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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPLANNINGbrd_01232013 Planning Board Minutes January 23, 2013 ;EC IVE° F..sri 1-fSOFFICE • Present: Tom French,Chair, Beth Ashman-Collins,Clerk,Tony Jodice, Donald Cleary, Ralph Penney,C ry C Ijis, Michael Peck, Michael McClanahan. i 13 FE3 _4 �: 1* Meeting called to order at 7:05 pm. L,_) 2. Correspondence 1. January 16, 2013 minutes. Motion: To approve(Penney-Jodice)7-0-1 PASSES The minutes will be amended to reflect the board's comments. 2. Memorandum regarding Copeland Drive Sewer: Lee Azinheira, DPW Director,dated January 22,2013. Mr.Azinheira told the board there is only a small section of sewer on Copeland Drive but because there is sewer nearby at various locations,it does not warrant tearing up the road to run a sewer line. He said most individual landowners will find a way to tie into the sewer line. The largest undeveloped property on Copeland Drive is a parcel next to Benny's that is owned by Quirk Trust, LLC. Copeland Drive is a state road,and because water and sewer are public utilities,the Town of Mansfield is the applicant. Mr.Azinheira has previously applied for the MassDOT permit for the installation of the water and sewer utilities for this property. The permit has expired and Mr.Azinheira will re-submit the application to renew the MassDOT permit for Mr.Clemmey. Mr. Penney said the town is trying to change the Zoning By-laws so that Copeland Drive is more conducive to retail and commercial use. 13. Form A(ANR)Plans 14. Scenic Road Public Hearing-Lot 1,375 Gilbert Street—T&M Realty Corp. The scenic road application has been withdrawn. 15. Planning Board Workshop-Business 1/Business'2. Mr. Karl Clemmey, Bill Clemmey and Michael Clemmey were present. Mr. French said the discussion has been continued to January 30, 2013. Mr.Clemmey asked why the board won't discuss Business 1 and 2. Mr. Penney told Mr.Clemmey the board has discussed combining B 1 and B 2 along Main Street but leaving the B 2 zone around Mansfield Deli. Mr.Jodice said the parking situation needs to be addressed,especially for restaurants. He feels the parking requirements are too restrictive. Mr.Jodice said making things more conducive to having restaurants in the downtown area will encourage further development. Mr. Clemmey told the board that on the west side of North Main Street,from the Catman Café,the line should be moved west. The people in this area would not be opposed to having this area in the B 1 zone. There is a lot of parking space on the east side. He said he does not have a problem with first floor apartments;the whole downtown area is apartments. Mr.Jodice said there should be no residential on the first floor. Mr.Clemmey said the west side of North Main Street should be widened if North Main Street is to be developed further. Mr. Penney said at a previous meeting, Mr. Burke said the corridor is very long and narrow. 1 Ms.Ashman-Collins said the downtown area will be stronger if larger businesses are concentrated in the area by the train station. Mr.Clemmey told the board B 1 and B 2 zoning should be continued from the South Common to the North Common. Mr. French said this will be discussed at the January 30 meeting. 6. Charrette with Woodard&Curran-Zone II Re-delineation. Lee Azinheira, DPW Director, introduced Keith Gaily,CH2M Hill, representing Sasol North America,the property owner at 751 North Main Street,Alex Mikszewski,Cary Parsons,and Duff Collins of Woodard&Curran. Leonard Flynn said he has researched Sasol North America Inc., representing Vista Chemical. He said people need to know who they are and what their intentions are for the property. Mr. Gaily discussed the Zone II Protection Area, re-delineation of this area and the modernization of Zone II. He said Zone II is protective of the aquifer that contributes to the public drinking water wells. Mr.Gaily explained the current Zone II in Mansfield was completed over 20 years ago. It was a desk top study, referred to as a Conceptual Zone II, based on a number of assumptions and historical geological mapping but no numerical modeling. Today,a more scientific approached is used when delineating the Zone II area. Mr.Gaily said certain areas in the current Zone II include till areas,areas that are not aquifer materials;it is a very tight geological formation that does not promote groundwater storage. It also contains certain areas where there is a groundwater divide that separates different watersheds. The current Zone II did not take this into consideration and not all areas containing aquifer materials within the watershed have been included in the delineation. He said Mansfield's Zone II is inconsistent with Easton's Zone II. Mr.Collins told the board that Zone II in Easton, Foxboro, Norton and Mansfield overlap within the aquifer. Mr. Penney asked if all the towns draw from the Canoe River watershed. Mr.Collins said no. Mr. Parsons explained Zone I has a 400 feet radius from every pumping well that exceeds or equals 100,000 gallons a day. Zone II is 180 days of drought. Mr. Penney said you have to protect the water supply and consider where the water comes from. Mr. Mikszewski said the modern practice of delineation of Zone II is a two-phase investigation. The first step is to do a field investigation to collect actual data,soil logging and surveying to get real elevations on where the groundwater table is. The second phase is modeling,where you take the field data, put in a numerical model and evaluate the 180 day drought condition.The goal is to look at the geology of all the areas and see where the aquifer materials,the till and bedrock are. He has done investigative drilling throughout the limits of the existing Zone II and within the public right-of-way and borings have also been done. Between 10-15 monitoring wells have been installed. Gauges have been installed in both the Rumford and Canoe Rivers to determine the real elevations of the surface water. The information is then put into the model. Mr. Mikszewski explained numerical modeling is a two-stage process. The first part involves building the 3- dimensional numerical model and calibrating it to the day it was collected to make sure the model is making accurate predictions, matching what was in the field and then through evaluation,demonstrate that match is sufficient. Then the calibrated model is taken and the 180 days simulated with no recharge along with maximum 2 • rates from the well. He said he has been working with MassDEP and their Water Resource Department for approval of the work plan. Mr. Parsons said the computer does what the Conceptual Model could not. It can simulate what the shape of the water table would be after 180 days with no precipitation recharge and the well pumping wide-open. Mr. French asked if all the wells are pumping at the same time to create the groundwater contour. Mr. Parsons said yes. Mr.Jodice asked the definition of till. Mr. Mikszewski explained it is dense soil that is glacial deposited and does not hold water easily. Mr.Jodice noted this discussion is about the aquifer, not about conservation land. Michael Healey,Conservation Commission member and hydrogeologist,asked what model was used to simulate the groundwater flow in the aquifer. Mr. Mikszewski said Mod Flow. Mr. Healey asked how many layers were used in the model. Mr. Mikszewski said three layers.The upper layer was the groundwater aquifer of sand and gravel with the second layer representing the glacial till and the third layer the bedrock, { Mr. Healey wanted to know what type of hydraulic activity was assigned to the till and bedrock. Mr. Mikszewski said the till ranged from 1 to 10 feet per day and the bedrock 1 foot per day. There was a discussion of what till was and its role in ground water flow by Woodward&Curran and till was described as"hardpan". Mr. Healey told the board the till is described as a clay,silty,sandy,gravelly deposit laid down directly by glacial ice. It is extremely dense and called hardpan. Glacial till is so dense that it does not transmit very much water. Studies have been conducted on glacial till deposits to determine the age of the deposits. Using oxygen isotope data from the water found in the till indicates that the water is the same age as the till deposit. This indicates that till has a very low hydraulic conductivity and does not transmit water. Hydraulic conductivity is the rate that water moves through a formation. Glacial till has a secondary porosity caused by fractures in the till. These fractures are the result of the bedrock rebounding after the weight of the glacial ice was removed due to the glacier melting. This caused fractures in the till and the underlying bedrock. These cracks allow groundwater to move through the till and bedrock. Because of these fractures we have to assign a hydraulic conductivity to the till and bedrock in the groundwater computer model. Mr. Healey asked if hydraulic activity testing was done in the monitoring wells. Mr. Mikszewski said no,the hydraulic conductivity data from the aquifer testing of the wells was used. Mr. Healey asked what the rational for selecting the locations of the borings was. Mr. Mikszewski said the boring locations were selected because they wanted to cover the whole area near the geologic boundaries and to fill in data gaps on the extent and thickness of the aquifer. Mr. Healey asked if the boring data was compared with the published data. Mr. Mikszewski said the USGS geology map was use for the comparison. Mr. Mikszewski reviewed the reasons for doing the re-delineation and the changes to be made: Remove the Rumford River basin area in Foxboro which is separated from the well and filled with till, bedrock and non-aquifer areas. It crosses surface and groundwater divide even under Zone II conditions. The changes will make Zone II consistent with other towns. 3 Ms.Ashman-Collins asked if this will be presented to the Town of Foxboro. Mr.Collins said yes and Foxboro can choose to do with this information,what they want. Ms.Ashman-Collins said it would be in Mansfield's best -- interest to have Foxboro protect the water supply. Mr. Parsons said there is a responsibility for towns such as Mansfield,when its Zone II leaves its boundaries and is on a neighboring town's property. It is the responsibility of the town to make a good faith effort to get the neighboring town to protect the land. Mr.Cleary asked how much the Zone II was reduced. Mr. Mikszewski said it was reduced by 19%,from 4,136 acres to 3,351 acres. Mr. Mikszewski explained the next step in the approval process is reviews by DPW and the Planning Board;a formal presentation to the Board of Selectmen and the Water Commissioners who will need to formally vote to accept and submit the report to MassDEP for review and approval. The Planning Board will hold a public hearing and then at Town Meeting,the town will adopt the zoning change. Mr. Mikszewski told the board MassDEP has to accept the report before it can go before Town Meeting. He said the review could take 45 days and may not be completed by the March 1st deadline to submit articles for Town Meeting. He said the article could be written but withdrawn if there are any problems or delays in the review process. Mr. Penney asked why the Foxboro information came from the MassGIS but Mansfield's information is from the zoning map. Mr. Mikszewski said the state data is consistent with the Mansfield's zoning map as far as land use is concerned. Mr.Collins said the decision to use the zoning map was made because he thought the town would want to see the re-delineation on a map of the town. Ms.Colllins asked what happens if the new delineation does not pass. Mr. French said Zone II will stay as is. Ms.Sozio said she was Foxboro's Water Commissioner for 16 years. She explained that Foxboro's regulations to protect Zone II as well as Zone III are very strict. She said Foxboro has always honored other towns Zone II. Wayne Southworth,Chairman of the Canoe River Aquifer Advisory Committee and members Edward Tartufo and Joan Sozio were present. Mr. Southworth thanked the board for inviting the Committee to the meeting. He said they represent Mansfield, Foxboro,Sharon, Norton and Easton. Only Foxboro does not have a well in the aquifer. He said they are proud of their accomplishments over the past 25 years. He told the board the Town of Easton has redone their Zone II several times,working with Woodard and Curran. He said Mansfield is very fortunate to have them working on the Zone II re-delineation. He said they enjoyed the presentation and will take the information back to the Committee. Mr.Collins said the results of the Zone II delineation will allow this area to be no longer designated as a GWI. Mr. Penney said the owners will no longer have to clean the property to drinking water standards. Leonard Flynn said the owners of the property want to develop the land that has been contaminated and have gone to the expense of re-delineating Zone II to reduce their costs of a cleanup. Mr. Flynn told the board,by doing this,the property is no longer classified as Zone II, reducing the criteria used to dictate the cleanup. He said he is not opposed to cleaning up the property as long as it is recognized why the changes are being done. Mr.Collins said the re-delineation of Zone II will help the use and redevelopment on this parcel as well as the abutting properties. 7. Public Comment 8. Around the Table 4 Mr. Penney said the board needs to reach out to ZBA regarding the zoning changes. The board agreed to invite the ZBA members to the February 13, 2013 workshop. Ms.Collins said it was great to have Michael Healey,a Conservation Commissioner,at the meeting. 9. Adjournment Motion: To adjourn (McClanahan-Penney)All in favor. PASSES Next Planning Board meeting: January 30,2013 at 7:00 pm of � _ Uk� ici SigCLc of Cle! Date Approval 5