (64-530). The lots are located on Cohannet Street and were once part of 1 General Cobb Street. Cobb Brook is located west of the property with one house, #464 Cohannet Street, between this lot and the brook. All work has been completed in significant compliance to the Order of Conditions issued on November 19, 2014. An illegal shed was removed prior to my visit for the COC. I recommend that the Taunton Conservation Commission issue a Certificate of Compliance for this project. Respectfully, Michele Restino, Conservation Agent.” ST: Do I have a motion? Motion to issue a Certificate of Compliance MH, second MI, so voted. 3. 65 Par Place. From the field report: “This filing was for a 36’ x 30’ garage addition to an existing house at the above address. All work has been completed in significant compliance to the Order of Conditions issued on May 22, 2009. All areas have been stable with no incursion into the wetland. I recommend that the Taunton Conservation Commission issue a Certificate of Compliance to close this file. Respectfully, Michele  Restino, Conservation Agent.” Do I have a motion? Motion to issue a Certificate of Compliance MH, second JR, so voted. 4. 101 Prince Henry Drive. From the field report: “This filing was for the proposed construction of a 32,500 square foot transfer building and rail spur from the existing rail line. This rail line was split into three spurs on the site. One spur enters the transfer building for loading cars and the other two are used to fill cars waiting for train service and for empty cars waiting to be filled. Due to space constraints, the rail spur was located in the area of an existing stream and a culvert was placed to carry the stream under the rail spur. A 2,950 square foot replication area was constructed southwest of the steam and adjacent to the existing wetland. Large mature trees were preserved within the replication area. I inspected the property and all areas are stable. The replication area is well- established with at least 80% wetland vegetation. I recommend that the Taunton Conservation Commission issue a Certificate of Compliance for this project. Respectfully, Michele Restino, Conservation Agent.” ST Do I have a motion? Motion to issue a Certificate of Compliance, MH, second JR, so voted. MR: Steve signed the Certificates tonight, can I come by tomorrow for signatures? Yes by all. Thank you. ST: As I mentioned earlier, there are three commissioners on the phone. There are three commissioners not present tonight either on the phone or here – Richard Enos, Luis Freitas, and Deb Botellio. I’m looking forward to seeing them at the next meeting. Also, Courtney White, our Recording Secretary, is not here. I miss them all. Public Meeting: All of these we would like to just continue to the April 13th meeting. They were all informed that the Public would not be allowed into the meeting tonight. I’m going to read each of the categories with the name of all the projects and will entertain a vote to continue at the end. Route 44 (Roadway) Ma DOT Highway Division, Dist 5 for an RDA, DSE-1219; 600 County St., Lamontagne for an RDA, DSE-1220; 38 Lakeview Place, Potter for an RDA, DSE-1221. ST: I’d like a motion to continue all Public Meetings to the April 13th meeting date. Motion to continue all Public Meetings to April 13thJR, second MH, so voted. ST: Ok, moving on to Continued Public Hearing: 409 Somerset Avenue, Binda (NOI), SE 73-2796; 38 Railroad Avenue, Hebert (NOI), SE 73- 2837; 9 Cape Road, Tree Market Taunton, LLC (NOI), SE 73-2842; North Walker Street, Aspen Property Holdings, LLC (NOI), SE 73-2844; 14 First Avenue, Moniz/Aspen Property Dev., LLC (NOI), SE 73-2836; and lastly Bassett Street (214-64 & 30-71), Bassett Street Development, SE 73-2841. ST: I’d like a motion to have all those in the continued Public Hearing category to be continued to April 13th, 2020. Motion to continue the continued Public Hearings MH, second JR, so voted. Public Hearing: Whittenton Street (31-354), Bairos/ALE Realty Trust (NOI), SE 73-2840; 1069 Somerset Avenue, Malloch Group, Inc. (NOI), SE 73-2838; 36 Allison Avenue, Burek/Burek, LLC (NOI), SE 73-2843; 44 Dean Street, Ahmed (ANRAD), SE 73-2845; and 101 Prince Henry Drive, Tutsch (NOI), SE 73-2846. ST: All of these folks have been notified that we will be continuing their hearings to April 13th, 2020. Is there a motion to do so? Motion to continue to April 13th MH, second MI, so voted. Continued Violation: E. Whitehill & Brook Street (City Property); 110 Country Way; 16 Park Street. Motion to continue the continued violations to April 13, 2020, JR, second MH, so voted. Violation: 50 Partridge Circle. They requested a continuance to May 18th. Is there a motion to continue this to May 18th? Motion to continue to May 18th MI, second MH, so voted. Other Business: 1. Emergency Cert. – Route 140 just south of Rankin Road. To backfill eroded area with gravel borrow on the Route 140 north and southbound shoulder at paved waterways. Repair will also include rebuild paved waterways within the state highway layout. Start 2.25.2020 end 3.25.2020. Motion to ratify Emergency Certificate JR, second MI, so voted. 2. Enforcement Order – Whittenton Street 38-108 & 125, SE 73-2828. “Failure to follow the conditions of DEP file #SE 73-2828 issued on November 20, 2019. The following Conditions have not been followed: WPA General Condition 10 - no sign with the DEP number is displayed; WPA General Condition 18 & Taunton Special Condition SC19 - sedimentation barriers are not in good repair and are insufficient to provide appropriate protection; Agent was not notified to inspect the barrier; and Taunton Special Condition SC25 - The Commission was not notified of the project supervisor/contractor and did not receive notification that work was starting on the project.” ST: when did you find out about this. MR: on February 26th. I later met with them to review the issues and the DEP sign was up, additional silt sock was placed around the perimeter, and no work has re- started. Motion to ratify the Enforcement Order MH, second JR, so voted. 3. Update on fence at Boyden. ST: I would like Michele to give us an update on the new gate for the next meeting. ST: Any other business? MH: I do. Thank you to Michele, thank you to Chair Turner and thank you to the technology folks, Paul Arikian and Matt Burns working around the clock getting things in place. I feel very strongly that a lot of my being annoyed and my frustration was due to, in my opinion, a lack of communication and vision from our Mayor on how we are going to handle this issue. And now that we are on this conference call right now. The mayor of Fall River closed the entire government center down and there will be no more public meetings. In my opinion this meeting did not need to take place with both Chairman Turner and Michele in person tonight for two major reasons – germs could go both ways. You two could have been exposed to the virus or you could be carriers of the virus and brought it into City Hall for future people to pick up. I do not think this meeting needed to take place and I think it was somewhat forced upon us, and that’s very frustrating. On the City’s website it listed business as usual for Boards and Commissions and while that might be good for the Administration, I’m not really sure how that’s good for the well-being of either our families or the general public. Look at the NBA, they cancelled the rest of the season. Right now sports are cancelled, cancelled church. But for some reason you guys are at City Hall tonight and I don’t think that’s fair to you. I don’t think you had much of a choice. I think what we do is important. I think this is an important commission – we protect the wetlands, but we’re not curing cancer and there are no lives on the line, this probably could have been pushed back a month. I look to the Administration to hopefully correct this with the other Boards and Commissions in the future. I find the entire evening to be sad and frustrating. I do appreciate the efforts of Michele and Chairman Turner and for the efforts by Greg Glynn and IT regarding the technology aspect to pull it together at the last minute. I know it’s not easy and I appreciate everyone’s efforts to do so. ST: Yes Michele did a lot of running around to let people know. There just three of us here tonight. It worked out well here tonight. Michele you did a good job getting the word out to everyone. This isn’t what we wanted for our first meeting for sure. We want al here but it just didn’t work for tonight. We look forward to April 13th but if not then we will see everyone in May. MI: Everyone be safe. ST: for the next meeting, how does it look? Should we start at 6? JR: can we play it by ear. MR: We only have 1 other so far. Is there a motion to meet at 6pm on April 13th? JR, second MH, so voted. Thank you to Jan, Marla, and Matt. Adjourn JR, MI.